King of the Hill:S3

The third season of KING OF THE HILL is perhaps its best, with the writing at its peak and with as varied and well-defined a group of characters as you'll find on any sitcom. Here's a brief rundown of the 25 episodes in this set:

1. "Death of a Propane Salesman" -- The long-awaited conclusion to the cliffhanger that ended season two. A darkly funny opening to a great season, finding humor in the question of how we deal with death and fear of dying.

2. "And They Call It Bobby Love" -- Bobby (Pamela Segall) falls in love with a girl (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who's two years older than him. This episode won KotH the Emmy for outstanding animated series.

3. "Peggy's Headache" -- Peggy (Kathy Najimy) finally realizes that Dale's wife Nancy (Ashley Gardner) is having an affair with her Native American "healer," John Redcorn (Jonathan Joss). Another episode that takes a tough subject, adultery, and makes it funny.

4. "Pregnant Paws" -- Hank (Mike Judge) tries to find a breeding partner for his dog Ladybird, which makes Peggy jealous, as she's the one who really wants another baby.

5. "Next of Shin" -- To add to Hank's frustration over not being able to have another child, his father Cotton (Toby Huss) reveals that he's going to become a father again. As you can see, this season of King of the Hill is one of the few seasons of an animated series that incorporates some continuing story arcs; the story points introduced in this episode will continue in other episodes and come to a head in the season finale.

6. "Peggy's Pageant Fever" -- Peggy enters a beauty pageant and becomes insecure both about her looks and her accomplishments. Contains some of the show's best moments, especially a hilarious throwaway scene where Bill (Stephen Root) sings "Takin' Care of Business." Guest stars include Carol Alt and Kathy Ireland.

7. "Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men" -- Hank, his friends and his father sit on a focus group, and Hank is the only one who objects to the company's plans to redesign its product. Guest-stars, Billy Bob Thornton and Dwight Yoakam.

8. "Good Hill Hunting" -- Hank wants to take Bobby on his first hunting trip, but is unable to get a hunting license. Like the gun episode from the second season, this episode both satirizes Texas culture and takes it as a given; and it's not so much about guns as about a father-son relationship and the significance we attach to coming-of-age rituals.

9. "Pretty, Pretty Dresses" -- The strangest Christmas episode ever: Hank's lonely divorced friend Bill tries to kill himself, and then decides that if he can't get his wife back, he will become her by wearing her old clothes. It sounds depressing, but it's actually one of the funniest episodes of the season -- with a genuinely touching ending capped by a great closing gag. What makes King of the Hill so good is its ability to be realistic and bizarre and affecting all at once, and this is one of the best episodes.

10. "A Firefighting We Will Go" -- Hank and his friends become volunteer firefighters. An unabashed slapstick episode, full of Three Stooges references, crazy physical gags, and funny lines. One of the funniest episodes of the season demonstrates that KotH can do a "wacky" episode as well as anybody.

11. "To Spank With Love" -- Peggy gets in trouble for spanking a student, but then becomes a hero as "Paddlin' Peggy," and starts to use her reputation to scare her students.

12. "Three Coaches and a Bobby" -- When Hank gets his tough old coach to run Bobby's football team, Bobby decides he'd rather play on the more fun, less regimented soccer team. Includes Hank's infamous description of soccer: "Soccer was invented by European ladies to keep them busy while their husbands did the cooking." Guest star: Will Ferrell.

13. "De-Kahnstructing Henry" -- Hank's overachieving neighbor Kahn (Toby Huss) tries to make Hank jealous of his great new job -- but in the process, he gives away government secrets and gets fired.

14. "The Wedding of Bobby Hill" -- Bobby and his cousin Luanne (Brittany Murphy) compete for the attention of a concert promoter and self-proclaimed genius, Rad (Matthew McConaughey). When things get out of hand, Hank and Peggy teach Bobby a lesson by convincing him that he got Luanne pregnant and has to marry her.

15. "Sleight of Hank" -- After seeing a magic show, Bobby incorporates the tricks and patter into his Sunday School report on Jesus. Besides this hilarious scene ("I am The Amazing Jesus!") the episode is a character study of the differences between Hank and Peggy.

16. "Return to La Grunta" -- The story of Hank almost getting sexually assaulted by a dolphin is combined with a parallel subplot about Luanne getting sexually harassed at work. One of the show's most famous and unique episodes. Guest star: Billy West.

17. "Escape From Party Island" -- Hank takes his mother and her friends to a miniatures museum in Port Aransas, and winds up caught in the middle of MTV's Spring Break. Guest stars: Pauly Shore, Phyllis Diller, Uta Hagen, Betty White.

18. "Love Hurts and So Does Art" -- Nervous about the idea of going to a dance with Connie (Lauren Tom), Bobby starts overeating and develops gout.

19. "Hank's Cowboy Movie" -- Hank tries to get the Dallas Cowboys to move their training camp to Arlen by making a promotional video for the town. Everything goes farcically wrong, of course, but the episode has a surprisingly touching undercurrent about Hank's fear that Bobby will leave Arlen when he grows up.

