As we find them, we'll post interviews and articles about King of the Hill here. The following can be found below:
Ign Interview: Mike Judge
The Onion Interview: Mike Judge
Pop Entertainment Interview: Kathy Najimy
'King of the Hill' writer talks about Texas State exhibit
A CNN Article on King of the Hill
Behind The Scenes At King of the Hill: All Hail The Kingmakers
IGN: Interview: Mike Judge Reaches The Top of the Hill
The creator of King of the Hill talks about reaching the 200th episode, Idiocracy and a possible Office Space sequel.
By Eric Goldman.
US, May 10, 2006 - Can you believe King of the Hill is about to air its 200th episode? Debuting in 1997, Mike Judge's animated follow up to Beavis and Butt-Head was a much more gentle show, about Hank Hill, an average Southern guy, and his family. The show has become a staple of Fox's Sunday night lineup through the years. Originally this was going to be King of the Hill's last season, but recently, Fox decided to renew the show for one more year, leading to Judge and some of his collaborators returning to work, after having closed up shop and moved out of their production offices.
This Sunday sees the airing of the 200th episode, "Edu-macating Lucky," in which Peggy agrees to tutor Luanne's boyfriend Lucky (recurring guest star Tom Petty), leading to several surprising announcements. IGN TV took part in a recent conference call interview Judge gave, in which he talked about King of the Hill reaching this milestone, along with the future of the show and upcoming movie projects we might expect from the man who also gave us Office Space.
Question: When you first planned the series, did you have an arc of how you would go if you were lucky enough to go 200 episodes? And how do you suppose the characters have grown in the last 200 episodes?
Mike Judge: We didn't plan an arc, and definitely not for 200 episodes. We debated in the beginning about having them age possibly and then quickly decided not to. But I think some of the characters have evolved a little; especially, I think, Peggy became more interesting around the second season. If you listen early on, I think some of the voices, particularly Dale's, have evolved a little bit and I think gotten better. But overall I think part of the strength of the show is that it doesn't change a whole lot. At one point there was a note from an executive, who's not there anymore, that we need more life-changing episodes, and they were trying to apply that theory that works on some shows about just constantly shocking the audience and having crazy things happen. I think you do that too much and then you don't have anything left. I think part of the strength of the show is that we haven't changed that much. I like shows like the old Bob Newhart Show, where you can pretty much see something the first season or the last season in one of those episodes and really everybody stayed pretty consistent. I think that's one of our strengths.
Q: What was the genesis of the show?
Judge: I think as far back as in college a good friend of mine and I used to sort of do a bit of like two bubba's sitting around drinking beer and talking about what's in the news or whatever. I had a paper route that was sort of in a blue collar neighborhood with lots of Texas transplants, so early on I had these kinds of characters around me. But I think when I lived north of Dallas I had really a pretty good neighborhood; everyone took care of each other, helped out with each other's lawns. Later on when I was back from New York, after Beavis and Butthead, I had done a panel cartoon; I just had this image of just four guys with beers standing out in front of the fence, kind of like I used to see when I'd look out my kitchen window, and I just drew them all saying, "Yep, yep, yep." That's still basically the drawing you see at the beginning of the show, is those four guys and their beers. That was really the seed of the idea, I guess.
Q: You said there's no way you thought that this would go 200 episodes, but how big did you allow yourself to dream when you first hooked up with Fox for this show?
Judge: I don't dream big. If I were to have my wish granted back then, I probably wouldn't have wanted to go 200 episodes, because I kind of take the alcoholics view; kind of not one day at a time but one season at a time, one episode at a time, because if you think of 200 that's just too daunting. When the show was about to go on the air I'd been working like crazy on the Beavis and Butt-Head movie, and the King of the Hill animation you work way ahead of the schedule, so I'd done most of our first season and those were all recorded and pretty much in the can. I thought, who knows what it will do; who knows what people will make of this? But I wasn't dreaming of 200 episodes; that's for sure.
Q: Your show has always been more about character than gags. Do you find yourself pushing it even more in that direction?
Judge: I think for me it's always been that way. I think there were definitely some writers for a while that were pulling it more in the gag direction. I actually like those shows, I actually like gag writing. Maybe I'm just not that good at it! But my strength is just more observational stuff, so I think I definitely push it in that direction.
Q: You mentioned Bob Newhart earlier, is there something about character comedy that you really find fascinating?
Judge: Yes. I guess a lot of my favorite shows tend to be that kind of stuff, but then again I also like the Three Stooges and Roadrunner, and Rodney Dangerfield. Of course, you could argue that Rodney Dangerfield is kind of character humor, in a way, especially in something like Caddyshack. But yes, I definitely gravitate toward that stuff, I guess.
Q: Do you see the show going to 300?
Judge: No, in a word. But I don't know, we've got another 20 at least.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the experience of letting go of the show and then suddenly finding out, oh wait, it's not going away just yet?
Judge: It was a little weird. There was going to be another season when they then said, "Okay, that's the end." This was a little over a year ago, and so we did our last episode. People moved out of their offices and animators got other jobs, and several months later there was kind of some rumors about them picking it up, but I didn't really believe and then suddenly they wanted it back. So it was a little bit of a scramble to get people back, but John Ultraler and David Krinsky, who run the show, we talked and we looked at what we had. Because there were going to be 22 [more], a lot of these had already been written. So we were able to look at it, and also they came up with some new stuff, like Peggy getting a real estate license, things like that, and we looked at it and said, "Okay, I think we can probably do another decent good season."
Q: Was this 200th episode that originally going to be the series finale?
Judge: That was going to be the second to the last one.
Q: So has the one that was supposed to be the last one aired yet, or is that being saved for next year?
Judge: I think it's being saved for the very end of next year.
Q: So that's still a finale type episode?
Judge: Yes.
Q: I believe the 200th episode was the 6th Tom Petty has done, and it almost looks like he has to be a regular now. Is he prepared for that?
Judge: Yes. After the first one we all liked the character so much and asked him if he'd be willing to do it again. And he said, "Anytime, anything you want," and it turns out he really meant it. He's in practically every episode this [next] season it seems.
Q: Over the years you've had an incredible number of guest actors, that rivals or even exceeds The Simpsons. Is this you actively seeking people out or they're aware of the show and they come to you guys?
Judge: It's a little bit of both. I actually think The Simpsons definitely had more celebrities, They kind of started that tradition, I think. I was actually not that driven by that. It seems like if it's right and it fits... There was a lot of pressure from the network to get celebrities, and I think we've had some really great ones that really worked. But it's usually a little bit of both. It's probably 50/50 of us hearing that somebody wants to do the show or having the script and then saying so-and-so would be good for this. I think a lot of celebrities like it, because it's a lot easier than doing live action, you don't have to go through make-up and worry what you look like. And it's just really quick, it's a lot quicker than a live action shoot for the voice actor.
Q: Office Space seems to cry out for a sequel. It's a cult hit and is a movie that people watch over and over again. Any chances of that happening?
Judge: Fox has been asking about it. I don't know. I finished this last movie I did, and I've got something else that I wrote that's more like Office Space, in that it's smaller and kind of character driven stuff, but I don't know. I haven't been working on a sequel. I ran into Gary Cole back in December, and I just started thinking boy, it would be fun to just do more scenes with him and Milton, and Ron [Livingston], but nothing's in the works right now.
