Saying Goodbye to Friends We've Never Met

It can be a strange moment when a television show comes to an end.  All of the sudden you have this half hour to an hour block of your life back and must fill it with something.  Well, actually that is probably a good thing  but when you follow a program you can become somewhat attached to the characters.  For some television is mindless entertainment (an excuse to just sit on the couch),  for others an excuse to laugh without having to following an intricate plot ("Seinfield"),  it could also be a surreal look into the mirror of your own life ("Everybody Loves Raymond", while we lived with my in-laws for three years), or a thought provoking who-done-it ("Law and Order" / "Matlock").

I was upset this year to learn that "King of the Hill" was coming to an end after thirteen seasons.  This is the only animated show with realistic dialogue and plots.  The "Simpsons" meanwhile is beginning its 21st season (with Bart still in the same grade after multiple halloweens and Christmases).  Then there is "Family Guy" a raunchy blend of "South Park" content and "Simpsons" characters.  It finds its humor in the shock value of sexual jokes that are in bad taste.  It is in my opinion the worst show on network television (and I know a lot of people will disagree with that statement).  This is my opinion even though "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlene is a huge "Star Wars" fan.

"Fox" first disappointed me when they decided to only release six seasons of "King of the Hill" to DVD.  The second time was when they decided to bring the most intelligent and brilliantly written animated sitcom on television to an end.  Amazingly this is during the year that "Family Guy" spin-off "The Cleveland Show" begins to air.  Wow, that is a bad trade off.  I am not surprised by this move though, as Fox is an expert at niche marketing, bringing us "Fox Faith", "Fox Family" and "Fox News" while at the same time giving us shows like "Married with Children" and "Family Guy".  I guess the "Fair and Balanced" tag-line that they use for "Fox News" would be better used for the "Fox Network" in general.  Then they can boast having everything from wholesome family entertainment to something rather subhuman and devoid of all morality.

None the less King of the Hill was a television gem especially from Fox and it will be missed (to be fair they also have given us "X-Files", "House" and "24").  The humor was priceless the characters endearing and it will not be the same without them "I tell you what". As the curtain closed on the final episode of King of the Hill and they panned up from Hank and Bobby Hill grilling side by side (the first thing they found real commonality in) to the Arlin water tower, I smiled, it was a great run.