Stephen Root, Lauren Tom and Toby Huss on Getting Their Groove Back for the ‘King of the Hill’ Revival

King of the Hill is back, and thankfully, Hulu really nailed it by adding enough change to keep things interesting, but not so much as to make it a different show. 

What’s most familiar about the show, of course, is its voice cast — namely, Stephen Root, who reprises his role as Bill Dauterive; Lauren Tom, who plays both Minh Souphanousinphone and her now-adult daughter Connie; and Toby Huss, who used to play Kahn Souphanousinphone (a part since handed off to The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng), but has now taken over the role of Dale Gribble after his original actor, Johnny Hardwick, passed away during production.

All three recently joined me via Zoom for a spoiler-ish talk about their return trip to Arlen, Texas.

So, what’s it like to be returning to King of the Hill?

Stephen Root: It’s like coming home and seeing your family.

Lauren Tom: Just a great, uplifting reunion.

Toby Huss: Agreed.

Lauren, of the new episodes, was there one in particular where you really felt like you got your groove back?

Tom: Even just working through the first episode that we recorded, by the end of it, we started to feel like these characters just feel right. Minh is based on my grandma, so she’s part of my cell memory. I’ll always have her voice and her point-of-view in my head. So that’s something I was able to click into immediately. 

Connie took a little bit of working through in her first episode, just finding who she is now as she’s become this young woman with a voice. That was exciting for me, especially her being able to stand up to her mom. Before, she was so reserved and such a good girl who almost wanted to be invisible, and now she’s open-minded and vocal and into ethical non-monogamy and getting her degree. She is out there. I’m proud of her.

Stephen, was there a particular episode where you felt like you were back in the swing of things?

Root: Not really. We all feel like we have these guys in the back of our head at all moments. What’s interesting to me about this new version is that we have a new showrunner in Saladin Patterson and to be able to get a different point-of-view was a nice experience. There was a freshness that he brought to the show along with some new characters, which juices it up a bit.

Toby, your situation was a little different than the others, given that you were taking over Dale after Johnny Hardwick passed, but was there an episode where you felt like you were back in King of the Hill?

Huss: No. For me, Johnny Hardwick had played the role of Dale so artfully all those years, so I wanted to jump into that world, which is different than returning to another one.

Which was your first episode you recorded as Dale?

Huss: I don’t recall. Johnny’s in the first few episodes, but then I had to do some pick-up lines in some of those episodes. So, I think the first six are going to be mainly Johnny, but with a little mix of me in there now and again. We recorded it just over the course of a couple days, just a few hours every day, so it’s a little bit of a blur.

Stephen, Bill became a shut-in when Hank and Peggy moved away. Why do you think he struggled so much without them?

Root: Bill is a sweet, not-that-bright, but really giving guy. So for him not to have his focus, I’m sure he lost his way. I can see him standing alone in the alley and wondering what to do because Hank was gone on this trip to Saudi Arabia. I think he just lost his focus with his main guy leaving, but he got it back as quickly as he could.

You also brought back Buck Strickland, which was a surprise. How was that?

Root: It was fun to jump into Buck because he’s somebody I didn’t do that often on the original show, and it was nice to see if he was still there in the back of my head. He was still there, and he was still annoying. It was great fun.

Toby, a big thing online that King of the Hill fans wonder about is if Dale would have gotten sucked into QAnon or something like that. How do you view Dale politically?

Huss: The interesting thing about Dale is, when they originally wrote him, he was a real right-wing QAnon dude, and the country has swung so far in that direction that now Dale seems middle of the road. It’s going to be interesting to see how Dale is out-righted on the right by some of his compatriots and how he’s challenged with this new middle-of-the-road stance. How do you out-conspiracy the conspiracy guys you gave birth to? It’s going to be interesting to watch.

My last question is for Lauren. Lauren, who makes a better husband, Toby or Ronny Chieng?

Tom: Oh, you can’t make me do that! That would be like choosing my kids! 

Huss: Of course the answer’s me, but you can’t force her to say this!

Root: Who do you see on the screen right before you? Hello?

Tom: No, it’s Toby. Absolutely Toby, hands down.