Q: King of the Hill has been a very dependable show for Fox over the years but it doesn't tend to get the media attention of The Simpsons or Family Guy. Do you feel comfortable in that position, or do you wish sometimes that you'd get more notice?
Judge: I'm comfortable with that. I don't want the kind of press that you have to ask for and complain about. If somebody's interested in writing about it or covering it, then great, that's fine. I think with Family Guy it's interesting what happened; that's an interesting story that it was canceled and then became huge on its own, and I think that deserves some press because that's kind of a phenomenon. Whereas, King of the Hill has just kind of been steady and getting the same kind of decent ratings for a while; it will go up a little bit, or it's gone up a little bit, I guess I've heard over the last couple of years, but I'm comfortable with that.
Q: Did you like the portrayal on South Park's "Cartoon Wars" of your staff as being the calm ones that just sat and worked while Cartman and Kyle fought through your office?
Judge: I loved those two episodes, I thought they were brilliant, actually. I was just glad there was any reference to it at all in there. It was an honor to just be sitting in their calmly while those two were fighting.
Q: Do you have any favorite episodes of King of the Hill? Are there any that stand out to you?
Judge: For the first three seasons I used to say that the episodes were Hank has a junkie [employee]. The guy is protected by the Disabilities Act, the Civil Liberties, and he can't fire him. That was one of my favorites. I actually liked the 100th episode, where Hank unwittingly becomes a pimp. One of my favorites in the last year is probably the one where they're draining a quarry where they had ditched Boone Hiller's car years ago and there are people protesting because there's an endangered species of algae, so Hank has to pretend to be protesting with the Save the Algae people because he doesn't want Boone Hiller's car to be found. I really like that one a lot.
Q: Is there any kind of formula to an ideal episode of King of the Hill, or anything you kind of stick to?
Judge: Well, it's usually putting Hank up against something really annoying and ridiculous in the modern world and just making it as annoying and ridiculous as possible. Like the mold episode, where the mold inspector comes to his house and he's got to live in a hotel. Also, all the characters and just having them really humiliated and embarrassed, like when Hank was constipated, or when Peggy tried to join the beauty pageant. I think those are two formulas, if you can call them formulas.
Q: What's next? Would you like to do more animation, or do you want to go into live action?
Judge: If I don't just completely retire, I'd like to do another live action movie, something along the lines of Office Space I think. I'm kind of thinking about Christopher Guest's career. How he, in the '90s, started making these little movies that have an audience, and I'd like to do something like that. Kind of lower budget comedies.
Q: What was the status of the movie you were working on, Idiocracy?
Judge: Idiocracy, I think, is coming out Labor Day weekend. They told me that is the official release date. That was kind of a bigger effects movie and I think I'd like to get back to doing at least one or two more like Office Space.
Q: You've still got at least a year, but are you going to miss Hank Hill?
Judge: I don't know. It's hard to say. I probably will. There was a while when I didn't think I would miss Beavis and Butthead, but I kind of definitely miss doing that. And even though I'm not eager to sign up for more, there are times where I kind of go, "Oh, that was fun." It would be fun to do a little bit of that again. But I have done a little bit of it again and it happened with Hank. I think cartoon characters have a way of coming back from the dead all the time.
Q: Did they ask you to do more Beavis?
Judge: Yes, there's been a lot of interest in a sequel to the movie. And I did some stuff for the Video Music Awards last year, and we've got these DVDs coming out. So I've actually been looking at a lot of Beavis and Butthead lately for these DVD volumes.
Q: You would entertain, though, the idea of doing it again?
Judge: Yes, not a full-blown show again, but something with them would be fun.
Q: Given the fact that everybody had packed up their office and all that, was it at all difficult to restart and get your writers and animators back?
Judge: One thing is --and this is probably why a lot of the animators on the show hate me-- this style of animation doesn't look that good on your resume for other jobs, because there are not a lot of shows that are made to look like real people like this that much, so it's not a great thing on your resume. So they were probably easier to get back. We actually hired at least a couple of the directors from Beavis and Butthead, people who had been in New York all this time. It was a little hard, but also what we discovered was there was a lot of young writers with a lot of energy and a lot of really good ideas and they're eager, so in a way we have a lot of new people, actually, and it's been great. We've been getting a lot of people who really know the show and are really eager. Right now there are a lot of unemployed comedy writers so it's actually a good time to be staffing up I think.
Q: With the longer time that it takes to produce animation you guys probably wouldn't be on until the middle of next season, is that right?
Judge: Actually, I think we got it in time to start in the fall, because we started back a few months ago, I guess, three months ago or something like that. No, we started in March, so I think we'll have some for the fall.
Q: The show was ahead of the curve with the satire of the big box stores like Megalo-Mart. That sort of thing has gotten worse and the type of independent, service-minded person like Hank Hill is pretty much becoming extinct. Has that made it easier or harder to write this character in the show as time has gone on?
Judge: It probably made it easier because there are more things you can do. We just did this Mega-Church episode and stuff like that just becomes more material.
Q: What was the genesis of some of the Megalo-Mart stuff?
Judge: I don't know. I just was thinking about this guy and what's funny about the world. I guess if you really wanted to dig deep, going way back, before The Simpsons, cartoons were pretty much stuck in the '50s in a weird way. Like any time anybody was at a restaurant it was at a diner, there was never a McDonald's. There were all these things, and cartoons were just really out of touch with the real world. Actually, everything kind of was, it seems like. I remember when Do The Right Thing came out I was just kind of thinking, I don't know much about that world, but it was just kind of interesting to see this dialogue that seemed very real and not inspired by other movies. And I remember thinking, someone ought to just do a movie like this about suburban white people with the same kind of realistic dialogue. And The Simpsons started to do that first, when they had Apu at the 7-Eleven. That was one of those first little touches that everyone said, "Oh my God, that's really funny." So I don't know, when I was first writing the pilot I was just really thinking about the neighborhood I lived in in Dallas and what I did day-to-day; I would go to Home Depot all the time and work on my fence. So it's really just kind of trying to just look to real life for inspiration as much as possible instead of other TV and movie characters.
Q: Hank is certainly a conservative man, and I guess he's been identified as a Republican. I know you've never really gone too topical, but have you been tempted to go in that area a little bit more, given what's been going on in the last few years in the country?
Judge: Less tempted, I guess. I try to not let the show get too political. To me, it's more social than political I guess you'd say, because that's funnier. I don't really like political reference humor that much. Although I liked the episode where Hank's talking to the mailman and he says, "Why would anyone want to lick a stamp that has Bill Clinton on it?" To me that's just like more of a character thing about Hank than it is a political joke or anything. I don't want to do a bunch of stuff about the war, particularly. I don't know, it doesn't seem that fun.
Q: Could you explain a little more about Idiocracy and what the plot is and how the genesis for that came about?
