King of the Hill is an animated comedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for Fox. It follows Hank Hill, an assistant manager at Strickland Propane, along with his family and neighbors in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas. The humor comes from ordinary life rather than exaggerated premises, built around Hank selling propane and squaring off against a world that keeps shifting faster than he would like. The show ran for 13 seasons and 259 episodes from 1997 to 2010, and then returned with a revival on Hulu in 2025.
Over the years I watched on Fox and then later on Adult Swim. It wasn't one of my favorite shows growing up. It was something I watched because Futurama and the Simpsons were on the same channel around the same time. Somewhere along the way though, it became an iconic show that helped shape my teenage years.
The King of the Hill Cast
Hank Hill: A propane salesman who believes in hard work and doing things the right way, even when the right way makes his life harder.
Peggy Hill: A substitute Spanish teacher whose confidence runs well ahead of her competence, which is most of the joke.
Bobby Hill: Hank and Peggy's son, a soft, funny kid who never fits the mold his father expects and mostly stops trying to.
Dale Gribble: An exterminator and conspiracy theorist who misses the one real conspiracy in his own house, his wife Nancy and John Redcorn.
Bill Dauterive: A lonely, divorced Army barber usually one bad idea away from a small disaster.
Boomhauer: A fast-talking bachelor whose mumbled drawl only Arlen seems to follow, voiced, like Hank, by Mike Judge.
King of the Hill Original Series 1997 to 2010
The original series aired on Fox from January 12, 1997 to May 6, 2010. It leaned away from the loud, cartoonish style of its Sunday-night neighbors and stayed close to the ground, finding stories in propane, pest control, high school football, and church politics. Arlen felt lived in, and the Hills felt like a family with actual history.
Part of what set it apart was a willingness to let time pass. Over the run Luanne lost Buckley in the Mega Lo Mart explosion, Cotton died, Lucky married Luanne, and Joseph grew up. Characters aged and changed instead of resetting to the same starting point every season, which is rare for a cartoon and became one of the show's signatures.
The King of the Hill Revival on Hulu
Hulu revived the series in 2025. Season 14, the first revival season, premiered August 4, 2025, and Season 15 followed on July 20, 2026. Hulu has since ordered two more seasons, carrying the show through Season 17. The revival picks up years later, with Hank and Peggy returning to Arlen after a long propane job in Saudi Arabia and Bobby grown up and running his own restaurant in Dallas.
The revival keeps the original tone rather than modernizing it into something unrecognizable. The animation is cleaner and the references are current, but Hank is still Hank and the alley still anchors the whole thing.
