‘King of the Hill’s Only Returning Writer on Dale’s Politics and Hank’s New Dynamic with Bobby

The Season Six premiere of King of the Hill is a work of art. In “Bobby Goes Nuts,” Bobby Hill joins a women’s self-defense class and learns how to kick a man below the belt. From there, Bobby goes wild with his newfound ability, kicking several people — including his own father — in the balls. The iconic episode is also famous for Bobby’s battle cry, “That’s my purse, I don’t know you!”

Norm Hiscock wrote “Bobby Goes Nuts” as well as 10 other episodes of the show’s original incarnation. Hiscock also happens to be the only veteran King of the Hill scribe to return for the reboot. He wrote “The Beer Story,” in which Hank and Bobby compete against each other in a home-brewing competition, and co-wrote “Bobby Gets Grilled,” in which Hank discovers Bobby doesn’t use propane for the grill in his restaurant. Both episodes focus squarely on Hank and Bobby’s newfound father-son dynamic.

I recently spoke to Hiscock via Zoom for a spoiler-filled discussion about returning to King of the Hill and striking the right balance for Hank and Bobby’s new status quo.

How does it feel to be writing for King of the Hill again?

I always liked the characters, so it’s fun to be back writing for these characters and the world. It was my first show that I got that was a sitcom, and I always liked the concept of almost doing a live-action show, but animated. We try to make the characters real and the world very real. That comes from Mike Judge. It also comes from Greg Daniels. They push for that.

Which character was the toughest to get a handle on in their new form?

I guess, for the room, Bobby was the toughest because you have an idea of Bobby as a little boy. And if you look at the Bobby stories, they were stories with Hank and Peggy dealing with a child. But now that he’s older — he’s 21 in this series — he’s changed. Some of the old Bobby is still there, you don’t want any of that to die, so he’s open to ideas and he gets excited about this stuff, but he’s also kind of a man now. So then, how is Hank going to be dealing with Bobby? Because you don’t want to lose some of that fun contrast and conflict between the two. That was the toughest thing to find the sweet spot for.

For these 10 episodes, was there any kind of charge or mandate? 

It was more of a balancing act. I said to Greg, “The people who watch the show, you want them to watch the show and go, ‘Oh, I’m happy to see the characters back.’ It should have the feel of the show that they watched.” Then, what I think is interesting about the show, is that we’ve moved it forward and we’re saying it’s happening now-ish. Trump had been in office, Biden was in office when we were writing it. So we had the feeling of all that, and we wanted to include topics and stories that the characters could weigh in on. We wanted to have a little bit of satire and to show both sides and not to weigh in on either. It was more about who the characters were and staying true to the characters.

Everyone who watches it would say, “I think Dale would do this,” or “I think Hank would do that,” but the characters are who they are. You could force whatever opinion you want on them, but the most important thing is that they're true to themselves. This isn’t a show that bends or breaks a character to make a point. If there’s an outlook to the show, it’s that Hank still believes in an America where it’s common sense — he’s a common-sense character. So, it’s a common-sense America. It’s not an America that’s crazy.

Were there bounds to how political the show could get?

It was never going to get political. It was more about a bit of satire and the characters could represent certain aspects of it. But for me, the core of the show is Hank, and he’s a very common-sense guy. He loves his neighborhood. He loves his community. He loves Texas. There are certain things that New Yorkers do that bug him, but he wouldn’t go out of his way to be mean or jerky to them. He has core values that he believes in. He would do anything, even for people he doesn’t agree with. He has an understanding that they’re also a family. They’re also raising children. They also have a job. He has a sense of fairness. 

And, if you look at those guys standing in the alley, they represent certain things, but Hank is the center. He wouldn’t fly off. We allow Dale to fly off. We allow Bill to fly off, and Boomhauer is sort of quiet and just mostly takes things in. Peggy is a wild card too, but Hank is the center and his feet are on the ground.

He has blind spots, but I like that he has certain values and he still believes in hard work and all that kind of stuff. He believes in an America that’s not there right now, but he’s holding onto it. He allows people to have their opinions. He may not agree with them, but he doesn’t force his opinions on other people. He’s very rooted in common sense, and that’s the thing that grounds the show.

What about Dale?

Well, the thing is, Dale trusts no one, even the conspiracy theorists. That, for us, is the safety net in a way. It’s like he thinks everyone’s crazy, but that he’s not crazy. He believes in conspiracies. He’ll go down rabbit holes, but he doesn’t trust anybody.

I feel like a lot of people believe Dale would get sucked into QAnon or would be storming the Capitol or something. 

He might be, but keep in mind, there are other aspects to Dale. He’s a coward, so he might go into a van, and they might say to him, “We’re doing this,” and he’d go, “Oh,” and run away. There are also sweet things to Dale. I don’t think he’s a guy who would do harm to others. Deep down, Dale’s a sweet guy. He’s paranoid and he’s not trustworthy for certain things, but he trusts Hank and he trusts his wife Nancy. There are certain things that he holds dear. Like, he doesn’t have a conspiracy theory about his wife. There are certain things that are 3D about him — he’s not one lane, politically or otherwise.

Talk a little bit about Peggy. Like Hank, she also seems like she’s struggling with retirement.

Yeah, they’re both sort of fishing and finding. You’ll see that, over time, we get Hank back to a place that makes sense in the second season. But Peggy, she’s a little lost. We were wrestling with getting her back into teaching or not teaching, but we decided against it eventually. If the show gets more episodes, we would maybe have her go into teaching again or some form of teaching.

Where did “The Beer Story” come from? 

I love Hank and Bobby stories, and I thought we needed a Hank and Bobby story. I came up with “The Beer Story” because I like beer, and I thought now that Bobby was in a restaurant, he’d be open to new and different types of beers. Then, with Hank, he likes his beer, and he doesn’t need anything else outside that. That seemed to me like a good conflict. Also, beer stood in for a topic you could talk about where I think this way and someone else thinks another way, but it wasn’t political in any way. It’s allowing people to have their opinions and walk away and still have their opinions and still respect people for having that opinion and not trying to convert people. It seemed to swim in this sea of conflict that I liked, but it wasn’t getting bullyish or pointing at people for not having the same opinion.

I loved Peggy’s F-bomb in that episode. 

There were certain things in the new series where we were going, “Do we want them to swear or not swear?” because they didn’t swear back then and TV was different back then. We chose our moments for when people swore or didn’t swear and certain words they would use or not use.

How do you compare Bobby’s relationship with Hank now versus what it was before?

Well, the thing that’s changed is that Bobby is a man, so even though we have kids — and my kids are 30 and 28 — you still see them as children in a weird way. And when they make decisions, you go, “I don’t know if that’s a good decision,” but you have to allow them to make the decision and make the mistake and find out for themselves. What Hank's learning about now is that Bobby’s got to make mistakes and Bobby’s got to learn. Before, he could just pull Bobby out of a situation because he was a kid, but now he can’t do that. Bobby’s got to make his mistakes, and Hank has to allow him to do it.

Is there anything you can tell me about Season 15?

There’s an arc between Bobby and Connie. Also, we sort of answered the question of why Hank went to Saudi Arabia — that story ends Season 15.