Hank Hill is working stiff from Arlen, Texas who tackles various issues with his family and neighbors consisting of a quirky characters with unique personalities and identities.
Released in 1997 King of the Hill was Mike Judge's followup to his successful MTV series Beavis and Butthead and with a more grounded approach than either that or The Simpsons executives were skeptical of the show's viability even with Simpson's writer Greg Daniels polishing up certain aspects of the format. But when the show premiered it was a hit even briefly eclipsing Simpsons and became a staple of Fox's programming for 13 years, which although respectable did lead to some issues.
The show's earlier seasons are definitely some of the best examples of pirme time TV one can find thanks to the show's more grounded approach that makes the show feel more real. Every character, no matter how seemingly minor, while quirky and prone to humor is played in a very grounded style that makes them seem like real people as opposed to cartoons. The show uses its animated format quite well as it makes a believable world inhabited by the characters and is never constrained by limitations of sets or actor schedules so it can tackle larger scale events that while still grounded and based in reality wouldn't be all that feasible in live action.
The characters are also quite well developed with Hank serving as a a good straightman thanks to his no nonsense overly serious demeanor that makes him a great counterpoint to the quirks and eccentricities of other characters on the show. Be it Hank's Family with Know-it-all Peggy, overly soft class clown Bobby, and airheaded Luanne, or Hank's neighbors with depressed divorcee Bill, paranoid conspiracy theorist Dale, or swinging bachelor Boomhauer, the show manages to get humor from seemingly minor encounters thanks to how much depth and personality it gives to its characters. While these are certainly good traits, it doesn't distinguish itself from other sitcoms much, except unlike other shows of this ilk King of the Hill's characters evolve and have lasting impacts on them.
Throughout the first 6 seasons of King of the Hill characters will face challenges, life altering events, and even death and will often take multiple episode arcs to deal with these issues. While the show does still do a dilemma of the day approach similar to other sitcoms, it allows character based arcs to play out in the background that continue onward passed the episode they're introduced in. It's a really unique approach and it can be definitely seen as a precursor to other attempts at continuity in animated series such as Archer and Bojack Horseman with characters having to deal with consequences rather than reset the counter to zero.
And then Fox executives happened. During the show's sixth season, creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels stepped back from the show to pursue other projects (notably Judge's Idiocracy and Daniel's American adaptation of BBC's The Office), with them gone the show received an executive mandate to cease any ongoing arcs, aging, or relationship changes on the show and instead focus on political satire and culture wars so the series could be more easily shown out of order in second run syndication (which had proven to be quite a cash cow for Fox with The Simpsons). Essentially this change meant that stories were no longer written for the characters, and instead the characters were written for the stories. Rather abrupt retcons were introduced (including one involving Peggy's often seen mother becoming a grizzled rancher when she was established to be a neurotic homemaker) and the show started making the characters much more one note with Luanne's airheadedness being dialed up, as was bobby's oddness, Peggy's pride and ego, and Hank while always a little on the uptight side now seemed to be set to permanent killjoy with a rather domineering presence that made less relatable.
King of the Hill is a really good show, but like many it stayed on too long and started working against its own strengths to justify continuation. The first 6 seasons are some of the best TV Fox's animation block has ever produced and I still can't recommend them enough, the remaining seven seasons do have some funny or decent episodes mixed throughout, but its reliance on one off characters and over the top shenanigans make it clear its no longer the same show.
Released in 1997 King of the Hill was Mike Judge's followup to his successful MTV series Beavis and Butthead and with a more grounded approach than either that or The Simpsons executives were skeptical of the show's viability even with Simpson's writer Greg Daniels polishing up certain aspects of the format. But when the show premiered it was a hit even briefly eclipsing Simpsons and became a staple of Fox's programming for 13 years, which although respectable did lead to some issues.
The show's earlier seasons are definitely some of the best examples of pirme time TV one can find thanks to the show's more grounded approach that makes the show feel more real. Every character, no matter how seemingly minor, while quirky and prone to humor is played in a very grounded style that makes them seem like real people as opposed to cartoons. The show uses its animated format quite well as it makes a believable world inhabited by the characters and is never constrained by limitations of sets or actor schedules so it can tackle larger scale events that while still grounded and based in reality wouldn't be all that feasible in live action.
The characters are also quite well developed with Hank serving as a a good straightman thanks to his no nonsense overly serious demeanor that makes him a great counterpoint to the quirks and eccentricities of other characters on the show. Be it Hank's Family with Know-it-all Peggy, overly soft class clown Bobby, and airheaded Luanne, or Hank's neighbors with depressed divorcee Bill, paranoid conspiracy theorist Dale, or swinging bachelor Boomhauer, the show manages to get humor from seemingly minor encounters thanks to how much depth and personality it gives to its characters. While these are certainly good traits, it doesn't distinguish itself from other sitcoms much, except unlike other shows of this ilk King of the Hill's characters evolve and have lasting impacts on them.
Throughout the first 6 seasons of King of the Hill characters will face challenges, life altering events, and even death and will often take multiple episode arcs to deal with these issues. While the show does still do a dilemma of the day approach similar to other sitcoms, it allows character based arcs to play out in the background that continue onward passed the episode they're introduced in. It's a really unique approach and it can be definitely seen as a precursor to other attempts at continuity in animated series such as Archer and Bojack Horseman with characters having to deal with consequences rather than reset the counter to zero.
And then Fox executives happened. During the show's sixth season, creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels stepped back from the show to pursue other projects (notably Judge's Idiocracy and Daniel's American adaptation of BBC's The Office), with them gone the show received an executive mandate to cease any ongoing arcs, aging, or relationship changes on the show and instead focus on political satire and culture wars so the series could be more easily shown out of order in second run syndication (which had proven to be quite a cash cow for Fox with The Simpsons). Essentially this change meant that stories were no longer written for the characters, and instead the characters were written for the stories. Rather abrupt retcons were introduced (including one involving Peggy's often seen mother becoming a grizzled rancher when she was established to be a neurotic homemaker) and the show started making the characters much more one note with Luanne's airheadedness being dialed up, as was bobby's oddness, Peggy's pride and ego, and Hank while always a little on the uptight side now seemed to be set to permanent killjoy with a rather domineering presence that made less relatable.
King of the Hill is a really good show, but like many it stayed on too long and started working against its own strengths to justify continuation. The first 6 seasons are some of the best TV Fox's animation block has ever produced and I still can't recommend them enough, the remaining seven seasons do have some funny or decent episodes mixed throughout, but its reliance on one off characters and over the top shenanigans make it clear its no longer the same show.