Judge: That started with an idea I had when I was working on the Beavis and Butthead movie and I was thinking about evolution and how since now there's no natural predators and pretty much everybody survives, evolution kind of favors people who don't wear a condom and people who knock up a bunch of baby's mamas and all that kind of stuff. So this is basically kind of one of those movies where a guy's frozen and thawed out in the future, which there have been many. But basically it's 500 years in the future and everybody's gotten a lot dumber. So Luke Wilson plays a guy who's just kind of a dumb-ass average Joe in the army today and in the future he's the smartest guy in the world, because everyone's gotten so dumb. And he ends up having to save the world, is pretty much the plot.
http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/707/707158p1.html
The Onion: Mike Judge
Interviewed by Tasha Robinson
June 23rd, 2004
Animator Mike Judge turns up in odd places�as the voice of Kenny in the South Park feature film, in a recurring cameo in the Spy Kids movies, as a guest on Frasier. But first and foremost, he's known for his multiple roles on two animated sitcoms he created and produced: Beavis And Butt-Head and King Of The Hill. Judge started out as a solo animator, independently creating a handful of shorts about creepy, mentally disabled individuals like "Inbred Jed" and Milton of "Office Space" fame. MTV offered him an animated series based on the chuckling nitwits from his "Frog Baseball" short, and Beavis And Butt-Head was born.
Judge's first series was popular but divisive, a common touchstone for parents, educators, and politicians bemoaning television's growing stupidity; following complaints from animal-rights groups and a controversy over a 5-year-old child who supposedly watched the show before setting the fire that killed his 2-year-old sister, MTV began editing old episodes, censoring new ones, and running disclaimers before every installment. Nevertheless, Beavis And Butt-Head ran for four years, becoming MTV's most popular program and spawning a feature-film spin-off.
In 1997, Beavis And Butt-Head ended and Judge launched his new project, King Of The Hill, which was as appealingly smart as Beavis And Butt-Head was appealingly stupid. Seven years later, the show about a conservative Texas patriarch and his friends and family still airs on Fox, with Judge voicing the lead role and several others. In the interim, Judge has written and directed the 1999 feature film Office Space, launched the touring anthology The Animation Show, and begun work on a new movie. The Onion A.V. Club recently spoke to Judge about his origins in animation, his enduring love of Beavis And Butt-Head, and why Futurama fans are mad about his next project
The Onion: Is it true that you were a physics major in college?
Mike Judge: Yeah, I got my degree in physics.
O: How did you get from there to animation?
MJ: I'd always wanted to try animation, and as a separate pipe dream, I wanted to go into comedy somehow, but I knew stand-up wasn't for me. Engineering didn't last very long for me, so I was a musician for, I guess, six years. I thought of animation as something I wanted to try if I was ever rich or retired. I went to an animation festival, and there were some cels from a local animator there. I'd always assumed that you had to buy an expensive camera, and it seemed like something I couldn't afford. I never thought about it long enough until I saw this guy's cels. Then I thought, "Okay, you can probably rent a camera to do all the work." So that's what I did. Actually, I bought a Bolex camera for $200 and started messing around with it. I just nerded out on this stuff, and the first thing I finished was the first "Office Space" short.
O: You've said you're kind of embarrassed about the quality of the early Beavis And Butt-Head stuff. How do you feel about your early shorts these days?
MJ: For the most part, I feel pretty good about that stuff, even though I'm not a great animator. It looks funny in the way I want it to. What I don't like is what happened when Beavis And Butt-Head became a show. A lot of stuff was taken out of my control, and it took a while to get it back. The first season is really hit-or-miss. Some of it I love, some of it I hate. It took until about the third season to get it to a place where I liked how most of it looked. Same goes for the writing. It took me a while to realize that I could be in control of it. After it was a hit, I had more power, really, to get it done the way I wanted.
O: What about animation appealed to you back in the early days?
MJ: I've always loved the way cel animation looks, especially in a theater. And it seems like people my age�I'm 41�when we were in high school, you just assumed that good animation was gone. It seemed like it had all gone to hell. Saturday-morning stuff was pretty bad, especially for people like me who'd always loved all the old Warner and Disney stuff. So when I first saw an animation festival in college�this was 1985�I was blown away, because there was still cool-looking stuff, but it was all being done independently. I wanted to be a part of it, but I thought, "Well, I have no idea how to do that. Even though it's being done independently, it's being done by people with commercial studios." Also, I had to get a job and support myself. I didn't have the luxury to goof around with animation.
O: What was the process of getting King Of The Hill started like?
MJ: I'd done this deal with Fox, because I thought that everything was about to go downhill for me. Like, "Beavis And Butt-Head is going to die off, and I don't want to be 50 and broke." So I kind of sold out. It was the best way to become un-owned by MTV. Fox wanted an animated show to follow The Simpsons. At first I was thinking, "Oh, God, what am I going to come up with to follow that?" Then I thought, "I'm going to do what I really want to do, and if they say no, then I don't have to do the show. If they say yes, then I get to do something I want to do." I kind of generally pitched stories about my neighbors and people I knew, and I'd done the drawing of the four guys with their beers in front of the fence. That's where it started.
O: How much of your time goes into the show these days?
MJ: It's more of a part-time job, I guess, but the last couple of years, I've been a little more involved. I don't have to be there�I live in Austin�but we go out there every summer, when the peak time is. We talk about what all the stories are going to be, and I give my notes, but I'm not sitting there writing or anything. We have a writing staff. It's a pretty nice gig right now.
O: What's been the biggest change in the show for you since it was first launched?
MJ: Well, a lot has changed. Getting it off the ground was so much work. I think the second season was really good, and then it drifted a little bit. We had some people running it for a while that I definitely had some differences of opinion with. If you leave a sitcom to its own devices, there are all these traps that it falls into. It becomes easier to make everyone a smart-aleck�that's an easier way to write. It's easy to make the joke that the kid is saying something very adult-like. There are all these traps that we've fallen into, and that I can't stand. But I think now we've kind of hit our stride, especially in the last couple years.
O: Do you have any long-term plans for it? Do you think year-to-year, or do you just assume it's going to be on the air forever and work from there?
MJ: I try to think year-to-year. With Beavis And Butt-Head, they had me for around 35 shows. I mean, when I think about that many, it makes me sick to my stomach. It's like a prison sentence or something. I'm not complaining, but you go into stuff like this because you don't want a day job. So I try to think of it one season at a time. I actually think with Beavis And Butt-Head, some of the best stuff came at the end, or near the end. So with King Of The Hill, maybe that means the end is coming up soon. [Laughs.]
O: You often come across as having low-key problems with the way the industry works, but you're still willing to accept those as the way things are. Is that accurate?
MJ: Yeah. Before I figured out I could make an animated film by myself, I never thought I would have broken into Hollywood, just because I'm not good at going and knocking on doors, and being the wild and crazy guy at a party or anything. But I can work within the system. I'm lucky that I've never had to beg for things to be greenlit, because I came into the business with a hit. When I'm floundering at a pitch, they think, "He must be some kind of genius or something." It's easy to fool people.
O: Is there any particular change in the industry you'd like to see?
MJ: It would be nice�and some directors have this�if you could go out and cast whoever you want with no arguments from the studio. That was one of the toughest things on Office Space, having to battle and fight and convince the people who were paying for the movie that the people I wanted in it would be funny. Because they didn't think they were funny.
O: Did you win all of those battles for Office Space, or did you have to compromise in places?
