Peggy Hill

Infobox character | colour = #ffaa44
name = Peggy Hill


caption = Peggy Hill
portrayer = Kathy Najimy
creator =
gender = Female
first = Pilot (episode 1.01)
last =
cause =
age = 43
born = 1957-1965
occupation = Substitute Spanish Teacher; Journalist; Real Estate Agent
title =
family = Doc Platter [ ["A Rover Runs Through It"] ] (father)
Maddy Platter [ [http://www.fox.com/kingofthehill/episodes/0213.htm FOX Broadcasting Company: King of the Hill ] ] (mother)
Luanne Platter (niece)
Hoyt Platter (brother/Luanne's father)
Boppo (uncle) [Rodeo Days]
spouse = Hank Hill (husband)
children = Bobby Hill (son)
relatives =
footnotes =

Margaret "Peggy" Hill (née Platter) is the wife of Hank Hill and the mother of Bobby Hill in the animated series "King of the Hill", voiced by Kathy Najimy. She is also the paternal aunt of Luanne Platter. She is a substitute Spanish teacher, though her Spanish-speaking abilities are mediocre at best, at Tom Landry Middle School and a freelance writer for the local newspaper, the "Arlen Bystander." She is also a notary public and a real estate agent.

Mike Judge developed the likeness for Peggy from former first lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson. TV commentators have similarly remarked on strong physical characteristics shared with 2008 Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin [http://nick-in-nam.com/?p=22] .

Born in Montana to cattle ranchers in 1965, she moved to Texas for high school. Her mother was extremely critical, and her father was aloof and spoke in obtuse nature metaphors. These portrayals of her parents, from the episode "A Rover Runs Through it", are actually a retconned version differing quite noticeably from the homemaker mother – and presumably equally suburban father – displayed in flashbacks in earlier episodes, "I Remember Mono" and "Transnational Amusements Presents: Peggy's Magic Sex Feet". In early episodes, Mrs. Platter is seen visiting in the Hills' home, implying that she lives in or near Arlen, TX, and is on speaking terms with her daughter (although the episode "Happy Hank's Giving," in which she appears in her original incarnation, implies that her mother either still lives in Montana or moved back). These appearances are discarded by "A Rover Runs Through It" In fact, the suggestion in the later episode is that Peggy left her parents behind when she went to Texas, which is a significant alteration. In both versions her mother tends to be critical of her, albeit for different reasons. Peggy also has a brother named Hoyt who is Luanne's father, and lied to Luanne about Hoyt working on an oil rig when he was actually in prison for his 2nd offense. When Hoyt returned to Arlen, Peggy tried to help him out and gave him money, but eventually realized Hoyt was an incorrigible criminal and would destroy the entire family; Hank then tricked Hoyt into committing an obvious crime and convinced Hoyt to confess to it and an earlier robbery that would send him to prison for the rest of his life, in order to preserve Luanne's false image of her father as a good and hard-working man (the cover story Peggy and Hank came up with was that Hoyt accepted "a lifetime contract" to work on an oil rig).

As a child, she was teased constantly for her unusually large feet--women's size 16 1/2--and she remains insecure about them in adulthood, though she was comfortable with them at times. She has great difficulty shopping for shoes and sometimes has to resort to men's shoes. In one episode, when Minh and Kahn show up to the Hills' for a housewarming party, Minh walks around in Peggy's shoes, pretending to be a little girl walking around in her mother's shoes. This, unsurprisingly, provoked a negative response from Peggy. Hank, trying to comfort her, accidentally stepped on her feet, even though they were standing roughly a foot apart. In one particular episode, it was revealed that Peggy's feet are even bigger than Hank's. In one episode she has to drive to Lubbock to buy a new pair of size 16 shoes after the specialty store where she usually buys them closes. In that episode, after being informed by a clerk that she now needs a size 16 and 1/2, and that she quite possibly could reach the "Big 2-0," she is approached by a woman who gives her the card of a man who will make her feel "secure" about her huge feet. It turns out he is a pornographer specializing in foot fetishes, displaying her feet on the internet. In another episode, Peggy's abnormally large feet proved useful in defeating Luanne's unstable mother, Leanne, when Leanne became violent at what was supposed to be an engagement party for her and Bill. A third episode features country star Randy Travis stealing Peggy's anecdote about being teased as a child, and being told by her mother that she is "just as God made her." She eventually finds a shoe store that covers her footwear needs but also caters to transvestites, which leads to an uncomfortable situation in which she is mistaken for a man by one of the customers, although it does allow her to find feminine shoes in her own size.

Peggy unseated Cissy Cobb (voiced by Laurie Metcalf) as the Boggle champion of Texas. Peggy claims high intelligence, though she is often naive and impractical. Interestingly, Peggy's intelligence seems to vary with the situation and her judgment is frequently clouded by her ego. Her poor Spanish (she mispronounces the 'favor' in "por favor" as in 'do me a favor', and Bobby warns Spanish-speaking guests to never correct her, "for God's sake.") is one of the series' running jokes, and would make her appear to be something of a simpleton. However, in several episodes, Peggy has saved the day through some quick thinking, as in the episode where she finds the loophole in Robert's Rules of Order that allows Hank to filibuster a town meeting to prove his point about low-flow toilets. Similar scenes occur in the aforementioned Cissy Cobb episode, when Peggy wins with a 16-letter Boggle word, and in an episode where she gets the Alamo beer company (a series staple) to recall a batch of tainted beer through a clever act of sabotage. In the episode "Joust Like a Lady", Peggy uses her knowledge of the labor laws of the state of Texas to improve the working conditions of the women at Arlen's Renaissance Faire, as well as demonstrating better knowledge of medieval grammar and cuisine than the regular Faire employees.

