---
title: "King of the Hill"
year: 1997
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/king-of-the-hill-1997"
fi1m_score: 82
critics_score: 79
critics_reviews: 5
published: "2026-09-16T23:12:43.206281+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-16T23:12:43.851134+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# King of the Hill (1997)

Created by Greg Daniels, Mike Judge · 22m · MPA TV-14 · Animation, Comedy, Family

**Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 79 (early) from 5 reviews

*In a sentence:* A decent man sells propane, drinks beer in an alley and waits, patiently, for the rest of America to calm down

> Greg Daniels and Mike Judge’s animated sitcom about a propane salesman in a small Texas town is the kindest and most patient of its kind, funny because nothing in it is exaggerated. It runs long, and a few of its stories wear thin, but we recommend it warmly.

## Synopsis

Arlen, Texas. Hank Hill (Mike Judge) sells propane, mows his lawn in straight lines and drinks beer in the alley behind his house with three neighbours: Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick), an exterminator who believes the government is listening; Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root), a divorced army barber; and Boomhauer (Mike Judge), who talks fast and says almost nothing anyone can follow. Indoors, Hank’s wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) teaches substitute Spanish with more confidence than Spanish, and their son Bobby (Pamela Adlon) would rather tell jokes than throw a ball. When Bobby comes home from Little League with a black eye, a case manager (Gailard Sartain) decides Hank did it, and Hank has to prove, without raising his voice, that he is a decent man. Then niece Luanne (Brittany Murphy) moves into the den.

## Review

[*King of the Hill*](https://film.one/film/king-of-the-hill) began on 12 January 1997, ran for thirteen seasons, and came back on 4 August 2025 for a fourteenth, with a fifteenth following in 2026. Across all of that its premise has not moved an inch. Hank Hill sells propane in Arlen, Texas, loves his wife, worries about his son, and stands in the alley behind his house most evenings with a can of beer and three friends, saying “yep” at intervals. Greg Daniels and Mike Judge built a comedy around a man who wants nothing more than for things to work properly. It is the kindest and most patient of the American animated sitcoms of its era, and we recommend it with one caveat, which is that at over 250 episodes it knows some of its own tricks too well.

What the show is attempting is unusual for animation. There are no talking pets, no cutaway gags, no trips to space. People are drawn at roughly human proportions and coloured in the flat browns and greens of a real suburb, and the joke, most weeks, is that they are exactly as ordinary as they look. Judge and Daniels trust a pause the way other cartoons trust an explosion. A long shot of four men staring at a lawnmower is allowed to be the punchline.

The directing credits run to dozens of names, among them Wes Archer, Klay Hall and Dominic Polcino, and the house style holds across all of them: fixed angles, few close-ups, a pace that lets Hank finish his thought before the cut. The writing room is similarly deep. Jim Dauterive, whose surname the show borrowed for its saddest character, Paul Lieberstein, Jon Vitti and later Wyatt Cenac and Emily Spivey all wrote for it, and the scripts share a discipline: a small domestic problem, a wrong first response from Hank, and a resolution that costs him a little pride. Nobody learns much. That is the point.

Judge voices Hank and Boomhauer himself, and Hank’s clipped, exasperated “Bobby” is the sound the whole programme is built on. Kathy Najimy gives Peggy a self-regard so complete it becomes a kind of innocence. Pamela Adlon’s Bobby is cheerful, soft and entirely unbothered by his father’s disappointment, which is the show’s best running joke and its warmest. Johnny Hardwick plays Dale Gribble as paranoia with a cigarette, and Brittany Murphy makes Luanne sweeter than the writing strictly requires.

Then there is Bill. Stephen Root plays him as a man whose loneliness is the gag, week after week, and one evening we realised we had stopped laughing. He was sitting in his empty house waiting for someone to ring, the frame held on him a beat longer than a sitcom usually allows, and we felt wretched for a drawing of a barber. The show does that. It keeps a joke going until you notice the person underneath it, and it never announces the moment when the switch happens.

The flaws are the flaws of length. Peggy’s vanity, funny in season two, is pushed by season eight to the point where she is a set of traits rather than a woman. Stories repeat: Hank is embarrassed by Bobby, Hank is embarrassed by his own body, Hank is embarrassed by a new neighbour, and after 200 episodes you can call the ending from the title card. The show is weakest whenever it leaves Arlen; a trip anywhere with a coastline is usually a wasted week. The revival is gentler and quieter than the original, and Toby Huss is now credited alongside Hardwick as Dale, which takes a little getting used to.

Set against [*The Simpsons*](https://film.one/tv/the-simpsons), which it followed on to American screens, and *South Park*, which it followed by a matter of months, it is the one that has dated least, because it never chased a headline. It also has less range than either. It cannot do a musical number or a ten-minute set piece and does not try.

Watch it two episodes at a time, not ten. It rewards the same patience Hank brings to a barbecue, and it punishes bingeing, because the rhythm that makes it work is the rhythm of an ordinary week, and nobody has ten of those in a row.

