January 27, 2023 • 30 mins
Our "King of the Hill" podcast has finally arrived! Thanks to everyone who has requested we start this show, we couldn't be more excited for you all to join us on this journey through the series. NOTE: Due to a previous show already claiming the "That Pod Ain't Right" title, we thought it was the most practical option to change the name. Therefore, we shall now be known as "SpeaKing Of The Hill"! Please remember this is a show for every "King of the Hill" fan, so we want YOU to get involved. We'd love as much listener interaction as possible, so remember to contact us via kingofthehillmailbag@gmail.com The Four Finger Discount Network is completely crowd-funded and produces several podcasts each week, so we'd love your support on Patreon, and in return you'll get over 100 hours of exclusive content! Join the FFD family today at patreon.com/fourfingerdiscount CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS: Four Finger Discount - fourfingerdiscount.podbean.com Talking Seinfeld - talkingseinfeld.podbean.com Goin' Down To South Park - goindowntosouthpark.podbean.com The One About Friends - friendspodcast.podbean.com
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Speaking of the Hill is brought toyou by the four Finger Discount Network.
What you're listening to, son,how think you like it? Welcome to
the very first episode of Speaking ofthe Hill, Australia's only King of the
Hill podcast. And I'm going tobe honest, I've been wanted to do
this show for a long long time, but as a silly Australian I just
wasn't sure whether there was even ademand for this show or whether there was
(00:21):
anyone out there willing to listen tous talk about King of the Hill.
But boy was I wrong. I'msuper pumped, I'm super excited but finally
doing it. I am Dando andI am guy and I echo everything my
man Dano just said. I thinkthroughout the other shows that we do on
the four Finger discoun Network, whetherwe're talking about The Simpsons or about South
Park or Seinfeld, King of theHill will occasionally come up because it's around
(00:45):
that time, around that era,and you know, it's an animated comedy,
and and every time we've talked aboutit, there's been a really great
response from our many many listeners.They say, yeah, no, it's
a fantastic show and we'd love tohear you guys talk about it. Yeah,
yeah, and it really surprised mebecause honestly, he's obviously Simpsons were
huge when I was growing up.I'm currently thirty four Simpsons in the nineties
that was my like peak Simpsons era, and I just feel like King of
(01:10):
the Hill in Australia because I knowin the United States and wherever in the
UK was very, very popular,but in Australia it always felt like it
was living in the shadow of theSimpsons. And it came out, but
I think about two years prior towhen Family Guy in the Future Army came
around and for a while there becauseit ed on Fox Out here in Australia.
That's where I first discovered the show. On Fox Out. I'm not
exactly sure what TV station and commercialstation it aired, but I remember they
(01:32):
sort of used to tag it alongwith the Simpsons, you know, after
before the Simpsons. I think itwas five thirty every week night you'd get
King of the Hill, and I, for some reason, nine year old
me just never really gravitated towards it. I remember being on I looked at
it and I was like, thisdoesn't look this looks too real. It
doesn't look Simon, doesn't look cartoonnear enough. I think I watched like
maybe five minutes of it and Iwent, I don't I don't get this.
(01:53):
It was too It's almost too subtlefor me. I needed more Simpsons.
Not that Simpsons is in your face, but it's compared to King of
the I was definitely in your face. But then I think, yeah compared
to mostly yeah, yeah, exactlylike King of the Hill. But you
watched now as an adult and it'slike, holy shit, how did I
go so long with it watching this? So basically I posted on our Twitter
at four finger Pod a few daysago saying, I almost feel guilty,
(02:15):
but I've never watched King of theHill. Twenty six years later since it
ed, I've never watched it.And I think I put it down to
it was always hard to find oncommercial TV in Australia, and I remember
when it finally came to the streamingservice Disney Plus here in Australia earlier this
year. I was like, well, now I've got a reason to watch
this. And because we've been gettingasked for all these years, do a
King of the Hill podcast? Doa King of the Hill podcast? I
(02:37):
was like, yeah, but ifyou can't access it in Australia, and
a big portion about audience as Australian. If you can't access it, what's
the point in doing a watch along, you know, if the people can't
watch it along with you. Butnow that it's on Disney Plus, we
can all watch it along together.So that gave me the final little incentive
to go all right, let's dothis. And plus that Twitter post sort
of put me over the line aswell. But it was always a show
(02:58):
that was never really that popular inAustralia, it felt, and by the
time Futurama and Family Guy came out, it was almost like it became the
forgotten animated show. Whenever you sawanimation domination, it was always like,
oh, yeah, you know Futurama, Family Guy, Simpson's and King of
the Hill. Yeah, this isa very low key show in terms of
(03:19):
a sense of human terms of thepresentation. You're very Correcommend says, it's
not in your face at all.It's just it sneaks under the radar.
But honestly, having watched a fewepisodes now, and I mean I've seen
bits and pieces over the years,but yeah, it was never really show
that I paid much attention due despitethe fact that it's got a really great
pedigree. I mean, it's gotsome really great people attached to it.
It just felt like one of thoseones where I was like, I'll get
(03:42):
to that. I'll get to thisone of these days, exactly. It's
like that. Not that I didn'twant to, it was just like,
when I do start watching this,I'm probably gonna binish the shit out of
it, so I want to makesure I've got the time, and doing
this podcast it gives me a reasonas well. I'm just really excited to
finally stick my teeth into this showlike it. Just as I said,
I've watched the first half of seasonone now already, and yeah, it's
just it's definitely a show that Ican't believe it's taking me twenty six years
(04:05):
to watch. I'm feeling much thesame in all I see. I haven't
watched as many episodes as you yet, but I've watched a few, and
yeah, it's just got this reallydry sense of you. And I know
that sounds like, oh, well, go, you're really selling it,
but no, I mean, ifyou're on its wavelength, you'll, yeah,
you'll just binge it like like Pringles, Yeah, just like, oh
(04:27):
man, this is so enjoyable,you know, and yeah, funny,
funny as I was honestly surprised becausebut then I shouldn't have been because look
at the cast and Luke who createdit. Yeah, it's created by Mike
Judge, who's you know, thegradder of Beavers and butt Head and Greg
Daniels as well, and Greg Danielsfrom the Office. Yeah, so he
also who also actually worked on TheSimpsons prior to King of the Hill that
(04:50):
as well. So, yeah,this is a this is quality programming.
And yeah, DANDL and I havebeen dopes for not checking it out before
now, but we now intend to, and not only that, we're going
to talk about it. Yeah.So we want this show to be there's
two ways. There's two angles tothis show. Basically, it's we're essentially
(05:10):
watching this show for the first time. So I want the vibe discovering it.
Yeah, yeah, we discovery.So I want the vibe of the
show to kind of be like apodcast that's coming out in real time.
