One of television’s most beloved and frustrated animated dads (along with his wife and not-quite-right son) will be making their return to screens. AKing of the Hillrevival has officially been announced to be moving forward at Hulu, with many of the show’s original creative forces behind it.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the returning animated comedy as given a straight-to-series order, with co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels (the latter of whomwent on to great success withThe Office) coming back to executive produce the show. Saladin Patterson, who has written for series includingPsychandThe Big Bang Theory, will fill the role of showrunner, as he has on shows likeDaveandThe Wonder Years.
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Along with Judge, who provided the voices of Hank Hill and his fast-talking friend Boomhauer in the original series, the five otherprimary voice performershave been confirmed for the revival. Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, Johnny Hardwick, and Lauren Tom will be back to voice their characters Peggy Hill, Bobby Hill, Bill Dauterive, Dale Gribble, and Minh Souphanousinphone, respectively.
The revival does come with something of a bittersweet note. Brittany Murphy, who provided the voice of Hank’s niece Luanne unfortunately passed away in 2009, meaning that her character is unlikely to return to the show. The same goes for Lucky, who was played by rock and roll legend Tom Petty. Petty died in 2017, and though he was a late addition to the show, his character (who was married to Luanne) soon became popular among viewers. Another possible difference for the revival,following a recent trend among other animated shows, could be recasting Kahn Souphanousinphone, Hank’s Laotian neighbor, who was voiced in the original series run by Toby Huss (Huss also contributed voice performances for many other characters in the show).
King of the Hilloriginally ran for 13 seasons, becoming something of a sleeper hit for Fox as part of its Sunday night line-up that included otheranimated shows likeThe SimpsonsandFamily Guy. Unlike those shows,King of the Hillwas known more for its down-to-earth approach to storytelling and focus on realism. The show managed to nab one Emmy during its run for Outstanding Animated Series, while Pamela Adlon (whose own FX seriesBetter Thingsoccasionally touched on her work as a voice actor) won one for herself for voicing Bobby Hill. This marks the second animated show to get a revival from Hulu afterFuturama, which could be premiering as early as this summer.
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