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King of the Hill Showrunner, Huss & Root on Aging Characters, Growth

King of the Hill showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, and stars Stephen Root and Toby Huss discuss the decision to age the show's characters.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, which is the unique position King of the Hill finds itself in, unlike its other animated contemporaries, like The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, South Park, and Futurama, who largely find themselves frozen in the present time. The Mike Judge and Greg Daniels-created series, revived on Hulu, has chosen to age its characters and develop them over time. Before the series officially returned in 2025, Judge revived his other major animated series, Beavis and Butt-Head, for Paramount+, bringing back the dim-witted duo in their 1990s glory and expanding the hypothetical scenario of what would happen if they survived into middle age. The response was similar hilarity, but tinged with the expected health problems tied to their carefree attitudes of smoking and drinking, as Butt-Head uses a mobility device, and Beavis suffers from diabetes, which solves the problem of the new series's lack of transitional music videos during their MTV years. Circling back to King of the Hill, the series finds Hank (voice of Judge) and Peggy Hill (voice of Kathy Najimy) back in Arlen, Texas, after working in Saudi Arabia for their retirement, and trying to find purpose again. Showrunner Saladin K. Patterson and stars Stephen Root (voice of Bill Dauterive) and Toby Huss (voice of Dale Dribble) spoke with TV Insider on why the show's updated direction makes sense.

King of the Hill Showrunner and Stars on Changing the Characters with the Times

In addition to Hank and Peggy returning, the Hills' neighbors remain intact, with Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer (voice of Judge) still around. Huss, who originally voiced both Khan Souphanousinphone (now voiced by Ronny Chieng) and Hank's father Cotton Hill, took over for the late Johnny Hardwick, who was the original voice of Dale. Pamela Adlon reprised her role as Hank and Peggy's son Bobby, now running a fusion Asian and German restaurant. Tai Leclaire took over the role of Dale's son Joseph Gribble in the Hulu revival from Breckin Meyer. Lauren Tom reprised her roles as Khan's wife, Minh, and their daughter, Connie Souphanousinphone. With Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty's respective passings, the series has not recast Luanne Platter and Lucky Kleinschmidt, who were last married, but it did include a subtle tribute to the revival.

"I give Greg and Mike credit for the decision to age the characters," Patterson said. "That's something that they came up with and then brought to me when we were talking about what this new refresh would look like. They decided to age the characters up and to build in there a gap where Hank and Peggy have been away and are coming back, and so that I think it really was the final piece to what made this feel like a worthwhile and satisfying and fulfilling extension and continuation of the show. 'King of the Hill' was always a show that had a strong point of view, and they wanted to make sure it had a strong point of view relevant for today. And the best way to do that is to put our characters in situations where they're either experiencing new things through a new lens, or they are experiencing new things because they also have grown as we've grown and society has changed."

Huss embraced the change and challenge, "I think anytime you can add another layer to a relationship in this world, it's more fun to watch. Being able to age these people forward and see the layers to their relationships, and then see these people still opening up to each other in strange and wonderful ways, and letting their relationships change, that's rare — in the 3D world of humanity, let alone in a cartoon." "It's kind of revolutionary for animation," Root added. "Nobody ever ages in a show, except we're aging and learning in this show. So, I think, Bill, along with everybody else, is trying to be a better person, trying to make society a better place. And I'm glad we're going in that direction."

King of the Hill season 15 is now streaming on Hulu.

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