Nancy Gribble

Nancy Gribble
First appearance	Pilot (episode 1.01)
Portrayed by	Ashley Gardner
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	TV news anchor
Spouse	Dale Gribble (husband)John Redcorn- Boyfriend for some time while cheating on Dale.
Children	Joseph Gribble
Relatives	unnamed father, possibly dead, mother named Bunny

Nancy Gribble (née Hicks) is a character on the animated series King of the Hill. She is the wife of Dale Gribble and mother of Joseph Gribble. She is friends with neighbor Peggy Hill and worked as the weathergirl for the local television station, Channel 84 News (a subtle joke, as the highest channel on the UHF band in North America was 83). She was later replaced by a meteorologist, and now works as a co-anchor for the station (from the episode "Gone With The Windstorm"). Her on-air name is Nancy Hicks-Gribble.

Nancy is portrayed as an attractive woman who is somewhat competitive. When her TV anchor job was threatened by a 20-something meteorologist, Peggy Hill encourages her to gossip, spread false rumors and make things difficult for him, just like she did in high school.

Nancy's reasons for marrying Dale are a mystery. In many ways, they are complete opposites. Nancy is a strikingly elegant and beautiful woman with long blond hair. Dale is bald, yet wears a baseball cap to cover it up, and is often seen in jeans and an old brown shirt, or his trademark orange jumpsuit (worn while exterminating.) Nancy is successful in her job, whereas Dale is a chain smoking conspiracy thinker who can't hold down a job, and finally started his own pest control business. On one episode, Dale admits that Nancy earns more money than he does, and she keeps a tight fist on their household expenses. In another episode where Dale is encouraged to quit is his job, he says "I support this family!" and Nancy replies "I support this family, you pay the cable bill."

Nancy had a 14-year-long affair with John Redcorn, a Native American medicine man who frequently spent long hours with her, ostensibly to heal her headaches. Nancy's son, Joseph, was the result of that affair.

The affair is known by essentially all the neighbors, perhaps even Bobby, Peggy's son and Joseph's friend. Peggy was the last to realize, being finally told by Hank. Dale and Joseph are seemingly the only ones who clearly do not know - which adds to the humor, since Dale is extremely paranoid and a believer in a wide range of conspiracy theories, with his son apparently following dad's footsteps. Nancy broke up with Redcorn in the season 4 episode "Nancy's Boys" when at last her husband made it clear that, in spite of his strange behavior, he still loves her to the point of sacrifice.

Her past relationship still occasionally leads to concerns about her marriage. At one point she was afraid that an attractive female exterminator was trying to steal Dale away from her. Nancy's suspicions were later confirmed. This could have been a dramatic reversal of fortune for Nancy, who had cheated on Dale right under his nose for 14 years. Much to her surprise, Dale remained faithful. In this episode it was revealed that Nancy smokes, although her having a cigarette while observing Dale's comfort with the intrusionary female may have been a one-time-only reaction of nerves. In the "Untitled Blake McCormick Project" Dale discovers a neighbor's child is Joseph's sister, which worries Nancy. Although Dale believes this means both children were fathered because aliens stole his sperm.

Although generally loving to Nancy, Dale has occasionally been insensitive to her, usually because of a scheme he has concocted. In "The Trouble with Gribbles" Dale began treating Nancy poorly in an attempt to win a lawsuit against a tobacco company. He had no personal complaints with tobacco, but felt a lawsuit would get Nancy money she needed as Luanne Platter briefly replaced her as weathergirl. In order to make a case tobacco was ruining his life he insulted Nancy's appearance unmercifully and blamed her "ugliness" on smoking. However he didn't tell her the reasons for any of this, in order for his to get a genuine and therefore believable reaction. He also thoroughly recorded the mistreatment, but eventually his insults went too far. An embittered, heart-broken Nancy then left the house and stayed with the Hills, but in the end they managed to reconcile after Dale expressed his undying devotion to her.

Personality quirks

She tends to call everyone "sug" (pronounced "shug", a shortened form of "sugar").

Hair and Hair Loss

As a television personality her hair and appearance are important to her. They are also at least somewhat artificial. In the episode "Peggy's Pageant Fever", it is revealed that Nancy bleaches her hair, and in the episode "Gone with the Windstorm", Nancy exclaimed, 'I don't want to go to heaven with brown roots!', proving she is actually a brunette. In a recent episode Nancy suffered hair loss. It was discovered that she is suffering from stress. Her mother (voiced by Rue McClanahan) states that she also had hair loss and that hers was caused by the stress of ending an adulterous relationship. From this it is surmised that the only cure for Nancy's hairloss is if she gets back together with John Redcorn. But despite this, devotion from Dale Gribble, who at the time thought that the world is going to end, made her change her mind and decided to get a wig.

External links

• FOX Broadcasting Company: King of the Hill