Care-Takin’ Care of Business

Infobox Television episode
Title = Care-Takin’ Care of Business
Series = King of the Hill


Caption =
Season =
Episode =
Airdate = March 13, 2005
Production = 9ABE01
Writer =
Director =
Guests = Christopher Lloyd, Tom Petty, Trace Adkins
Episode list = List of King of the Hill episodes
Prev = Mutual of Omabwah
Next = Arlen City Bomber

“Care-Takin’ Care of Business” is the 180th episode of the FOX animated television series "King of the Hill", and was broadcast as the 9th episode in the 9th season. The episode's title is a reference to the song "Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Plot

At a meeting of the Arlen High football booster club, a discussion occurs about replacing the team's elderly groundskeeper Smitty (Christopher Lloyd), to give them a home field advantage to get to the state championship. Hank stands up for Smitty's years of service, and visits him to make sure he's still up to the task. That night, Kahn's redneck friends (from the episode "The Redneck on Rainey Street") come by to show off their loud new monster trucks. Luanne angrily goes out to tell them off, but much to Peggy's dismay, Luanne finds herself fascinated by the shiny chrome, and is smitten with Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt (Tom Petty), who "slipped on pee-pee at the Costco" and now lives off of his settlement money and wants to go truck racing.

While Luanne goes out with Lucky (against Peggy's advice), Hank, Peggy and Bobby go to the season opening football game against Rushford. On the opening play, numerous players slip and fall due to the poor condition of the field, brought about by Smitty's senility, as he is seen asleep standing up, watering a trash can. Since the home team is responsible for the maintenance of the field, Arlen is forced to forfeit the game. Hank tries to confront Smitty, but he's too far gone to understand, so Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer secretly take over the landscaping duties. Lucky attempts to go mudding against the other rednecks, but they mock him for having a shiny new truck.

The football coach praises the field, and the guys allow Smitty to take credit, with Dale nicknaming him "The Wizard of Sod". With nothing better to do, Lucky hangs out in the alley as the guys come up with a plan to tweak the field against the opponents' star running back in the next game, and the kicker in the following game, again allowing Smitty to receive credit. However Smitty is starting to get an ego, and believes that his crazy ideas will help the team. Peggy tries to convince Luanne that Lucky isn't good enough for her, but she insists on dating him.

The guys are beginning to resent Smitty's fame for their hard work, but as they work on the grass for the upcoming playoff game, Smitty has security kick them off the field while ranting about crazy ideas that will destroy the turf and their chances at state. Bill remembers another team that had a game canceled from rain damage, but Hank reminds him that it was due to forces outside the team's control. Peggy confronts Hank about Luanne dating Lucky, but when Hank sees that Lucky's tire has left a mark on his lawn he sees a solution to their problems. He convinces Lucky to goad the other rednecks into racing their trucks on the football field, trashing it, and letting Arlen play at a different field since it was vandalized.

As the episode closes, Lucky is performing community service for his vandalism, bragging to another worker about his settlement and his relationship with Luanne, who pulls up to tell him that Arlen won and she loves him.

Quotes

*Luanne: "Aunt Peggy, Lucky says that if both of us were in lockup, I could probably take you. But I don't want to do that, because we're family."

* FOX Announcer: "Up next, "History's Mysteries", with Nazi hidden gold, followed by "Building the Nazi War Machine", and "Nazis of the Desert, Nazis of the Sea".":Luanne: "Wow, the Nazis did a lot!"