It’s been 15 years since fans were last blessed with a new episode of “King of the Hill” — but time has kept on trucking for the good people of Arlen, Texas, the same as it has in real life.
Mike Judge and Greg Daniels’ animated sitcom returned with Season 14 on Monday, complete with a time jump that sees Peggy and Hank Hill returning from a propane job in Saudi Arabia to find Bobby as a 20-something chef in Dallas. Ahead of the premiere, showrunner Saladin K. Patterson and voice actors Stephen Root, Toby Huss and Lauren Tom opened up to TheWrap about why 2025 is the right time to bring the beloved series back.
“I think people really need it. I think it’s just perfect timing, because the world is so crazy right now,” Tom said. “I’ve heard from many fans that we are a bit of a comfort show for them, so it’s just adding more to the canon and they’ll have more to choose from when they go into rotation. And I’m excited because the writing is still just as sharp and good.”
“Everybody that you know went through Covid, and so did these characters. It brings out a whole new personality to them. Between what people went through then and now, which is difficult as well, it’s really timely and I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” Root added. “One of the strongest points about that show is that it’s kind of the American barometer we seem to be missing now. There are folks like the Hills that are right in the middle who have a really sweet take on the country, which has been missing in entertainment and I’m glad we’re glad to provide it.”
“I think it would have been funny to see them navigate that world of Covid, all drinking beer in the alley six feet away from each other,” Huss further noted.
As for Patterson, who nearly got his start on the initial “KOTH” run back on Fox — “I actually got the opportunity to join the staff early on, but went over to ‘Frasier’ instead … and Greg Daniels never let me live it down” — he enjoyed working out where these 2000s icons would be nowadays while still keeping the original show’s heart in mind.
“Aging a character like Bobby to an adult certainly feels unique to the world of adult animation. But ‘King of the Hill’ was always such a grounded animated show, it still also feels within the DNA to be ultra realistic, like with the passing of time,” he explained. “Greg and Mike were very smart in the backstory. They baked into this revival that Hank and Peggy had been away in Saudi Arabia for the past 10 years and now they’re coming back to America. Hank Hill is a character who, in the original, represented the common sense middle ground – whether he leaned left or right, he was always bringing people towards the middle. Now he’s coming back to an America where the extreme has moved so far that his middle now looks like the other extreme.”
“Hank himself hasn’t changed and his point of view on life hasn’t changed, so that’s an interesting position to put your main character, in terms of being a fish out of water and navigating new spaces and seeing which of the rules he lives by apply and don’t apply anymore. It’s a good time to revisit these characters,” Saladin continued. “Analogous to that, you have a character like Dale Gribble, who in the original represented the extreme in terms of conspiracy theories, whatever you would have called Q-Anon back then. Now, real life has become so absurdly extreme that Dale is not the extreme anymore. Fans of the original are going to get the chance to see that character in a new perspective as he navigates a world where he’s not on the fringe like he used to be.”
In addition to Root, Huss and Tom, Season 14 will also see the returns of fellow voice actors Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon and Johnny Hardwick, among others. And while co-star Jonathan Joss was shot to death in Texas earlier this summer, his talents will still be showcased in the new batch of episodes.
“The tragedy [of losing Jonathan] really was a gut-punch. Thankfully, he had recorded for us. So John Redcorn is certainly in this revival and he’s heavily featured in an episode towards the end that fortunately, and unfortunately, serves as a very good tribute.”
All 10 episodes of “King of the Hill” Season 14 are now streaming on Hulu.
