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Luanne Leanne Kleinschmidt (née Platter) (age 21[3]) is the daughter of Hoyt Platter and Leanne Platter—though more notably the niece of Peggy Hill, cousin of Bobby Hill and niece by marriage of Hank Hill.

Luanne is introduced in the first episode of Season One, where she is invited to stay with the Hills, claiming her parents need space to resolve some marital difficulties. Near the end of the first episode, a tearful Luanne informs Hank and Peggy that her mother stabbed her father with a fork during an argument, leaving her mother in jail and their family trailer home repossessed. After moving in, Hank's beloved den is turned into Luanne's "temporary" bedroom. After growing tired of Hank's excessive rules, she rents a home across the alley for a short time. She later returns to the Hill home where she remains until her marriage to Lucky Kleinschmidt when they move into her former rental home.

Biography[]

Luanne was born on the 13th of an unspecified month[3] to a teenaged Leanne and con artist Hoyt Platter, who had dumped his fiancée after meeting Leanne at his bachelor party, where she served as the "entertainment". The two married and moved into a trailer at Shiny Pines Trailer Park, where the family lived until Luanne was eighteen and Leanne and Hoyt's marriage went downhill. Sometime after Luanne turned 18, her parents sent her to stay with her aunt Peggy and her family since Leanne and Hoyt needed space in order to try and resolve their marriage problems, but this proved to be fruitless after Leanne stabbed Hoyt with a fork due to Hoyt throwing away a quarter of beer that Leanne was going to drink before going to bed.

The incident was even featured in TV as revealed by a tearful Luanne, who had to stay with the Hills since she had nowhere else to go after her mother was arrested. Her father went to "work on an oil rig" and couldn't come back until he had Leanne's death certificate faxed to him although this was later revealed to be a ruse since Peggy wanted to keep it secret from her family that Hoyt was actually arrested as well but for getting involved with drugs and their trailer tipped over while Luanne lied about the trailer being destroyed because it brought bad memories.

After Hank discovers Luanne lied about the trailer, he convinces/forces her to move back to her trailer and childhood home, which she does until a twister destroys it and she was able to move back with her aunt's family and her maternal relatives' influence helped her improve her life and not end up like her parents.

Religion[]

Luanne has always been enthusiastically religious with the Christian God and became a "born-again-virgin" for that reason after revealing she had been sexually intimate with four men despite her young age although she would later break this promise when she announced she was pregnant with Lucky's child before they became engaged. Luanne attends a Bible study class and briefly taught her own Bible study class from her swimming pool which attracted the attention of the neighborhood men, but she failed to notice their lustful intentions. The Bible study ended when Mr. Strickland became so enamored with Luanne that he asked her to marry him, a request that was quickly declined.

According to Luanne, whenever she's faced with a tough decision, she asks herself "What would Jesus do?". She at times will chastise others with religion depending on their situation, such as when Nancy was debating on picking up her affair with John Redcorn to keep her hair from falling out and stating "I know what Jesus would do. He would resist the temptation even if it meant he would go bald and he had great hair."

The Manger Babies[]

In another early episode ("Meet the Manger Babies"), a glum Luanne discovers a box of cheap sock puppets at a garage sale and uses them to create a Christian-themed puppet show called "The Manger Babies", about the adventures of the animals who witnessed the birth of Jesus Christ. Despite the cast witnessing the birth of Jesus, her puppets adventures take place in modern times, with lessons like, "Don't sneak into a movie." or, "Don't drink and drive.", and Hank being cast as God. The popularity of Luanne's show lands her a part-time job performing weekly shows for local TV station Channel 84, a job she maintained throughout the run of the series.

Eventually, Luanne was able to produce a Manger Babies DVD with the help of John Redcorn, which sold out on release. Unfortunately, preschool shows are too competitive. In an attempt to regain her popularity, she revamped the Manger Babies into a modern "gangsta" style theme, replacing Gurgle-Gurgle Reality TV style with a gun character. Dale took offense to it, as he had submitted a children's story featuring a gun character to John Redcorn. Dale destroyed them in the laundry. She gave Gurgle-Gurgle to her daughter, Gracie.

Education[]

When the series began, Luanne was beginning classes at the Arlen Beauty Academy, with the ambition of becoming a Hollywood ‘makeups" artist and successfully hiding the bags beneath Michael Douglas' eyes. Luanne proved to be a terrible hairstylist, and struggled to complete beauty school as she missed several classes and was unwilling to learn the science aspect of styling since she felt it was more about art while being constantly chastised by her teacher Miss Kremzer and her peers led by Sharona Johnson. After the Mega-Lo-Mart explosion resulting in Buckley's death and continued struggles at the Arlen Beauty Academy, she began having visions of Buckley in angelic form. He informs her that Jesus wanted her to take a different path.

