‘King of the Hill’ is Back

Time, it turns out, catches up with everybody, even animated characters like Hank Hill, Peggy Hill and their Texan boy, Bobby Hill.

At an ATX TV Festival preview panel Friday night with creators and cast, short clips and discussion about the upcoming new season of the revived animated show King of the Hill gave fans the most information yet on what to expect when it hits Hulu on Aug. 4.

It may have been a biased Texas crowd; Austin’s downtown Paramount Theatre sold out for the sneak peek, with fest attendees receiving propane-cooked barbecue afterward. Audience members cheered “Dammit, Bobby!” as the panel started and gave creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels heroes’ welcomes, topped only by the appearance of Pamela Adlon, the voice of Bobby Hill.

There were no showings of any of the new 10 episodes of Season 14, just two brief clips; in one, Hank (Judge) and Peggy (Kathy Najimy) are flying back to Texas and Hank is having trouble urinating as the plane is landing. “He has a narrow urethra!” Peggy explains loudly to the other passengers. In another clip, the Hills’s old friends welcome them home as part of a montage. Hulu released the new opening credits for the show, which fans have pored over on social media frame-by-frame like newly uncovered Zapruder footage. (Most asked question: who’s the Covid-mask wearing guy occupying the home of the Hills?)

The biggest change, one revealed previously, is that the show will age the characters from when the last season ended in 2010; Bobby is now a 21-year-old chef working a German-Japanese sushi fusion restaurant in Dallas and his folks have retired after a surprising stint living in Saudi Arabia. Hank and Peggy apparently left the country for a nest-egg-building propane job.

There’s some cast reshuffling; the late Johnny Hardwick, who played Dale Gribble, completed six episodes but  Toby Huss, who already has played Hank’s dad Cotton and neighbor Kahn, will replace him afterward. The show will address deaths of Britney Murphy and Tom Petty, who played Luanne and Lucky, “respectfully” creators said, but didn’t elaborate on the fate of the characters. And, sorry, but don’t expect Lady Bird, the family’s Georgia Bloodhound, to return; she was already 13 years old in 2010. Stephen Root will return as Bill Dauterive, who was so distraught and aimless during the Hills’ absence that he tells them upon their return, “Hank, I think I finished Netflix.”

The show’s new showrunner is Saladin K. Patterson, a veteran of The PJs, The Bernie Mac Show, Frazier and the well-regarded reboot of The Wonder Years. Patterson was a superfan during the show’s original and if his appearance on the revival panel was any indication, has a very good handle on what made the original so beloved.

Judge performed a crowd-pleasing Hank Hill voice. The laconic Texan laughed a lot and seemed tickled by the memories his cast and fellow creators shared. He remembered culture-finding trips to Austin with the show’s writers and finding inspiration in the verité approach of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing in conceptualizing the series in the 1990s. “I can’t believe it worked out so well,” Judge said.

Lauren Tom, who returns to play Minh and Connie, got teary as she reminisced about the show, and said that after viewing  the first two episodes, “I can’t wait for you guys to see it.”

Will people love the new episodes? It really depends on their expectations. As Daniels and Judge pointed out in the panel, King of the Hill was both a companion to and a departure from The Simpsons, which at the time King of the Hill started, was the only other animated show on prime-time television. They paced it differently, eschewing joke density for tone and emotional depth. It ground itself more in reality, not beholden to punchlines or visual gags. And it almost always focused on Hank’s befuddled, but ultimately generous and accepting, takes on all the changes happening in the fast-moving world around him.

Those who mostly remember King of the Hill as a showcase for Bobby’s antics-as-future-memes may forget how well the series threaded the needle between satire and affection for its characters and setting. It included as some of its recurring characters an indigenous man, an immigrant family and lots of liberals trying to shame Hank for his old-school views (despite Hank usually winning out with common sense).

The Hills’ return from Saudi Arabia gives them a whole new set of cultural changes to explore when they return to fictional Arlen, Texas, retired from selling propane and substitute teaching. Even conspiracy theorist Dale will have to confront a new political landscape where, as Huss put it, “He’s been out-righted on the right!”

Already, online complainers took the new opening credits as a sign that with the mere appearance of a Covid mask, the show has gone “woke” and will be awful. (Spoiler: it was always a liberal show about conservative characters.)

Judge already helped lead a successful resurrection of his Beavis and Butt-head franchise with a very funny new movie and two new series seasons on Paramount+. Even amid a political climate that may not be totally ready for the return of Hank Hill, it’s wise not to bet against Judge and the very talented team he and Daniels have brought back together.