My Own Private Rodeo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“My Own Private Rodeo”

King of the Hill episode

Episode no.

Episode

Written by

Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck

Directed by

Cyndi Tang

Guest stars

David Herman

Production no.

8ABE16

Original airdate

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Fun with Jane and Jane"	"Sug Night"

List of King of the Hill episodes

My Own Private Rodeo is the 122nd episode from Season 6 of King of the Hill. It was a nominee for the GLAAD Media Awards for "Outstanding Individual Episode (In a Series Without a Regular Gay Character)" and by the Writers Guild of America Award for Animation.^[1] The title is a reference to the film My Own Private Idaho.

1 Plot
2 Original Plot
3 Continuity
4 Web sources

[edit] Plot

Dale is planning on a ceremony where he and Nancy retake their wedding vows. After initial reluctance, he has his friends invite his father Bug to the ceremony. He is estranged from him because on his actual wedding to Nancy, his father seemed to kiss her passionately, and the other reason he has not contacted Dale is that he works for the CIA. Hank, Bill, and Boomhauer decide to go track Bug down in order to make amends with his son. However, they discover that not only is Bug a homosexual, he has been working all this time at a gay cowboy rodeo; after seeing men wearing rainbows, others dancing to Y.M.C.A., etc. After the show, Hank goes to Bug and confronts him about the truth: he had been kissing Juan Pedro, a Filipino wedding caterer, before Dale came in, so he "grabbed the nearest thing in a dress": Nancy. The conversation is interrupted by Juan Pedro, now Bug's partner, who is upset upon learning that Bug had a son. Bug admits that he was "confused." Eventually, Bug returns to Arlen and asks for Dale's forgiveness, without admitting he is gay.

Although unsure at first, Dale reconciles with his father. Still seeing that his son thinks he worked for the CIA, Bug finally tells him that he is gay, and this results in being shunned again by Dale, who goes to the rodeo to inform the men that his father was monitoring them. After a struggle, Bug finally makes up with Juan Pedro and kisses him in front of Dale, who relents and lets them attend the ceremony. A subplot concerns Nancy dealing with the ceremony as a way to start over after years of adultery her husband is unaware of and anxiety she has on that issue. Bug notices Joseph's resemblance to John Redcorn and asks if she cheated on Dale. She reluctantly admits the truth, that Hank, Boomhauer, John, Peggy and even Bobby know about the affair, and he does not ask any further questions.

[edit] Original Plot

Charles Nelson Reilly originally voiced the part of Bug in the original storyline [1]. In this version, Dale suffers from a toothache and refuses to go to a dentist, fearing a tracking device being implanted in him by his father's cohorts. Most of the episode's events, like Hank going to the rodeo, remain the same, but the ending is different in that Bug, feeling Dale would reject him if he told the truth, covers his sexuality by explaining he is monitoring the gay rodeo's activities. Relieved, Dale has his father hold his hand, while he goes to the dentist [2]. After the animatic was re-written, David Herman was hired to do the new voice.

[edit] Continuity

The depiction of Dale's father in this episode contradicts an earlier appearance in a flashback in Now Who's the Dummy?, in which he looks and sounds like an older version of Dale.