Hulu's King of the Hill Revival Can Finally Fix the Series' Greatest Sin

King of the Hill enjoyed a long, respectable run on the air, spanning well over a decade and 13 seasons in total. But fans still crave more propane and propane accessories, and creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels aim to deliver. We’ve just gotten our first look at King of the Hill Season 14, a streaming revival debuting on Hulu on August 4.

King of the Hill is hardly the first animated sitcom to rise from the grave in the streaming era, but perhaps more than any other revival, it’s one with a lot of storytelling potential. In fact, Season 14 has an opportunity to address the original show’s greatest flaw. Let’s explore what that flaw was and why things are so different now.

King of the Hill’s Unchanging Continuity

King of the Hill is similar to its animated sitcom contemporaries like The Simpsons and Family Guy in that the series features a mostly static and unchanging continuity. These shows are procedural comedies, not episodic. The sleepy town of Arlen, Texas remained largely the same from the premiere to the series finale. Hank Hill (Judge) was always the stalwart family man who struggled with displays of affection and connecting with his oddball son. His wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) was always the ambitious overachiever who overestimated her own abilities. Their son Bobby (Pamela Adlon) was always the precocious preteen who strove to live up to his father’s rigid expectations.

In some ways, that eternal, unchanging continuity could be an asset. It made King of the Hill an easy series to watch and enjoy. You never had to worry about missing an episode and losing track of the tangled web of the characters’ kooky lives. The series was animated comfort food, like a burger cooked with the clean-burning power of propane.

But the problem with staying on the air for 14 years and never changing is that the formula, no matter how good, inevitably grows stale. That was certainly a problem that increasingly came to dog the series in its later seasons. How many episodes revolved around some variation of this theme - Bobby finds an unlikely hobby he excels at, and Hank comes to grudgingly approve of his son?

At some point, the unchanging nature of the series became grating rather than comforting. Will Hank ever get in touch with his repressed emotions? Will deranged conspiracy theorist Dale (the late Johnny Hardwick) ever wake up to the truth about Nancy (Ashley Gardner) and John Redcorn (Jonathan Joss), who had an affair right under his nose for much of the original series? Will Bill (Stephen Root) ever fill the gaping void in his life? Because the counter always reset to zero at the end of each episode, the answers to all of these questions remained “No.”

King of the Hill may be similar to The Simpsons and Family in this regard, but there was never any reason that needed to be the case. This is a much more low-key, character-driven alternative to those shows. King of the Hill’s genius was always in how it found depth and nuance in these goofy protagonists while never punching down or settling for cheap “Look at these dumb hillbillies!” humor. But the series also held itself back by not allowing for more evolution and change over time.

As it is, there were occasional instances in the original series where time did pass and things did change slightly. Early on in the series, Bobby and his friends aged up a year, allowing them to deal with the throes of puberty. Hank’s cantankerous father Cotton (Toby Huss) was eventually killed off. Luanne (the late Brittany Murphy) eventually married and gave birth to a daughter. Those were all moments of genuine change and progression. But ultimately, they were just the exceptions that proved the rule. Nothing ever really changes that much in Arlen.

What’s Different in Season 14

Until now. Having been off the air for 15 years, King of the Hill is finally coming back and actually reflecting that large gap in time. We know that Bobby is 21 years old now, suggesting there’s about eight years separating the timeline of Season 13 and Season 14. Here’s Hulu’s official summary of the new season:

“The season 14 revival picks up several years after we last saw the Hill family - Hank and Peggy Hill are now retired and return to a changed Arlen after years of working in Saudi Arabia; and Bobby is 21 and living his best life while navigating adulthood as a chef in Dallas.”

The newly revamped intro sequence hints at some of the major changes that have unfolded in those eight years. We see Hank and Peggy make their big move to Saudi Arabia. The street deals with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new neighbor moves in and takes Hank’s place. Dale apparently runs for mayor (whether he was successful or not will surely be revealed in the premiere).

Right away, there’s a lot of meat for the writers and actors to chew on now that time has genuinely passed. Presumably, Hank and Peggy’s struggle to reintegrate into Arlen life is going to be a big focus going forward. Saudi Arabia seems like the last place the stuffy Hank would ever want to live. How did that experience change him? Is he more open to new people and new experiences after having spent significant time halfway across the world.

And what of Bobby? How has he fared after moving to Dallas, pursuing his dream, and no longer living under his father’s roof? Has he found his calling in life, or is something still missing?

Dale is also a subject of intense curiosity, and not just because Huss will be taking over for Hardwick. There’s, of course, the big elephant in the room in terms of his relationship with Nancy and whether he ever put two and two together about John Redcorn. Honestly, it’s debatable whether the series could ever deliver a satisfying conclusion to that love triangle. But beyond that, how is Dale faring in a world where ridiculous conspiracy theories have become the norm? Is he thriving in this post-Pizzagate climate, or does he view his fellow conspiracy nuts with disdain? And is there a sliver of a chance that he’d actually make for a decent politician?

There are so many other questions that the revival can explore now. Did John Redcorn ever achieve any resolution with Joseph (Breckin Meyer)? Did Strickland Propane crash and burn without Hank around to put out Buck’s (Stephen Root) fires? That’s to say nothing of how Judge, Daniels, and the writers intend on handling the fates of Luanne and Lucky (the late Tom Petty) and their daughter, Gracie.

Clearly, there’s no shortage of compelling material for the revival to mine in Season 14. The series wasted so much potential in its original run by refusing to progress the story. Finally, that’s no longer an issue.

There are a great many questions that need to be answered in these ten episodes. And with any luck, there will be more new seasons to come. But the danger here is that King of the Hill could stick around long enough to fall back into old habits. Once the new status quo is established, the series could become just as resistant to change and the passage of time.

Let’s hope that won’t be the case. Let’s hope the series is now more willing to maintain an overarching continuity that evolves with time. The show doesn’t need to suddenly become deeply plot-driven or progress in real time, but some connective tissue between episodes would be ideal. After so many years of watching life in Arlen revert back to normal each week, let’s see what happens when Hank and the gang actually have to contend with change on a regular basis.

For more, check out the biggest TV shows coming in 2025.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.