The Year of Washing Dangerously

The Year of Washing Dangerously
Air date	March 26, 2006
Written by	J.B. Cook
Directed by	Cyndi Tang-Loveland & Ken Wong
Episode guide
Previous	Business Is Picking Up
Next	Hank Fixes Everything

The Year of Washing Dangerously is the one hundred-ninety-fifth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on March 26, 2006. The episode was written by J.B. Cook, and directed by Cyndi Tang-Loveland and Ken Wong.

Synopsis

Hank makes a proposal that Strickland Propane expand operations, while in a subplot, Peggy and Bobby start spying on Nancy to determine why she is not taking Peggy's calls.

Plot

Strickland Propane has had a better than average last quarter. Hank proposes to Buck Strickland that they roll the profits back into the business by building a veranda where customers could test out the Wagner Char-King and like grills for themselves. However, Buck is depressed due to his increasing difficulty in finding attractive women. To get his mind on the proposal, Hank recommends that Buck goes with him and the guys to Scrubby's, a car wash that holds a weekly "cruise night", where customers show off their cars.

Kahn is once again annoyed at his his failure to keep up with the Wassanasongs as evidenced by his losing the lottery. Hank tries to reassure Kahn that material prosperity is attained through hard work, but Kahn says he has had enough of that, as he has been working long for an abusive boss with little to show for it. Kahn is convinced there must be a fast track and he intends to find it. After seeing an infomercial for "Dr. Money", Minh and Kahn are convinced this is their ticket out of Rainey Street.

Hank's proposal still is not received, as Buck has gone from depressed to giddy as he takes a couple of girls for a ride in an older jalopy of his, annoying Hank (and frightening Enrique who Buck also gave a ride to) as Buck does donuts in the Strickland Propane backlot.

After yet another lousy day at work, Minh shows Khan that she ordered Dr. Money's instructional video. Dr. Money, who flaunts his vast wealth and bikini babes, tells that the way to make easy money is by mortgaging one's land to raise capital to buy a turnkey operation (a business that effectively runs itself). Kahn and Minh, dazzled by Dr. Money's spread, start looking for a turnkey business.

The turnkey business turns out to be Scrubby's, which Kahn acquired, raising the capital by mortgaging his house. Hank is perplexed by these turn of events, but when Kahn boasts he is on Easy Street for doing nothing, Hank tells Kahn that being a business owner also requires a lot of hard work, only this time he is seeking to satisfy customers instead of a boss, but Kahn refuses to hear out Hank's sage advice, boasting of how he is making money by not listening to Hank. Kahn is not doing a good job with his first experience helping customers, yelling at car wash patrons that they are not to loiter nor use their own cleaning supplies. Even worse, Minh slyly suggests that Kahn sap the strength of his vacuum hoses and sprayers. This turn of events prove disastrous, as customers complain of only getting a couple of seconds of spray and that the change machines do not give equal coinage. As a result, customers leave in droves, and Minh and Kahn are in danger of having their house repossessed.

This turn of events annoys Buck, as Scrubby's is now a ghost town devoid of girls. Hank sadly tells Buck that Kahn has run Scrubby's into the ground and that it will not be long before the car wash goes bust. Buck decides to pay Kahn a visit to show him what being a business owner is all about. Hank is pleased that one of Arlen's business kingpins is going to set Kahn straight, until he learns how Buck saved Scrubby's: Buck became majority shareholder. Not only did Buck use the money Hank was hoping to get for his test grill veranda, Buck has reassigned Hank to work as Scrubby's. Hank does not appreciate being lorded over by Kahn, but figures Buck has a plan to set everything straight.

Buck tells Hank that he will now be working for Buck Strickland at Scrubby's (Under Kahn!). Kahn does what he can to make Hank's life miserable, thinking he is actually Hank's boss. He taunts Hank by calling him names such as "Monkey" and making Hank clean up the mess he made. Hank and the guys go to work at Scrubby's by fixing the sprayers and vacuum hoses to full capacity. Which in turn eventually brings back customers. Kahn thinks his sly work and shortcuts have earned him money and while saying something clever, he and Minh decide that Kahn needs to make his own infomercial video, referring to himself as "Mr. Quarters".

While Cleaning and working one night, Kahn picks on Hank and accuses Hank of stealing quarters from him, to which Hank finally replies that he has had enough and is going to beat up Kahn. Mr Strickland steps in and tells hank that he needs to work and deal with it because it is "Team Strickland". Hank finally has had enough and threatens to quit. When he does, Strickland says he will sell his majority share because he has made a good turnout and made a huge profit from it. Kahn is impressed and tells Buck they dont need Hank, and Buck replies quickly saying that Hank is his golden goose, he wont let Hank go. Buck then sells his shares to a man named Bob Shode(who's wife it was stated earlier that Buck had an affair with). Bob and Buck shake on it and Bob quickly puts Kahn to work, giving Kahn another boss over him.

Sub Plot: Peggy uses a new Caller ID on her phone and is impressed having to not answer calls that are out of area or unfamiliar. She and Bobby are so excited and she wants to tell Nancy about it. She calls Nancy and looks out of her kitchen window to see Nancy and Joseph not answer her phone call after checking their caller ID.

NOTE: Kahn and Minh have always been visible from the HIll's kitchen window and the Gribble home is always on the other side nearer to the garage side.

Peggy decides that she and Bobby need to find out why Nancy is avoiding her and do so by sneaking into the Gribble home and hiding in their closet. With her own home phone in her hand, Peggy calls Nancy to find out why Nancy is avoiding her. Peggy calls, Joseph shouts its Mrs Hill again. And Nancy states that she has Peggy's sweater and has not returned it yet, revealing the reason for not answering. Peggy is excited that it was something silly and is relieved by the answer. However Nancy has a change of heart and decides to call Peggy back. The phone rings in Nancy's closet and Bobby and Peggy are really embarrassed. Peggy gets up and states she came back to get the sweater.

Stinger Quote

Dale: "Kiss him. Kiss him."

Trivia

• The title is a play on the 1982 film "The Year of Living Dangerously" starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt, who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of an Indonesian named Billy Kwan. She eventually joined the cast of "NCIS: Los Angeles."
• Doctor Money is based on the real-life informercial pitchman Tom Vu, who was known for surrounding himself with scantily clad models aboard a yacht while pitching get-rich-quick real-estate schemes.

Goofs

• When Mr. Strickland comes to the alley to visit Kahn, he drives forward and left of Hank's house. However as seen in prior episodes, Kahn lives to the right of Hank when viewing from the alley and left of Hank's house when viewing from the front (where Hank's lawn is).
• Dale states that buying lottery tickets is like buying health insurance, a suckers game. In an earlier episode however, is it revealed that Dale sent Joseph to the store to buy him a lottery ticket (it's possible one or two big time losses turned Dale against lottery playing).
• In this episode, The Gribble home is viewed from the Hill's kitchen window. When in reality it is supposed to be Kahn's Home in the kitchen window. They moved the gribble home to this side for the sake of this episode for Peggy to view Nancy not answer her phone call. In all other episodes the Gribbles live on the other side of the HIll's home.

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