MJ: I actually won all of them, but it wasn't easy. I'm starting to shoot a movie pretty soon here, and I haven't done it in six years, and that's part of the reason why. Someone will come in and read for a part, and you're thinking, "Okay, this is perfect. This is exactly how I imagined it." Then you get all this: [Whines.] "Oh, I don't think he's funny," and "Can't you get someone better-looking?" It's been better this time, but the whole thing's starting again. But I think if I do another Beavis And Butt-Head movie, I'd get final cut on it.
O: Is that project still a possibility?
MJ: It was for a while. I had renewed interest in it a couple of years ago, and then MTV released a DVD that was completely unauthorized, that they didn't tell me about, and basically broke a contract with me by releasing it, so I said no Beavis And Butt-Head movie. We're just starting to work it out now.
O: Did you not want that material out there, or was the problem just that they didn't consult you before doing it?
MJ: There are a couple things. There's a DVD they put out called The History Of Beavis And Butt-Head, and it was all the episodes that I didn't pick for the home-video series. So it was basically all the worst episodes, with some exceptions. With that title, it appeared to be a definitive collection. And I'm thinking about my kids and their friends, if they ever ask, "What did your dad do?" I had absolute approval rights, and they just blatantly did this without telling me. I still don't understand why it happened. It wasn't like somebody had been fired and somebody new was there: These were the people I'd been working with since '93. But I got them to recall a lot of them.
O: What has your relationship with Fox been like? Have you been happy with the King Of The Hill DVD sets?
MJ: Yeah. I mean, I still cringe at a lot of those episodes, but it's been pretty good, I think. With these, I know which episodes they're putting on there, but with Beavis And Butt-Head�you know, they cut the videos, and they cut the word "fire" out of all of them. They cut stuff I didn't even know was in there. So I'm looking at this episode that makes no sense, that's like 90 seconds long, and it says "Written by Mike Judge." It drives me crazy.
O: Speaking of the "fire" controversy, you've taken criticism for some of the messages in your work, and obviously you've been censored. Do you think there's such a thing as unsafe comedy? Are there things that kids need to be protected from?
MJ: It's up to the parents, I think. My daughter chewed me out a few years ago, because her friends were watching Office Space and we wouldn't let her watch it. She was 10 at the time. We ended up letting her watch the Comedy Central version, which has stuff bleeped out. I don't think the government should come in and say that all books, movies, and so on should be kid-friendly. You've got to have stuff for adults�you can't have the whole country watching Barney. Once you make that distinction, you can't go blame the person who made this stuff that's for grown-ups, because "My kid saw it and it's your fault." That's kind of ridiculous.
O: Do you still get people doing the "huh huh, huh huh" Beavis And Butt-Head laugh at you?
MJ: Yeah, once in a while. I don't get recognized very often, but someone did ask me to do it recently, on a radio interview. A lot of times, people will ask me to do Beavis or Butt-Head in a bar, and I do Butt-Head pretty quietly, and then they go, "Ah, you're not the guy."
O: Is there anything you wish you'd instilled in the American consciousness rather than that laugh?
MJ: I'm actually pretty proud of that laugh. I was watching a lot of Beavis And Butt-Head recently, and I'm sitting there thinking, "This is pretty funny." I'm probably not going to do anything that funny ever again. I mean, the stuff that's good, the third of it that's really good, I'm proud of that. I'm okay with that laugh being the catchphrase.
O: What did you think about Daria?
MJ: I never saw much of it. A couple of the producers told me they were going to possibly spin off Daria, and I thought it might be a good idea. Next thing I knew, they were just doing it, and I wasn't crazy about some of the people they hired. I think they were trying to show that they could do something without me. A normal network would never do that kind of stuff, unless you were a real asshole to them. I feel like Beavis And Butt-Head helped a lot of these people's careers, then they do this series without even consulting me on it. But I heard the show is pretty good. I think Glenn Eichler was a good choice to write on it. I've honestly never seen more than two or three minutes of it.
O: In a recent episode of King Of The Hill, Hank dealt with a Beavis-like character that everyone was afraid of. Some critics took that as a kind of repudiation of your Beavis And Butt-Head days, like your outlook on life had changed.
MJ: No, it's almost the same point of view. To me, what was funny about Beavis And Butt-Head was just how much entertainment they could get out of nothing, or something so stupid. It was the same joke with the King Of The Hill character. In fact, part of the inspiration for both Beavis And Butt-Head and this other guy was from my first engineering job. There was this guy who was a draftsman who thought that any time he worked the number 69 into something, it was automatically funny. He talked like Cheech Marin. He'd say stuff like, "Well, 69 percent of the time" or "Six to nine times out of 10," and he thought it was funny every single time. To me, that's funny, not because I think 69 is funny, but because that guy thinks that every time he says "69," it constitutes a joke.
O: How much of Hank Hill's philosophy on life do you think you share?
MJ: He's probably the most like me of all my characters. On one hand, I never played football or anything; I don't even follow it. I'm more like him as I get older. Him and Beavis.
O: You mentioned that you're working on a movie now. Is that 3001?
MJ: Yeah, although I'm not going to call it that. It's set more like 400 years in the future. There have been so many movies about people being frozen and waking up in the future. This is mine. Apparently, a bunch of Futurama nerds are pissed off, because that's the year in which that show is set. You know, neither of us invented guys getting frozen and waking up in the future. But I didn't mean to set it in 3001 anyway�that was just a placeholder title.
O: What's the movie's current status?
MJ: We started shooting right in the beginning of May, in Austin. The basic premise is that most science fiction shows the future as being more civilized or more intelligent, and that's just not the way we're headed. Like, if someone made a movie in the late '50s about the year 2004, it probably wouldn't have had The Maury Povich Show, and gangs, and whatever. So this starts out as a documentary about how the people who are reproducing the fastest are guys who are too lazy to put on a rubber, and lots of highly educated people are waiting until they're 40 to have a kid, and then having one or none. It's kind of a sleeper movie about how, 400 or 500 years from now, a guy who's your average dumbass today is the smartest person in the world.
O: Did you learn anything from doing Office Space that's going to affect how you work on this movie?
MJ: I should have learned not to write so many characters, because this one has 65 characters, and that makes the casting process really tough. I learned a lot on Office Space, though some of the things are hard to describe. You can get a feel for watching someone read during auditions and knowing how they're going to act in front of the camera. Mostly, it's just production-design stuff. It sounds corny, but I feel like I'm learning stuff all the time.
O: Given infinite money and no restrictions, what would you be working on right now?
MJ: It's interesting. I don't have infinite money, but after Office Space came out, even though it didn't do very well, by not doing anything all these years since, I think there are a lot of things I could do. I could probably make just about any comedy under $20 million that I wanted to, the way my career is. I just haven't written them. It's not like there's a whole lot of stuff that I want to do that they're not letting me do, but making a movie is such a lot of work that I didn't want to do it again unless things were right. It's been five years since Office Space came out, so I've been able to go to my kids' ball games and violin recitals and all that stuff. It's been nice to not have to work long hours.
O: How close are you to your ideal life?
MJ: Actually pretty close, if I had more hair on my head and if I didn't have to fly to L.A. as much. I'm pretty damn lucky. I never thought I'd have it this good.
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/23060
Interview: Kathy Najimy: Mother, Activist, Actress...
Pop Entertainment: You couldn�t have made up Kathy Najimy�s life story if you tried. She was not rich, nor did she have formal theatrical training. She was not a supermodel, nor did she have connections in show business. Yet, through a combination of smarts, talent, quirky humor and tenaciousness, she has built a steady and respected career in Hollywood � against all odds.
