King of the Hill/Stressed for Success

Stressed for Success
Season 8, Episode 19
Airdate	May 2, 2004
Production Number	8ABE13
Written by	Tony Gama-Lobo & Rebecca May
Directed by	Tricia Garcia
← 8x18 Girl, You'll Be a Giant Soon	8x20 → Hank's Back!
King of the Hill — Season Eight

Stressed for Success is the nineteenth episode of the eighth season of King of the Hill, and the one hundred sixty-eighth episode overall.

Starring: Mike Judge (Hank Hill, Boomhauer), Kathy Najimy (Peggy Hill), Pamela S. Adlon (Bobby Hill, Alejandro, Chane Wassanasong), Brittany Murphy (credit only), Johnny Hardwick (Dale Gribble, Jackass), Stephen Root (Bill Dauterive, Doctor)

and Toby Huss (Kahn Souphanousinphone, Ted Wassanasong, Director Commentary, Jed Clampett)

Special Guest Voice: Kelly Clarkson (Herself)

Special Guest Voice: John Ritter (Eugene Grandy)

Special Guest Voice: Ben Stein (Quizmaster)

Also Starring: Amy Adams (Miss Dilworth, Dawn), Dennis Burkley (Principal Moss), Tony Denman (Jeremy), David Herman (Jethro Bodine), Breckin Meyer (Ernie), Lauren Tom (Connie Souphanousinphone, Mega Lo Nurse)

Plot Overview

Bobby is brought on to join the academic team to help them in the Quiz Bowl's pop culture portion. He soon feels the burden of his success as this begins to put a lot of pressure on him.

In-Memoriam

• In Memory Of

John Ritter

Notes

Stinger Quote

• Dale: Or the films of M. Night Shalamalaman.

Music

• Kelly Clarkson - "Miss Independent"

Arc Advancement

Referbacks

• Bobby is listening to the director's commentary of A Dinner of Onions, a film adaptation of the book of the same name that was first introduced in "Full Metal Dust Jacket".

• Bobby is watching TRL, he is clearly watching the music video for "Freak Fiction" by 4Skore from "Get Your Freak Off".

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• John Ritter's last television role and his penultimate overall.

Allusions and References

• Bobby does his report on Martin Sheen as President Bartlet from the political drama The West Wing.

• While not specifically named, the show Bobby is watching that's distracting him from Hank's bird feeder is Jackass, which starred Johnny Knoxville who'd incidentally guest star in a couple of later episodes of the series.

Goofs

• The first question of the Quiz Bowl asks "Negative degrees Kelvin is also known as what?" However, the Kelvin scale doesn't have a negative correlation as zero is the beginning of absolute zero.

Quotes

• Hank: You can't keep coming home after school and plopping down in front of the TV.

Peggy: Mm-hmm. He's right. It is not good for you or the couch.

• Bill: Wow, Hank. How's it feel to be the father of a genius?

Hank: Bobby's a good kid, but he's no genius. We have the report cards to prove it.

• Hank: You know, I wanted Bobby to become the kind of kid who did stuff after school, but the stuff after school is just becoming more like Bobby.

• Eugene Grandy: We did great yesterday, but we still made too many mistakes. I'm not going to point fingers, but people who should have a finger pointed at them know who they are.

• Hank: I can't believe you're serving him breakfast in bed. Breakfast was the only motivation he had to leave his room.

Peggy: Hank, we are parents of a gifted child now. It is our responsibility to nurture him.

Hank: But the whole point was to get him out of the house.

Peggy: If you were Einstein's father, we would not have the bomb.

• Principal Moss: To tell you the truth, I thought we cut Quiz Bowl last year. Guess we got rid of something else.

• Hank: Bobby gets so dang many magazines. Couldn't at least one of them have a picture of a car or a fish on it?

• Hank: Well, he was running pretty fast and it's a quarter-mile to Electronics. His body isn't used to that level of activity.

• Hank: Uh, maybe we should take him to a doctor.

Mega Lo Nurse: Sir, Mega Lo Mart trains us to take care of all medical situations. (goes to P. A. ) Attention, shoppers. If there is a doctor in the store, please report to the Mega Lo clinic.

• Peggy: It says here that what Bobby needs is a lifestyle change. Their words, my emphasis.

• Hank: He's really got himself worked up, I tell you what. I just don't understand where it's coming from.

Bill: Well, it's tough being a kid these days, Hank. All we had to worry about was Vietnam, Charles Manson, swine flu.

Hank: Is it that bad now? Heck, a hundred years ago, kids were working in pork factories and coal mines. You can't tell me that wasn't stressful.

Dale: Hank's right. Back when Disneyland first started, it was completely powered by orphan children running on treadmills in underground tunnels. And today, those kids are the New York Yankees.

• Bobby: But the stress, dad! What about the stress?

Hank: Well, you might not believe this, Bobby, but I get stressed all the time.

Bobby: You?

Hank: Yep. But I don't give up. I face my problems. Stress isn't bad, Bobby. Heck, if we weren't stressed about the Nazis taking over Europe, we wouldn't have fought World War II. What's bad is letting stress make your life miserable.