As the series progressed, increased emphasis was put on Peggy's superiority complex and her egotism. She frequently aggrandizes her own accomplishments and is often unintentionally encouraged by others, such as her continual recognition as substitute teacher of the year, although she won the first award due to the fact she created it. Her belief that someone can do anything if they put their mind to it often leads her into trouble when she takes the philosophy too literally; she often believes she can do something for which she has not the skill or background. It is perhaps not the fact that Peggy thinks so highly of herself, but in her assumption (and expectation) that everyone else thinks equally highly of her, which leads her into predicaments. In one episode, Peggy assumes that an actor, Eduardo Felipe, star of TV's Monsignor Martinez is madly in love with her and wants to have an affair with her not because of anything he does, but because of her presumption that she is irresistible (an attribute often seen in delusional people). She also has the habit of using the phrase "in my opinion" when stating well known facts, such as, "In my opinion, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year," and "As I like to say/call it," when using common expressions. She occasionally makes claims that seem to have no basis in reality at all, such as "Swiss cheese is not Mexican, it's American." When she is particularly pleased with her own cleverness, she coyly raises her hand to her chest and chuckles, "Oh, Peggy!" In an interesting spin on Peggy's self-confidence, she reluctantly recruited Bill Dauverive, who she usually avoided because of his obvious and unwelcome crush on her, to a pyramid sales scheme, only to be surprised as Bill proved to be a much better salesperson than she was.

Proud and egocentric, in later episodes she tends to come off as arrogant and a know-it-all, and quite often has to be taken down a notch. Although she once became extremely jealous that Hank kissed another girl (from whom he caught mono) in high school before they were married, she was forced to confess in a later episode to have lost her virginity to a gay male friend. She also was the last on the block (except for Dale Gribble and Joseph Gribble) to realize Joseph's true parentage (and even then required Hank to spell it out for her). She would have told Dale the truth, but for a last-minute change of heart upon seeing Dale and the boy interact and realizing that sperm may make a man a father, but a heart makes him a dad--and Dale was a good father to Joseph.

She is often gullible enough to fall for scams. Cindy Wasanasong tricked her into taking over as Cozy Kitchen representative. An archeology professor tricked her into signing off her property as a legalized dig site. A scam artist tricked her into paying $999 for a fake PhD degree (although Peggy later came up with a counter-scam that ended with her getting back the money for herself and all of the other victims). She and Luanne were even lured into a cult that wanted her to work in a jelly factory, and were saved when Hank broke the cult's spell by barbecuing steak and ribs outside their HQ.

She once claimed her song lyrics were stolen by country singer Randy Travis, though Mr. Travis (who was a guest star on the episode) claimed to have written them independently. It is later revealed that the lyrics (and the story which Peggy tells Mr. Travis inspired her to write it) were, in fact, Peggy's, but her reputation for self-promotion make even Hank think she is crying "wolf". Travis also steals an anecdote about her large feet and tells it to his audience during a performance.

Peggy Hill is incapable of riding a bicycle as seen in the "Bill's House" episode, although in an earlier episode ("Goodbye Normal Jeans") she is seen riding a bike after stealing Bobby's Thanksgiving turkey. She also has problems enunciating the Spanish language, though she thinks she speaks Spanish so well that some can't understand her. She also has difficulty understanding the language when spoken fluently by others, as demonstrated in episodes such as "Lupe's Revenge." Another example of both Peggy's ego and poor Spanish was when she got a job at the Alamo beer factory when she said "Their Spanish wasn't great." even though she was aware of the fact these people were Mexican and were well able to speak perfect Spanish.

Peggy once ran for the school board, along with Minh Souphanousinphone and Nancy Gribble to save the after-school program. However, Peggy, Minh, and Nancy began to turn on each other to win. In a classic example of her self-aggrandizing nature Peggy treats her run for local school board as though she were a candidate for national office, using a backgammon set as a fake briefcase and answering her cellphone with "War room". In the end, they all lost to a Christian zealot, who planned to get rid of biology, geometry, the after-school program, and all "offensive" encyclopedias.

After not having seen her parents for years, Peggy went to Montana at the request of her mother to see her childhood home one last time. To save the ranch from Henry Winkler, and in an attempt to win her mother's favor, Peggy was able to locate an old law that allowed them to transfer their cattle through the main street of town. Afterwards, Winkler allows them to cut through his land for their cattle drive. In what appears to be a moment between mother and daughter, Peggy expects a warm thank you from her mother but is instead blamed for the whole thing; her mother says it would have never happened had she stayed on the farm. Peggy leaves accepting the fact the her relationship with her mother is over and that she should focus on her relationship with Bobby.

It should also be noted that Peggy is a fan of Billy Crystal ("Peggy Pageant Fever" and "Hank's Dirty Laundry") and Rob Reiner ("When Cotton Comes Marching Home"). She also responded affirmatively when Hank asked if she was reading her "rabbi mysteries", a possible reference to the novels of Harry Kemelman.

References