King of the Hill Shuts Down
Many years ago a man who grew up in London told me that most Americans didn't really get Andy Capp, because they didn't know anything about Cockneys. At the time Andy Capp was funny (like I said, this was years ago) but a little impenetrable. Pigeons? Dog racing? Living on the dole and sleeping on the couch all day? What was all that about? This man said he'd known a lot of people whose lives were like Andy Capp's, so he knew the character was not really exaggerated.
Which brings me to Hank Hill. When King of the Hill first came on the air I was living far from my homeland, and couldn't watch the show because it made me so homesick. It's so well done in general that it probably wasn't necessary for viewers around the globe to know how accurate its evocation of ordinary Texans was, but for those of us who knew, it mattered that this collection of lovable dimwits was drawn with such precision and detail. Goodbye Hank, and thank you Mike Judge.
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