King of the Hill: Still underrated and more relevant today

King of the Hill is back in the spotlight, and FOX’s animated comedy is not only undervalued but more poignant today. Explore it in this week’s Deeper Cut.

King of the Hill is on TV fans’ minds again, as last week Hulu acquired the complete series and made all 13 seasons of the FOX animated series available to stream. But it’s hard not to ask, what took so long?

In the animated TV world, King of the Hill has long been treated like the overlooked middle child. It never got the attention (or the ratings) of The Simpsons or the Seth MacFarlane empire. It actually was cancelled once, replaced by The Cleveland Show, then brought back for a handful of episodes that were unceremoniously burned off.

Its second life in syndication has turned into a joke—a decent run on Adult Swim, then getting picked up by Comedy Central only to virtually disappear from the network’s lineup after Labor Day, and the odd local rerun at 3:30 in the morning.

DVD sales were even worse, with a few seasons put out and then years before it resurfaced. And it’s never been available on iTunes or other digital platforms.

The story of King of the Hill has never made any sense. Not when it’s one of the best animated series ever made, and the one that’s only gotten more relevant with age.

For those of you who missed it the first time, here’s a primer. The show centers on Hank Hill (voiced by series co-creator Hank Hill), who lives in the sleepy town of Arlen, Texas with his wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy), son Bobby (a pre-Better Things Pamela Adlon) and niece Luanne (Brittany Murphy).

His childhood friends have all become his neighbors: the always-down-on-his-luck Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root, who worked with Judge on Office Space), conspiracy theorist Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick), and incomprehensible Boomhauer (also Mike Judge). All Hank wants to do is live a good life selling propane and propane accessories.

It’s a pretty simple premise, from the same guy who gave us Silicon Valley and Beavis & Butt-Head. Oh, and his co-creator was a guy you might also have heard of named Greg Daniels, who’d go on to The Office and Parks & Recreation.

That pedigree ought to clue you in to the fact that King of the Hill wasn’t like any other animated show, or even any other comedy. While The Simpsons got more and more outlandish and packed with celebrity cameos, and Family Guy bounced from one cutaway gag to another, King of the Hill was rooted in reality, driven by character and social situations.

The very first episode “Pilot” involved Hank being falsely accused of child abuse. The second was called “Square Peg” and was about sex education. Episode 3, “The Order of the Straight Arrow,” talked about parents lying to their kids and had some overzealous environmentalists. These were not the kinds of stories you’d expect from an animated show, and that was just the first couple of episodes.

More than two decades later, the writing of King of the Hill still means something today, possibly even more than it did during the show’s original run.

That’s because the majority of the humor came from the characters’ down-to-earth, conservative, sometimes naive point of view and how they couldn’t quite adapt to the changing society around them.

One example is the episode “Westie Side Story” which introduces the Hills’ new neighbors, the Souphanousinphones, who are Laotian-Americans. None of the main characters understand that; they continually refer to Kahn and his family as being Korean, Chinese or Japanese. And Kahn does not help, as he has his own misperception of everyone else being “rednecks.”

But both sides defy stereotypes. Kahn is a hard-working businessman who moved to Arlen from Anaheim; like Hank, he built himself up to what he is today. He’s arrogant and materialistic, but it’s also clear that those qualities come from wanting the best for his family. One of the last King of the Hill episodes reveals that Kahn is bipolar.

And Hank and his friends are far from the “redneck” generalization. All of them have jobs and own houses, two of them have families, and they have built stable lives for themselves. Though they have their differences, Kahn and Hank not only learn how to coexist, but learn more about each other’s cultures, and come to respect each other and even work together sometimes.

As border control and immigration are once again hot-button issues, it’s interesting to see how King of the Hill explores an immigrant moving into a conservative neighborhood and how their family integrates to become part of that community.

Look back at “The Perils of Polling” just as TV fans prepare to vote in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. The episode was about doing one’s civic duty and even ended with a PSA about the importance of voting.

Or how faith was an important, though never preachy, part of many characters’ lives; there was even an episode called “Church Hopping” where the Hills tried to find another church and wound up exploring what it meant to worship.

