Fox is in early talks to reboot the popular animated blue-collar comedy series King of the Hill for the era of Donald Trump’s presidency, says chairman and CEO of Fox Television Group Dana Walden.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday during a Television Critics Association panel, Walden said she’d like to “revisit” the reboot conversation she had with show creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge — especially given the country’s current political environment.
“We have had preliminary conversations with Greg and Mike and I would like to explore that,” Walden said.
“We had a very preliminary conversation given what’s going on in the country I think they had a point of view about how those characters would respond. Again, it was one meeting and I would hope to revisit it,” she added.
Mike Judge, co-creator of the Fox cartoon series “King of the Hill,” poses in front of an illustration of Hank Hill, the animated character he voices, in this Oct. 28, 2002, file photo made in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ric Francis, FILE)
The Texas-based comedy series, centered around a middle-class family and their beer-chugging neighbors, picked up two Emmy awards during its 13-season run from 1997 to 2010.
Voice actors included Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Johnny Hardwick, Stephen Root, and Brittany Murphy.
Walden was sure to stress that while Judge is currently a co-showrunner on HBO’s Silicon Valley and while Daniels is executive producing TBS’ People of Earth, exploring a King revival is “about finding time.”
“They’re both very busy, and it was really just a first exploratory [discussion] — ‘Are you excited about this? Is there potential in a future?’,” she said. “And they were both excited about it, but they’re working on a lot of different things individually, so it’s about finding time.”
If a King of the Hill Revival happened at Fox, it would follow the network’s latest reboots, including The X-Files, 24, and Prison Break.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson