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King of the Hill's Texas

DS9forever

DS9forever

Commodore
Commodore
I've been rewatching King of the Hill and I was wondering what people's take would be on this. Full disclosure, I'm from the UK and only know Texas through films and television, and the news.

My point is, KOtH presents the Texans in the show as hard-working, church-going people. Good people, good Christians.

That isn't the view I get from Texas now. It seems to have slid back to the bad old days of ultra-Conservatives thinking that everyone should think like them and live in the year 1620. Mike Judge has teased a reboot of KOtH, with an older Bobby, but I wonder if the ship has sailed on Mike Judge's view of Texas. Was his view ever accurate?
 
Texas - is a big place and different parts of the state can be quite different. Different accents, food preferences (though Tex-Mex and Bar-B-Que are almost universal) and different attitudes.

Parts of Texas are "Conservative" (what I like to call "Conservatards") and parts are "Liberal" (some call them "Libtards") and there are people everywhere in between.

I haven't watched KotH in years and was never a massive fan (native Texan) so, I can't be sure the whole view is current or outdated anymore. I'm sure it shouldn't be taken as Gospel since it's a cartoon, and nothing done for entertainment is ever completely accurate to real life.

(Ministry of Silly Walks not withstanding...)
 
Having family in small town Texas, what KOtH's Arlen is, is pretty accurate. Mostly conservative, anti-Democrat, pro-Republican, in the small town my family is from HEAVILY Pro-tRUMP. People do sit or stand outside their houses and drink beer. Not Lone Star Beer, which Alamo Beer parodies. People in the southern, I'd say approximately 2/3rds of the state, do go into a panic at the slightest bit of snow fall. Luckily heavy, for us, snow fall which you might have seen on the news last year is rare. Dallas and the Northern 1/3rd get snow.

The Dallas Cowboys, are the heavily loved team in most of Texas, but the clues from the show put Arlen somewhere between Dallas and Houston which would be the Houston Texans' territory.

JirinPanthosa said:
I always saw it as being less about Texas and more a character study of an idealized old school American conservative confronted with a modernizing world.
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I would agree with that.

Not only would a reboot have to deal with the orange buffoon, but also the increasing anti-Mexico and Central American immigration sentiment, and the growing Hispanic population. which, except in the small towns and in rural areas along the border, are heavily Democratic. It would also have to deal with the fact that Texas is on the verge of change. More and more young people are voting and the state most likely will not remain Red by the end of the decade.

Born and in and lived in Texas my entire life.

I cut out a lot of what was going to post because it was becoming way to political. More so than what I've already posted.
 
King of the Hill is a relic of the time when politics wasn't a rooting blood sport that defined almost everything about one's identity, and people weren't pumping out details of that identity via social media. Things were starting to head in that direction, but in that universe you don't know about how someone else voted and you don't care much about knowing.

I heard an interview with Mike Judge once where Hank was categorized as "conservative," and Judge seemed kind of surprised by the question. He responded with something like "Yeah, I guess so, but I don't think of that much." And I felt the same way, it really never occurred to me. I suppose if I thought about it further, I would guess that Hank voted Republican or might be one of the old-school fiscally conservative southern Democrats. But it wasn't something that I really thought about, watching the show.

In a way this discussion ties in to one of the constants of the show: Hank sometimes makes assumptions or is confused about people from other backgrounds, and is always finding that honesty, decency, integrity, work ethic and so on are not unique to people just like him, his family and friends. These days I sometimes have to remind myself of that.
 
There was an episode where Hank was pretty committed to voting for W until he found out he had a limp handshake.

Nowadays Dale Gribble would be full on QAnon. And at the very least, Bill and Louanne would be big Trumpers just by their gregariousness and susceptibility to propaganda. And Boomhower might be driven in that direction by MeToo.

I would think Hank would be torn between his loyalty to the GOP and personal disdain for Trump’s open toxicity. And he’d be torn between liking his friends regardless of politics and seeing some of them bully each other.

At this point he’s definitely the manager of Strickland, right? No way Rod Strickland survived 20 more years. So he’d have to deal with, say, Roger Sac and Joe Jack bubbling over at each other on BLM issues. And Enrique being targeted by ICE.
 
DS9forever said:
That isn't the view I get from Texas now. It seems to have slid back to the bad old days of ultra-Conservatives thinking that everyone should think like them and live in the year 1620.
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Don't believe everything you read. The vocal minority of kooks are always the loudest and tend to make it seem like things are more extreme than they are in reality. And of course, the media/internet wants to make it seem like ideologies are on the verge of war and "It wasn't like this before."

There's nothing new under the sun. People always argued. People always disagreed. There's always been dissension that has been exploited by politicians.

Texas, like every other place, has its crazies but most people are calm, reasonable and even-handed. Yes, even the "rural" ones.
 