When King of the Hill first cameout, it's almost like it's a podcast
that launches in nineteen ninety seven.There will be times when we try to
guess what's going to be happening inthe future with future storylines, and we're
going to be wrong. Don't getangry at us. It's just watching it
(05:30):
from but it was watching the showessentially for the first time. But we
want this podcast to be a podcastfor you guys, the fans, because
there are so many King of theHill fans out there and we want this
to be your show, and wewant each episode to include as much listener
interaction as possible. We want youguys to be writing in let us know
what you love about the episodes andwhat you want us to talk about on
the podcast. We want to hearfrom as many of you as possible.
(05:53):
And the mailbag for this show isKing of the Hill Mailbag at gmail dot
com. Simply is that King ofthe Hill Mailbag at gmail dot com.
Yeah, So, before we gowe start talking about what this show is
going to be, guy, let'sdiscuss who we are. So. I
am Brendan Dando, creator and cohost of the four Finger Discount Network.
I launched this network with a previousco host back in twenty fifteen. We
(06:15):
started off as just doing a Simpsonspodcast, and it just took off and
I didn't expect it to become whatit became. And we since spawned other
shows under the name four Finger Discount. We've got Talking Seinfeld, the one
about Friends, which I do withmy wife Nicola. We've got Going down
to South Park. Plus we alsodo Patreon exclusive moview reviews and a future
Rummer podcast exclusively on our Patreon aswell. This is all crowdfunded. This
(06:39):
network we try not doing we haven't. We don't include sponsor ads at all.
It's all brought to you by youguys, so we would really appreciate
if you guys are fancy King ofthe Hill and you want to help support
this network. You can join thefamily at at patreon dot com slash Fourth
Finger Discount link is in the descriptionof this podcast, and basically there you'll
get access to a bunch of exclusivepodcasts each month. You get access to
(07:00):
our exclusive Facebook community where you getto banter with Guy myself every single day
where there we're on there every singleday. You get monthly zoom chats with
myself and Guy. I'm gonna getmonthly prize draws, and yeah, like
I said, the exclusive podcast andand just and so much more. For
as little as one single dollar amonth, you can get access to that
Facebook community just one single dollar permonth, and all the support really goes
(07:20):
a long way to help and keepin this network going. I was fortunate
enough to quit my full time offthis job last August to focus on this
podcast, on this podcast network.So the more support we get, the
more I can help it grow.So that's basically who I am. Guy.
Tell all the listeners who you are, because you are when it comes
to movie and TV, you arelike the man You've got thirty years experience,
(07:41):
So tell us, tell us whoyou are. Thank you, Dando.
And I'm not being me when Icall on Dando. The first time
I met Brendan Dano, he said, call me Dando. I'm like,
but your name is Brenda, callme Dando. I think I said,
call me Dando, ma fucker.It was like, call me Dana,
bitch, Yeah, yes, yestoo. Um, my name is Guy
Davis. And I have been fortunateenough to be the co host of four
(08:05):
Finger Discount and some of its othershows such as Talking Steinfeld, Going Down
to South Park, Tales of Futurama, the movie guys, reviews, and
a few other bits and pieces thatwe put together for the last few years.
How many years you've been doing thisfor three years now year? Three
years? Yeah, Yeah, beenone of the great joys of my life
(08:26):
to be talking popular culture with hima man here. But before doing that,
I was a film and TV journalist, reviewer, interviewer, profile,
all that kind of bits. Didthat for a couple of decades. Actually
for you could pay for thirty yearsto disco. It's stanks A's thanks.
That was it. Little live knownfact. Yes, the critic is actually
(08:50):
based on me, but no,I was a yeah, entertainment reporter.
I guess you'd call it for anumber of newspapers and websites around the country
and indeed around the world. SoI'd like to think I know what I'm
talking about when it comes to thiskind of stuff. Although having said that,
King of the Hill was a blindspot for me, but we're here
(09:11):
to rectify that now and hopefully Ican bring my years of experience in analyzing
and talking about film television to thisparticular podcast. That pod ain't right.
Yes, So, like we said, this show is going to be for
you. King of the Hill fans. We're gonna be putting a lot of
all of our efforts going to begoing into the show. We really want
to make sure this is a showthat King of the Hill fans love.
(09:33):
So please write in King of theHill mail Bag at gmail dot com.
We want to hear from you.What are your favorite memories of the show.
What do you think of when youthink of King of the Hill.
How did it impact your life?Because we've got some great responses from our
patrons, and our asked our patronsin our exclusive Facebook community today, look
what does King of the Hill meanto you? And we've got some really
cool stories of how the show helpedthem connect with other family members and things
(09:56):
like that. So we'll get intothat later on in the mail bag.
But here though, today I wantedto get into basically, what are your
memories of King of the Hill.So I've said for myself, I remember
when this new show came around,I was always Simpson, Simpson, Simpson,
Simpsons. It was always Simpsons andSouthpark hadn't started yet in Australia,
so this new animated series was gettingwas sort of getting a few promos here
(10:16):
and there. King of the Hillscoming King of the Hills coming, and
I was like, okay, cool, whatever. And I was never allowed
to watch Beavis and but as kid, I was too young. Mums like,
that's just not happening, So that'sfine. So I wasn't really sure
of I wasn't really aware of myjudge and kind stuff. I was too
young for all of that. ThenKing of the Hill started. I remember,
I think I might have watched likemaybe the first episode, a little
bit of it, and just straightaway I just went, I just don't
(10:37):
know what I'm watching here. Ijust get confused. Me and I lost
touch pretty quickly, and I justI never really got back into it as
a result, and that's a shameon me for doing so. But it
just wasn't really a show that myfriends were watching. You never really saw
it promoted all that much on television. It just wasn't a show that people
were talking about in Australia. Andit was really surprising because you think the
(10:58):
older audience would have would have reallyenjoyed this because for so long you'd had
to Simpson shove down your throats,and all of a sudden, this other
animation came around in primetime that wasmore subtle and more adult, I guess
you could say, but it justnever seemed to grow or become a huge
hit in Australia. So you workingin TV and film reviewing at the time,
can you remember when it first premiered, whether the people were talking about
(11:18):
it? What was the go No? I think it was. Yeah,
it flew under the radar a fairbit in Australia. We were trying to
recall which station it actually aired on, and I'm trying was it Channel seven?
Was it ten? I'm not Channelseven seems to come to mind.
I've sort of summary seeing my Channelseven for some reason. Yeah. Yeah,
but it strikes me as odd actuallythat you know, it never really
(11:41):
caught in Australia or caught on asmuch as it should, because it strikes
me as having a bit of anAustralian sense of humor. And then there's
very sort of laid back and laconicand kind of what's the word I'm looking
for traditional? I think it's youknow, it's what we've seen, or
what I've seen so far, ismainly about Hank Hill and Peggy trying to
sort of come to terms with anever changing world, and you know,
(12:05):
they're but they're fairly sort of straightlaced, straight up and down people,
and you know there's a whole bunchof strange stuff going. There's not really
strange, it's just you know,live and scary to them, fear of
scary to them. Absolutely, yeah, I think it's mainly Bissona a little
Bobby. Yeah. So I don'tthink it's really was a high profile kind
(12:26):
of title. Then it was releasedback in the back in the late nineties.
