Here’s Why This New ‘King of the Hill’ Episode Is the Perfect Tribute to Johnny Hardwick
Two years ago this Friday, the King of the Hill fandom and the conspiracy theorist community lost one of their brightest stars with the death of beloved voice actor Johnny Hardwick — or, at least, that’s what the ATF wants you to think.
When Hardwick passed away at the age of 64, he was halfway through recording his lines for the newly released revival season of King of the Hill, leaving his fellow voice star Toby Huss to take over the fan-favorite role of Dale Gribble, professional exterminator and extrajudicial surveillance expert. Through his outlandish (and entirely correct) theories about secretive government organizations, his insane schemes to expose his friends and neighbors for their own clandestine operations and his hilarious obliviousness of his wife’s relationship with John Redcorn, Dale developed a following of his own unlike any other King of the Hill character during the original run, and the Hulu revival writers did right by the Rusty Shackle-Fans by changing absolutely nothing about him in the new season.
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Naturally, Dale is one of the brightest spots in the strong first season of the reboot, but the fifth episode of King of the Hill Season 14, “New Ref in Town,” with its international intrigue, kidnapping plot line and general anti-soccer sentiment, was essentially one big love letter to the paranoid legend and his late voice actor.
In “New Ref in Town,” Hank accidentally lets it slip to his friends and neighbors that, following his extended work stay in Saudi Arabia, he now knows the rules of the dreaded sport soccer, and he can even juggle the ball a little bit. When Arlen’s youth soccer team suddenly finds itself without a proper referee, because Boomhauer both doesn’t know the rules and quits halfway through the game, Hank steps in to call offsides like no red-blooded Texan ever has before.
Hank reveals to Peggy that, while working on the propane tanks at a Saudi Arabian soccer stadium, he fell in love with “The Beautiful Game,” but, now that he’s back in Texas, that love is forbidden, and he must keep his fandom a secret. Unfortunately for Hank, Dale already knows that something strange is afoot, and, rather than suspect his old buddy of being a soccer fan, he concludes that Hank has committed a far less serious crime: high treason.
Now believing that Hank and Peggy have been compromised by Saudi Arabian intelligence and is working against America’s interests, Dale recruits Bill to help him with a reconnaissance mission, bugging the Hill home and listening to the targets’ static-y conversations. Right before Hank is supposed to ref the championship match, Dale kidnaps him from the stadium, chloroforms him and takes him in for questioning.
Realizing that Dale will never believe the truth about his relationship with soccer, Hank convinces Dale that he is, in fact, an intelligence operative — but for the CIA. Hank explains that the American government recruited him to spy on Saudi Arabia, and the only way he could convince the Saudis that he was on their side was to do the unthinkable and pretend to like soccer. With a tear, Dale lets Hank goes and thanks him for his service.
“New Ref in Town” is an absolute classic Dale episode — from the illegal surveillance to the kidnapping to testing out his “truth serum” on Bill before risking harm to his best friend Hank, Dale was in peak form, and Hank one-upping his crackpot friend’s newest theory was the perfect way to close the case. Then, of course, Dale listens in on Hank and Peggy’s hanky-panky role-playing in the final scene and re-opens the file on the Hills.
With Huss now behind the microphone for the most influential King of the Hill character ever, it’s nice to know that Dale hasn’t skipped a beat, and his schemes, secrets and dot-connecting will be apart of the show’s winning formula for as long as there still is a King of the Hill. And, ultimately, it’s Hardwick whom we should be thanking for his service, not that triple-agent Hank.
