King of the Hill

King of the Hill is set in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas. The show centers on the Hill family, headed by the ever-responsible, hard-working, loyal, disciplined, and honest propane and propane accessory salesman Hank Hill (voiced by Mike Judge). The punning title refers to Hank as the head of the family as well as metaphorically to the children's game King of the Hill. Hank is employed as the assistant manager at Strickland Propane, selling "propane and propane accessories", a frequent catchphrase. He often finds his traditional conservative values challenged by the changing world around him, though his common decency always sees him through. Hank typically serves as the de facto leader for his friends and family. His wife Peggy Hill (née Platter) (voiced by Kathy Najimy), a native of Montana, is a substitute Spanish teacher, though she has a poor grasp of the language. Peggy also finds employment and avocation as a freelance newspaper columnist for The Arlen Bystander as well as a Boggle champion, a notary public, a softball pitcher, and a real estate agent. She is confident, sometimes to the point of lacking self-awareness. Hank and Peggy's only child, Bobby Hill (voiced by Pamela Adlon), is a student at Tom Landry Middle School. His characteristic lack of athleticism and interests in prop comedy and cooking are mystifying to his more conventional father but are encouraged by his mother.

Throughout the series, Peggy's naïve and emotional niece Luanne Platter (voiced by Brittany Murphy), the daughter of Peggy's scheming brother Hoyt (voiced by Johnny Knoxville) and his alcoholic ex-wife, Leanne (voiced by Adlon), lives with the Hill family. Hank originally encourages her to move out, but over time accepts her as a member of the household. Luanne attends beauty school and hosts a Christian-themed puppet show for a local cable access TV station. Luanne later engages in a relationship and later marries Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt (voiced by Tom Petty), a snaggle-toothed layabout who lives on the settlements he has earned from a frivolous lawsuit.

Hank has a healthy relationship with his mother, Tilly (voiced by Tammy Wynette, later by Beth Grant and K Callan), a kind woman who lives in Arizona. Hank is, at first, uncomfortable with his mother dating Gary Kasner (voiced by Carl Reiner), a Jewish man, but he warms up to Gary as their relationship progresses. Hank is dismayed by his mother's choice to break up with Gary to marry a man she has only known for a few weeks, Chuck Garrison, but eventually finds Chuck as likable as Gary. In contrast, Hank has a strained relationship with his father, Cotton Hill (voiced by Toby Huss), a cantankerous World War II veteran who lost his shins to machine gun fire in Japan and who verbally abused Tilly during their marriage, leading to their divorce. Cotton later marries Didi (voiced by Ashley Gardner), a candy striper who attended kindergarten with Hank. Together, Cotton and Didi have a son, "G.H." ("Good Hank"), who bears a striking resemblance to Bobby.

Other main characters include Hank's friends and their families. Dale Gribble (voiced by Johnny Hardwick) is the Hills' chain-smoking, balding, conspiracy-theorist next-door neighbor and Hank's best friend. As a result of his paranoia, Dale does not trust the government or "the system". He owns his own pest control business, Dale's Dead Bug, and is also a licensed bounty hunter and President of the Arlen Gun Club. Dale is married to Nancy Hicks-Gribble (voiced by Ashley Gardner), a weather reporter and later an anchorwoman for the Channel 84 news. Dale and Nancy's only child, Joseph (voiced by Brittany Murphy and later by Breckin Meyer), is best friends with Bobby Hill. He plays quarterback for the football team, enjoys destructive activities like setting ants on fire, and becomes somewhat girl-crazy as he gets older. Joseph is not biologically his son, but was instead born from Nancy's 14-year-long and still-ongoing affair with John Redcorn (voiced by Victor Aaron; later Jonathan Joss), a Native American healer who has given Nancy therapeutic massages for her headaches for years; their affair, and Joseph's real parentage, has long been common knowledge among Nancy's neighbors, who have all seemingly agreed to keep it a secret from Dale. Dale has expressed suspicion that he is not Joseph's biological father, but believes that Nancy was impregnated by aliens. Even so, he clearly loves his son.

Across the alley from the Hills lives Bill Dauterive (voiced by Stephen Root). Known as the "Billdozer" in his high school football glory days, Bill is now overweight, bald, and clinically depressed, still struggling to get over his divorce with his ex-wife Lenore. Bill is a Sergeant and barber in the United States Army who idolizes Hank. Bill's loneliness often results in him being easily taken advantage of by strangers until his friends come to his rescue. Throughout the series, he finds near-success with women, including former Texas Governor Ann Richards. He frequently expresses an unrequited attraction to Peggy, which she occasionally uses to her advantage.

Boomhauer (voiced by Mike Judge), who also lives in the Hill's neighborhood, is a slim womanizer whose fast, non-fluent, and jumbled speech can be hard to understand for the audience despite being easily understood by his friends and most other characters. He is shown to be able to sing clearly and speak fluent Spanish and French. During a perspective flashback in the Season 3 episode "A Fire Fighting We Will Go", Boomhauer sees himself speaking normally while everyone else speaks in Boomhauer's manner of speaking. Though his occupation is not explicitly stated, a single line early in the series indicates he is an electrician living on worker's comp. In a montage leading to the conclusion of the final episode, a Texas Ranger badge falls open on his dresser. His given name, Jeff, is not revealed until the 13th and final season.

