The following contains mentions of suicide.
Leading up to Christmas, most people who celebrate the holiday sit around with their friends and family to watch themed movies and television show episodes. More often, Christmas specials are the utmost cheerful to spread that holiday joy, but occasionally, there’s a movie or episode that explores the darker side of Christmas. King of the Hill’s Season 3 Christmas episode, “Pretty, Pretty Dresses” (Season 3, Episode 9), is one of those types of specials.
King of the Hill is far from the most family-friendly animated TV show to watch, but parents can typically watch a lot of episodes with their preteens or young kids while the innuendos go right past their heads. However, “Pretty, Pretty Dresses” is a thematically morbid story. At the same time, it’s also a powerful watch to show the realities of the holidays for people struggling with their mental health or who are spending the holidays alone.
Bill’s Depression Reveals How Hard the Holidays Can Be
Bill dressed as a woman hanging clothes on a clothesline on King of the HillImage via Fox
Before “Pretty, Pretty Dresses” even jumps to its Christmas-jingle-inspired opening sequence, it features a brief cold open that foreshadows the macabre story that’s ahead. Hank, Dale, Boomhauer, and Bill are standing in the alley, drinking their beers as they do every evening, but Bill breaks out into tears. After the credits, Bill announces that this Christmas will be the seventh anniversary of when his ex-wife, Lenore, left him.
Hank has clearly sacrificed his holiday celebrations to take care of a depressed Bill for December, pretty much making watching over Bill a tradition in itself. The one festivity he’s not willing to give up is his and Peggy’s Christmas party, where they’re hosting all their friends and work colleagues, which becomes a major contingency later on. When Bill attempts to take his own life after being uninvited from Hank’s family dinners due to ruining the mood by reminding everyone of their failed romances (including Luanne’s deceased boyfriend), Hank realizes just how fragile Bill is.
Bill is put on “suicide watch,” though the worst has yet to come. After Bill’s pet iguana, whom he named after Lenore, runs off, and Hank destroys Bill’s gifts to Lenore, Bill experiences a severe emotional breakdown that is essentially a break from reality. He starts dressing up and acting as a woman, specifically, his ex-wife, to convince himself that she’s still with him. Things get especially awkward when Bill shows up at Hank’s party dressed as a woman. In a town that was canonically conservative in deep Texas in 1997, Bill’s new look was definitely not met with much acceptance.
It would be unconvincing to argue that King of the Hill is the most progressive television show ever made. It definitely had more dismissive moments with a straight, white Republican man as its lead. But for the most part, it genuinely tries to observe the type of lifestyle of traditional families in a red state during the late 1990s and early 2000s as the world goes through liberal changes. In many episodes, King of the Hill mocks Hank’s discomfort with mental illness, sexuality, or extreme instances of leftism. Some episodes even see a transformative change to how Hank and other characters view the world.
King of the Hill Doesn’t Mock Bill’s Mental Breakdown
Bill in a dress and feminine clothing attending a party on King of the HillImage via Fox
“Pretty, Pretty Dresses” is a fairly positive example of how ordinary people suffer with loneliness during the holidays, and how their loved ones cope with watching it unfold. Viewers watch as Hank displays just how imperfect but well-meaning he is in his efforts to keep Bill alive during the holidays. For Hank, this is more of a survival situation, whereas Bill might’ve appreciated more efforts to actually make him happy. But then again, this is extraordinary work coming from Hank, who is regarded as occasionally emotionally unavailable and awkward when it comes to dealing with mental health.
When Peggy suggests that Bill see a psychiatrist, Hank quickly dismisses this by claiming Bill is “suicidal, not crazy. His poor choice of words disregards Bill’s condition as less complex than it truly is. But it’s King of the Hill’s treatment of this delicate storyline that is most potent. The show itself never shows Bill as crazy for pretending to be his ex-wife, but as a mentally unstable man who doesn’t have access to the correct treatment and is reliving a traumatic memory triggered by the holiday season.
The holidays can end up being the most depressing part of the year for many people, sadly, because of how happy they’re meant to be. Some other shows and movies have shed light on this in the past, the most famous example being It’s a Wonderful Life. The common assumption that suicide rates spike in winter is actually not exactly true, but people do take their lives during the holiday season, unfortunately.
Watching Hank and his family merrily enjoy dinner because Bill isn’t present is a reminder that Bill is alone and insinuates the idea that he only brings people sadness. The reality is that’s how so many people feel during the holidays if they don’t have people to spend it with. Even those who aren’t alone may still feel that loneliness if they’re not spending it with the right people, or have mental health conditions already.
‘Pretty, Pretty Dresses’ Is Some of the Best Character Work for Hank and Bill
Bill and Hank in front of a small Christmas tree and stocking on King of the HillImage via Fox
The end of the episode is Hank and Bill see true character growth (though it should be stated that King of the Hill goes back to its usual routine in future episodes, as if this never happened). Bill shows up to Hank’s party dressed as Lenore, scaring the guests whom Peggy is desperately trying to impress. As usual, Bobby does not bat an eye, but Hank and Peggy are quickly trying to put out the fire.
Peggy tries to get the real Lenore to talk to Bill, but upon learning that Lenore doesn’t want to speak to him, Bill starts to break down intensely. He starts drinking more and crying, all while trying to keep his emotions in. People start to seriously confront him for acting like a Democrat or someone from Hollywood. But Hank saves the day by showing up in a dress, trying to make Bill feel less alone. Hank willingly embarrasses himself by appearing less masculine and conservative to spare his friend’s feelings and show his support of Bill. Dale and Boomhauer do the same, but more because they feel left out of the wackiness themselves.
Outside, Hank gives Bill a stern talking to about his fragile state of mind, but it seems to be what Bill needed the most. The one thing that nearly drove Bill off the edge of the cliff was that everyone was talking around him about Lenore and his situation with her. Being honest with Bill about Lenore being gone and not coming back helped him accept this.
Of course, this doesn’t fix Bill in the long run, but that’s just the reality of living with a mental illness. But for Bill, he at least learned to cope with it for the short term to enjoy the holidays. So while “Pretty, Pretty Dresses” isn’t the most light-hearted Christmas TV special to watch, it’s one of the most profound for a fairly conservative TV series in the late 1990s.
King of the Hill is available to stream on Hulu. Season 15 is in development.
Release Date
1997 – 2010-00-00
Network
FOX, Hulu
Showrunner
Greg Daniels
Mike Judge
Hank Hill / Boomhauer (voice)
Kathy Najimy
Peggy Hill (voice)