| Hagar
the Horrible, the most famous Viking of all, is on his way home from
a little two-year business trip ravaging foreign lands.
As his ship nears the port, visions of a "Father Knows Best" family
life dance in his helmeted head. But things at home don't match expectations
in "Hagar Knows Best," a half-hour animated special on CBS-TV.
The house is in chaos. Wife Helga has cleaned up! How can anybody
live like this?" Hagar bellows, as he litters the living room with
loot.
Then his gorgeous daughter Honi announces she's engaged. Hagar's ecstatic,
until her fiance turns out to be a musician. He had his heart set
on her marrying a hairy uncouth Viking named Olaf.
The final insult is when he finds son Hamlet actually doing homework
-- poetry homework! What is the Viking Academy coming to?
Hagar pays a visit to the Academy. The principal remembers Hagar warmly.
He is one of their most famous graduates, once named "most likely
to ravage foreign lands."
But, he says, the Viking Academy is not teaching poetry. They still
emphasize the basics, like Dragonkilling, Battering Ram 101, and Basic
Swordplay. Hamlet, you see, was kicked out of the Academy.
Then a disappointed Hagar goes to confront Olaf. Olaf is a perfect
son-in-law candidate: big, unkempt, and uncouth. But when he asks
Olaf why he broke Honi's heart, Olaf says that she was the one who
dumped him.
The two Vikings can't believe the girl's priorities. She wants a man
with looks and brains. Unbelievable!
Hagar decides that Helga has done a rotten job raising the kids, and
he has to take matters into his own hands.
Hagar tries to teach the Viking arts to Hamlet, without success. He
brings over a whole gang of hairy, ugly Vikings and orders them to
fight to the last man for Honi's hand.
Then Lute, Honi's fiancé, leaves because he can't live up to Hagar's
expectations. She's heartbroken.
Hagar heads to the tavern to drown his sorrows in a mug of mead. He
complains to the bartender that his kids are, well, weird.
His son reads poetry. His daughter's in love with a musician. What's
a father to do? But when a fellow Viking agrees that his kids are,
well, weird, Hagar takes offense. He realizes that maybe they aren't
weird, just different.
Maybe he can live with that.
And maybe he can tell his kids that he loves them the way they are,
even if they aren't exactly like him. Maybe... |
