Adios Hank: The Conservative World of ‘King of the Hill’

The most annoying creature in the pantheon of Hollywood cliches is the “free spirit,” the heedless, hedonistic waif whose responsibility-free lifestyle shows us uptight squares just how empty and soulless our lives of meeting obligations and delaying gratification truly are.  But there’s nothing free about free spirits in real life – they flit along like eternal infants while other people get to pick up the figurative and literal bill – people like you, and me and TV’s most amusing everyman Hank Hill.

Tonight Fox will run the series finale of King of the Hill, the saga of Hank and his gang of associates living in their exurb paradise of Arlen, Texas.  King has a helluva a pedigree.  It was created by fellow UC San Diego grad Mike Judge, who also developed the criminally under-appreciated Beavis and Butt-Head.  The co-creator was Greg Daniels, who previously worked on The Simpsons  and wrote the classic Lisa’s Wedding episode.  Together, they made King the most subversive comedy on television. (more…)

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Tags: "Extract", "The Goode Family", Beavis and Butt-Head, Greg Daniels, King of the Hill
Posted Sep 13th 2009 at 6:44 am in Culture, Entertainment, Politics | 219118102 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/09/13/adios-hank-the-conservative-world-of-king-of-the-hill/Adios+Hank%3A+The+Conservative+World+of+%27King+of+the+Hill%272009-09-13+13%3A44%3A56Kurt+Schlichter

Review: ‘Extract’-ing Laughs is Easy

Joel is just an average guy, a quiet yet well-to-do American living in a small town who happens to own a flavor-extract company. He’d like to sell the plant, retire early and get back to a healthier sex life with his bored, put-upon wife. 

But just as he seems prepared to make a deal with food giant General Mills to sell the plant for good, a freak accident occurs inside his plant that lops off one of a long-time employee’s testicles. The other is hanging by a thread, a metaphor that is apt for Joel’s life as it suddenly spirals out of control via a surreal round-robin of relationships that come unhinged and turn his life upside-down in the new comedy film “Extract.” 

Written and directed by Mike Judge, who has chronicled the modern everyman’s life in the long-running and brilliant Fox cartoon “King of the Hill” as well as in the short-running yet brilliant 1999 film “Office Space,” “Extract” takes a sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued look at middle-class values in Middle America. But once again, Judge proves that he possesses a true love for the common, working-class Joe that translates into comedy that uplifts rather than demeans the lives of its characters.  (more…)

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Tags: "Extract", "Office Space", ben affleck, Jason Bateman, King of the Hill
Posted Sep 1st 2009 at 11:44 am in Reviews | 21483051 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/09/01/extract-ing-laughs-is-easy/Review%3A+%27Extract%27-ing+Laughs+is+Easy2009-09-01+18%3A44%3A19Carl+Kozlowski