Najimy first caught our fancy when she and good friend Mo Gaffney barnstormed clubs and small theaters with their topical series of comic theater pieces called �The Kathy and Mo Show.� In 1993, Najimy almost single-handedly stole the surprisingly popular Whoopi Goldberg singing nun comedy Sister Act, quickly becoming a sensation in Hollywood.
Najimy never looked at her career over the short-term, though. She didn�t rest on this white-hot moment and after this surprising breakthrough she has continued working steadily on interesting films like Hocus Pocus, Jeffrey, Hope Floats and Rat Race. She also spent a few years on the Kirstie Alley sitcom Veronica�s Closet and did impressive work on other series like Chicago Hope, Ellen and Early Edition.
Najimy has now spent over a decade voicing Peggy Hill, the sometimes brilliant, sometimes pragmatic, occasionally delusional, but always sure-of-herself matriarch of the Hill clan of Arlen, Texas in the long-lived, highly-acclaimed animated FOX comedy King of the Hill. Beyond her work on that series, Najimy has also recently joined the cast of the popular CBS detective series Numb3rs, playing Dr. Mildred French, a brilliant chair of Physics at Charlie Eppes� (David Krumholtz) university.
As her episodes on Numb3rs and the eleventh season of King were starting to hit the airwaves, Najimy was nice enough to take the time to talk to us about her shows, her long, eclectic career and her true passions in life � family, activism and games.
You probably first made it onto most peoples� radars with �The Kathy and Mo Show.� How did the two of you get that on stage?
Kathy Najimy: We met in San Diego. We were friends. We would always do characters for fun. Then we decided we would write a show � a sketch comedy show � that reflected our tastes in comedy and in issues. We were both feminists with a strong point of view. So we thought we�ll write it and no one will like it but us, but then the only rule was that we have to really like it. We did it in very small little cabarets and clubs and theaters in San Diego. People seemed to really like it. We kept extending and extending. So then � I was working for the phone company at the time. For AT&T. I put in for a transfer to New York. It came through and I said to Mo, we�re going to New York. We, again, did really small cabarets and little tiny rooms for a while. Then we got the Second Stage run � small off-Broadway � one summer. Then the next summer we were on real off-Broadway. It�s been 25 years. We just did a reunion back in New York last summer, which was great. Our two-disk DVD just came out on Amazon.com, with both HBO specials and a whole disk of 25 years of special, unseen material. If you�re a �Kathy and Mo� fan, it�s got every word we�ve ever spoken. (laughs) Everything. The worst hairdos. The worst clothes.
PE: Even though it was a supporting role, you sort of became a sensation in Sister Act. What was that experience like, to be a part of the whole Hollywood hype machine?
KN: You know, I had no idea. I had done a couple of small roles in films. I had done The Fisher King and Soapdish and This is My Life. So, for some reason, I had heard about Sister Act from a friend and I don�t know why, but it really touched a chord� excuse the pun� in me. I haven�t really done this since then, but I really went after it. I found out who was casting it. I tried to get in. We were doing �Kathy and Mo� in San Francisco at that time. We were filming the first HBO special and doing a run at Theater in the Square. I heard about Sister Act and I was just relentless. I called and called until I got an audition, which is so funny. I don�t know why I responded to that, but thank God. As I look out at my view� (laughs) I went and auditioned five times. Sang each time. Danced each time. Then I got it. But even then, you know, I didn�t know. We had no idea, when you�re making a movie whether it�s a hit or not. In fact, it had a lot of trouble. We had ten different writers come on board for that. And a little bit of trouble with some of the stars. I just knew I was having a blast with the crew and having a great time. Not having to worry about hair and makeup and wardrobe, because I was in a big, black tent with no makeup. It was awesome. Then, when it came out, people really responded. No one was more surprised than I was. The reviews� I had never really been mentioned a lot in reviews and I was mentioned in every review. It was exciting. Really, really, really a great time of my life.
PE: In 1997, you started your first two TV series about the same time with King of the Hill and Veronica�s Closet. You actually worked on both shows for three years. Making a series is such hard work � what was it like doing two at a time?
KN: It was hard, because I had a new baby. My daughter is ten now. I was doing King of the Hill first. Then Veronica�s Closet came along and I really had hesitation. They met with me and they were saying, �Well, what is it that you�re worried about?� I�d just had Samia and I wanted a place on the set where she could come where I could see her every day. Because why have a kid if you can�t see her? I was worried� I wasn�t a big fan of sitcoms. Still not. I was worried about playing a sidekick that was sort of silly. Especially since she was a working woman, I didn�t want her to be a loveless� you know, they always make working women wish that they had a date, at home eating pie filling out of a can with their pet cat. That wasn�t anything I was interested in. I didn�t want to be a victimy successful woman for a lot of reasons. Personally it�s just no fun and politically I just couldn�t stand of the thought of one more successful woman with no personal life on TV. They assured me they were actually on board with that. That same philosophy. To their credit, they made Olive great. She was flawed and funny, but she also dated. At one point I had a six-week arc where I dated a 22-year old Tom Cruise look-alike. (laughs) They had her dating and being taken seriously as a woman, as well as being successful. I mean, I say that� you know, it was a sitcom. You say, �oh, the toilet�s backing up,� you know what I mean? The plotlines are very� they�re from a TV sitcom, but I really had the time of my life. I had such a great time with Kirstie. I learned so much from her and the cast. So, it was a little struggle to balance King of the Hill and Veronica�s Closet. But, both were really worth it.
PE: King of the Hill is going into its eleventh season. When you started working on the show in 1997, could you have ever imagined that in 2007 you�d still working on the show?
KN: You have no idea. Not only would I not think I�d still be working on it, I didn�t even know what I was auditioning for. I had no idea. Then, prime time animated TV shows� there was only The Simpsons. Now we have American Dad, Family Guy, Futurama� So I had no idea. I literally went to work for it because I was pregnant with Samia and I didn�t want to do any on-camera work until I�d had her. My agent called up and said, �There�s this cartoon, by the guy who wrote Beavis and Butthead.� I have to tell you, although I knew lots of people were fans of Beavis and Butthead, I wasn�t one of them. Not my cup of tea. So, I was like, oh, okay� I didn�t know if I was going out for a Saturday morning cartoon. I remember I went to the audition and it was Greg Daniels and Mike Judge, the creators. There was a sketch, a pencil sketch of Peggy on this little bungalow at Sony, on the wall. I don�t know what it was doing at Sony, it�s a Fox show, but� They said, we want you to just improv. She�s a woman, she�s a substitute teacher� at the time they were going to make her a Sunday school teacher. Well, they turned to the sketch and watched the sketch on the wall while I talked. They didn�t even look at me. It was so surreal. (laughs) I was just improvising as these two men were staring at this pencil sketch. But, anyway, I, thankfully� oh my God, thankfully, thankfully, thankfully� got the job. I�ve heard of some of the other women who tried out for Peggy and they are actually people who I�m a fan of. There were some actresses who were fantastic. Did we know that eleven years later� Here�s the thing about King of the Hill. Long term is really great, because� it just is. It�s such a great job for a person with a family. A couple of days a week. No hair, no makeup, no wardrobe. (laughs) But, above all that, I had told you earlier I�m not a big fan of sitcoms. I�m a fan of good writing. This, I think, is some of the best writing on television. Every Wednesday, to get a script at the door, that is funny and smart without being politically incorrect. Disrespectful. You know, having families scream at each other. It�s really a challenge if you�re a fan of television to find projects where the funny comes from true funny. Not from sophomoric laughs.