During one of these visions, Luanne crashed her car near the parking lot of a community college, where she was mistaken for a student. The students who found her were genuinely concerned, unlike her Beauty School peers who usually made fun of her. Luanne took this as a sign to begin pursuing a college degree. That day, she dropped out of beauty school and enrolled in the community college. Luanne seems to have changed her field of study several times, as in one episode she mentions "pre-med", later stating she is a "pre-education major." At one point she indicates that she is taking psychology; providing her definition of the word to Peggy ("the disease of psychology"). Luanne eventually drops out of college and fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a hair stylist after re-discovering her love for styling and getting some help from Bill to overcome nerves.

Career Fulfillment[]

After quitting college and earning her beauty school certificate, Luanne began working part-time at a hip salon called Hottyz with Bill Dauterive, where her ability earned her the position of first chair (the closest chair to the door, reserved for the best stylist in the salon). Bill was only permitted to work at the salon because the other employees thought he was gay, and under the assumption that only gay men can properly style hair. When the manager of Hottyz found out that Bill was straight, he was fired, but Luanne was offered to keep her position on her own as first chair. She instead decided to quit her position to remain fair to her partner and family friend, Bill. Hank approached his increasingly demented barber, Jack, about giving Luanne a job. Upon discovering that he would be "stealing" Hottyz's first chair, Jack happily accepted. Luanne left college and became a full-time hair stylist for Jack and moved back in with the Hills (after an offer from Peggy) in order to save money.

Appearance[]

Luanne is petite and shapely with chest-length blonde hair. After a near fatal accident, she lost her hair for a while and decided to leave her bald head exposed after realizing she did not like the strange-looking, multicolored wig that her classmates at beauty school had made for her until her hair slowly started growing back over the course of the next few episodes from a bob hairstyle to a small ponytail, and finally back to normal. At the beginning of the series, Luanne is 19 years old, and later starting in the season 7 episode "Night and Deity," she becomes 21 years old.

She's often considered a particularly beautiful young woman with rather large breasts. She has large eyes, full lips, and stands at 5'4". Luanne's usual outfit is a green crop top that exposes her midriff and tight, knee length, orange palazzo shorts. She also is seen wearing a tight orange shirt and mid-blue jeans with a brown belt.

Personality[]

  • General: Luanne is overall a kind and hardworking girl but is somewhat absent minded and naive most of the time. Because of this, she is often easily talked into things by men who only desire something sexual of her or when she is outsmarted by others. She is somewhat of a crybaby as she is easily prone to crying fits over nearly anything that happens and these fits usually last for quite a while, lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days depending on the situation. When angry, Luanne can be very stubborn, even more so than Hank.
  • Intelligence: Luanne is depicted as being somewhat dimwitted throughout the series. She usually struggles with anything academic and can often be outsmarted by others who make her think she is getting the better end of a deal when really she is given the short end of things. While she lacks book smarts, she does have a good level of common sense. Unfortunately, her seemingly lower intelligence often makes her appear foolish when she interprets jokes or phrases seriously and vice versa. Such a time this can be seen is in "Fun with Jane and Jane" when she took the term of sorority "sisters" as literally meaning that girls involved with the sorority were actually sisters; particularly when another girl stated her mother and grandmother were sisters of the sorority and Luanne called her family "messed up".
  • Immaturity: While she often tries to portray herself as a mature adult, Luanne is actually rather childish and immature at times. When she either does not get what she wants or the outcome she wanted, she will usually complain about it while crossing her arms and pouting. Occasionally, she will even resort to petty revenge such as when Peggy fired her as her stylist for a beauty pageant and she placed one of Peggy's shoes, and nearly her glasses, down the garbage disposal and purposely dyed Peggy's hair green. Another time was when she had tried to flush Hank's keys down the toilet when he was given the Mega-Lo job but had flushed Peggy's keys by mistake.
  • Beauty school: Since the beginning of the series, Luanne has been interested in beauty school and becoming a make-up artist and hairstylist. Unfortunately, she did not bother to learn the more scientific side of styling which often caused her to fall behind in many areas, create poor hair styles, and to be made fun of by others. During the earlier episodes, Luanne was shown not being able to handle even minor forms of styling but later becomes a capable stylist who now works full time at a local barber shop.
  • Finances: While usually not having trouble finding work, Luanne has shown several times that she has a poor handling of her money. She is revealed to be in heavy debt at one point because she recklessly spent money on clothing instead of bills and thought that cash advances on her credit card was free money she could get at any time not realizing she had to pay the money back or that the money she received was from her own earnings and savings. This handling also extended to Lucky's money as Luanne treated his settlement money as if it were millions instead of thousands and was using up the last of what he had toward a highly expensive wedding instead of properly investing in a house.
  • Mechanics: Not often shown in later seasons were her mechanical skills. Luanne had shown she could do things that not even Hank and the guys could do or fix with relative ease. Unfortunately, these skills were all but dismissed in the later seasons.
  • Motherhood: Before and after giving birth to her daughter, Luanne was a caring and concerned parent to her child and does whatever she can for Gracie. However, Luanne is easily impressionable and tends to follow the advice and guidance of others until she eventually accepted Hank's advice that she would need to do things her own way. After having Gracie, Luanne still occasionally struggled with being a mother but was still loving and doting to her child.
  • Religion: Luanne is devoted to her religious beliefs and manages a puppet show based on religion. Although devoted to her Methodist religion, Luanne often went against her own beliefs for her own satisfaction, such as becoming a born again virgin but not keeping the vow to wait until marriage before having sex again. She will at times scold others using religion but, because others know she herself doesn't follow her own statements most of the time, she is often tuned out or her scolding is ignored.
  • Manipulation: Less often than others, Luanne can be manipulative mainly through means of guilt tripping. The best example of this being shown is when she was turning 21 and wanted to get drunk and pressured Hank to accept being her designated driver when she mentioned how she could drive home drunk and risk crashing her car or hitting people.

