Aging up the characters in the ‘King of the Hill' revival was not only easy, it was ‘a relief'

Los Angeles Times

a day ago

Years and years ago, Pamela Adlon, the actor and co-creator of 'Better Things,' had to trade a Fox Body Ford Mustang with a V8 engine for a white minivan.
'It was when I became a mom and I said, 'I cannot go down like this,' ' Adlon says.
So, she had the minivan painted with flames, a skull on the front and pinstripes. When Adlon met with the artist for her auto paint job, she saw a totem in his studio: a small, gold-colored resin bust of Bobby Hill, the husky preteen she played on the animated series 'King of the Hill' for 13 seasons — a staggering 259 episodes total — on Fox.
Adlon was given the figure. During a conversation about the return of the series, she pulls the bust from her bookshelves and holds Bobby lovingly in her hands. Adlon says she doesn't just identify with parts of the sweet, passionate kid she voiced. She is Bobby Hill.
'I just couldn't believe it,' Adlon says. 'This is my own bust. That's me. It's f— me!'
Bobby, the son of animated Arlen, Texas, residents Hank (Mike Judge) and Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy) has in the years since 'King of the Hill' aired its last episodes in 2010, become a social-media phenomenon in memes ('That's my purse, I don't know you!') and well-circulated online video clips.
'He has become like a little beacon for people, which is so sweet,' Adlon says. 'I'm honored to even be a part of it. I love it, I love it.'
Adlon and most of the original cast return for a revival of 'King of the Hill' with a 10-episode 14th season premiering Monday on Hulu. The new episodes return viewers to a much-changed Arlen (and America, for that matter) with characters who have aged about a decade since we last saw them. Hank and Peggy are retired and back in Texas after a propane-related work stint in Saudi Arabia. Bobby is a 22-year-old chef running a Japanese-German fusion restaurant. And because it's 2025, there's a lot that feels very different, from ridesharing and microaggressions to all-gender public bathrooms and goat therapy.
To say that the connections 'King of the Hill' cast members have with the show are personal would be a huge understatement. Not only did the animated series' original run and its new batch of episodes address American culture in sharp and satirical ways while simultaneously being gentle and humane, it created memorable, perhaps iconic, roles for three of the women who play lead characters on 'King of the Hill.'
Adlon, Najimy and Lauren Tom, who plays both Connie Souphanousinphone and her mother Minh, all say that the show's continued high quality and influence on their lives for so long helped draw them back. Along with co-creators Judge and Greg Daniels, and new showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, the cast faced a formidable modern TV challenge many have failed: reviving a beloved show without ruining what made it great in the first place.
'The best job I've ever had'
Najimy, who plays Peggy Hill as a kind but frequently overconfident retired substitute teacher, remembers very clearly her audition for 'King of the Hill' 27 years ago.
'I was pregnant with my daughter,' she says, 'so I will never forget that time in our lives.'
Najimy and the rest of the cast had no idea at first if the show would work. 'I thought, 'This is a really good script and I love that there's some great writing for women characters, which isn't always the case.' '
Unlike the family dynamic of many sitcoms of the '90s era when 'King' started, and even now in some cases, Hank and Peggy aren't a schlub and a hot wife trading insults — they're partners who respect each other and who did a great job raising their son.
'They fight and they spar, but they really, really love each other, which I find refreshing,' Najimy says.
In the new season, Peggy's adventures include portraying the made-up wife of Hank's buddy Bill (Stephen Root), dealing with a cover-up involving a neighborhood lending library and bedbugs, and wrestling with empty nesting.
Judge says that Najimy gets credit for bringing Peggy to life on the original run. 'We, on the writing side at least, didn't have all that much for Peggy in the very beginning.
'Something happened when Kathy started doing the voice — something about the way she played her as this know-it-all who can be completely wrong with complete confidence — and we started writing to that and Peggy was born,' he says.
Najimy says she appreciates that the storylines continue to be character-driven, even when they're observing or commenting on modern culture.
