With Fox’s underrated gem of a show coming back to streaming via Hulu, it’s time to revisit the series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels about a small community in the fictional Arlen, Texas. Despite running for thirteen seasons, it often flew under the radar compared to Fox’s flagship The Simpsons, but for over a decade, King of the Hill managed to be a witty show that navigated our political divide in ways that haven’t been seen since its final episode in 2010.
It centers on Hank Hill, a red-blooded American Texan, who lives with a wife that thinks a tad too much of herself, a son he doesn’t understand, a niece who has taken over his beloved den, and a trio of childhood friends and neighbors he drinks a few beers in the alleyway with every day. It was a portrayal of small town USA rarely seen on mainstream television.
Bert Clere wrote in The Atlantic that King of the Hill was the last bipartisan show on television. By highlighting how the show focuses on the humanity of its characters and portrays two sides of satire for both left and right wing viewers to relate with, Clere presents that the show was the last of a dying breed. But what King of the Hill accomplishes is more than just a fair and funny view of both sides; it subtly shows a man incorporating the changing world around him into his life without sacrificing who he is.
In its who’s who of guest voices (an incredible range of celebrity guests lent vocals to the series from the likes of Chris Rock, Willie Nelson, Brad Pitt and the late Ann Richards) Hank often faced caricatures of liberals from stoner hippies to fresh out of college know-it-alls to new age punk rocker Christian Bible study groups. The writers pulled from a mish-mash of conservatives’ most feared and mocked stereotypes, but they were never portrayed with cruelty. Hank’s liberal antagonists always came off aloof, misinformed or just not quite as smart as they think. Those paying attention will even see that Hank’s worst villains are those of a more conservative stereotype: the corrupt local congressman who tries to force his companies toilets as the only option to buy through his political powers in season four’s “Flush with Power,” or the house inspector who abuses regulations to overcharge house owners in season eight’s “After the Mold Rush.”
While Hank always prevails over his foes, the way he does stands apart from modern attempts at portraying conservative heroes, unlike Mike Baxter or Roseanne Connor, who eviscerate their liberal opponents in grandstanding fashion or end up in hollow both sidism that amount to heaps of cliché about how everyone is misguided about something or another. Often the conservative hero gets a coda as one last tell to the audience they were the only sane one all along (Last Man Standing has this down to an art).
Like the show itself, Hank’s triumphs are subtle, winning his battles with common sense or well-worn experience. Rarely is anyone humiliated. While there’s exceptions, the victories end up understated with a sigh of relief as opposed to self-righteous gloating.
A series I often compare King of the Hill to is the legendary All in the Family. On the surface that may seem like a strange comparison to those familiar with both shows. All in the Family ran headfirst into political firestorms in a way few shows ever did, and was anything but subtle. But both starred conservative white collar working men in a changing world butting heads against emerging lifestyles they don’t grasp.
While Hank Hill lacked the bigotry that defined Archie Bunker, he was still uncomfortable with anything different. He didn’t talk out loud about “toilet problems,” he fretted about his son’s seemingly lack of masculinity, and his reaction to other religions were one of perplexation and confusion. Like Bunker, though, Hank went through a transformation as the series went on.
Archie Bunker, through the combined thirteen seasons of All in the Family and Archie Bunker’s Place, a continuation spin-off of the former, softens. His personality doesn’t change much, he’s still brash, brutish and ignorant of the changing world around him. His foot stayed inserted in his mouth through the whole series, but exposure to more diversity and butting heads with far more militant racists like the KKK, his attitudes toward life changed even if his demeanor didn’t. It remains one of the most grounded character developments on television.
Hank Hill goes through a similar process, but not by bucking against representations of his dark side, instead through absorbing the good characteristics of those he overcomes. One of the best examples of this is season eight’s “Hank’s Back.” He finds himself forced into the rehabilitation class of a womanizing yogi, voiced by Johnny Depp. Eventually, he escapes the class and the annoying instructor, but we end the episode on him incorporating yoga poses, renamed for his favorite football players, into his daily routine and introducing it to his co-workers at Strickland Propane, where he sells his beloved propane and propane accessories.
By bringing these thing he once despised into his life, there’s a silent acknowledgement of their value, even if the people championing them display little of their own.
When current conservative TV hero Mike Baxter delivered his call to arms for everyone to talk and listen to one another in this season’s premiere, it rings hollow because we’ll never see him enact that. The show may dip its toes in having Mike nod his head at his liberal son-in-law’s ideas, but we’ll never see him do any of it. The series has shown time and time again that Mike won’t ever change, and it champions that, but more importantly its audience expects him never to. The reaction if Baxter were to suddenly start loving yoga, going vegan, recognizing the complexity and fluidity of gender, or the number of other ‘liberal’ things he’s been a mouthpiece against, would be confusion if not out and out anger from its fans.
That makes King of the Hill a show impossible in today’s climate. It’s one thing to play the both sides card when you aren’t going to show it in action, but it’s another to see your characters using something from alternative aspects of life in their own. Hank’s demeanor may have not changed much since that first episode, but his life changed by taking aspects of a new America into his old, familiar life. He may remain a so-called arch-conservative, but he’s allowed the things he once winced at to enrich his life, from appreciating the health benefits of yoga, allowing himself to indulge in yo’ mama jokes that once upset him, or understanding why hippies love their organically grown food.
In an polarized society where liberals and conservative consume vastly different media, it feels unlikely that we’ll ever see a show that allowed its lead, especially in conservative media, to co-opt the things from the dreaded ‘other side.’
King of the Hill truly was a masterstroke of navigating the deep political divisions America faces and have grown far worse than when the show went off the air. As we enter a new year of these divisions that show no signs of healing, it’s worth looking into this gem of a show and rediscovering a show that was able to find a place in the wedge of a divided culture.
I tell ya what. . .