Relationships[]

Family[]

  • Leanne Platter: Leanne is Luanne's mother. At first, Luanne loved her mother very much and longed for her parents and her to be a close, happy family. Luanne was disappointed that her father didn't want anything to do with Leanne, so Luanne focused on bonding with her mother once she got out of jail in "Leanne's Saga". Luanne loved and looked up to her mother and did things like getting matching dresses for a Mother-Daughter event at her hair salon and apparently got a temporary tattoo of a heart like her mother's. Luanne's love for her mother appeared to keep her in a state of denial about Leanne's true nature although she was fully aware of her actions when intoxicated. It was only when Leanne nearly stabbed Buckly and Peggy beat Leanne that Luanne finally accepted her mother would never change and it was better for them to stay apart.
  • Hoyt Platter: Hoyt is Luanne's father. After Leanne was sent to jail, Hoyt had gone to jail as well but Luanne was under the impression that he was working on an offshore oil rig and would not be returning to land until he saw Leanne's death certificate. Luanne fully believed Peggy's story about her father and had no clue what he was really like. Luanne didn't see her father again until he was released and stayed at the Hill house wherein Hoyt would take advantage of her affection for him to continue his reckless behavior. After he was once more returned to jail, the family agreed to let Luanne think that Hoyt accepted a lifetime contract on the rig in order to shield her from the truth.
  • Hank Hill: Throughout the series, Luanne shows clear admiration and love to her uncle for the things he's done for her. Even though Hank had admitted to seeing Luanne as company instead of family (as the two are not blood related), Luanne possibly sees Hank as the father figure she needed most in her life as Hank at times protected her during certain situations and gave her sage advice that helped her become more mature and independent. Despite that, she has admitted that she does not like his many strict house rules until she was put in a situation similar to him and saw that he was trying to teach her to stand her ground.
  • Peggy Hill: It's clear from the beginning of the series, that Peggy loves Luanne like the daughter she never had. On numerous occasions Peggy is seen protecting Luanne and comforting her when she's upset. Despite being mother/daughter figures to one another, Luanne at times does not hesitate to let Peggy know when she gets carried away with something or when she takes the fun out of things.
  • Bobby Hill: Luanne and Bobby are more like siblings than cousins, and Bobby claims that she's practically his sister. They often play practical jokes on each other and gossip frequently. Luanne is also seen breaking Hank's rules to make Bobby happy – such as the time during the medieval fair when Hank told Luanne not to allow Bobby to wear tights and she clearly let him wear tights. She also cares about Bobby's well-being in religion, when she believed Bobby would go to Hell if he celebrated Halloween or if he tried to see her naked again on purpose. In "Born Again on the Fourth of July", Luanne says she's worried that if Bobby keeps skipping church, he'll sell Gracie for pizza since he stole from Peggy's purse to buy a pizza. According to Bobby, Luanne is the hippest person he knows.[4]

Romantic[]