PE: I talked with [series executive producers] John [Altschuler] and Dave [Krinsly] last week and we were discussing one of the great things about the show is while Hank is sort of� conservative, let�s put it that way, which is obviously way different from you� one of the interesting things about the show is it�s able to do a balancing act to keep the Hills true to themselves and their beliefs without condescending towards them or making them less likable. Is that difficult for you, particularly coming from such a different mindset?
KN: Well, the great thing is that Peggy and I are a lot alike in our philosophies. Other than the hunting thing, I�m never having to say lines that I completely disagree with or that are offensive or anything. Again, you�re playing a character, you play the character� But it makes it very comfortable that I go in and the philosophy is like-minded � between Kathy and Peggy. Although she�s completely, hilariously, flawed and so self-righteous and so incorrect sometimes, with such a sense of rightness, it�s hilarious. Just her speaking Spanish is so funny. But at the same moment, here�s the thing about King of the Hill, I think. In one moment, any real human being, you or I, are a million different things. Smart and funny and not and wrong and we are courageous and insecure and all of those things. Ugly and pretty. All in the one day. On TV, they draw characters, they write characters that are one dimensional. The pretty girl, or the dumb girl, or smart guy, or the mean guy. On King of the Hill, I think that one of the keys, one of the reasons I�m a fan of the writing is that in any one episode it reflects a real person. People are ridiculous and wonderful in the same episode, which is like we are in life. So, there�s not just the� you know, Peggy sometimes is really balanced and smart, and the very next moment she�s ridiculous. And so am I. (laughs) You know? So, it�s really a joy to be a part of smart writing like that. I�m such a writing snob; I�ve got to tell you. I really have trouble with almost everything on TV (laughs) that�s not a reality show, because there�s no writing. There�s some great things on HBO and� But, I�ve got to say, King of the Hill, I�m such a fan of the writers.
PE: Obviously [series creator and Hank Hill voice actor] Mike [Judge] has a lot of influence, but do you have any influence with the writers on the directions that Peggy is going to go or do you just do what they bring to you?
KN: You know, I�m going to take the chance and say the truth, which is yes. I think we all have influence. We�ve been together for ten years. The writers certainly know me and my point of view. It�s a very, very strong, not ominous, point of view. You know when you meet me what I believe in. They respect it. We don�t always agree. But there�s such an even-headed, level� we�re all on the same level� collaboration going on. If anyone has concern, not just me, but Pam [Adlon] or Mike or Stephen [Root] or Johnny [Hardwick], they really take it into consideration. We�re peers. So, I think, yes, over the years I have had some influence on how Peggy is going through life.
PE: So little in television and movies is about life in small towns like Arlen. Why do you think this lifestyle doesn�t always get its due?
KN: I think, in a society where we�re bombarded with crazy stories about Paris Hilton and whatever, that there�s a bigger than life sense that�s attractive to people to get them out of their lives. The interesting thing about King of the Hill is that it reflects their lives. Not all of us, but certainly a majority. I think that�s, too, the pull and the draw. People aren�t used to seeing on TV � especially now with all the new sort of scandal shows � they aren�t used to seeing their lives up there in smart, sweet, funny stories. To me, King of the Hill is a slice of life.
PE: As a person who was born in San Diego and who lives in LA, how is the slower small town lifestyle intriguing to you?
KN: It isn�t. (laughs) I grew up in San Diego and I didn�t belong there. I�m not an over-the-line girl in a bikini with long blonde hair. Running, jogging� I�m actually much more of a New York person.
PE: So do you ever get the cast and crew of King of the Hill together and clean them out in poker?
KN: (laughs) God, I would love to. No, we do get together though and celebrate. We used to do Dollar Fridays. You write your name on a dollar and put it in a bucket, whoever�s name comes up gets the fifty bucks. But here�s the thing. I could care less about the fifty bucks. I�m just a game person. Game sycophant, crazy� I will play a game with you right now. I love games so much. Which is interesting about Peggy� They made Peggy a Boggle champion and Boggle is my favorite game ever, and they didn�t know that. When I saw Boggle in the script, it was a sign from God that I was in the right place. I love Boggle so much. I think it�s one of the best crafted games ever. But I love poker. I love games. Our friends get together and play running charades every Friday night. I love anything. So, you know that I won the Celebrity Poker thing�
PE: Yes, that was why I asked�
KN: I shouldn�t have won. I�m not a great poker player. I�m just a good bluffer. I told my husband I should have gotten an Oscar. But, I love the games, boy.
PE: Through your experience with King of the Hill over the years you�ve done more and more voice work in animated films. In recent years you�ve done a Scooby Doo video, Brother Bear 2, Balto III and others. In what ways is voice work more or less fun than doing live action?
KN: Well, you don�t have to go in for 400 costume fittings. Sit in the hair and makeup chair for two hours. You don�t have to stay up, memorizing a bunch of lines. So, what happens is because of that, all your creativity goes to one place. You�re not worried about hitting your mark, how your eyelashes look or remembering your lines. All of your creativity literally goes from your soul up and out your throat to the microphone. It�s pure creativity, with no distractions. So, to me, I prefer it, because I�m not worried about anything else. I�m not worried about� oh, God, I have to memorize these� I�m on a show now called Numb3rs on CBS. Which I love so much. Again, another rare instance of good writing on TV. But, it�s a whole other set of muscles. To memorize lines, care about your mark and where the camera is. On King of the Hill, it�s pure creativity going from your throat into the mic.
PE: Well, like you just said, you've just joined the cast of Numb3rs, which is kind of interesting, because it�s a very serious show, but it has a lot of actors who have a background in comedy.
KN: Right.
PE: Do you find comedy or drama harder to do?
KN: Comedy. I think once you can do comedy well then drama�s just a breeze.
PE: I hear that you�ve been involved in a movie project about Mama Cass Elliot for years now. That sounds fascinating. Is anything happening with it?
KN: Oh, my gosh, I was. I was so passionate about that. We got really far. I became really good friends with her daughter Owen. She was so great and helpful about it. We just gathered up so many books and film clips and beta tapes. There�s a problem, because there is a movie deal, I think at 20th. So we got wrapped up in that legal void that you could never really figure out what�s happening. I don�t know if it�s too late, but this is how I feel� I feel if it�s me or someone else, [she was] one of the most extraordinary women that I ever read or known about. She had such an interesting life. People are so misguided about who she is and what she did. She was the first woman guest host on The Tonight Show and hosted it like fifteen times for Johnny Carson. She had three prime time specials. She had like fifteen hit albums. She was amazing. She went on the road with politicians and campaigned for them. She was so amazing. So, really� I know this sounds like an Oscar speech, but� whether it�s me or not, I really hope they do her story. Because it�s again, a voice like no other, but it�s a story that needs to be told. If I�m involved in some way I�ll be thrilled. But, I don�t know, it just went into that Bermuda Triangle of projects.
