In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the Hills on Fox’s “King of the Hill” did their one-stop shopping at the fake Mega Lo Mart. Soon, the Harts on Fox’s “Bless the Harts” will too.
“I talked to Mike Judge about using Mega Lo Mart for the Walmart big-box store on the show,” “Bless the Harts” creator Emily Spivey said Wednesday at the Television Critics Association press tour. “He was so sweet, he said yes.”
“I really feel like ‘King of the Hill’ and ‘Bless the Harts’ exist in the same world,” she added. “So Mega Lo Mart will be back on [TV].”
Native North Carolinian Spivey cited “King of the Hill” as one of her own show’s predecessors that got making jokes about the South right.
“The gold standard for me was ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ in terms of a show with compassion,” she said of the genre. “I think Andy Griffith really loved North Carolina and loved his friends and family.”
“But then there was like ‘Hee Haw’ and things like that, and ‘Mama’s Family,’ that were good entertainment but it just wasn’t sort of — I thought — an honest depiction,” Spivey said. “And then when I got a little older and I saw Holly Hunter — and Jan Hooks on ‘SNL’ — I realized that you could be a Southern lady and be funny authentically without putting on a crazy sketch wig.”
“I just wanted to keep it as real and authentic as possible,” she added of “Bless the Harts.” “That’s like my passion. It’s my obsession.”
TV critics at the Pasadena media event were treated to an authentic table read today with cast members Drew Tarver, Jillian Bell, Ike Barinholtz, Maya Rudolph and executive producers Emily Spivey, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Readers will have to wait a bit for their turn.
“Bless the Harts” has a 13-episode order at Fox, and will likely be slated for the fall.