But when the more you hear aboutit, and clearly the people who
dig it really really dig it.It's it's certainly a cult classic kind of
a show. It's almost like,for example, we know when you get
a band before they're becoming big enough. I mentioned Kings of leone on a
recent podcast, and it was awhile. There were the first two or
so albums for two or three albumswhere it was like it was cool,
just so oh you like Kings ofLeon two, and then like Sex and
(12:50):
Fire came out and I was like, ah, every one, my mum
likes Kings of Leon now, solike King of the Hill never really felt
like that show that everyone was talkingabout. So when someone did, if
you were a fan of it andsomeone else was talking about it. I
was like, oh, you're mykind of person. Yeah, And you
weren't going to find people who weregoing to be like King of the Hills
are I mean people are going tobe talking about it. They were invariably
going to be saying, there's theshow you should be watching. It's pretty
(13:11):
good. Yeah. They either lovedit or they were just indifferent they had
never watched it. Yeah. Yeah, So I think obviously if you listened
to the show, you're going tobe a fan of King of the Hill.
But there could also be a portionof you out there listening there who
also have never really watched the show, and you're going to be going on
this chronological journey along with us.So with us, jomp on board,
everybody, boys and girls and joyand take flight with us as we revisit
(13:35):
as we I guess you just say, visit King of the Hill for the
very first time as we go takea trip to Ireland. But yeah,
so my memories are basically I don'treally have all that many. I remember
it being like a show that Iwould see like the last five minutes of
or whatever, as I was waitingfor The Simpsons to start. It was
never a show that I went outof my way to watch. But before
we wrap up today, because itwas just our a little welcome show,
I want to sort of get intoa little history on how King of the
(13:56):
Hill came together Cluse, It's like, it's it's a really interesting story,
a really interesting show when you knowall the ins and outs and how it
came to be in it. Itwas almost cancel that it wasn't canceling.
It was almost canceled that it wasn'tcanceled, and Might Judges said they're currently
working on potentially a revival. Soit's all very exciting in the world of
King of the Hill the moment.But basically, Mike Judge, when Beavers
and butt Head was like at itspeak, was he like the trade Parker
(14:18):
Matt Stone off the early nineties.Well, here's the thing. I mean,
Beavers and but Head was so incrediblypopular, but it was also kind
of not a dirty little secret.But it's like, I don't think people
recognize how kind of sneakily smart itwas because it was just that people were
just that's all people remember. That'sall I remembered as a kid, was
just a there's two guys just makingsounds. Yeah. Yeah, So I
(14:39):
think you're going to probably look ata show like that and look at the
guy who made it and go,well, kind of a one tree pony,
you know, he's just channeling hisown in a dirt bag or whatever.
There's not really much more to itthan that. Of course, you
know, time has shown us thatMike Judge a bit of a comic genius,
you know, whether it's coming upwith of the Hill or making movies
(15:01):
like Idiocracy or Office Space, youknow, stuff that's really kind of era
defining and really sort of generational comedythat people just really latch onto and find
so much in and they're happy torewatch rewatch, rewatch it or que quite
quote or name me meme. Andthey're also movies those two particularly you named
that. You never really saw themon posters everywhere or whatever, but you
(15:22):
watch it and you're like, howis no one talking about this movie?
This movie is fucking great. Likeit's the same with the same with like
King of the Hill. You're saying, if you saw a king, if
you were a King of the Hillfan and you found another one, you
knew you're gonna best friends, samewith people. It's what I remember Idiocracy.
When I first watched it, Iwould have been I name my late
teens. I immediately just went tomy friends, have you seen this movie?
Like you have to watch this movie. I hired this on a on
(15:43):
a chance from the video shop.I can't believe it's taking me this long
too. I can't believe I hadn'tseen it before. Now, like Idiocricy
is just I love that movie.It's amazing and say yeah. And same
with Office Space, I mean yeah, I don't. I don't know how
much money either of these movies made. I don't think Idiocracy made much money
at all. I don't think so. But it's really just become part of
the part of the vocabulary and alllongest, I mean, not much time
(16:06):
goes by without saying, oh mygod, we're living in Idiocracy, or
you know, sort of quoting stufffrom Office Space when you're talking about how
shit your job is or whatever.Whenever you hate your job. Now you're
just quite office Space, do younot? Pretty much? So I'm looking
to hear the budget for Oh shit, So Idiocracy budget was two point four
million, only made four hundred ninetyfive thousand oh good good, that's not
(16:29):
great. No, not at all. But is that due to marketing?
Look, how does a film thatgood not get people going like it's just
it's is it just too? Isit ahead of its time? I think
it was the same, was it? It was it a case of people
just weren't ready for a show orweren't ready for a movie like that yet,
what's the what's the or just youknow, not for everybody. M
that's true, you know, sometimesthe case. Yeah, but sometimes things
(16:52):
clip like Beavers and Budded you wouldn'tthink would be for everybody, but it
seemed to be, didn't it fora well, not for everybody, not
for the parents out there, butbut it caught with enough people who then
sort of amplified it and yeah,gave it volume via yeah, via social
media or whatever or just you know, well, prior to social media,
we're probably just warring beavers and buttheadT shirts or yeah, I remember,
(17:15):
just when I was growing up,Beavers and butthead it was almost like the
mad Magazine of TV. It wasjust it was just cool to be to
say that you'd watched it. Butyeah, so my judge, though he
know the career he's had. Heoriginally was just he was studying physics.
He got a physics degree in theeighties, and he quickly realized that science
was not a career for him,very boring. Wasn't interested at all.
And then he went to like thisconvention for like an animation convention, and
(17:38):
he was, you know, takingit back. He's like, well,
this is care So he went andmade two short films himself, animated films,
one of them being just some slobwatching infomercials and the other one being
off the space. It was calledOffice Space and it starred Milton and he
only he said, he made itaround fifteen copies of each one, and
he just set them out to variousstudios and he wasn't even expecting a response.
And then about two weeks later hewas getting all these responses saying,
(18:00):
Hey, we want to meet upwith you, blah blah blah. And
he said about that time, hewas about twenty seven. He thought I
had done this sooner, but hey, at least he did it. And
from then on he then made FrogBaseball, the short film starring beavers and
butthead in ninety two, and that'swhere Mike Judge just became my judge.
Once Beaverson Budd was out, thatwas it. Yeah, and by the
way, we're also living at SiliconValley, which he creates. Yeah,
(18:21):
obviously that was after The King ofthe Hill. But yeah, yeah,
they have stuff this guy's done.The guy is sort of knocking him out
of the park a fair bit.Yeah. He did The Good Family as
well, which wasn't a huge hit, but Silicon Valley obviously critically acclaimed that
show. Yeah, but yeah,so once Bad Beavers and Butthead came out
to the world by storm. Hewas then approached by Fox to make an
(18:41):
animation show that would follow The Simpsons, and he had this idea for King
of the Hill. Basically, Kingof the Hill was born from he was
living with his wife at the timein Richardson, Dallas, and he said
to get into the houses there,he had to go down an alleyway and
he said there would be always thesefour guys out in the early way just
drinking beer's. Basically it was Boomholler, Bill Dale and Hank just out in
(19:03):
this un in this alleyway. Andhe said one day there was a storm
and had wrecked his back fence andhe said, I'm not very handy,
as like yourself and myself not handyat all. And he said it was
a case of yet to go thereand try and look at this fence.