PE: I saw you described online as an activist who makes a living as an actress. You have been very active in many causes � such as feminism, gay rights... Do you feel that you can use your celebrity to help promote causes?
KN: Absolutely. I think that�s one of the only draws to celebrity for me � that it allows a bigger platform to start discussions and talk about things that I feel are important. A lot of people say an actress should be a blank canvas. People shouldn�t think of you as anything. That�s fine for some people. But, I have no interest in that. I�m not a blank canvas. My canvas is full. (laughs) So I want to use my canvas in the best way that I can think of, which is stimulating conversation and getting word out about things that need to be changed.
PE: Looking back; how would you like for people to see your career?
KN: Wow, that�s a very good Barbara Walters-y question. How would I like for people to look at my body of work? Well, selfishly, I�d like for them to have seen some of the less seen things. Dramatic work on Chicago Hope and Numb3rs. Just so they can know that you don�t just do comedy � which is fine, also, but I�ve had the opportunity to do some dramatic work. I was in a movie called Say Uncle a couple of summers ago, where I played a homophobic housewife. Well, here�s the truth. I�d like for them to say � wow, chubby, frizzy-haired girl from San Diego. On welfare. No connections. No money. No education � you know� theater education. Worked really hard and was a working actor. I think that�s inspiring for all the other little girls who think that you need to be born into some sort of show biz royalty or have a lot of dough or have gone to the Academy of Theatrical Arts for six years, you know? (laughs) Or look like Heather Locklear. For me, it�s sort of a miracle that I came from where I came from and got where I got � which isn�t terribly lofty, but certainly a working, comfortable lifestyle.
PE: Are there any misconceptions you�d like to clear up?
KN: About myself?
PE: About yourself, your career, your shows � whatever�
KN: This is so exciting. I think one is I only do comedy. I think sometimes when you do something well, people think it�s all you do; although, I certainly am grateful for those comic jobs. I really like the activist part of my life. The family and mother part and the activist part are the top two parts of my life. So, I�d really like that to be reflected in the memory of who I am.
http://www.popentertainment.com/najimy.htm
'King of the Hill' writer talks about Texas State exhibit
Hector Salda�a
Express-News Staff Writer
How does it feel to have one's off-the-wall ideas hanging on the wall in a cool retrospective exhibit? Really amazing, says Jim Dauterive, an executive producer and writer of "King of the Hill." Dauterive's work is included with 11 years' worth of material from the creative team on Mike Judge and Greg Daniels' animated TV series � memorabilia, scripts, storyboards, images and more � on display at the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University's Alkek Library.
"The Making of 'King of the Hill'" exhibit is scheduled to come down Friday.
Dauterive hadn't seen much of it in years. For example, a simple child's drawing mailed to the Emmy-winning show that offers a glimpse at its connection to viewers from the beginning. "It really gives you an interesting perspective on the show," said Dauterive, who has dedicated his papers to the Southwestern Writers Collection since 1999. "It made me feel like we had actually accomplished something."
Lead archivist Katie Salzmann curated the exhibit. "King of the Hill" has just finished wrapping production of its 12th season on Fox, a longevity Dauterive credits to its "between the coasts" appeal. He describes his job as "paying attention to all of the details and making sure that we tell an entertaining story." He recently discussed the nitty-gritty behind the exhibit.
Q. Does "King of the Hill" become high art when presented like this?
A. I don't know exactly what it is because I've never experienced any kind of display like this of anything I've ever had a part of. This is what they do, they're archivists. They know how to pick items that tell a story. I was kind of overwhelmed by it. It takes on sort of a life of its own.
Q. Where did you go to school?
A. I went to UT Austin for two years, and I went to Harvard for a few years.
Q. What's the feedback you get about the "King of the Hill" exhibit?
A. I hear how well-attended it is and how many students have come up to the top floor of the library for the first time ever at Texas State. And also, you have sounds of laughter coming from the exhibit, which (you) usually don't hear in a library. So that's gratifying.
Q. What is the most common refrain?
A. The most common thing I always hear is how the show resonates with people, particularly from the South and Midwest, that they know our characters, and they feel an instant understanding and connection with our characters and the role of Hank Hill. The show, by design, always was meant for people between the coasts, an America that's always been about life in the middle of the United States. And people respond to that.
Q. Why is the show so endearing?
A. I just talked to someone the other day, and she said it's so rare and refreshing to see a show that's sentimental. It's not a sarcastic or ironic show. It does have sentiment in the way that shows from an earlier time had. You just don't see that anymore.
Q. What does an executive producer do?
A. For me, I'm pretty much involved in every aspect of the show. I'm not the executive producer who actually is what's called the 'show runners.' They are John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, and they oversee everything along with Mike Judge. I'm involved in pretty much every aspect of the show, from figuring out what the stories are going to be to the writing to the directing of the actors at our recording sessions, character design, animation.
Q. Are there episodes that couldn't be aired or just didn't come together?
A. Never on our show. Perhaps on other shows. We take great care from the very beginning in the prep work of outlining the story. Its called breaking the story, where you figure out all the story beats, every little thing that happens from the beginning to the end of an episode. And we very thoroughly outline every story.
Q. How exhaustive is that process?
A. We spend a week or two breaking a story, figuring out what it is. Then the writers will go off and spend a week writing a very detailed outline, a 12- to 15-page outline, single-spaced of what the story is, from beginning to end. And then we'll adjust that. Then they'll go off and write a draft, which is about 40 pages, and then we rewrite it collectively. By the time we have written a script, it has gone through a lot of thought and quality control.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/salife/stories/MYSA120907.03P.KingofHill.f92061.html
CNN's Article
By Frazier Moore
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- "I'll have a normal orange juice, please," says Hank Hill. "And make it normal."
He wishes!
Hank, plaintive hero of Fox's comedy "King of the Hill," is joining someone at a dang ol' prissy juice bar. Not by his choice. This is not Hank's kind of place.
Nor are these his kind of times.
Never were. After a decade on the air, "King of the Hill" (starting its new season 8:30 p.m. EST Sunday) finds Hank pretty much where he was in January 1997: a Texas good ol' boy in a world bent on serving up things that, in his mind, just aren't normal. Hank's a regular guy in a world that's always redefining "regular."
Hank doesn't smile much. He's sad-eyed, with fretful little furrows etched into his brow.
Even so, he loves his job as a propane salesman, and also "loves barbecue, pickup trucks, edging the lawn, both kinds of music (country and western), and lamenting how a lack of common sense and a crush of meddling bureaucrats in today's society make life all that much harder for the working man."
At least, that's how I described him 10 years ago, when reviewing the premiere of this animated yet staunchly uncartoonish sitcom.
I could've added that Hank's a churchgoer and a family man (sturdy wife Peggy; slothful 13-year-old son Bobby; coquettish niece Luanne, 18) who, with his high school football days long gone, plays a new team sport: posting himself with buddies Dale, Bill and Boomhauer out by the street, standing side by side, saying little, beers in hand.
Hank was a remarkable invention 10 years ago. The fact that "King of the Hill" carries on to this day, still funny and savvy, is even more notable.
Sunday's episode focuses on Peggy. She is feeling unfeminine (her size-16 feet and all the great shoes that don't fit them are to blame).
