Hank Hill is BACK and More Confused Than Ever!

2025-08-04 18:00:32.657

NEW YORK (AP) — Hank Hill is back and he’s the same ol’ Hank Hill, but a lot of things around him have changed. The lovable animated hero of “King of the Hill” has returned from a 15-year lull and he isn’t sure what boba tea is, how ridesharing works and is confused by all-gender bathrooms. “What kind of food is poke?” he asks his wife, Peggy. Hank and Peggy have returned to their hometown of Arlen, Texas — and our TV sets — but a lot has happened over the years and they’re stepping into a world they don’t always recognize. “Hank, have things changed here more than we thought?” Peggy asks, worried, in the first new episode. “Did we make a mistake coming back?” Hulu is definitely hoping not, reuniting many of the same writers and voice cast who turned the propane-loving, beer-sipping Hill into one of TV’s few blue-collar icons. The first 10 episodes hit Hulu on Monday. Saladin K. Patterson, the executive producer and showrunner for the new season 14, hopes the original fans will return to see how Hill copes in the modern day. Viewers will learn that Hank and Peggy have been in Saudi Arabia all this time, where he served as “assistant manager in charge of Arabian propane and Arabian propane accessories.” Their son Bobby, now 21, is the chef of a “down home, German-Asian fusion” restaurant. (Sample dish: Grilled mackerel with a side of mustard pretzel.) Hank and Peggy have retired and he happily rejoins his line of friends drinking cans of beer in an alley. Boomhauer gives him a hug and Dale has grown even more paranoid, becoming “an election-denier-denier.” Bill has let himself go, staying indoors and living off Amazon deliveries. “I finished Netflix, Hank. Did you know that when you get to the end of Netflix, you get something called ‘a wellness check?’” Viewers in the second episode hear Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” a nice nod to the late rocker’s embrace of the show when it first appeared. “The writers have found that balance between the vintage ‘King of the Hill’ that we adore and the new — and letting them coexist,” says Pamela Adlon, who voices Bobby. Creators Mike Judge, the mastermind behind “Beavis and Butt-Head,” and Greg Daniels, who would go on to co-create “The Office,” helped Patterson navigate this world, which they sheparded during its first 13 seasons, airing from 1997 to 2009.