And he's going to fix this fence. And he could almost like feel these
guys looking at him, but they'rejudging him. Is it to say this
guy doesn't know what he's doing?And he said this, the hank of
(19:23):
the crew walked over and he's like, oh, you know, you should
be you and this kind of thing, giving him advice, and eventually just
got to the point where they're likeone of them got a wheelbarrow and one
of them got this, and theyall sort of just built He said,
I just sort of sat back andwent inside. And his wife was like,
what are they doing? Like,they're just fixing our fence for us.
But that's what that's where he gotthe idea for the King the Hill.
These four guys that used to livein the alleyway in which he lived
(19:45):
and yees, so they asked himto create the show. So he got
gave him King of the Hill.And now the original King of the Hill
was not the King of the Hillthat we now No one loved it was
very different. It was suggested theybring in Greg Daniels from The Simpsons,
and Greendin was came on board.And it's been said that Judge he brought
the humor to the show, butDaniels he provided the substance and the character
development that as a combination was perfectfor what King of the Hill would go
(20:07):
and become what it needed to be. He also added characters like Luanne and
Cotton and things like that. Buthe has said Daniels that he didn't want
to change Hank. Knew Hank waslike right the way he was, but
he knew the world around him hadto change. So that's what he focused
on, making this world around Hankeasier for for the writing team to create
comedy out of. And yeah,so basically he made Day or the Other
(20:29):
conspiracy theorists and things like that.So Judge was so impressed with the changes
that Daniels brought to the to thescript that he didn't just give them the
consultant gig. He made him cocreator. And that's it doesn't get any
better than that. Like someone likeMike Jeff says, no, you didn't
just help me with this, youare now creating this with me, so
he built it, built it.And because it takes at the time,
(20:52):
it took nine months for an episodeto go from being started to being made
and going on the air, theyknew they didn't have enough time. They
asked for a pitch of the show. Fox did, and they thought,
we're not just going to go inthere and talk. What we're gonna do
is going to create a two tothree minute what they called a pencil test,
and and featured It did feature thatthe three friends, but they didn't
really have that much of a ofan appearance. But mainly it was just
(21:12):
hosted by Hank and he was pitchingthe idea of the show to to the
well, mister mctoy, and I'dsay, y'all got the makings of a
damn good cartoon here. I mean, you got my wife Peggy, and
I'm real proud of my boy Bobbybecause he hu well, because he's my
boy. And Lune's living with usnow. She'll probably be real good for
(21:36):
ratings the way she dresses. Oh, and I got some ideas for advertisers,
if you put us on the air. Trucks, pork crimes. We
need a lot of those in ourhouse. Barbecue sauce, Jensen's blood doughballs.
That's a fishing bait. You don'twant to eat those. Very different,
very clever and apparently worked like achime because I got signed on straight
(21:57):
away. And yeah, so it'sjust it's just really interesting how how this
show that was just like spawn fromthese guys that was hanging out in his
back fence, but like there's nothingreally too. How do you pitch King
of the Hill to people. It'sjust a guy that lives with his family
and he just lives his life.It's just just an everyday guy be mused
by modern life or we have bewilderedmy modern life in an ear that's filled
(22:18):
with Jerry Springer and all this otheristthat. Yeah, extreme hardcore of the
late nineties really were to pitch.This show took balls, in my opinion.
But when you've got when you gotthe credit that it builds up with
beavers and butt head, you canunderstand why they went with him anyway.
Absolutely. Yeah. Plus, youknow, I think we should talk a
bit about the cast as well,because I mean my judge, of course
(22:41):
provides provides some of the voices tosome of the characters, primarily hang Hill
of course, but you've got PamelaAdlin there, who's probably the scenes stealer,
probably the most valuable player, voicinglittle Bobby Hill. And just you
know, Pamela Adlin's gone on tohave great scashy at her own show Better
Things, that's just wrapped up afterfive seasons. But you know, I
(23:03):
think this is one of the rolesthat really really made her. The late
great Brittany Murphy in there as louAnn. But you know, there's an
incredible array of guest stars as well. I mean, you had Alan Rickman
in there at some stage, youhad Tom Petty, had Johnny Knoxville coming
on board, Willie Nelson's in thefourth episode, Oh my god, the
(23:23):
great Tammy Winnett, yeah, iscoming up in there. So yeah,
it's an incredible uh, just aarray of talent voicing these characters and doing
just a terrific job with it.I mean, and Judge himself just is
fantastic as Hank. I wonder ifSeth McFarlane looked at this and went,
maybe I should do this as well, because when you want a character to
(23:47):
be a certain way. Mike saidhe never really planned to be Hank,
but you sort of became Hank.And I think if you are voicing the
character, A, you've got thepower behind you, because the show can't
exists with at you anymore, sothat the station cakit withview like I guess
they could, but they probably won'tat this point. And B you can
make sure that the character is portrayedin the way that you exactly well,
(24:07):
because sometimes it can be hard toexplain what you want this character to be.
But um but yeah, because Sethmcfarund the exact same thing. He
voiced characters on Family Guy and thenTrey and Matt obviously Sleeps South Buck as
well, they basically voiced the show. Um but there was there's just so
many people that, like he's saying, Brittany Murphy, they said that when
she did Luanne, which she auditioned, everyone else was making her this ditzy,
(24:29):
dumb blonde right where she while sheis dizzy, she was more like
a happy, joyous kind of dizzyas opposed to dumb blonde, you know
what I mean. So though,like Brittany was always going to get the
role. But we can't miss StephenRoot of course from Office Space. Even
Milton Milton He's the reason that mightJudge's career even kicked off in the first
lot Stephen Root but their character.But he played Milton in Office Space,
(24:51):
and then he goes on to playBill. Um. He originally auditioned for
Dale, apparently, but he knewBill was a better fit. And he
said that he did the audition forBill over the phone, and he said
there was a bit of a pauseafter he did that the audition. After
he did his role, Judge justdoes the Hank voice and goes as finally
as it could be, and hewas like, well, I think I've
got the role then, So hegot the job. But yeah, but
let's not forget Kathin to Jimmy asPeggy. True learn too many nineties kids
(25:17):
as the wacky nun and sister actvery much focus. True. You know,
I've never seen Hokus Pocus never neverhave. Wow, there's another one
to add to the movie Guys podcast. I think we might have to Yeah,
yeah, maybe around Halloween time.Yeah, but yeah, she's I
think without her it doesn't work.Really brings heart to the show because the
(25:37):
dynamic between Hank and Peggy really iswhat keeps people around. I think,
like you got the comedy from Bobbyand think, I mean, the relationship
between Hank and Bobby's also very important. But I think in Peggy and Hank,
if you can't believe that relationship,the show doesn't work. No,
No, it provides a foundation.You're absolutely the right. But yes,
like I said, I'm just I'mso excited to finally delve into this years
(26:00):
and yeah, but thank you somuch guys for tuning into this little welcome
to the show. But it's goingto be a really hell of a good
time. Like I said, thisshow is going to be for you.