"YOU think I'm feminine, doncha, Hank?" she presses.
"Sure y'ar," says Hank, who, unequipped with a silver tongue, elaborates: "You're a wife, and a mother."
But then Peggy makes a new gal-pal, Carolyn, someone with whom she can comfortably share female concerns -- and female tips.
Accounting for her square-rimmed eyeglasses, Peggy tells Carolyn they "hide thin brows, frown lines and wrinkles. People do not say it, but they make me look 10 years younger."
In short, opening up to Carolyn is just what she needed.
But there's a problem. Turns out Carolyn is a drag queen who, while shopping for plus-size ladies' shoes, mistook Peggy for a fellow drag queen.
If it sounds sitcommy, it isn't. "King of the Hill" is as understated as Hank's laconic manner. Its stories rely not on gimmicks, but on shrewdly observed details.
Distraught at having been taken for a man, Peggy orders Hank not to answer the phone when Carolyn calls. But he's obliged to object: "Well, Peggy, that's just like telling a lie."
"Fine," she snaps. "Then, I'm not at home."
"Well," persists Hank, "that's ALSO a lie."
It's a revealing exchange: Not for the first time, Hank has argued for following the rules, however much society prefers to rewrite them. The world may be shifting under his feet, but Hank is taking a stand on his tiny piece of turf.
He's not a raging, Archie Bunker-like nostalgist singing "Those Were the Days." Hank doesn't yearn for the past. He stays busy clinging to a tenuous now: when "orange juice," under normal circumstances, can still mean simply orange juice, without "nutrient boosters"; when being a wife and mother can still certify a woman's femininity.
In his 11th season, Hank more than ever is a man on the spot, torn between squabbling, widening extremes. With his muted battle cry "Hold on a minute here," he's a man caught in the middle between the people in charge. He's the man politicians always glorify in campaign speeches, but conveniently forget once they win: the ordinary guy, just trying to get by.
Nonetheless, dang it, Hank is getting by OK.
And so is "King of the Hill."
Co-created by "Beavis & Butt-head" mastermind Mike Judge (who also furnishes Hank's voice) the show premiered with dim prospects. Only two prime-time animated series before it had been hits: "The Simpsons" (then already 7 years old) and "The Flintstones" (which premiered way back in 1960).
What were the odds for this newcomer succeeding? Not only was it a cartoon, but its setting and style were even more reined-in than the typical live-action sitcom.
And what of Hank and the other denizens of quiet, if quirky, Arlen? These characters weren't tailored for the viewer to relate to, exactly. Nor were they engineered as joke machines. Instead, they came across as comfortably familiar -- acting like real folks just might act.
As Hank is fond of saying, "I'll tell you what." Against the odds, that's what his show continues to do.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Behind The Scenes At King of the Hill: All Hail the Kingmakers
Courier-Mail, January 15, 1998
By Mark Nollinger
SPRAWLED around a conference room on the fourth floor of a Los Angeles skyscraper one recent afternoon, executive producer Greg Daniels and half a dozen writers on King of the Hill are taking their first crack at revising a new script.
It's mid-spring, and the episode in question isn't scheduled to go to air until Christmas. But time is of the essence. King of the Hill -- created by Daniels, former Simpsons co-executive producer, and Mike Judge, the brain behind Beavis and Butt-head -- is an animated show, and animation is complicated. Animation is demanding. Animation, as Judge puts it, is a big hassle. A look behind the scenes bears this out. Each episode's 22 minutes of animation -- the actual running time of a half-hour show -- takes nine months and about $1 million to create.
Written in Century City, Los Angeles, recorded in West Los Angeles, drawn in North Hollywood, and animated in South Korea, the series is a logistical nightmare. By the time the script being dissected today hits the air, 300 writers, producers, animators, actors, editors and others will have had a hand in bringing put-upon propane salesman Hank Hill to life.
Like most editions of King of the Hill, the Christmas episode grew out of brainstorming sessions.
The premise: Hank's mother, Tilly, brings her Jewish boyfriend to visit for the holidays and Hank goes blind after walking in on them making love. This idea was jotted down on an index card, where it languished alongside dozens of others on the conference-room wall until it fired the imagination of executive story editor Paul Lieberstein.
Though Lieberstein finished the script a week ago, the writers have been too busy to look at it until today.
As Daniels leads the group in reading through the material and hashing out the story points, flurries of inspiration are balanced by moments of utter silence.
The risque description of the senior-citizen sex scene stops the producer cold. "We can't do this," Daniels flatly declares. "We need to find a way to have adults know what's going on but have kids see something else."
But his biggest problem is with the boyfriend's character. "He's just so boring," says Daniels, "and Hank's reaction is so muted."
The meeting breaks up without a resolution. The writers have two days to revise the script before the first read-through with the cast.
On Friday morning, the voice actors, studio execs, and assorted staff trickle into the production office. It turns out that the writers worked on it until 5am: "That's a record for us," writer and co-executive producer Brent Forrester admits. "It's come a long way."
Everyone grabs scripts and sits around a conference table. A speakerphone emits the voice of actress Pamela Segall (Bobby Hill), who's at home after recently giving birth.
Then Judge's face appears on a computer monitor -- he'll be playing Hank Hill via video link from his office in Austin, Texas.
The reading commences, and it's quickly apparent that the writers' all-nighter has paid off. They've made a number of changes, adding new scenes and redefining the characters of Tilly and her boyfriend. The sex scene, re-worked as a montage of body parts, elicits huge laughs.
The reaction is positive -- the writers only have to make some minor revisions. So the following Wednesday -- five days later -- the actors and staff gather again, this time in a basement studio on the Fox lot. But there's a new problem: Kathy Najimy (minor car accident), Brittany Murphy (shooting a movie), and Segall (busy with baby) won't be coming in, so the writers will have to stand in for the actors.
Meanwhile the animators' work is just beginning. They have six months to turn the script and soundtrack into a living, breathing cartoon. "It's insane," director Klay Hall says of the schedule, which has him working many 18-hour days.
The initial step in animating the material is small, very small. "First, we make thumbnail sketches to get the jokes across and figure out the staging," director Tricia Garcia explains. The rough ideas are then transferred to storyboards, a series of panels that map out the essential shots and poses in each scene. This takes about five weeks.
The artists devote another five weeks to cleaning up the panels and sketching more character poses to flesh out the acting. The drawings -- about 2000 of them -- are then enlarged, scanned into a computer, and combined with the dialogue track. The resulting "animatic" -- a skeletal, black-and-white rendering of the episode that resembles a talking, moving comic strip -- is presented to the writers for feedback.
Animatic in hand, the artists spend the next five weeks making additional changes to reflect script revisions and new voice recordings, as well as finishing up the final sketches. Once they're done, the artists ship a package containing the voice track, guideline drawings, and directions for camera moves to Seoul, South Korea, where the animators -- who generally don't speak English -- will have three months to finish drawing and colouring the episode.
"When it goes out of here, it has to be foolproof," says Hall. "(The Korean artists) need to be able to animate the joke without necessarily understanding it themselves. You hope and pray that (what you get back) is what you sent out."
Once the episode returns from South Korea -- a little more than a month before it airs -- one of the show's composers goes to work on the music; the sound-effects department jazzes up the soundtrack and an editor whittles the show down to 22 minutes.