'It's really hard to bring something back,' Najimy says in praise of the show's creators and writers. 'I think it's a miracle that they've done it so seamlessly… it's the best job I've ever had.'
Bobby and Connie all grown up
One of the new storylines finds Bobby reconnecting in Dallas with his childhood crush Connie. How that develops through the 10 episodes is one of the most emotionally satisfying parts of the revival.
While other actors on the show were voicing older versions of adult characters, Adlon and Tom had to decide with the showrunner and creators how to age their characters into adulthood. At one point, using technology to change the pitch of their voices was considered. But in the end, the actors made the vocal adjustments themselves.
'I feel like since Connie's in her 20s now, that was actually easier for me because it's close to my own voice; I'm about that age emotionally,' Tom jokes. 'For me, it was a relief to age her up.'
'King of the Hill' was Tom's first animation job before she went on to play roles on 'Futurama,' 'Teen Titans Go!' and 'Rick and Morty.'
Adlon said that Bobby's vocal journey into manhood had to be grounded in an authentic portrayal with a subtle adjustment: 'I just did a little thing,' Adlon says, cupping her hand for emphasis, 'get him more into, you know, the balls. Cradling the balls of age.'
When the new season begins, Connie has a boyfriend; it's an ethical nonmonogamous relationship. 'In a way, she is sowing her wild oats,' Tom says.
As Bobby, Adlon interjects, 'Well, I don't wanna talk about that.'
Patterson, a veteran of several TV series including 'Frasier' and the well-received 2021 version of 'The Wonder Years,' says the actors were able to bring a huge amount of complexity to characters that fans have grown to love for 27 years.
For Bobby, 'What Pam does is so specific and so magical,' Patterson says. 'Fans are coming back to this show because they want to recapture that magic, right? Let's not try to fix what isn't broken. Let Pam continue to do the magic that she does with Bobby Hill.'
With Tom's challenge of playing two characters, Patterson says, 'When we have scenes with Minh and Connie, not only is she doing two voices, but she's capturing all those layers and nuances that exist in the mother-daughter relationship.'
Living in 2025 … and beyond?
The actors and creators are careful to say that 'King of the Hill' has never been as political as some might ascribe to the show, despite it being set in a red state featuring a conservative-passing family.
But in 2025, it seems impossible not to take a side and the new 'King' season arrives just two weeks after 'South Park' unloaded a stinging critique on President Trump and his administration. The new 'King of the Hill' season takes aim at misogynist bro seminars, cultural appropriation in the restaurant world and how divorce is still stigmatized in many cultures, among other topics.
The cast members and creative leaders of the show say that while they're big fans of what 'South Park' is doing, 'King' mirrors things very differently.
'The world needs someone to shake things up like that,' Tom says, 'and then the world needs our approach, which has a lot more kindness and love and gentleness and inclusiveness to it. It's a nice balance.'
'Now seems like the perfect time, this window of opportunity when people are just going, 'What the f—?' with everything,' Adlon says.
Judge says 'King of the Hill' is 'a calming presence in the midst of all the divisiveness. People often tell me they watch it before they go to sleep, and I'm totally good with that.'
How long that calming presence will be with us when it comes to getting fresh episodes in the future is not completely clear. Season 14 debuts with all 10 episodes available.
Will there be more? There are certainly more scripts and the actors on the show confirm they've continued working on episodes beyond this initial batch, but Hulu has not yet announced whether 'King of the Hill' will continue for a 15th season or more.
Reviews so far from critics have been universal raves; the 14th season has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with one reviewer calling it the best TV revival of all time.
For the 'King' crew, who have been working on the show since the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to do voice recording separately, seeing 'King of the Hill' come back together successfully after so long has been incredibly rewarding.
'I think it was a big relief reading the first episode and realizing the writing was just as strong as the original and feeling like, 'Oh, we're going to be in good hands,' ' Tom says.