  • Buckley: Luanne's first on-screen boyfriend was a monosyllabic, rude, and incompetent clerk at the Mega Lo Mart named Buckley. It seems as though Luanne cared a lot more for Buckley than he did for her, since Buckley's romantic zenith was presenting Luanne with a birthday present that consisted of some old, unwanted CDs, or showing up to Hank's house after he breaks up with her (again) with a box of chocolates, stating they're for himself for later. They were rarely seen speaking and when they were presented engaging in conversation, it usually consisted of Buckley making vague sexual remarks or breaking up with her. In "Luanne's Saga", during a short break up Hank states, Luanne had been with Buckley for three weeks. In the second season finale, Buckley ignored Hank's advice not to drag around propane tanks by their nozzles, causing a gas leak that eventually blew up the Mega Lo Mart – trapping Luanne, himself, Hank, and Chuck Mangione inside. The third season premiere reveals that Buckley did not survive explosion. Luanne, Hank, and Chuck survived, but Luanne lost her hair. She took Buckley's death very hard but didn't respond typically. The incident led her to claim that she would quit beauty school and become a "photojournalist" (taking pictures of news broadcasts running on television). Later, Kahn confronted her, indicating that she merely "put on a strange Sinéad O'Connor act" due to her grief. Eventually, she realized that her anger was a result of her pain over Buckley's death and finally allowed herself to realize what had happened and grieve naturally ("Death of a Propane Salesman"). In "Wings of the Dope", Buckley returns as an angel in Luanne's dreams helping her decide to quit beauty school in favor of community college. He redeems himself for his previous attitude by doing so, as we see at the end that he has earned his halo.
  • Rad Thibodeaux: After a while of grieving over Buckley's death, Hank decided Luanne needed to start dating again. Even though she claimed she was not ready, Luanne met "self-proclaimed genius" Rad Thibodeaux at the Arlen Beauty Academy when she was giving him a haircut. He was extremely careful not to actually make a commitment to her and used her to hold a party in Boomhauer's house while he was away. When Luanne confronts him about making moves to other women, he brushes her off. When Luanne declares she's dumping him, he casually states they were never official anyway. She mentions to Rhett that she and Rad were in an "on again, off again" committed relationship, but everything lead to sex.
  • Rad's Ex Best Friend: The only interaction Luanne had with him was sexual, as implied in "Luanne Virgin 2.0", when she tells Hank of her previous sexual partners, saying she thinks they all liked her.
  • Zack: Only appearing in "Luanne Virgin 2.0". He works at Foto-Phast and is implied to smoke marijuana with his blood-shot eyes and emotionless voice. When Luanne goes to pay for the photos, saying she gets his employee discount as his girlfriend, he gives her the regular price, telling her "It's over, Linda." Luanne is confused until Peggy tells her he is breaking up with her, to which Luanne runs out crying. She reveals in the car they slept together, and later in the episode reveals he is the fourth person she's slept with; the others being Buckley, Rad, and Rad's ex-best friend.
  • Rhett Van Der Graaf: She later becomes a born-again Christian and "virgin" in a church ceremony in which she vowed to never have premarital sex again, where she met Rhett Van Der Graaf, an insecure, neurotic virgin of twenty-two. Luanne failed to notice how Rhett was urging her into marriage so that he could have his first sexual experience and thought his excited nature was genuine love. Thanks to Peggy, Luanne came to understand that they were not really in love and called off the wedding.
  • Trip Larsen: As featured in the episode "Pigmalion", Luanne almost married a second time in a forced union with a fellow hostage of a meat-packing tycoon Trip Larson. Luanne eventually learns that Trip was only attracted to her because she looks identical to a woman in the company's original advertisement featuring the Swiss woman and a mountain climber posing with a pig. Trip, mentally unstable, had fantasized since childhood of being the pig in the advertisement, and planned to turn Luanne into the Swiss girl by dyeing her hair red without her consent and forcing her to dress in a frilly blue and white pinafore, so that she could care for him. Trip was subsequently killed in a bizarre accident in the slaughter shed when he tried to convince Luanne into committing suicide with him.
  • Lucky Kleinschmidt: Luanne is introduced to Lucky (a buck-toothed, lazy, 38-year-old stereotypical redneck who supports himself by the money he got from "Slipping on pee-pee at the Costco" and then suing the company). When he and some of his friends begin harassing Kahn at his home, she walks over to put a stop to them when she's swept off her feet – much to the dismay of her Aunt Peggy. Luanne dates and then finally marries Lucky in a backyard wedding attended by many minor characters throughout the series run attended, including Hank's Japanese half-brother. (The characters were there as this was originally designed to be the series finale).