So we want you guys to getinvolved. Message us King of the hillmailbag
at gmail dot com. Tell uswhen we get to each episode, what
you love about the episode, askus questions about the episode. Just just
(26:22):
tell us what you love so muchabout King of the Hill. Plus,
we are looking for the biggest Kingof the Hill fans out there who want
to come on and be guest guestpodcasts, get guest hosts with us as
well. We want to We wantus to be the fan made King of
the Hill podcast. And like Isaid, we do do several other podcasts,
all available at four finger Discount dotcom Dot a fourth finger discount the
Simpsons podcast. It's been going foreight years. We're talking Seinfeld, the
(26:44):
one about friends going down to Southpark. Plus you can find the movie Guys,
as well as Tales of Futurama onour Patreon channel. And if you
do have a few dollary dues sparein your pocket each month, we would
love if you could help support thisshow. This network is crowdfunded. We
don't have any sponsorship ads in thepodcast, so we would really love if
you could support us here at fourfur discount, even if it's just one
dollar per month. If you alllistening right now supported us for a dollar
(27:07):
a month, it would really helpus grow. Like I said, I
quit my job last August, sowe really were banking on you guys to
help support and help fund this network. So thank you so much, guys,
once again fortuning in. You guysare absolute legends. You can find
all the links to all of ourshows and our Patreon in the description of
this podcast. But mister Davis,is there anything else you want to tell
the listeners out there before we beforewe let them go? Oh honestly that
(27:30):
just like Daniel, I'm really lookingforward to yeah, sink and my teeth
into the King of the Hill.Just based on what I've seen thus far,
it is very, very, veryenjoyable, and I'm looking forward to
talking about it with my mandana andwith all of you. Just an example
of some fan mail that we wantto hit from you guys. So I
said, we asked the patrons,and we said what does the show mean
to you? And this person here, Sadric Alfaro, says they figured out
(27:53):
how to play the theme song ontheir dad's guitar in midter school and it
convinced their father to get them theirown guitar. I'm like, that's awesome,
because let's not let's not full around. King of the Hill is one
of the greatest theme songs of alltime. I was remembered it as the
show that I never watched but haslike my favorite theme song. It's just
you hear it, You're like,I'm fucking set Like this has got me
going. I love the theme,so I'm the King of the Hill.
(28:15):
Another example here is like Andrew jpsis the fact that felt like a serious
comedy compared to The Simpsons and SouthPark and Family Guy and all the shows
at the time. The jokes werethere, but it seemed a lot more
subtle than other animated comedies at thetime. You really have to pay attention
and I think, yeah, nineyear old Dana didn't have the attention span,
but thirty four year old Dando certainlydoes. But yes, King of
the hillmail Bag at gmail dot comis our is our email. Please write
(28:38):
in. We would love to hearfrom every single one of you, and
please rate and review us on ApplePodcasts, Spotify or wherever you do find
this podcast. We would really appreciatesupport, and like I said, Patreon
link it's in the scripture of thispodcast if you want to help us that
way as well. Enjoying the fourthingerdiscount community on Facebook. There's exclusive to
patrons where Guy and myself were inthere every single day bantering with you all.
(28:59):
This has been the very first episodeof that pod, ain't right.
The next episode we're going to bereviewing the pilot. This podcast will be
coming to you every Sunday night,seven thirty pm Australian Eastern daylight time.
We're gonna be doing it bi weekly. But if we do get enough support,
if there are enough listeners out therewho want to jump on the Patreon
bandwag and help support us, giveus the give us the incentive to make
this weekly. We'll put in theextra yards. We'll make this a weekly
(29:21):
podcast at the moment, all theother shows that won't be. It's a
bit much at the time. We'vegot two small kids, it's a bit
much, and not guy's got afull time job as well, so it's
a bit hard to sort of addanother show weekly to the repertoire that we're
already putting out there for free forall you guys. So if you do
want to help support us and makethis show a weekly podcast, you can
jump on the Patreon bandwagon. Wewould really appreciate that as well. But
this has been that pod ain't right. Next episode, we're going to be
(29:44):
reviewing the pilots. To send inyour memories and your favorite moments about the
pilot episode and what you like isto talking about there in the pilot episode.
King of the hillmail Bag at gmaildot com. I am Dando,
mister Davis. Any final words forthose incredible listeners out there. This pod is right
Speaking of the Hill is brought toyou by the four Finger Discount Network.
What you're listening to, son,how think you like it? Welcome to
the very first episode of Speaking ofthe Hill, Australia's only King of the
Hill podcast. And I'm going tobe honest, I've been wanted to do
this show for a long long time, but as a silly Australian I just
wasn't sure whether there was even ademand for this show or whether there was
(00:21):
anyone out there willing to listen tous talk about King of the Hill.
But boy was I wrong. I'msuper pumped, I'm super excited but finally
doing it. I am Dando andI am guy and I echo everything my
man Dano just said. I thinkthroughout the other shows that we do on
the four Finger discoun Network, whetherwe're talking about The Simpsons or about South
Park or Seinfeld, King of theHill will occasionally come up because it's around
(00:45):
that time, around that era,and you know, it's an animated comedy,
and and every time we've talked aboutit, there's been a really great
response from our many many listeners.They say, yeah, no, it's
a fantastic show and we'd love tohear you guys talk about it. Yeah,
yeah, and it really surprised mebecause honestly, he's obviously Simpsons were
huge when I was growing up.I'm currently thirty four Simpsons in the nineties
that was my like peak Simpsons era, and I just feel like King of
(01:10):
the Hill in Australia because I knowin the United States and wherever in the
UK was very, very popular,but in Australia it always felt like it
was living in the shadow of theSimpsons. And it came out, but
I think about two years prior towhen Family Guy in the Future Army came
around and for a while there becauseit ed on Fox Out here in Australia.
That's where I first discovered the show. On Fox Out. I'm not
exactly sure what TV station and commercialstation it aired, but I remember they
(01:32):
sort of used to tag it alongwith the Simpsons, you know, after
before the Simpsons. I think itwas five thirty every week night you'd get
King of the Hill, and I, for some reason, nine year old
me just never really gravitated towards it. I remember being on I looked at
it and I was like, thisdoesn't look this looks too real. It
doesn't look Simon, doesn't look cartoonnear enough. I think I watched like
maybe five minutes of it and Iwent, I don't I don't get this.
(01:53):
It was too It's almost too subtlefor me. I needed more Simpsons.
