No contest. “King of the Hill” rules.
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Of all the new shows this season, the Fox entry is clearly the class of the field; a bona fide hit.
And yet, when Greg Daniels, a former “Simpsons” writer, teamed with animator Mike Judge of “Beavis and Butt-head” fame to create “King of the Hill,” they were certain of one thing: “The only shot this show has is if it doesn’t feel like `The Simpsons’ and look like `Beavis and Butt-head,’ ” said Daniels, a two-time Emmy winner.
“Mike has a style that I like to write in,” Daniels said. “It’s kind of observational and realistic, yet with kind of an underground feel.”
Thus came the Hills of Arlen, Texas: Hank, a propane salesman; Peggy, wife, mother, substitute teacher; utterly average son Bobby; and C-average beauty-school-student niece Luanne.
“It doesn’t have to be set in Texas. It could be in Queens, or Indiana. It’s more of a class of people, a kind of personality,” said Daniels, a former New Yorker. “If you get past the accents, New Yorkers and Texans have a lot in common, especially a sense of themselves as something special.
“They also have in common a hatred of California.”
Judge, who lives in Austin, Texas, and Daniels, a reluctant Los Angeleno, have that in common too.
“This is kind of a populist show, looking on the bright side of good, common sense that’s in your average American family,” Daniels said. “It’s a bit more conservative than most families on TV, without saying that it’s right-wing.
“It is set in Ross Perot territory.”
What nobody expected is that “King” would be the bright light of Fox’s season, becoming the first show ever to follow “The Simpsons” and get better ratings. Already picked up for a second season, “King” recently finished 16th. That same week, “The Simpsons,” which airs just before it at 7 Sunday nights, was No. 29.
Madison Avenue TV analyst Steve Sternberg of BJK&E Media said there’s a simple reason for its success: “It’s a funny show, well done, different from virtually anything else, and it’s the first thing they’ve ever had that’s compatible with `The Simpsons.’ “
“King of the Hill” also avoided a mistake that has killed off other animated prime-time series. “They either get a good animator but don’t get the highest-quality writers, or they try to do it without a visual person,” Daniels said. ” `The Critic’ was a very funny show, but it didn’t have a Matt Groening (`Simpsons’ creator) to give it an overall look. . . . When you can pull it off, it looks very different from any other show. It has a style, a look that it’s its own world, different from any other.”