Hillennium

Hillennium
Air date	December 19, 1999
Written by	Johnny Hardwick
Directed by	Tricia Garcia
Episode guide
Previous	"To Kill a Ladybird"
Next	"Old Glory"

"Hillennium" is the seventieth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on December 19, 1999. The episode was written by Johnny Hardwick and directed by Tricia Garcia.

Summary

With the new millennium only days away, everyone in Arlen starts preparing for Y2K and the potential end of civilization.

Plot

Christmas is days away and Hank is shopping for a tree for the year; he is then informed by the disgruntled salesman named Chappy that Y2K is coming on and that his customers are resorting to buying supplies because of fear that the computers will shut down. While talking with Chappy, Hank learns that "Chappy takes care of Chappy". Hank, not believing the Y2K story, explains all will be fine; but as he returns home and shares a beer and discuss the hysteria ongoing with Bill and Boomhauer, they see Dale arriving and acting unexpectedly confident about the government; it is revealed that Dale is completely prepared for the impending "crisis" that is approaching, as he has hoarded supplies that would last him and his family for a long time.

Meanwhile, Peggy is growing increasingly bothered with her Kaypro computer and concerned that it may not be Y2K compliant. The Hill's, not worrying and focused on Christmas, all head to Mega Lo Mart, where panicked customers are purchasing supplies to prepare. Since the night throughout the next day, Peggy decides to print all the information stored on her Kaypro to prevent loss of data. However, she discovers that the information has all been printed on the same line over and over, ruining her personal information. Hank is then convinced to go Christmas shopping while taking Dale and Bobby along. The three stop by J.R.R. Tokens, an arcade which is in the process of a Y2K compliance check, but discover that the Whack-A-Mole game is still running, as it is only functioning through pins and pulley.

Later, the group stops by the computer store, and are picking a computer, only to have to deal with a troubled employee complaining about the register malfunctioning due to the "Y2K bug". While with Bill, Peggy persuades Bill to share what Hank is up to and discovers that Hank is purchasing a new computer. The next day, Dale discovers that his supplies have been destroyed by his pet gerbil and panics about the Y2K crisis; Hank also starts to panic when a trusted chairman of the propane industry tells him that the computers failed to send appropriate supplies of propane to Strickland, only to horde for himself. When returning home and completely panicked, Peggy believes Hank is merely acting to get rid of the old computer; Hank also is confronted by Dale who confesses that he has been stocking up like Hank and is confused what to do. Hank then visits Chappy, the same salesman who sold him his tree and the three decide to prepare for the crisis. Hank, after purchasing a grandfather clock at Antique Shoppe for Peggy instead, then scares Bobby into the Y2K crisis himself and the two begin to stock up from Mega Lo Mart.

The next day on Christmas, the family are opening gifts, only with Luanne and Peggy upset with theirs. As Peggy is to take Luanne and Bobby to get appropriate Christmas presents, Hank passes out from the varnish he used to repair the clock he purchased for Peggy. He then has a dream in which he and several others, including Peggy and Bobby, are moles in the whack-a-mole game, and is trying to get everyone off the platform, with Bobby in the corner cowering in a toilet paper fort. However, he sees a mole that is Tom Landry and is told that even if the situation looked grim, he could still enjoy what was going on on the outside. Hank convinced, then lets himself out of the hole and wakes up from the dream. He soon crashes through the garage with his mower and assures his family that all will be OK. At night after making a pile of the Christmas gifts, Hank apologizes that he almost ruined Christmas and explains that the Y2K is nothing to be afraid of. He lets Bobby light the pile on fire, and Peggy tells him not to burn the grandfather clock. Hank then shares that he has gotten Peggy a new Apple computer, making her delighted and putting the clock onto the fire knowing that she has a better gift.

Characters

• Hank Hill
• Peggy Hill
• Bobby Hill
• Luanne Platter
• Dale Gribble
• Nancy Gribble
• Jeff Boomhauer
• Bill Dauterive
• Kahn Souphanousinphone (voice only, off-screen)
• Buck Strickland
• Debbie Grund (non-speaking)
• Joe Jack
• Chappy
• Tom Landry (as a Whack-A-Mole in dream sequence)
• Joseph Gribble (cameo)
• Panicked shopper at Mega Lo Mart
• Female shopper at Mega Lo Mart
• Fred Nickelson (mentioned)
• Clerk at 24-Hour Computer Heaven
• Reed Hundt, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (mentioned)
• Murray Hogarth, Texas Propane Commissioner (voice-only)
• Customer at Strickland Propane
• Big Terry

Trivia

• This is the last episode to air in 1999.
• The episode name is a portmanteau of the words "hill" and "millennium".
• The video arcade in this episode is named J.R.R. Tokens, a pun on the name of English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, who's best known for the popular Middle-earth stories The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
• The 1910 Stromwell grandfather clock is seen again in the later episode "It Came From the Garage". This possibly indicates that it was saved from the fire, as it is the very same grandfather clock that reappears.
• The Y2K bug, which the episode is based upon, was a limitation of older generation computer programming that had the potential to create problems with any systems controlled or managed by computers. The Y2K bug could have possibly harmed the world. But in reality, nearly all of the computer programs worldwide were able to be updated before January 1, 2000, therefore causing little or no inconvenience to the world's population.
• Chappy, the salesman that was selling Hank the Christmas tree, is a stereotype of a mountain man.
• Dale calls Chappy "Clem Kadiddlehopper" after the stereotypical country bumpkin character created by comedian Red Skelton.
• When Bobby gives Luanne the Christmas gift of toilet paper, the tag reveals that it was actually a gift (more toilet paper) to Bobby, not from Bobby.
• Hank mentions Peggy's occasionally seen 1982 Buick Regal.
• It is likely that Dale got the assumption that nuclear missiles would be launched by themselves from the Terminator films.
• Even though Hank gives Peggy a new computer for Christmas, in the next episode, she is still seen using her Kaypro.
  • Kaypro was a computer brand popular in the 1980s. Peggy's Kaypro closely resembles a Kaypro 10, which was released in 1983.
  • Hank ordered the computer though, so it could have taken a while to deliver, or simply a slight oversight on the animators.
  • This is actually probably because the next episode (production code 4ABE09) was produced before this one (production code 4ABE10).
• Peggy's new computer resembles a Blueberry iMac G3.

Goofs

• The varnish streak down the face of the grandfather clock vanishes when Hank wakes up, following his "whack a mole" hallucination.
• When the computer salesman is typing, his left hand doesn't touch the keyboard.

Stinger Quote

• Dale: "You will be begging for gerbster!"

Gallery