ICYMI the Hill family is back in action for their 14th season of “King of the Hill.” We caught up with the series co-creator Mike Judge and some of the rest of the cast and crew at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) to check in on what it was like to bring the series back to life after almost 15 years.
The reboot / continuation sees the Hill family moving back to Texas from Saudi Arabia. While many things have dramatically changed, the core of our characters have remained faithful. Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lauren Tom (Connie and Min Souphanousinphone): “I just loved how much you know, Connie grew. I mean, she hasn’t completely gone away from what her parents wanted, but she is getting a degree. That got crazy! But she’s definitely found her voice more and, like, going from a sort of a shy, more reserved and invisible sort of person into someone who just can stand up and have a voice more.”
Toby Huss (Dale Gribble): “You know, I didn’t voice Dale in the first iteration, you know, so for me it wasn’t, it wasn’t coming back and doing a thing, but it was, it was, inhabiting this, this wonderful piece of work that Johnny (Hardwick) did all those years ago. So, just stepping into that area of this space that he carved out in this world for Dale and for himself and the world of the actors and the writers, producers and everyone in it.”
He did such a unique, great job. So it was fun to be able to jump in there and hopefully respect what he’d already begun.”
Mike Judge (Co-creator, writer, Hank Hill): “I mean I yeah, I think this is sort of like a little bit of an escape from (world turmoil) hopefully. I think people who work in the media and a lot of people are just like on Twitter all day long and just go like, oh my God, the world is over. But you get out in the real world, especially like the smaller towns and things aren’t all that bad… That’s where this show is.”
Huss: “It’s sort of a grounding thing.”
Judge: “Yeah, I sort of do that in the pilot where it’s like once he (Hank Hill) gets to Home Depot and he’s talking about hardware, the people and and the Girl Scouts and the like, he’s like, okay, things are okay.”
Saladin K. Patterson (Executive Producer, Writer): “Being grounded is always about the characters, whether it be the father son story or the husband wife stories and the storytelling. In the original, it was so good. Those stories are just relatable, right? So that’s why you can rewatch them, rewatch them, and as you experience more in life, you then relate to other characters in the show, you know?
So I really think that’s what at the end of the day gave us staying power. That’s what we tried to protect and make sure that we had the continuity of that core with this revival of it.”
“King of the Hill” is streaming now on Hulu. You can read our review here.