20. "Dog Dale Afternoon" -- Dale (Johnny Hardwick) is driven round the bend when his friends steal his new lawn mower as a prank.

21. "Revenge of the Lutefisk" -- The new female minister (Mary Tyler Moore) serves a midwestern fish dish, which somehow indirectly leads to Bobby accidentally burning down the church.

22. "Death and Texas" -- Peggy goes to visit a death row convict, and unwittingly winds up smuggling cocaine in to him.

23. "Wings of the Dope" -- Luanne thinks that her boyfriend Buckley (David Herman) has come back as an angel. Contains the famous use of the song "Life in a Northern Town" by Dream Academy.

24. "Take Me Out of the Ball Game" -- Peggy becomes the star pitcher for Hank's softball team, but Hank's over-managing causes her to lose her touch.

25. "As Old as the Hills" -- In the season finale, Hank and Peggy mark their twentieth wedding anniversary by lamenting their lost dreams, and they decide to do something crazy. This episode ties up the themes that have run through the season (such as Peggy's frustration and Cotton's new baby) into another funny, touching and well-constructed story.

A brief explanation of why this set is bare-bones: seasons 1 and 2 of KING OF THE HILL did not sell well (in my opinion they were not marketed effectively), and season 3 had high music costs, making it expensive to release. Finally Fox agreed to release the season at a lower price than season 2, but without extras. If season 3 sells better, the other seasons will follow. And it does look like it is selling better, which gives reason to hope that the other seasons will follow more quickly.

It's a shame to lose out on the extras, but if it brings the rest of the series out, that's acceptable; with 25 episodes for under $30, that's little more than a buck an episode. And the good news is that all the songs in the episodes -- and a surprising number of scenes in this season make important use of music -- are intact: "Life in a Northern Town," "Takin' Care of Business," "Love Hurts," "Free Falling," and many others. So you can buy with confidence knowing that you're getting 25 great, unedited episodes at a low price.

I hope that if further seasons come out, Fox will at least put *something* on them, like the Museum of Television and Radio Panel, or the unaired "Monsignor Martinez" pilot. Or how about putting some KotH-related extras on the upcoming special edition of Mike Judge's "Office Space?" Come on, Fox, one bare-bones set we can live with, but do better next time.

I'm a big fan of Mike Judge and Greg Daniels' KING OF THE HILL -- I think it's by far the best of the post-SIMPSONS animated sitcoms -- but the third season, finally due for release on DVD, may be the best of the series; it was the season that won a well-deserved Emmy for best animated series. The writing was exceptionally strong in this season, with hardly a weak episode among the 25 episodes. And the writers came up with some unusual and offbeat stories to tell about Texas propane salesman Hank Hill and his friends and family. Some of the most memorable episodes include:

- Hank goes for a "swim with a dolphin" encounter at a fancy resort hotel, and the dolphin tries to sexually assault Hank.

- Hank and Peggy, to teach Bobby a lesson, convince him that he's gotten his cousin Luanne pregnant and that he has to marry her. This episode features a hilarious guest voice appearance from Matthew McConaughey as a pretentious concert promoter named "Rad."

- Hank and his friends become volunteer firefighters, and wind up destroying everything in sight. This episode, one of the funniest in the series' run, proved that KING OF THE HILL, though usually praised for "subtle" humor, could do a wacky slapstick episode as well as or better than any other show.

- In a Christmas episode, Bill Dauterive is so lonely that he becomes suicidal, and then starts to dress up as his ex-wife. Somehow the writers managed to make this episode, which could have been depressing, into an offbeat, funny, and finally even touching story.

- After seeing a magician's show, Bobby uses the tricks and patter to liven up his Sunday School report on Jesus, presenting himself as "The Amazing Jesus" and saying "Now, for my next miracle, I'll need a large wooden cross and a couple of volunteers."

There are many other memorable episodes, including Luanne's encounter with an Angel; the episode where Bobby falls in love with an older girl voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar (this was the Emmy-winning episode); and the episode where Peggy enters a beauty pageant (featuring Stephen Root's hilarious rendition of "Takin' Care of Business"). Because the episodes are so well-structured -- with many of the stories organized around themes, and with A and B stories often intersecting -- and because the characters were at their most fully developed and interesting by this season, the episodes are just as enjoyable on repeat viewing as they are on a first viewing.

Writers for season 3 included Richard Appel and Jon Vitti (veterans of The Simpsons), David Zuckerman (developer and showrunner of Family Guy), Norm Hiscock (head writer for Kids in the Hall), and Joe Stillman (screenwriter of the Shrek movies). But ultimately the show is true to Mike Judge's style and sense of humor: instead of trying to be strange for its own sake, or make pointless pop-culture jokes, Judge's stuff takes everyday life and shows how strange it is. If you liked Judge's movie Office Space, you'll like King of the Hill.

No announcement yet of what extras there will be on the set, but it is worth picking up for the episodes alone, and the price is certainly right for a great season of 25 episodes.

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