“The Simpsons” really did alter TV history forever: Three of the top seven longest-running scripted primetime series of all time are currently animated shows, including that Matt Groening trailblazer. Several more are poised to join their ranks if they stay on the air for a few more seasons. (Watch out, “Lasie” — “Bob’s Burgers” is coming for you!) It makes sense that these shows stick around, with even non-megahits like “Futurama” approaching an episode total rivaling a smash like “Seinfeld”; after all, cartoon characters can remain recognizably themselves forever, while it can take decades or more before any audible signs of aging creep into vocal performances.
So it’s particularly and perhaps uncharacteristically bold that “King of the Hill,” Mike Judge’s animated sitcom that aired for 13 seasons on Fox, returns not exactly as fans left it back in 2009. (A few additional unaired episodes premiered in 2010.)
It’s especially notable, even faintly moving, that as the show is revived for a 10-episode 14th season, it allows some manner of change to affect Hank Hill (voiced by Judge), a Texan traditionalist with old-fashioned and unshakeable values. Hank himself is more or less as he was: a buttoned-up, rule-following husband and father, enamored with his life’s calling as a seller of propane and propane accessories. But the world has changed a lot over the past decade and a half, which based on the age of Hank’s son Bobby has been compressed into a gap closer to eight or nine years in the world of the show. Yes, Bobby Hill (Pamela Adlon), one of TV’s most memorable middle-schoolers, is now a nominal grown-up, an early-twenties chef and restaurateur cooking up German-Japanese fusion dishes in the city.
The new season exacerbates Hank’s clashes with contemporary culture by opening with his return from Saudi Arabia, where he and his wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) apparently relocated for a substantial stretch (still selling propane and propane accessories, naturally). Now Hank is retiring back to his hometown of Arlen, rejoining neighborhood fellas Dale Gribble (the late Johnny Hardwick in some early episodes, then taken over by Toby Huss), Bill (Stephen Root) and Boomhauer (Judge). Resettling Hank and Peggy into their natural habitat involves some throat-clearing and piece-moving that’s a little foreign for a show that used its cartooniness to embrace its own form of sitcom traditionalism and consistency, typically avoiding serialized plotlines and simply exploring its characters’ foibles with just the right degree of animation-heightened antics.
Even once the overburdened first episode gets the characters sorted out, it may take the audience a little while to downshift back into the show’s observational rhythms. There are countless contemporary reference points good for some laughs, like Hank not understanding the importance of rating a rideshare driver five stars, instead giving him four so he has something to aim for, or eternally open-hearted Bobby struggling with how to condense his text messages. But the common-sense centrism of “King of the Hill” feels a little uneasy now that the views of conspiracy theorist Dale Gribble, so often the show’s most outlandishly silly character, have become, if not exactly mainstream, certainly more commonplace.
There’s something slightly avoidant about dipping into what by all indications should be Trump Country and then acting like the biggest cultural shift is those dang-old cell phones.
Granted, there are some funny nods to bigger-picture issues, like the inspired (and weirdly “Eddington”-compatible) gag that Dale was elected mayor of Arlen on an anti-masking platform during 2020, with a “plurality” vote of 9% (there were apparently 10 other candidates). Moreover, as the season goes on, “King of the Hill” is able to also re-assert its decency, alongside its old-fashioned sitcom craft. Judge and his writers weave together funny dialogue, goofy slapstick and offhand portrayals of a diversifying population, making this revival a satisfying comfort watch. Telling stories about Bobby as a twentysomething is particularly novel, even if it ultimately nudges him back toward his childhood sweetheart Connie (Lauren Tom).
It’s also lovely to see Judge continue to model Hank as a reasonably-minded conservative who doesn’t resist all progress with the jerk of a knee. In one episode, he reveals a scandalous new secret: That while working overseas, he fell in love with soccer, the sport he and the boys used to mock; now, he knows enough to serve as a substitute referee (naturally, he knows the off-sides rules by heart). Judge’s ability to score a laugh just through the precision of Hank’s delivery remains as remarkable as his similarly hilarious (if tonally divergent) work on his similarly durable Beavis and Butt-Head.
Peggy Hill, meanwhile, gets something of a short shrift compared to Hank and Bobby. Early in the show’s run, she evolved (or productively devolved) into a clever subversion as a wife and mother allowed to be just as buffoonishly overconfident as countless sitcom dads. Eventually, those notes became a bit more sour as Hank was increasingly held up as a paragon of wisdom and Peggy was often portrayed as an idiot by contrast. (Call it the Ron Swanson effect.) The revival pulls back on Peggy-related hubris, but with a Bobby subplot appearing in each episode, and not always intersecting with his parents, her retirement-era changes are not explored as deeply.
As with most contemporary cartoon revivals, the animation looks a little flatter and cheaper than the older episodes. The show also has to contend with more real-life endings than some of its peers; former cast members Johnny Hardwick, Brittany Murphy, Tom Petty and Jonathan Joss have all died since the original run, meaning that a full reunion isn’t possible, whether characters have been written out or, in the appropriate case of Dale, had their voices replaced mid-run. But while these absences are sad, they also underline how real “King of the Hill” is able to feel despite its caricatures. Even in its fourteenth season, it’s the rare animated sitcom with its feet planted firmly on the (middle) ground.
“King of the Hill” premieres Aug. 4 on Hulu.