Billy Bob's TV Guest Appearances

KING OF THE HILL (1998)

Network:  Fox

Episode:  Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men

Character:  Reverend Boyce Hubert

Quote
REVEREND BOYCE HUBERT: Just because a baptism turns into a little drowning, everybody's gotta blame somebody.

Plot
Hank Hill and his family and friends head over to the Mall for the post-Thanksgiving Christmas sales.  Peg plans to shop while Bobby and Luanne go ice skating.  Hank, smarting from his father Cotton's nasty behavior toward Hank's mother during Thanksgiving, is going to participate in a market research focus group.  The topic of the focus group: a souped-up version of Hanks' favorite lawnmower.  The focus group participants include Dale, Bill, Kahn Souphanousinphone, and Boomhauer, as well as Hank's crabby old man Cotton, a used car salesman (voiced by Dwight Yoakam), and a defrocked minister (voiced by Billy Bob), who is still bemoaning an accidental drowning at a baptism he officiated.  

Here's the summary from the official site:

Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men
Episode KH308
Original Air Date: 11/17/98

Logline:  On the day after Thanksgiving, Hank attends a lawn mower focus group.

Hank and his buddies discuss attending an upcoming focus group run by the manufacturer of Hank's favorite lawn mower, the Mason 1500. Hank believes that the mower is one focus group away from being emasculated. Shortly thereafter, Hank turns his attention to Thanksgiving dinner. He is thankful that his mother, Tilly, could join the family for the celebration. But Hank's happiness is short-lived: Cotton and Didi drop by unexpectedly. Hank reminds his father that according to the rotation schedule, it is Tilly's turn to spend Thanksgiving with the family. Cotton promises not to "make a fuss," but he manages to ruin the holiday nonetheless by insulting Tilly repeatedly. That night, Peggy makes final preparations to awaken in the wee hours of the morning so she can beat other shoppers to the holiday bargains. When the time arrives, Cotton, Didi and Tilly accompany the Hills to the mall. But But the rubber sole on Peggy's shoe comes loose. As the shoe is being repaired, Peggy falls asleep. Meanwhile, Hank and his friends make their way to a conference room beneath the mall. There they are greeted by Jonathan Burrows, the group moderator. To Hank's disappointment, Cotton joins the group. As the focus group gets under way, Burrows pulls a tarp off of a lawn mower, revealing the Mason 5500, which resembles a futuristic concept car. Hank is aghast.

Hank tells his friends that the new, yuppified machine is his worst nightmare come true. But the other members of the group are swayed by the mower's many options, such as the electric seat warmer and cup holder. Hank's anger rises when Burrows describes the 1500 model as "obsolete." Cotton agrees with this assessment, and suggests his son "trade up." Hank accuses Cotton of "trading up" Tilly for Didi. But Cotton insists he "scrapped" Tilly outright. Hank addresses the group, insisting he will not be swayed by its bells and whistles. But when Burrows asks for a show of hands, all of the men in the focus group,save Hank, indicate their approval of the machine. Meanwhile, at the mall's ice skating rink, Bobby encourages Luanne to put Buckley behind her and get on with her life.

Hank decides to defend his prized mower. He addresses each of the new model's options. He tells Lane, a car dealer, that he would be paying for the mark-up out his own pocket. Lane changes his vote. Hank then addresses Boomhauer, who liked the seatwarmer option. Hank points out that Boomer always rests his beer between his legs, which would cause the drink to warm. Boomhauer changes his vote. The paranoid Dale also changes his vote when he realizes that corporate executives are observing the group from behind a one-way mirror. Hank wins more converts to his side when he demonstrates that the mower's zero turning radius can cause it to crash. Cotton is the last holdout. The old man again berates Tilly, unaware that she is observing from the other side of the one-way mirror. An angry Hank defends his mother, and threatens to ban Cotton from his home should he ever again speak of her in a disparaging manner. Frustrated, Cotton waddles out of the room. 

Afterward, Hank asks Tilly if she has thought about what she wants for Christmas. Tilly tells her son that he has given her enough already.  

Awwwwwww!


What Billy Bob Gets To Do
He gets to let Dwight Yoakam's character sell him on a pre-owned Mitsubishi Diamante.  He also test-drives the lawn mower.

Backstory
Every time we go to visit Billy Bob on the set, KING OF THE HILL is playing on the DVD in his trailer.  Billy Bob is a huge fan of Mike Judge's successful animated series, so much so that he jumped at the chance to voice one of the characters.  Because he was shooting PUSHING TIN in Toronto at the time, he recorded his lines while Mike Judge read to him over the phone.  When we visited Billy Bob on the set of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, he had just opened his first season DVD of the series and was enjoying it tremendously, pointing out that he counted "at least six or seven SLING BLADE jokes" in the first season episodes alone.  He also did a dead-on impersonation of Mike Judge voicing Hank Hill, pointing out how the key to doing Hank's voice is always in the pauses.

Relevant Links
Official Site

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-250/epid-9160
EpGuides episode guides
Garn's Guide Brief summary of Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men episode
TV Tome Page for Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men episode
Quotes Page!
A roll call of the immortals:  Guest Voice Roster!


BBT on DVD
Season Three of KING OF THE HILL is now out on DVD.  Own it!

Photo credit:  © 2005 FOX; helpful red circle by Amélie.

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© 2005 by . . . Like the Wind Productions/Lonesome Rogues Design. This page is intended for entertainment and reference purposes only and is not intended to make a profit.  TV commentary reflects the opinions of the webmasters Amélie and Sage and not the opinions of Billy Bob Thornton or his representatives.