Why ‘King of the Hill' Is the Most Significant Work of Texan Culture of the Past Thirty Years

Why ‘King of the Hill’ Gets Texas Right

The long-running animated series, which returns for a new season on Hulu August 4, depicts a remarkably realistic version of the Lone Star State.

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King of the Hill’s gentle genius lies in its totally un-cartoonish snapshot of Texas life when it hit screens in 1997. Mike Judge and company ditched the usual oil-baron clichés to give us Hank Hill (proud propane salesman), Peggy, Bobby and the gang in all their flawed, funny glory—Bill’s melancholic sweetness, Boomhauer’s redneck-Esperanto, Dale’s conspiracy-theory fervor. Sean O’Neal admits he rolled his eyes at first (Simpsons > Propane) until college-freshman homesickness in Austin made Arlen’s lawn-mower suburbs feel oddly comforting, and he finally got the show’s smart take on the gap between Texas myth and reality.

Now, sixteen years after its finale, King of the Hill pops up on Hulu with the same crew a bit grayer but still sipping beers in that alley—only the town’s packed with drones, 5G towers and electric scooters. Bobby’s all grown up (fusion chef in Dallas!), Hank’s in his mid-fifties facing a post-modern Texas that’s part nostalgia, part “what even is Texanness?” It’s a reunion that asks: we loved these characters as snapshots of our past, but who are we now when we step back into Arlen?