The Five Most Surprising Returns in the ‘King of the Hill’ Revival
King of the Hill is back with new episodes after a 15-year hiatus, and so are some side characters who we never expected to make it out of 2010.
Earlier today, Hulu released the first season of its King of the Hill revival, which brought the beloved animated series into the present day with an ambitious time-jump that turned Bobby Hill into a 21-year-old professional chef, Hank and Peggy into retirees recently returned from Saudi Arabia and Dale Gribble into a slightly older but otherwise entirely unchanged Dale Gribble. King of the Hill has broken free from the floating timeline that trapped the child characters in a 13-year pre-pubescence, and half the fun of the stellar new season has been seeing how so many iconic characters matured into the modern era.
Don't Miss
While Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Dale, Bill, Boomhauer and the Souphanousinphone family were all expected to return, this time-jumped version of Arlen, Texas also features some familiar faces whom we didn’t expect to see so wrinkled and aged-up.
Nancy Gribble
Following the death of Dale Gribble’s original voice actor Johnny Hardwick halfway through the recording process for the new season, fans weren’t sure how much of Rusty Shackleford they would see in the new season, let alone the rest of his family. Thankfully, King of the Hill co-star Toby Huss stepped up to take over the role, and Dale’s dear wife Nancy, mother of definitely-his-child Joseph, had a surprisingly solid amount of screen time in the new season. Just like John Redcorn, the King of the Hill audience will always see a lot of Nancy.
Buck Strickland
The first deceptively Boomer-ish episode of the King of the Hill revival establishes that Hank and Peggy are coming back to Arlen to retire after an extended and lucrative work trip for the Saudi Arabian state-owned petroleum and oil company Aramco, so we didn’t expect to see Hank return to his roots in the propane business. However, when Hank is faced with a complex financial decision in the season finale, “A Sounder Investment,” he goes to the businessman whom he trusts the most for advice. But, as always, Buck swindles Hank almost immediately.
Didi Hill
Following the death of Hank’s abusive and domineering father Cotton Hill in Season 12, we didn’t expect to see much more of Cotton’s second wife and Hank’s (shudder) step-mother. In fact, Hank was kind of hoping that he could leave that chapter of his life behind him, and he isn’t exactly thrilled to reconnect with the soft-spoken trophy wife when the executor of Cotton’s will calls the next-of-kin together in the episode “No Hank Left Behind,” especially considering whom she brought with her…
Good Hank Hill
Good Hank, or G.H. for short, was just a baby during the original run of King of the Hill, so his appearance in the revival was almost as surprising as his current state. While everyone else only aged up about nine years or so, G.H. is now a surly 15-year-old under the influence of the Manosphere, thanks to a Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate-esque masculinity grifter, whose skinny legs and motherly dependence Hank exposes during a doomed boot camp. But while Hank manages to dissuade his half-brother from falling into the trap of taking out his insecurities on the women around him, for one brief moment, G.H. brings back the most toxic of masculine influences in Hank’s entire life…
Cotton Hill
When G.H. unleashes his masculine rage on Hank in “No Hank Left Behind,” for one brief, horrifying moment, he evokes the memory of their late father in a flashback that reminds us just how bad Hank had it growing up. We never thought that we’d hear Cotton’s voice again on King of the Hill, but now we fear that Hank is going to hear it every time an incel raises his voice at the poor guy. Poor pump jockey.