Not that Simpsons is in your face, but it's compared to King of
the I was definitely in your face. But then I think, yeah compared
to mostly yeah, yeah, exactlylike King of the Hill. But you
watched now as an adult and it'slike, holy shit, how did I
go so long with it watching this? So basically I posted on our Twitter
at four finger Pod a few daysago saying, I almost feel guilty,
(02:15):
but I've never watched King of theHill. Twenty six years later since it
ed, I've never watched it.And I think I put it down to
it was always hard to find oncommercial TV in Australia, and I remember
when it finally came to the streamingservice Disney Plus here in Australia earlier this
year. I was like, well, now I've got a reason to watch
this. And because we've been gettingasked for all these years, do a
King of the Hill podcast? Doa King of the Hill podcast? I
(02:37):
was like, yeah, but ifyou can't access it in Australia, and
a big portion about audience as Australian. If you can't access it, what's
the point in doing a watch along, you know, if the people can't
watch it along with you. Butnow that it's on Disney Plus, we
can all watch it along together.So that gave me the final little incentive
to go all right, let's dothis. And plus that Twitter post sort
of put me over the line aswell. But it was always a show
(02:58):
that was never really that popular inAustralia, it felt, and by the
time Futurama and Family Guy came out, it was almost like it became the
forgotten animated show. Whenever you sawanimation domination, it was always like,
oh, yeah, you know Futurama, Family Guy, Simpson's and King of
the Hill. Yeah, this isa very low key show in terms of
(03:19):
a sense of human terms of thepresentation. You're very Correcommend says, it's
not in your face at all.It's just it sneaks under the radar.
But honestly, having watched a fewepisodes now, and I mean I've seen
bits and pieces over the years,but yeah, it was never really show
that I paid much attention due despitethe fact that it's got a really great
pedigree. I mean, it's gotsome really great people attached to it.
It just felt like one of thoseones where I was like, I'll get
(03:42):
to that. I'll get to thisone of these days, exactly. It's
like that. Not that I didn'twant to, it was just like,
when I do start watching this,I'm probably gonna binish the shit out of
it, so I want to makesure I've got the time, and doing
this podcast it gives me a reasonas well. I'm just really excited to
finally stick my teeth into this showlike it. Just as I said,
I've watched the first half of seasonone now already, and yeah, it's
just it's definitely a show that Ican't believe it's taking me twenty six years
(04:05):
to watch. I'm feeling much thesame in all I see. I haven't
watched as many episodes as you yet, but I've watched a few, and
yeah, it's just got this reallydry sense of you. And I know
that sounds like, oh, well, go, you're really selling it,
but no, I mean, ifyou're on its wavelength, you'll, yeah,
you'll just binge it like like Pringles, Yeah, just like, oh
(04:27):
man, this is so enjoyable,you know, and yeah, funny,
funny as I was honestly surprised becausebut then I shouldn't have been because look
at the cast and Luke who createdit. Yeah, it's created by Mike
Judge, who's you know, thegradder of Beavers and butt Head and Greg
Daniels as well, and Greg Danielsfrom the Office. Yeah, so he
also who also actually worked on TheSimpsons prior to King of the Hill that
(04:50):
as well. So, yeah,this is a this is quality programming.
And yeah, DANDL and I havebeen dopes for not checking it out before
now, but we now intend to, and not only that, we're going
to talk about it. Yeah.So we want this show to be there's
two ways. There's two angles tothis show. Basically, it's we're essentially
(05:10):
watching this show for the first time. So I want the vibe discovering it.
Yeah, yeah, we discovery.So I want the vibe of the
show to kind of be like apodcast that's coming out in real time.
When King of the Hill first cameout, it's almost like it's a podcast
that launches in nineteen ninety seven.There will be times when we try to
guess what's going to be happening inthe future with future storylines, and we're
going to be wrong. Don't getangry at us. It's just watching it
(05:30):
from but it was watching the showessentially for the first time. But we
want this podcast to be a podcastfor you guys, the fans, because
there are so many King of theHill fans out there and we want this
to be your show, and wewant each episode to include as much listener
interaction as possible. We want youguys to be writing in let us know
what you love about the episodes andwhat you want us to talk about on
the podcast. We want to hearfrom as many of you as possible.
(05:53):
And the mailbag for this show isKing of the Hill Mailbag at gmail dot
com. Simply is that King ofthe Hill Mailbag at gmail dot com.
Yeah, So, before we gowe start talking about what this show is
going to be, guy, let'sdiscuss who we are. So. I
am Brendan Dando, creator and cohost of the four Finger Discount Network.
I launched this network with a previousco host back in twenty fifteen. We
(06:15):
started off as just doing a Simpsonspodcast, and it just took off and
I didn't expect it to become whatit became. And we since spawned other
shows under the name four Finger Discount. We've got Talking Seinfeld, the one
about Friends, which I do withmy wife Nicola. We've got Going down
to South Park. Plus we alsodo Patreon exclusive moview reviews and a future
Rummer podcast exclusively on our Patreon aswell. This is all crowdfunded. This
(06:39):
network we try not doing we haven't. We don't include sponsor ads at all.
It's all brought to you by youguys, so we would really appreciate
if you guys are fancy King ofthe Hill and you want to help support
this network. You can join thefamily at at patreon dot com slash Fourth
Finger Discount link is in the descriptionof this podcast, and basically there you'll
get access to a bunch of exclusivepodcasts each month. You get access to
(07:00):
our exclusive Facebook community where you getto banter with Guy myself every single day
where there we're on there every singleday. You get monthly zoom chats with
myself and Guy. I'm gonna getmonthly prize draws, and yeah, like
I said, the exclusive podcast andand just and so much more. For
as little as one single dollar amonth, you can get access to that
Facebook community just one single dollar permonth, and all the support really goes
(07:20):
a long way to help and keepin this network going. I was fortunate
enough to quit my full time offthis job last August to focus on this
podcast, on this podcast network.So the more support we get, the
more I can help it grow.So that's basically who I am. Guy.
Tell all the listeners who you are, because you are when it comes
to movie and TV, you arelike the man You've got thirty years experience,
(07:41):
So tell us, tell us whoyou are. Thank you, Dando.
And I'm not being me when Icall on Dando. The first time
I met Brendan Dano, he said, call me Dando. I'm like,
but your name is Brenda, callme Dando. I think I said,
call me Dando, ma fucker.It was like, call me Dana,
bitch, Yeah, yes, yestoo. Um, my name is Guy
Davis. And I have been fortunateenough to be the co host of four
(08:05):
Finger Discount and some of its othershows such as Talking Steinfeld, Going Down
to South Park, Tales of Futurama, the movie guys, reviews, and
a few other bits and pieces thatwe put together for the last few years.
How many years you've been doing thisfor three years now year? Three
years? Yeah, Yeah, beenone of the great joys of my life
(08:26):
to be talking popular culture with hima man here. But before doing that,
I was a film and TV journalist, reviewer, interviewer, profile,
all that kind of bits. Didthat for a couple of decades. Actually
for you could pay for thirty yearsto disco. It's stanks A's thanks.
That was it. Little live knownfact. Yes, the critic is actually
(08:50):
based on me, but no,I was a yeah, entertainment reporter.