She tells Peggy that although Elroy is the one referred to as "Lucky", she considers herself the lucky one and whenever people call out for Lucky, she answers – believing they're talking to her. Lucky consistently shows his devotion and love for Luanne, such as in "Life: A Loser's Manual" when he protects her from learning of her father's true location: not on an oil rig as she believes, but in prison. Lucky is the first romantic partner she had in the series that didn't objectify her and only see her for her body but valued her as a person. She eventually becomes pregnant with his child and gives birth to a daughter she names Gracie Margaret Kleinschmidt.

Production History[]

The "Lu Ann Platter" is a popular combination platter served at the Luby's cafeteria chain and is a half portion entree with vegetables. This plate was the inspiration for the character name Luanne Platter. The cafeteria itself is characterized as "Luly's" on the show and is claimed by Hank to have "8 types of ketchup and 3 types of catsup". ("Luanne's Saga")

Episode Appearances[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Season 3[]

Season 4[]

Season 5[]

Season 6[]

Season 7[]

Season 8[]

Season 9[]

Season 10[]

Season 11[]

Season 12[]

Season 13[]

Trivia[]

  • Luanne is one of the two characters to be named after one of her parents in their first or middle name, the second being Joseph, whose middle name "John" comes from his birth father, John Redcorn.
  • At the time of Luanne and Leanne's reunion, the latter mentions she is only around 16 years older than Luanne, meaning that Leanne had intercourse with Hoyt when she was a teen, and he was an adult. However, she was probably lying about her age at this time, as she wanted to appear younger than she actually was.
  • She is very good at water-skiing and tends to do it without a life-vest or water-wings.
  • Luanne had alcohol multiple times before she was actually twenty-one and of legal drinking age. For instance, in "Movin' On Up", Hank (who knew she was under twenty-one) and her shared a beer. However, it is legal for people under 21 to consume alcohol in the presence of their family in Texas.
  • Luanne’s car is a white Chevy Sprint hatchback.
  • Luanne is the only person Peggy trusts to be her catcher while playing softball.
  • Luanne is a very talented mechanic but has no interest in repairing cars other than to help out her family.
  • Luanne has a birthmark on her bottom in the shape of a Honda key.
  • According to Hank, Luanne has fifty stuffed animals on her bed.
  • Luanne's shoe size is a women's five (the same as Nancy, as she inherits her boots).
  • Luanne lasted three rounds in the ring with boxer Freeda Foreman.
  • When driving, Luanne rarely uses her blinker.
  • Luanne signs her name with a heart.
  • Luanne has had five sexual partners in her lifetime (including her husband, Lucky).
  • Luanne uses Tae Bo (a kick boxing class) whenever she needs to destress.
  • Luanne is a talented topiary artist.
  • Luanne once tackled a woman who was charging at Peggy during a softball game.
  • After she got pregnant, Luanne was never shown with a baby bump until "Lucky See, Monkey Do", where she was two weeks away from giving birth.
  • It is unknown whether she chose to give her daughter the middle name "Margaret" after Peggy on her own or if Peggy took advantage of her niece being loopy from the pain killers to convince her to do so.

Memorable Quotes[]

  • "No, Uncle Hank. Mama and Daddy are still fighting."
  • (sobbing) "Mama's in jail. She was saving a quart of beer for before bed, and Daddy threw it out and she went after him with a fork! And the trailer tipped over, and everything went upside down and it's gonna be on Real Stories of the Highway Patrol! And the wig I designed for the Beauty Academy is gonna be ruined! Oh, Uncle Hank, what am I gonna do?"
  • "Dear Lord, I don't wanna go back to college so please help me be sexy. Amen."
  • "It's like God takes our picture...before He kills us."
  • "I'm wearing shorts."
  • "AHHH! AUNT PEGGY! MR. KAHN SAW ME NAKED!"
  • (When talking about picking up a pizza) "Why the rush, Aunt Peggy? If we don't get there in 30 minutes it's free."
  • "Boy. Aunt Peg the words I don't know could fill a dictionary."

Gallery[]

References[]

King of the Hill Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Travis Tritt with George ThorogoodBarenaked LadiesThe MavericksSheryl CrowBrooks and DunnFaith HillTrace Adkins • The Hill Family Singers (Johnny Hardwick/Toby Huss/Mike Judge/Brittany Murphy/Kathy Najimy/Stephen Root/Pamela Segall Adlon) • TonicDeana CarterWillie Nelson and Mark McGrathHank Hill (Mike Judge) • Old 97'sLuanne Platter (Brittany Murphy) • The Refreshments
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