There’s never been a TV show quite like King of the Hill ; I tell ‘ya what. The sitcom combines animation with underlying elements of realness that up until that point remained largely unexplored .
To celebrate and commemorate what an incredible triumph the show is and was, here are 10+ facts about King of the Hill fans didn’t know. Yep. Yup. Mhmm.
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1. Mike Judge based the fictional town of Arlen Texas off of his own childhood experiences.
“It’s Richardson, a suburb of Dallas . I actually grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., and had a paper route in a blue-collar neighborhood. West Texas and eastern New Mexico blur a little bit, and I remember my brother and I just noticing that every adult authority figure used to have a Texas accent.” He said to The Times .
2. The show owes a lot to Greg Daniels.
In the early development days, Mike Judge was away shooting Beavis and Butthead Do America . The network brought in Greg Daniels ( The Simpsons , The Office ) to help make improvements to Judge’s initial concept.
Greg created several integral characters including Nancy Gribble, Cotton Hill, and Luanne Platter.
3. At one time, *King Of The Hill* was more popular than *The Simpsons*.
It’s ironic because Fox originally tasked Judge with making a companion show for Springfield’s funniest family.
Judge went in a different direction and by season 2, King Of The Hill had more viewers than The Simpsons
4. *King Of The Hill* knows how to Rock ‘N’ Roll!
Not even The Simpsons has had a wider array of musical guests .
Some of the series highlights include Green Day, Kid Rock, Charlie Daniels, Snoop Dogg, The Dixie Chicks, as well as countless others.
5. The theme-song was a throwaway track written by The Refreshments.
The band had been encouraged by their manager to submit a few songs to creator Mike Judge.
Instead of going with something already on an album, the group decided to record an instrumental track they normally reserved for soundcheck . Judge loved it, so it stuck.
6. The voice for Boomhauer was inspired by an irate voicemail left for Mike Judge.
The way Mike explains it, the message was completely incomprehensible. The very angry, “hill-billy-sounding” gentleman was incredibly upset over something.
Sadly, Mike nor anyone else was ever able to figure out what it was?
7. Mike Judge was inspired by his favorite childhood TV shows.
“I’m a big fan of just classic TV : the old Bob Newhart Show , Leave It to Beaver , The Andy Griffith Show . There was something kind of comforting in that, episode after episode, they didn’t change that much,” Judge said during an interview with The New York Times .
8. Tom Petty was a huge fan of the show.
As a matter of fact, the character Lucky was conceived with Petty in mind!
“They called me and I came down and did a part for them. They liked the character and kept writing him in,” Petty said during an interview with IGN .
He goes on to talk about how *King Of The Hill* was one of his favorite shows, even before he got the call!
“I loved the show long before I did it and it was a complete coincidence that I got called, because it was really one of my favorite shows,” Petty admitted while speaking with IGN .
9. Hank Hill pitched the show to the network.
Not wanting to wait a full nine months for a completed episode, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels decided to do a “pencil test” for the network. In a nutshell, a pencil test is a very early offering of an animated cell.
As Greg Daniels said in the King of the Hill documentary, “It worked like a dream!”
10. Chicago-based hip-hop artist/R&B singer, SiR, wrote a song inspired by the show!
If you don’t recognize the name SiR, you more than likely will be familiar with his brother, D Smoke.
Back in 2019, SiR released the single “John Redcorn”, based off of the infidelities of John Redcorn and Nancy Gribble.
11. Boomhauer actually does have a job!
For pretty much the entire series, Boomhauer’s occupation (as well as his first name) remained a mystery.
In the episode titled “To Sirloin With Love,” it’s revealed that Boomhauer is a Texas Ranger after he puts his badge on the dresser at the end of the episode. Also, his first name is Jeff.
12. Greg Daniels assigned the writers homework.
In order to better get inside the heart and mind of the show’s principal character, Hank Hill, Daniels had his writers read “The Death of Common Sense” by Philip K. Howard.
Daniels felt it would allow them to better harness Hank’s sense of ” unperturbed freedom .”
11. Johnny Hardwick, voice of Dale Gribble, was inspired by a Beatnik!
“I had some kind of epiphany while listening to William S. Burroughs one night and I just got it. I knew what Dale looked like from the start, but that was all we had. I wasn’t sure how he’d sound,” Hardwick said to the Austin Chronicle .
12. The character voices were difficult for Stephen Root.
“I had to record all of the Bill stuff first, then all of the Buck stuff. It was easier for me to do one character at a time, because I could stay totally immersed in one character for a while and then go do the other character,” Root admitted to the AV Club .