The Time Jimmy Carter Saved Christmas on ‘King of the Hill’
President Jimmy Carter couldn’t negotiate the release of the hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, but he could broker a peace between Hank and Cotton Hill, which is objectively more impressive.
On King of the Hill, Hank’s politics are about as far apart from the Carter Doctrine as Arlen is from Iran, but the two charming Southerners share one key personality trait — a love of constructing homes for complete strangers in need. However, in the 2001 King of the Hill Christmas episode “The Father, the Son, and J.C.,” Hank’s Habitat for Humanity building project almost unravels after he and his father have a blow-up fight over Hank accidentally telling his boss Buck Strickland “I love you.”
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The rift between the two Hill men nearly ruins Christmas, the Lubecki household and Hank’s rocky relationship with his father before a certain savior steps in to remind them for the reason of the season. This holiday season, us King of the Hill fans should give thanks for this peaceful carpenter by the initials of J.C.
In “The Father, the Son, and J.C.,” Buck calls in a fake “propane emergency” after a DWI lands him in jail with a suspended license. Naturally, his assistant manager comes to the rescue as Hank jumps at the opportunity to chauffeur his boss around, help him do his shopping and do all of his court-ordered community service for him, which means that Hank and the alley beer boys all pitch in to build a house for a vaguely Eastern European family fresh off the boat.
Unfortunately, Hank blurts out “I love you” when Buck rewards his efforts with a promotion to manager, a little outburst that costs Hank not only the new title but the tenuous peace he achieved with his ornery father. Cotton Hill reacts to Hank’s clear choice of father figure by holing up in the Lubecki house and trashing the place while Bobby runs out to find some divine intervention in the form of the 39th president, whom he briefly believes is Jesus Christ himself.
President Carter negotiates a ceasefire between Hank and Cotton, but on less-than-honorable terms, as he tries to welch on his deal to let Cotton shoot nails at his motorcade. Hank defends his father and insists that Carter stick to his word, and in the closing scene, Cotton and Hank bond over Carter’s ineffectiveness as president.
Through Carter, the Hill family learned the reason for the season, and he exited the episode and the King of the Hill canon to absolve the sins of father and son alike. All that’s to say that, every holiday season when the Hill family doesn’t have to follow the tradition of “Christmas with the Nielkos,” Bobby should should fall to his knees in prayer and thank J.C. for Peggy Hill.
