'King of the Hill' set in Richardson? (Dallas, San Antonio: gated, living in)

[pepper131]

Originally Posted by perticusrex

Hulu - King Of The Hill: Uh-Oh Canada - Watch the full episode now. (http://www.hulu.com/watch/73399/king-of-the-hill-uh-oh-canada#s-p1-so-i0 - broken link)

OMG!!! It isn't even my b-day!! What a great gift of a direct link!!

THANK YOU!!!!

[Texsez]

Mike Judge IS from Richardson and Garland. The city "Arlun" is where Hank lives. Demographics and alleyways. He stated this. U surely are joking u didn't know this goshdangit.

[Blackspider]

I was always under the impression that Arlen = Garland

[Macintosh Sauce]

I love "King of the Hill!" Recently, I bought the first two seasons in one box for $14.95 at Target. Have to get the rest soon...

[wishihadahouse]

I went to to yahoo maps and typed in arlen,tx and there is an arlen,tx that shows up but it isn't based on arlen. lol Arlen is out kind of by austin (outside about 3 hours, outside dallas about 5 hours and outside san antonio about 6 hours)

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by wishihadahouse

I went to to yahoo maps and typed in arlen,tx and there is an arlen,tx that shows up but it isn't based on arlen. lol Arlen is out kind of by austin (outside about 3 hours, outside dallas about 5 hours and outside san antonio about 6 hours)

Typing Arlen, TX, or any other non-existent place followed by ", TX", gets you the geographic center of Texas, which is about 3 hours west of Austin and 5 hours west of Dallas.

[lizziebeth]

Originally Posted by pepper131

I was thought it was Garland and representative of the time when Mike Judge lived in the area - certainly not a recent time.
Although a recent episode did put a McMansion in the Hill's neighborhood...a cheaply made chateau that blew apart in the wind.

I love this show. It's a great study of life.

And...Arlen...duh...take off the G and the ending D and you basically have Arlen subbing an e for the a.

And don't forget Luanne Platter Luanne Platter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Which is so obvious.
And Luly's...

I also know someone who talks just like Boomhauer.

OMG, I really need to get the DVDs and catch up. Luanne Platter....ROFL! Haven't been to Luby's in ages!

And, yes, I've also heard that it's based on Garland. Seems like I heard it on tv...and, as we all know, like what we read on the internet, everything we hear on tv is true!

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

I don't think it has anything to do with wealth or education. That show exemplifies the CULTURE of North Texas. There is a certain unique culture that describes North Texas/Oklahoma people. I'm a Southern California native and a physician who spent some years training in Dallas and many of the doctors I worked with shared that good ole boy, cocksure perspective and attitude regardless of their wealth and educational status. These physicians were brilliant with regard to medicine but in regards to their social and personal life, they were good ole boys. The white native Texan doctors in Dallas had a sophisticated side but also had a good ole boy side to them that embraced racial jokes, male chauvinist attitudes, you don't worship Jesus you are going to hell, football is god, huntin' fishin' and gun totin. think people in Texas but particularly Dallas residents are in denial about this aspect to their culture. For example, Dallas residents think they have no accent when they clearly do or they will deny that they are a Southern city when it's clear Dallas is very much southern relative to cities outside of the South. King of the Hill obviously exaggerates this aspect as it is a comedy and it's meant to generate laughs but there is truth to it even if people in Dallas are in denial about it.

I know this is a very old thread, but how poster in the above quote describes what he calls northern Texas/Oklahoma culture is very interesting. And I've sort of seen what he's saying first hand in that I'm personally familiar with people down that way enough to know that many white-collar individuals are interested in hunting, fishing, etc. I live in and am from Kansas City, and it just isn't like that here. Professional/college-educated folks tend to look down on hunting, fishing, etc. and associate it with blue-collar, rednecks, etc. In Kansas City since it's my basis, the city and surrounding state seems very polarized socially, very separate. Kansas City is very city-centric. An island to itself. No state pride except for college sports. In Oklahoma at least, it's the opposite of how I just described Kanas City. The cities and state as a whole are much more socially connected, there are many more ruralish personalities in Tulsa and OKC, etc.