I guess you'd call it for anumber of newspapers and websites around the country
and indeed around the world. SoI'd like to think I know what I'm
talking about when it comes to thiskind of stuff. Although having said that,
King of the Hill was a blindspot for me, but we're here
(09:11):
to rectify that now and hopefully Ican bring my years of experience in analyzing
and talking about film television to thisparticular podcast. That pod ain't right.
Yes, So, like we said, this show is going to be for
you. King of the Hill fans. We're gonna be putting a lot of
all of our efforts going to begoing into the show. We really want
to make sure this is a showthat King of the Hill fans love.
(09:33):
So please write in King of theHill mail Bag at gmail dot com.
We want to hear from you.What are your favorite memories of the show.
What do you think of when youthink of King of the Hill.
How did it impact your life?Because we've got some great responses from our
patrons, and our asked our patronsin our exclusive Facebook community today, look
what does King of the Hill meanto you? And we've got some really
cool stories of how the show helpedthem connect with other family members and things
(09:56):
like that. So we'll get intothat later on in the mail bag.
But here though, today I wantedto get into basically, what are your
memories of King of the Hill.So I've said for myself, I remember
when this new show came around,I was always Simpson, Simpson, Simpson,
Simpsons. It was always Simpsons andSouthpark hadn't started yet in Australia,
so this new animated series was gettingwas sort of getting a few promos here
(10:16):
and there. King of the Hillscoming King of the Hills coming, and
I was like, okay, cool, whatever. And I was never allowed
to watch Beavis and but as kid, I was too young. Mums like,
that's just not happening, So that'sfine. So I wasn't really sure
of I wasn't really aware of myjudge and kind stuff. I was too
young for all of that. ThenKing of the Hill started. I remember,
I think I might have watched likemaybe the first episode, a little
bit of it, and just straightaway I just went, I just don't
(10:37):
know what I'm watching here. Ijust get confused. Me and I lost
touch pretty quickly, and I justI never really got back into it as
a result, and that's a shameon me for doing so. But it
just wasn't really a show that myfriends were watching. You never really saw
it promoted all that much on television. It just wasn't a show that people
were talking about in Australia. Andit was really surprising because you think the
(10:58):
older audience would have would have reallyenjoyed this because for so long you'd had
to Simpson shove down your throats,and all of a sudden, this other
animation came around in primetime that wasmore subtle and more adult, I guess
you could say, but it justnever seemed to grow or become a huge
hit in Australia. So you workingin TV and film reviewing at the time,
can you remember when it first premiered, whether the people were talking about
(11:18):
it? What was the go No? I think it was. Yeah,
it flew under the radar a fairbit in Australia. We were trying to
recall which station it actually aired on, and I'm trying was it Channel seven?
Was it ten? I'm not Channelseven seems to come to mind.
I've sort of summary seeing my Channelseven for some reason. Yeah. Yeah,
but it strikes me as odd actuallythat you know, it never really
(11:41):
caught in Australia or caught on asmuch as it should, because it strikes
me as having a bit of anAustralian sense of humor. And then there's
very sort of laid back and laconicand kind of what's the word I'm looking
for traditional? I think it's youknow, it's what we've seen, or
what I've seen so far, ismainly about Hank Hill and Peggy trying to
sort of come to terms with anever changing world, and you know,
(12:05):
they're but they're fairly sort of straightlaced, straight up and down people,
and you know there's a whole bunchof strange stuff going. There's not really
strange, it's just you know,live and scary to them, fear of
scary to them. Absolutely, yeah, I think it's mainly Bissona a little
Bobby. Yeah. So I don'tthink it's really was a high profile kind
(12:26):
of title. Then it was releasedback in the back in the late nineties.
But when the more you hear aboutit, and clearly the people who
dig it really really dig it.It's it's certainly a cult classic kind of
a show. It's almost like,for example, we know when you get
a band before they're becoming big enough. I mentioned Kings of leone on a
recent podcast, and it was awhile. There were the first two or
so albums for two or three albumswhere it was like it was cool,
just so oh you like Kings ofLeon two, and then like Sex and
(12:50):
Fire came out and I was like, ah, every one, my mum
likes Kings of Leon now, solike King of the Hill never really felt
like that show that everyone was talkingabout. So when someone did, if
you were a fan of it andsomeone else was talking about it. I
was like, oh, you're mykind of person. Yeah, And you
weren't going to find people who weregoing to be like King of the Hills
are I mean people are going tobe talking about it. They were invariably
going to be saying, there's theshow you should be watching. It's pretty
(13:11):
good. Yeah. They either lovedit or they were just indifferent they had
never watched it. Yeah. Yeah, So I think obviously if you listened
to the show, you're going tobe a fan of King of the Hill.
But there could also be a portionof you out there listening there who
also have never really watched the show, and you're going to be going on
this chronological journey along with us.So with us, jomp on board,
everybody, boys and girls and joyand take flight with us as we revisit
(13:35):
as we I guess you just say, visit King of the Hill for the
very first time as we go takea trip to Ireland. But yeah,
so my memories are basically I don'treally have all that many. I remember
it being like a show that Iwould see like the last five minutes of
or whatever, as I was waitingfor The Simpsons to start. It was
never a show that I went outof my way to watch. But before
we wrap up today, because itwas just our a little welcome show,
I want to sort of get intoa little history on how King of the
(13:56):
Hill came together Cluse, It's like, it's it's a really interesting story,
a really interesting show when you knowall the ins and outs and how it
came to be in it. Itwas almost cancel that it wasn't canceling.
It was almost canceled that it wasn'tcanceled, and Might Judges said they're currently
working on potentially a revival. Soit's all very exciting in the world of
King of the Hill the moment.But basically, Mike Judge, when Beavers
and butt Head was like at itspeak, was he like the trade Parker
(14:18):
Matt Stone off the early nineties.Well, here's the thing. I mean,
Beavers and but Head was so incrediblypopular, but it was also kind
of not a dirty little secret.But it's like, I don't think people
recognize how kind of sneakily smart itwas because it was just that people were
just that's all people remember. That'sall I remembered as a kid, was
just a there's two guys just makingsounds. Yeah. Yeah, So I
(14:39):
think you're going to probably look ata show like that and look at the
guy who made it and go,well, kind of a one tree pony,
you know, he's just channeling hisown in a dirt bag or whatever.
There's not really much more to itthan that. Of course, you
know, time has shown us thatMike Judge a bit of a comic genius,
you know, whether it's coming upwith of the Hill or making movies
(15:01):
like Idiocracy or Office Space, youknow, stuff that's really kind of era
defining and really sort of generational comedythat people just really latch onto and find
so much in and they're happy torewatch rewatch, rewatch it or que quite
quote or name me meme. Andthey're also movies those two particularly you named
that. You never really saw themon posters everywhere or whatever, but you
(15:22):
watch it and you're like, howis no one talking about this movie?
This movie is fucking great. Likeit's the same with the same with like
King of the Hill. You're saying, if you saw a king, if
you were a King of the Hillfan and you found another one, you
knew you're gonna best friends, samewith people. It's what I remember Idiocracy.