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ToddKent said:
Don't believe everything you read. The vocal minority of kooks are always the loudest and tend to make it seem like things are more extreme than they are in reality. And of course, the media/internet wants to make it seem like ideologies are on the verge of war and "It wasn't like this before."
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I don't know, "it wasn't like this before" seems pretty defensible to me. There were always kooks, yes, but there was one here, one across town, a few more in the next county... They could write a letter to the newspaper or call in to talk radio, but they couldn't readily get together and whip up each other's extreme ideas, and build up the illusion that their beliefs are widely shared and accepted. I don't see January 6 happening pre-social media.
 
DS9forever said:
I've been rewatching King of the Hill and I was wondering what people's take would be on this. Full disclosure, I'm from the UK and only know Texas through films and television, and the news.

My point is, KOtH presents the Texans in the show as hard-working, church-going people. Good people, good Christians.

That isn't the view I get from Texas now. It seems to have slid back to the bad old days of ultra-Conservatives thinking that everyone should think like them and live in the year 1620. Mike Judge has teased a reboot of KOtH, with an older Bobby, but I wonder if the ship has sailed on Mike Judge's view of Texas. Was his view ever accurate?
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No.
 
Vanyel said:
The Dallas Cowboys, are the heavily loved team in most of Texas, but the clues from the show put Arlen somewhere between Dallas and Houston which would be the Houston Texans' territory.
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When the show premiered, the Texans did not yet exist and the Oilers had just moved to Tennessee.

I always enjoyed the show, but didn't think it reflective of Texas just a generalized small town America that doesn't feel understood by its big city counterparts.
 
BillJ said:
When the show premiered, the Texans did not yet exist and the Oilers had just moved to Tennessee.

I always enjoyed the show, but didn't think it reflective of Texas just a generalized small town America that doesn't feel understood by its big city counterparts.
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Isn’t Arlen an amalgam of Arlington and Garlen?

There was an episode when the Texans were added where Hank was insisting they stay loyal to the Cowboys but Bill pointed out they would rarely play each other and they can root for both.

(I watched through it during COVID)
 
There's no way a reboot will work because Hank's even mild discomfort with stuff like CRT, BLM, AOC, Transgender athletes, etc. would cause the show to be branded as racist, sexist, transphobic, etc. And a Hank that isn't at least mildly uncomfortable with that stuff wouldn't be KotH. Similarly, a KotH that can't poke any fun at those types of topics wouldn't be KotH.
 
I always liked King of the Hill, as well as Judge’s other animated masterpiece, Beavis and Butthead (which also may take place in Texas.)

You could do a reboot with an adult Bobby, and still have crazy old Hank and his pals spouting their non-PC opinions in the alley over a cooler of Alamo.
 
the G-man said:
There's no way a reboot will work because Hank's even mild discomfort with stuff like CRT, BLM, AOC, Transgender athletes, etc. would cause the show to be branded as racist, sexist, transphobic, etc. And a Hank that isn't at least mildly uncomfortable with that stuff wouldn't be KotH. Similarly, a KotH that can't poke any fun at those types of topics wouldn't be KotH.
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I think you’re giving average liberal viewers too little credit here. Not all progressives are reactionary Fox News straw men or The Goode Family.

Hank may have been mildly uncomfortable about homosexuality but he was never personally disrespectful toward gay people. And was always able to empathetically see people’s humanity beyond his discomfort.

If anything KotH is the show we need right now to show conservatism with nuance, empathy and humanity and shake people out of their partisan trenches.
 
JirinPanthosa said:
I think you’re giving average liberal viewers too little credit here. Not all progressives are reactionary Fox News straw men or The Goode Family.

Hank may have been mildly uncomfortable about homosexuality but he was never personally disrespectful toward gay people. And was always able to empathetically see people’s humanity beyond his discomfort.

If anything KotH is the show we need right now to show conservatism with nuance, empathy and humanity and shake people out of their partisan trenches.
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I'm not talking about the average liberal viewer. I'm talking about the crazed twitterati and media influencers who feel overly slighted by everything and unfortunately seem to have outsized influence with too many production companies.
 
the G-man said:
I'm not talking about the average liberal viewer. I'm talking about the crazed twitterati and media influencers who feel overly slighted by everything and unfortunately seem to have outsized influence with too many production companies.
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Why do we need to keep listening to them?

Let’s start being tolerant and universally respecting without being judgmental dicks to people who haven’t totally caught up yet. Viva La revolution!
 
the G-man said:
There's no way a reboot will work because Hank's even mild discomfort with stuff like CRT, BLM, AOC, Transgender athletes, etc. would cause the show to be branded as racist, sexist, transphobic, etc. And a Hank that isn't at least mildly uncomfortable with that stuff wouldn't be KotH. Similarly, a KotH that can't poke any fun at those types of topics wouldn't be KotH.
Click to expand...

I have to say that, as a liberal, King of the Hill is one of my favorite shows ever. If a new version handles the issues with care like the original did, I think they'd be fine.

Though I really am not interested in another go. It was great in its time.
 
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