From 1997 to 2009, the Fox animated series King of the Hill was among the most consistently
funny, smart, and sharply satirical shows on TV.
Created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, it took place in the all-American Texas town
of Arlen, and depicted the lives of propane salesman Hank Hill…
"My name is Hank Hill.
And I sell propane and propane accessories."
...substitute Spanish teacher Peggy Hill…
...their one-of-a-kind son Bobby…
"That's my purse! I don't know you!"
...and their neighbors and friends.
Here are some things you might not have known about King of the Hill.
Welcome to Arlen
After the success of Beavis & Butt-head at MTV, Fox asked Mike Judge to a develop an
animated series the network could pair with The Simpsons.
Judge, who had grown up in the southwest, produced a very rough idea of a Texas-set
series.
Fox executives suggested he find a seasoned comedy writer to help him flesh out a script,
so he got together with The Simpsons' Greg Daniels, taking him on a trip to Texas to
give him the feel for the show.
Daniels added a lot of his own material to Judge's original concept, including the characters
of Luanne and Cotton Hill.
"C'mon grease monkey, let's tangle!"
He also added the notion that Dale was a conspiracy theorist whose wife was cheating on him.
Then, instead of a pilot episode, Judge and Daniels devised a "pencil test."
In the two minute video, Hank Hill, voiced by Judge, pitched Fox executives on making
a show about his life.
"I got some ideas for advertisers if you put us on the air.
Uhh, trucks… pork rinds… we have a lot of those in our house."
What's up with Boomhauer?
"Yeah, man, I tell you what, I seen the dang ol' rake go right down miss…
Smithsonian, man.
Right next to Lincoln's have them arch chair, man, dang ol' caveman section."
Throughout almost every episode of King of the Hill, the character of Boomhauer remains
a mystery.
Although he's one of Hank's core group of beer buddies and appears in most every episode,
little is known about him.
The fact that his first name is Jeff and he's a Texas Ranger isn't even revealed until the
series finale.
He's also impossible to understand because he speaks in a rapid-fire Texas drawl.
"Tell you what, man, I'm gonna take that down to the DMV, man, and take my picture, I had
a hair hootie that day, man.
Been four dang ol' years been going looking like Cokie Roberts, man."
Mike Judge voiced the character, and as he mentioned on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live,
he based his technique on an irate TV viewer who once left him an incomprehensible voicemail
to complain about Judge's previous show, Beavis & Butt-Head.
"The message started out, he goes, "I been y'all for better month now, write y'all every
time that dang ol' pokies butt ol', come on."
The tale of Dale
The role of chain-smoking conspiracy theorist and exterminator Dale Gribble was almost played
by Daniel Stern, the Home Alone star and The Wonder Years narrator, but he reportedly wanted
too much money, and producers sent him away.
"Ahh!"
He would have joined a voice cast that was populated by well-known actors and experienced
vocal talent.
"Prepare to be destroyed by the deadliest of all martial arts…
MONKEY STYLE!"
Around the same time, King of the Hill co-creator Greg Daniels took in a comedy showcase at
a Los Angeles club where a Texas-born comic named Johnny Hardwick told some stories about
his family and upbringing.
After his set, Daniels offered him a job as a writer on King of the Hill.
Once in the fold, Hardwick auditioned for Dale, telling the Austin Chronicle that he
took inspiration for his characterization from counter-culture icon William S. Burroughs
and Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused… along with a little bit of Jack Nicholson.
Hardwick got the part, of course — his first-ever acting gig.
Where is Arlen?
The Hill family lives in Arlen, a sleepy medium-sized city in Texas about 100 miles from Dallas.
Or is it?
Like Springfield or Shelbyville on The Simpsons, Arlen isn't a real place.
The town's name is reminiscent of Garland, a suburb of Dallas where Mike Judge once lived.
But while TV's Arlen isn't part of a fictional Dallas-Fort Worth "metroplex," Judge says
the town was really inspired by Richardson, a different Dallas suburb.
"Dallas?
I don't want you going to Dallas at all!
That place is crawling with crackheads and debutantes.
And half of them play for the Cowboys!"
Despite the show's general adherence to continuity and canon, Arlen shifts to wherever the story
needs it to go.
Just like Durndle and McMaynerberry, Arlen is nowhere and everywhere at once… as long
as that everywhere is in Texas.
The unfinished spinoff
King of the Hill was a long-running success for Fox with a large universe of characters,
so it's not surprising that in the early 2000s, Fox ordered a pilot for a live-action spinoff
called Monsignor Martinez.
"Vaya con dios."
Written by King of the Hill's Jim Dauterive and directed by Mike Judge, it starred Venezuelan
actor Ivo Cutzarida as a trigger-happy avenging priest at the center of a Spanish-language
soap opera popular in Arlen.
Unfortunately, while the show had a complete pilot produced, it was never aired.
And while it's rumored to have shown up online long ago, it's considered to be long-lost
media today.
You got Lucky
One of the biggest additions to the later seasons of King of the Hill was Elroy "Lucky"
Kleinschmidt, Luanne's sketchy boyfriend and later husband.
His nickname comes from his main source of income: a cash settlement he won because he
slipped on a puddle of urine in a Costco.
"And don't you know, I slipped on pee pee and broke two vertebrae which had to be fused
together."
Lucky was voiced by the late rock legend Tom Petty — and he kind of looked like Tom Petty,
too, which is totally by design.
When describing the character to Mike Judge, writer John Altschuler said Lucky ought to
look like "Tom Petty without the success."
So the show's producers actually pursued Petty for the role.
The rock star, who had very little acting experience outside his music videos, enthusiastically
signed up.
Back from the dead
Fox famously canceled Family Guy in 2002 and then brought it back in 2005, but most people
don't know that the network did the same thing with King of the Hill.
The show's 11th season finale, "Lucky's Wedding Suit," aired in May 2007 and was intended
to serve as a conclusion to the series.
It kind of had to be the last episode of King of the Hill, too, because Fox had canceled
the show.
Judge told the Chicago Tribune,
"And I mean completely canceled, as in everyone moved out and cleaned out their desks."
Imagine their surprise when Fox ordered more episodes, and King of the Hill ended up running
for another two years.
The return of Hank
King of the Hill rode the proverbial lawnmower into the Texas twilight in September 2009.
But on TV these days, everything old is new again.
At the 2017 Television Critics Association summer press tour, Fox CEO and chairperson
Dana Walden said "preliminary conversations" have taken place between the network and King
of the Hill creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.
Walden thinks Hank, Peggy, and the rest would "have a point of view" about America today,
and she wants to explore a revival.
Sounds like a pretty dang ol' great idea to us.
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