*Fi1m score 82, published 16 September 2026.*

### Reviews we read (5)

- **The Guardian** (85/100, inferred): The critic argues King of the Hill is a better and more prophetic show than its 1990s peers like South Park. They single out its nuanced portrayal of a frustrated everyman left behind by social change as particularly prescient. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/apr/19/justice-for-king-of-the-hill-a-better-more-prophetic-show-than-its-90s-peers)
- **Empire**, Dorian Lynskey (80/100, inferred): The series is the truest and kindest of the post-Simpsons animated sitcoms, with a natural feel for small-town rhythms. Hank Hill is portrayed as the sympathetic face of Red State America. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/king-hill-seasons-1-2-review/)
- **The Independent**, Ben Thompson (80/100, inferred): The piece praises the show's subtle exploration of family values and mid-American angst as a refreshing contrast to Beavis and Butt-head. It highlights the precisely observed characters and beautifully written scripts. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/drawn-from-real-life-1252998.html)
- **The Telegraph** (75/100, inferred): The review finds the revived series timely and engaging despite the long gap. It singles out Hank Hill's unchanging conservative outlook as a fascinating lens on modern America. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/king-of-the-hill-season-14-disney-review/)
- **The Times**, Laura Lee Davies (75/100, inferred): The DVD release offers classic sitcom tales of suburban Texas life with the hapless propane salesman Hank Hill, as tragic as they are funny. It is cathartic viewing and a treat, with plenty of extras. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/king-of-the-hill-season-1-and-2-px73g9pw7qk)

## Details

- **Created by:** Greg Daniels, Mike Judge
- **Creator:** Greg Daniels, Mike Judge
- **Director:** Tricia Garcia, Adam Kuhlman, Cyndi Tang, Kyounghee Lim, Dominic Polcino, Gary McCarver, Anthony Lioi, Allan Jacobsen, Jeff Myers, Robin Brigstocke, Shaun Cashman, Ken Wong, Klay Hall, Ron Rubio, Wes Archer, Tony Kluck, Matt Engstrom, Michael Loya, Anthony Chun, Martin Archer, Monte Young, Boo Hwan Lim, Michael Dante DiMartino, John Rice, Mollie Helms, Michael Baylis, Steve Robertson, Kelly Turnbull, Yvette Kaplan, Brian Sheesley, Lauren MacMullan, Julius Wu, Pat Shinagawa, Annie Li, Martin Archer Jr., Samantha Arnett, Chuck Sheetz
- **Writer:** Jim Dauterive, Kit Boss, Paul Lieberstein, Norm Hiscock, Dan McGrath, Jonathan Collier, Etan Cohen, Garland Testa, Christy Stratton, Tony Gama-Lobo, Johnny Hardwick, Peter Huyck, Rebecca May, J.B. Cook, Dan Sterling, Alan Freedland, Alan R. Cohen, Sivert Glarum, Joe Stillman, Brad Walsh, Murray Miller, Paul Corrigan, Jon Vitti, Judah Miller, Gregory Thompson, Mike Judge, Sanjay Shah, Aron Abrams, Jonathan Aibel, David Zuckerman, Greg Daniels, Glenn Berger, Chip Hall, Dave Schiff, Michael Jamin, Blake McCormick, Tim Croston, Erin Ehrlich, Dean Young, Brent Forrester, Jerry Collins, Alex Gregory, Wyatt Cenac, Cheryl Holliday, Anthony Del Broccolo, Greg Cohen, Jeremy Hsu, Sam Fishell, Michael Jarmin, Erica Rosbe, Gina Fattore, Dave Krinsky, Saladin K. Patterson, Emily Spivey, Jennifer Barrow, John Altschuler
- **Cast:** Mike Judge as Hank Hill / Boomhauer (voice); Kathy Najimy as Peggy Hill (voice); Pamela Adlon as Bobby Hill (voice); Johnny Hardwick as Dale Gribble (voice); Stephen Root as Bill Dauterive (voice); Brittany Murphy as Luanne Platter (voice); Toby Huss as Dale Gribble (voice); Lauren Tom as Connie Souphanousinphone (voice)
- **Runtime:** 22m
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14
- **Release (the US):** 12 January 1997
- **Genres:** Animation, Comedy, Family

## Where to watch in the US

- Hulu: streaming, hd
- Disney+: add-on, hd

*Checked 2026-09-16.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Teen Choice Award for Choice Animated Show 2006: Teen Choice Award for Choice Animated Show (nominated)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2002: Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (won)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 1999: Outstanding Animated Program (won)
- Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon 1998: Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon (nominated)
- TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy 1997: TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Detectorists* (2014), Fi1m 87: Two men in a field, a gentle pace, and jokes that never raise their voice — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/detectorists.md)
- *The Royle Family* (1998): A family on a sofa doing nothing, filmed as if it mattered, because it does
- *Office Space* (1999), Fi1m 80: Judge’s live-action film on the same theme: decent men, stupid systems, quiet fury — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/office-space.md)
- *Bob's Burgers* (2011): Another animated family that likes each other; louder, sillier, equally kind
- *Daria* (1997): The same year, the same flat suburbs, seen through a teenager’s contempt

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/king-of-the-hill-1997