The show was built on the same ideals that drove its title character: hard work, loving one’s family and friends, and treating those around you with kindness. Many episodes saw those values tested or evolved one way or another as the world evolved, just like it’s changing now.

When King of the Hill came out, there weren’t cell phones and MySpace was still a thing. A whole episode was devoted to figuring out what MySpace even was! But as technology, cultural norms and politics changed, the characters were allowed to change, too—even if they were confused a lot first.

While the show had a lot to say, it never lost sight of the fundamental purpose of a comedy: being funny. King of the Hill delivered laughs in all of these real and often uncomfortable situations. “Square Peg,” for example, has a scene where Dale calls the Hill house trying to intimidate Peggy into not teaching the sex ed class at Tom Landry Middle School:

"Dale: You don’t know who I am, but I know where you live. And if you teach that sex ed class, so help me, I’ll–Hank: –Dale? Is that you?Dale: Oh, Hank. Can I speak with Peggy?Hank: Uh, Peggy, it’s for you. It’s Dale.Peggy: Hello, Dale.Dale: You don’t know who I am, but I know where you live…"

It laughed at its characters’ idiosyncrasies, without taking away from the characters themselves. Dale knew all about conspiracies but never learned his wife was cheating on him; that didn’t stop the show from depicting him as a loving husband and father.

Peggy somehow managed to win Substitute Teacher of the Year multiple times, even though her Spanish was so terrible that in “Lupe’s Revenge” she nearly went to jail for kidnapping. Her ego was as big as her size 16 shoes. But she had a real passion for teaching, and everything else she ever tried.

Both Bobby and Luanne could be incredibly dumb at times, with neither having a serious idea of what to do with their lives, but the audience never stopped rooting for them to figure it out. Bill was always sad and somehow fixated on Peggy, but “Be True to Your Fool” pointed out that he’d also do anything for his friends. He just never had good luck with women. Ever.

"Bill: If she doesn’t come back, that means she and I weren’t meant to be. And if she does come back, well then…then I’ll call the police."

And while Hank continued to live his life with the same narrow-minded point of view, he also lived it with some strong principles and his absolute best effort. King of the Hill laughed at everyone when they deserved it, but it also showed the things that made them admirable, too. It never took itself too seriously, or not seriously enough.

Plus, there were the recurring Chuck Mangione appearances that never stopped being funny:

Mangione wasn’t the only celebrity to appear on King of the Hill, but the show never built itself on celebrity cameos nor called that much attention to them. The legendary Tom Petty recurred for years as Lucky Kleinschmidt, Luanne’s boyfriend and later husband, with little fanfare even though he was great.

Trace Adkins voiced one of Lucky’s friends, ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill was revealed to be Hank’s cousin, and Brad Pitt voiced Boomhauer’s roguish brother, just to name a few others. But all these big-name people fit right into the fabric of the show, for the most part playing regular characters. And if they were voicing themselves, it was for a reason. They weren’t there just to be there; they belonged in Arlen.

And when King of the Hill did attempt some kind of big stunt, it was because it was genuinely hilarious—like “Peggy’s Fan Fair,” the episode in which everyone goes to the country music festival and Peggy accuses Randy Travis of stealing her song. It’s one of the series’ best installments, with her apple brown betty accidentally poisoning one-half of Brooks & Dunn.

But the best jokes went to the show’s main characters. Dale used the alias Rusty Shackleford until the real Rusty Shackleford turned up on his doorstep. Bill briefly joined a men’s chorus and caused Dale to have an epic meltdown. Peggy never did learn how to speak proper Spanish. Then there’s Hank’s love affair with his lawn, but hatred of lawn gnomes. Everyone made the show funny, and that was fitting for a show about family and community.

Those are two aspects that are still important today, and will always be important. Thus King of the Hill remains timeless. Its heart is made up of relatable stories and ambitions, while it’s also constantly funny, and painting a picture of Arlen as a small town where any TV fan would want to live. Now thanks to Hulu, you can visit any time you want—and you should, because it’s still as entertaining and interesting as ever.

King of the Hill can be streamed in its entirety on Hulu. Find the next Deeper Cut every Wednesday in the Entertainment category at FanSided.