Hank reading an issue of the Arlen Bystander
The Arlen Bystander is the main newspaper for all of Arlen, with Roddy Rae Biffel as the manager and editor-in-chief. Peggy Hill worked for The Arlen Bystander for multiple stretches of time throughout the series. For several episodes, Peggy Hill initially worked as a writer for The Arlen Bystander, which published her, Musings column.
History[]
Season 3[]
In "Peggy's Headache" after learning that Doyle Harcavy is retiring, Peggy sends in a sample column to the Arlen Bystander and get the job to take over the Musings column.
In "De-Kahnstructing Henry", Peggy quotes Doyle Harcavy.
Season 4[]
In Old Glory", Peggy's Musings column is cut from the Arlen Bystander.
Season 6[]
In "Returning Japanese", it's implied by Peggy's editor that her Musings column have been bumped off for ad space.
Season 10[]
In "Bystand Me", Peggy was rehired by The Arlen Bystander to write an advice column for how to remove stains of various varieties and other household tips. The source of Peggy's advice was neighbor Minh Souphanousinphone's mother-in-law in Laos, who is a wellspring of household cleaning advice due to her experience and love of housekeeping. Peggy convinced Minh to call her mother-in-law regularly for housekeeping advice that Peggy could submit for her column in the Arlen Bystander, in exchange for providing Minh with the newspaper's crossword puzzle answers prior to the publication of each crossword puzzle. Minh endured passive aggressive comments while speaking with her mother-in-law. After Minh and her mother-in-law eventually had an argument over the phone, Minh could no longer help Peggy with housekeeping advice to publish. Desperate for content to write, with a rapidly approaching deadline, Peggy unknowingly gave readers a recipe for mustard gas and worked with Hank and others to try to prevent the paper from reaching people. Despite the potential consequences of her blunder, Peggy was not fired from the Arlen Bystander. Instead, the newspaper's fact checker was fired.
In "Harlottown", early issues of The Arlen Bystander kept in a storage closet led to Peggy's revelation that Arlen was formerly known as, "Harlen", derived from Arlen's original name, "Harlottown."
Season 11[]
In "Glen Peggy Glen Ross", Peggy got fired from the newspaper company for publishing libel against real estate mogul Chris Sizemore.
Season 13[]
In "Earthy Girls are Easy", Buck Strickland announces to the Strickland Propane employees that the Arlen Bystander is threatening to run an article exposing his having discarded old propane tanks in the river; when everyone realizes that this apparent disregard for the environment will ruin Strickland's reputation, Hank proposes that the company "go green".
Known employees[]
Current[]
- Roddy Rae Biffel (chief editor)
- Unnamed female editor (voiced by Annie O'Donnell)
- Bob Jenkins
Former[]
- Peggy Hill (formerly)
- Harv (formerly)
- Doyle Harcavy (formerly)
Episode appearances[]
- Season 3
- "Peggy's Headache" (mentioned)
- "De-Kahnstructing Henry" (mentioned)
- Season 4
- Season 6
- Season 9
- Season 10
- Season 11
- Season 13