King Of The Hill’s Reboot Can Properly Use Its Fake Sci-Fi Movie Story

King of the Hill can use the series’ fake sci-fi movie story from 2000 in the highly anticipated reboot. The realistic humor of King of the Hill made it a standout animated sitcom during its original 13-year run on Fox and it’s the same element that still attracts new fans. However, the show’s fictional sci-fi movie storyline has legs and will fit nicely into the revitalized series.

The sci-fi “movie” was actually a fake trailer, originally produced in partnership with the Will Rogers Institute to spur concession purchases of the Will Rogers Summer Combo Packs, with proceeds going towards pulmonary disease research and education. The fake movie trailer opens with Hank (voiced by co-creator Mike Judge) and his wife, Peggy (Kathy Najimy) presumably in Washington D.C., standing in front of a destructed White House with a spaceship lodged in the front of the building. Having “saved the world from aliens,” Hank and Peggy look on at their now 50-foot teenage son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon), and an invisible friend, King of the Hill fan-favorite character, Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick). Dale, of course, is Arlen, Texas’ resident conspiracy theorist and one of Hank’s best friends. Hank then asks a genie named Shabu to bring his world back to normal.

King of the Hill has treated audiences to its realistic approach to comedy for decades, gaining a devout audience from its subsequent syndication. The dry yet subversive humor will no doubt appear in the series’ reboot. Original co-creators Judge and Greg Daniels are once again at the helm and much is expected from the show’s second outing, including answers to King of the Hill key questions. Existing King of the Hill fans and those new to the show would benefit from Judge and Daniels expanding upon their original formula by incorporating unpredictable storylines, starting with the sci-fi bones provided in the fake movie trailer.

Conspiracies surrounding alien life are not foreign territory for King of the Hill and Dale is the main culprit. In season 6, episode 14 “Of Mice and Little Green Men,” Dale becomes convinced his son Joseph (voiced by Breckin Meyer from 2000-2010) was fathered by an alien. Dale explains to Hank that his wife was impregnated by aliens to divert him from “getting too close to the truth.” Dale’s well-established knowledge and obsession with extraterrestrials enable writers to explore a different take on the shows’ storylines while honoring the King of the Hill canon.

And if there was ever an Arlen native primed to hunt down alien invaders, it is Jeff Boomhauer (Judge). The series finale unveiled Boomhauer’s job as a Texas Ranger, something he never revealed even after having shared beers with Hank and his friends in their sleepy suburban neighborhood for years. Whereas Dale is the quintessential government skeptic, Boomhauer could appear in a sci-fi storyline as an agent armed with his friend Dale’s intel and the know-how to disrupt alien plans with brute force. Hank and their group’s final core ally, Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root) would be along for the ride.

King of the Hill has a legacy all its own, but revivals beg for reinvention. Long-running animated series like Family Guy have benefited from introducing sci-fi plots into their cannon, namely through their much-talked-about Star Wars parodies. Family Guy writers maintain the comedy’s original flavor but apply it in a setting worlds away from patriarch Peter Griffin’s home in Quahog, Road Island. King of the Hill can take an important note from its sitcom peers and deliver on its forgotten foray into sci-fi. New episodes can take inspiration from any source and there’s nowhere better than this unexplored deep cut.

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