Personally, I think an environment in which a person can be themselves, maintain their cultural past, and still make it in the higher education system to become doctors, lawyers, etc. without being ridiculed or forced to conform into some sort of engineered personality is awesome!

Anyway, I ran into this thread searching Google to find discussion and see what folks had to say about the King of the Hill episode "Peggy's Pageant Fever", which illustrated some of the social and personality differences between Peggy and the Hills and the beauty pageant set.

As for the original topic of this thread, I've always thought from watching the show that Arlen (the fictional town) was a small town isolated to itself far from a major metro.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Haven't had this much fun reading thru a thread in a while.

It is obvious to me that Arlen is an amalgam. It is a smaller town surrounded by rural areas (think Greenville, Waxahachie, Cleburne) within a decent driving distance of Dallas. Doesn't seem to be as close in as Richardson.

However it does have some things that a closer in suburb would have, larger mall, Tom Landry Middle School, etc that have been mentioned that a town further out might not have. The rear alleyway housing development is more akin to suburban areas than towns further out as well.

The thing that I would disagree with is the notion that the characters are uneducated hillbillies. Even tho Hank works in a "blue collar" propane business and has the good ol' boy thing going on, he is well spoken and has a vocabulary consistent with someone who has done at least some level of higher education. Peggy teaches school (even tho it seems she is more like an aide than a full fledged teacher) so that means she would have some sort of degree. Bill seems to come from wealth in Louisiana.

Many people I know (myself included) have occupations that are below their degrees. A sign of the times and the reason some here (momof2, mind if I reference you here?) object to the villification by some on this thread of the real Texans that this series does a pretty good job of portraying.

Many larger small towns have malls. But as for Peggy's degree - she often talks about her "2-year teaching degree". I think she has the community college syndrome - she got a 2 year degree which positions her above almost all of her social surroundings in regard to formal education, so she thinks she's highly educated and very smart and is able to maintain such frothy confidence because she lives in a protective naive bubble. But I'd have to agree in defending them even if what I just said sounds harsh. There's a difference between being simple and being uneducated. And since when has HS not provided a basic education for those who cared to take one away from the experience?

[azriverfan.]

Every city has different classes of people including the Dallas Ft. Worth metro. Perhaps the reason people on this forum cannot relate to people on that show is because they are upper middle class and only associate with other people of their social stature thus not receiving exposure to the middle to lower middle class blue collar population in Dallas which is accurately depicted on that show. And yes, those people do live in the Dallas metropolitan area. They are not relegated to small rural towns far away from the metropolitan area despite what some may want to believe. Sorry guys, but there is a reason the creator of that show cited Richardson and not Wichita Falls.

What I really appreciate and think is funny on the show is the portrayal of the Asian family. The Dallas Ft. metropolitan area has a large Asian population but unlike cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, the Asian population in Dallas doesn't really seem integrated. And that is captured well. It seems like many Asians and ethnic people move to Dallas for its affordable living, and ammenities but they don't seem to embrace the surrounding culture. Likewise, the Southern Texan culture seems to tolerate them but not really embrace them either. You got the sense that maybe they wanted to but it reminded me of American soldiers in the Middle East, they were there but not really part of the culture. In Texas, you are asked to become Texan. In Texas particularly north Texas, there is a distinct culture and so long as you embrace that, you are welcomed with open arms but that Texan culture and identity is very strong and very much respected. Some Asians conform and are accepted, the ones who don't are tolerated and left to their own enclaves. Whereas on the west coast, the opposite happens. The Asians came in and the mainstream population was forced to adapt to the Asian culture and presence. On the west coast, it's much more liberal and you are sort of forced to becoming a melting pot; there is no strong distinct local culture like you have in Texas. It's just a very different dynamic. It leads to great humor and the show captures that well.