In the series' first season, the Souphanousinphones, a Laotian family, move in next door to the Hills. The family consists of the materialistic Kahn (voiced by Toby Huss), his class-conscious wife Minh (voiced by Lauren Tom), and their teenage daughter, Kahn, Jr., who goes by the name "Connie" (voiced by Lauren Tom). Kahn—who fled poverty in Laos to become a successful businessman in America—is often at odds with his neighbors, believing them to be hillbillies and rednecks due to their lower socioeconomic status (despite evidence to the contrary). Minh often becomes involved in activities with Peggy and Nancy, whom she looks down on as uncivilized and ignorant, despite still considering them her best friends. Connie has been pushed by her father to become a child prodigy and excels at a variety of things from academics to music, though she rejects her father's materialism and judgmental nature. She develops a relationship with Bobby that blossoms into romance over the first half of the series before the two decide to remain friends. Connie often accompanies Bobby and Joseph on their adventures.

Other minor characters include Buck Strickland (voiced by Stephen Root), Hank's licentious boss at Strickland Propane; Joe Jack (voiced by Toby Huss) and Enrique (Danny Trejo), Hank's co-workers at Strickland; Carl Moss (voiced by Dennis Burkley), Bobby's principal at Tom Landry Middle School; and Reverend Karen Stroup (voiced by Mary Tyler Moore and later by Ashley Gardner), the female minister of Arlen First Methodist.

Following the show's slice of life format, which is consistently present throughout its run, the show presents itself as being more down-to-earth than other competing animated comedies, e.g. Family Guy, due to the way the show applies realism and often derives its plots and humor from mundane topics. Critics also note the great deal of humanity shown throughout the show.[3]

The first six seasons were released on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment from 2003 to 2006. The seventh season was originally planned to be released in late 2006, but however, it was delayed, most likely due to poor sales of the DVDs, the release was cancelled. However, in 2014, Olive Films acquired the sub-license to release future seasons of the show, and seasons seven and eight were released on November 18, of that same year, with nine and ten released on April 7, 2015,[42][43] eleven released on August 25, 2015, twelve released on September 22, 2015, and thirteen released (also Blu-ray) on October 20, 2015.

Netflix and Fox streamed all episodes, but stopped streaming on October 1, 2013, and in early 2017, the series was removed from iTunes and Google Play, though it returned to the latter later that year. As of May 2018, all episodes were again removed from Google Play and iTunes.

On November 1, 2018, all episodes became available for streaming on Hulu in the US.[44] In some countries the series was still unavailable to stream or buy digitally as Hulu was not available around the world until 2022 and now was finally made available exclusively for streaming on Disney+.[45]

The show aired in broadcast syndication from 2001 to 2020. From September 2004 to January 2009, FX aired the series daily nationwide. The show later aired on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim from January 1, 2009 to June 29, 2018. The series then aired short-lived reruns on Comedy Central and CMT from July 24, 2018 until November 2019, when the series was pulled from their lineups. However, the series joined FXX’s lineup on September 20, 2021; shortly thereafter, Adult Swim regained partial syndication, and so FXX and Adult Swim share the syndication rights as of November 22, 2021.[46][47]

A video game based on the series was released on November 13, 2000 for the PC.[48] The player goes on a hunting trip with Hank and the gang where the player must hunt for various animals. The game received mixed to negative reviews.[49] The characters also appeared in a crossover game, Animation Throwdown: The Quest for Cards, which features not only King of the Hill, but also Family Guy, American Dad!, Futurama, Bob's Burgers, and (as of September 2022) Archer. They are also playable characters in a 2022 racing game, Warped Kart Racers, also featuring Family Guy and American Dad!, as well as Solar Opposites.

King of the Hill received critical acclaim over its 13-year run. Early reviews of the show were positive. Diane Holloway at the Chicago Tribune considered it the "most Texan television series since Dallas", and praised the show's "sly sense of humor and subversive sensibility."[50] At the Los Angeles Times, writer Howard Rosenberg suggested that the show "totes a few smiles, but [there's] little to bowl you over, and it takes a spell getting used to."[51] The shows first season received an approval rating of 83% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on sixteen reviews.[52] Its consensus reads, "King of the Hill's mild yet extremely funny depiction of small-town Texas life is refreshingly worlds away from conventional prime-time animation."[52] While the fifth and thirteenth seasons received more critical praise with a 100% approval rating.[53][54]

At the show's conclusion, James Poniewozik at Time opined that it had "quietly been the best family comedy on TV", calling the show's ending "one of the most moving things I've seen on TV this year."[55] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger described it as "sweeter and more human than the great majority of live-action sitcoms that overlapped its run."[56] Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club described the program as a "steadfast, down-to-earth series", while noting "the show saw its fair share of silly conceits and contrived setups—and got fairly repetitive in the final seasons."[57]

Writers have examined the show through a political lens. "It's not a political show", said Mike Judge in 1997. "It's more a populist, common sense point of view."[50] In 2005, Matt Bai of The New York Times Magazine called it "the most subtle and complex portrayal of small-town voters on television."[58] A 2016 reappraisal from The Atlantic dubbed it the "last bipartisan TV comedy", with writer Bert Clere noting the program "imbued all of its characters with a rich humanity that made their foibles deeply sympathetic. In this, King of the Hill was far ahead of its time, and the broader TV landscape has yet to catch up."[59]

As of 2014, King of the Hill was ranked No. 27 on IGN's "Top 100 Animated TV Series".[60] In 2013, TV Guide ranked King of the Hill as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time.[61]

• The King of the Hill Production Archive 1995–2006 (75 linear ft) is housed at the Wittliff Collections, Texas State University in San Marcos.

Wikiquote has quotations related to King of the Hill.

• King of the Hill at IMDb
• King of the Hill at epguides.com
• King of the Hill at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• King of the Hill on Comedy Central