Top 5 Best Luanne Platter Centric Episodes of King of The Hill.
In honor of the late great Brittany Murphy, whom we lost back in 2009, I decided to list my top 5 choices of the best episodes of King of The Hill that focused on everybody’s favorite ditsy blonde, Luanne Platter. Luanne was full of sunshine and rainbows, and her presence made the show all the more lovable as well as funny.
5. Boxing Luanne. Season 7, episode 11.
Synopsis: Luanne starts training to be a boxer for self-defense and squares off against George Foreman’s daughter, Freeda, in the ring, but might not be as good as she says.
Luanne Platter was always the pretty blonde who people never took seriously, but this episode proved that underneath that ditsy exterior was a tough gal waiting to get out. Great guest voices by real life boxing legends George Foreman and Freeda Foreman only make this episode more legit.
4. Luanne’s Saga. Season 1, episode 5.
Synopsis: After leaving her boyfriend, Hank’s niece, Luanne, finds comfort with Boomhauer. Voices of Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Segall and Brittany Murphy. Guest voice: Chuck Mangione.
This was the first episode to explore Hank and Luanne’s relationship and was a fun exploration of how different Hank and Luanne are from each other but can still on occasion have a father\daughter type bond. Some great Brittany Murphy voice acting in this episode that helped flesh out the Luanne character in this early run.
3. Jon Vitti Presents: Return to La Grunta. Season 3, episode 16.
Synopsis: A lusty dolphin tries to mate with Hank in a send-up of `When Animals Attack’ and his joy is short lived. Meanwhile, Luanne gets a job at a country club.
A classic episode that once again shows what King of The Hill does best: Big funny and big heart. The dual stories of Hank and Luanne’s sexual harassment encounters came together brilliantly and once again showed the ever growing bond between uncle and niece.
2. Meet The Manger Babies. Season 2, episode 12.
Synopsis: After seeing that Luanne is depressed, Hank volunteers to buy her some hand puppets at a rummage sale. Luanne starts doing a Christian puppet show, `The Manger Babies’. Hank agrees to play God in the televised version of the puppet show. When it turns out that the show will be on at the same time as the Super Bowl, Hank has to choose between helping Luanne or watching the game.
This episode is one of King of The Hill’s most memorable and heartwarming. In this author’s opinion Brittany Murphy should’ve easily won an Emmy for her impeccable performance in this episode, especially her Manger Babies song. One can tell how much fun and energy Murphy put into the performance. Another great Hank\Luanne story that furthered developed their relationship as well as gave the show an ongoing storyline as the Manger Babies continued being a thing with Luanne for the rest of the series.
- Wings of a Dope. Season 3, episode 23.
Synopsis: After performing disastrously in a hair dyeing exam, Luanne believes she sees her late boyfriend Buckley’s spirit on Khan’s trampoline bouncing up and down, sending the town angel crazy.
Buckley’s death was a huge change in Luanne’s life and the show dealt with how she felt about it quite well before Wings of a Dope, but this episode gave that chapter of her life official closure as well as opened up a new door for her to walk into when it came to what she wanted to do with her life. One of KOTH’s strongest, most poignant and humorous episodes that once again should’ve gotten Ms. Murphy an Emmy nomination if not win for a nuanced and quirky funny performance.
There are many other great Luanne centric episodes such as Death of a Propane Salesman, Leanne’s Saga, Fun with Jane and Jane, The Wedding of Bobby Hill, Movin’ on Up etc. but these top five were easy choices. The loss of Brittany Murphy at such a young age will always hurt our hearts, but all the amazing work she left us including as Luanne on King of The Hill makes her legacy everlasting.
Here’s Brittany performing Luanne in a voice recording session:
Till next time, folks!