When I first watched it, Iwould have been I name my late
teens. I immediately just went tomy friends, have you seen this movie?
Like you have to watch this movie. I hired this on a on
(15:43):
a chance from the video shop.I can't believe it's taking me this long
too. I can't believe I hadn'tseen it before. Now, like Idiocricy
is just I love that movie.It's amazing and say yeah. And same
with Office Space, I mean yeah, I don't. I don't know how
much money either of these movies made. I don't think Idiocracy made much money
at all. I don't think so. But it's really just become part of
the part of the vocabulary and alllongest, I mean, not much time
(16:06):
goes by without saying, oh mygod, we're living in Idiocracy, or
you know, sort of quoting stufffrom Office Space when you're talking about how
shit your job is or whatever.Whenever you hate your job. Now you're
just quite office Space, do younot? Pretty much? So I'm looking
to hear the budget for Oh shit, So Idiocracy budget was two point four
million, only made four hundred ninetyfive thousand oh good good, that's not
(16:29):
great. No, not at all. But is that due to marketing?
Look, how does a film thatgood not get people going like it's just
it's is it just too? Isit ahead of its time? I think
it was the same, was it? It was it a case of people
just weren't ready for a show orweren't ready for a movie like that yet,
what's the what's the or just youknow, not for everybody. M
that's true, you know, sometimesthe case. Yeah, but sometimes things
(16:52):
clip like Beavers and Budded you wouldn'tthink would be for everybody, but it
seemed to be, didn't it fora well, not for everybody, not
for the parents out there, butbut it caught with enough people who then
sort of amplified it and yeah,gave it volume via yeah, via social
media or whatever or just you know, well, prior to social media,
we're probably just warring beavers and buttheadT shirts or yeah, I remember,
(17:15):
just when I was growing up,Beavers and butthead it was almost like the
mad Magazine of TV. It wasjust it was just cool to be to
say that you'd watched it. Butyeah, so my judge, though he
know the career he's had. Heoriginally was just he was studying physics.
He got a physics degree in theeighties, and he quickly realized that science
was not a career for him,very boring. Wasn't interested at all.
And then he went to like thisconvention for like an animation convention, and
(17:38):
he was, you know, takingit back. He's like, well,
this is care So he went andmade two short films himself, animated films,
one of them being just some slobwatching infomercials and the other one being
off the space. It was calledOffice Space and it starred Milton and he
only he said, he made itaround fifteen copies of each one, and
he just set them out to variousstudios and he wasn't even expecting a response.
And then about two weeks later hewas getting all these responses saying,
(18:00):
Hey, we want to meet upwith you, blah blah blah. And
he said about that time, hewas about twenty seven. He thought I
had done this sooner, but hey, at least he did it. And
from then on he then made FrogBaseball, the short film starring beavers and
butthead in ninety two, and that'swhere Mike Judge just became my judge.
Once Beaverson Budd was out, thatwas it. Yeah, and by the
way, we're also living at SiliconValley, which he creates. Yeah,
(18:21):
obviously that was after The King ofthe Hill. But yeah, yeah,
they have stuff this guy's done.The guy is sort of knocking him out
of the park a fair bit.Yeah. He did The Good Family as
well, which wasn't a huge hit, but Silicon Valley obviously critically acclaimed that
show. Yeah, but yeah,so once Bad Beavers and Butthead came out
to the world by storm. Hewas then approached by Fox to make an
(18:41):
animation show that would follow The Simpsons, and he had this idea for King
of the Hill. Basically, Kingof the Hill was born from he was
living with his wife at the timein Richardson, Dallas, and he said
to get into the houses there,he had to go down an alleyway and
he said there would be always thesefour guys out in the early way just
drinking beer's. Basically it was Boomholler, Bill Dale and Hank just out in
(19:03):
this un in this alleyway. Andhe said one day there was a storm
and had wrecked his back fence andhe said, I'm not very handy,
as like yourself and myself not handyat all. And he said it was
a case of yet to go thereand try and look at this fence.
And he's going to fix this fence. And he could almost like feel these
guys looking at him, but they'rejudging him. Is it to say this
guy doesn't know what he's doing?And he said this, the hank of
(19:23):
the crew walked over and he's like, oh, you know, you should
be you and this kind of thing, giving him advice, and eventually just
got to the point where they're likeone of them got a wheelbarrow and one
of them got this, and theyall sort of just built He said,
I just sort of sat back andwent inside. And his wife was like,
what are they doing? Like,they're just fixing our fence for us.
But that's what that's where he gotthe idea for the King the Hill.
These four guys that used to livein the alleyway in which he lived
(19:45):
and yees, so they asked himto create the show. So he got
gave him King of the Hill.And now the original King of the Hill
was not the King of the Hillthat we now No one loved it was
very different. It was suggested theybring in Greg Daniels from The Simpsons,
and Greendin was came on board.And it's been said that Judge he brought
the humor to the show, butDaniels he provided the substance and the character
development that as a combination was perfectfor what King of the Hill would go
(20:07):
and become what it needed to be. He also added characters like Luanne and
Cotton and things like that. Buthe has said Daniels that he didn't want
to change Hank. Knew Hank waslike right the way he was, but
he knew the world around him hadto change. So that's what he focused
on, making this world around Hankeasier for for the writing team to create
comedy out of. And yeah,so basically he made Day or the Other
(20:29):
conspiracy theorists and things like that.So Judge was so impressed with the changes
that Daniels brought to the to thescript that he didn't just give them the
consultant gig. He made him cocreator. And that's it doesn't get any
better than that. Like someone likeMike Jeff says, no, you didn't
just help me with this, youare now creating this with me, so
he built it, built it.And because it takes at the time,
(20:52):
it took nine months for an episodeto go from being started to being made
and going on the air, theyknew they didn't have enough time. They
asked for a pitch of the show. Fox did, and they thought,
we're not just going to go inthere and talk. What we're gonna do
is going to create a two tothree minute what they called a pencil test,
and and featured It did feature thatthe three friends, but they didn't
really have that much of a ofan appearance. But mainly it was just
(21:12):
hosted by Hank and he was pitchingthe idea of the show to to the
well, mister mctoy, and I'dsay, y'all got the makings of a
damn good cartoon here. I mean, you got my wife Peggy, and
I'm real proud of my boy Bobbybecause he hu well, because he's my
boy. And Lune's living with usnow. She'll probably be real good for
(21:36):
ratings the way she dresses. Oh, and I got some ideas for advertisers,
if you put us on the air. Trucks, pork crimes. We
need a lot of those in ourhouse. Barbecue sauce, Jensen's blood doughballs.
That's a fishing bait. You don'twant to eat those. Very different,
very clever and apparently worked like achime because I got signed on straight
(21:57):
away. And yeah, so it'sjust it's just really interesting how how this
show that was just like spawn fromthese guys that was hanging out in his
back fence, but like there's nothingreally too. How do you pitch King
of the Hill to people. It'sjust a guy that lives with his family
and he just lives his life.It's just just an everyday guy be mused
by modern life or we have bewilderedmy modern life in an ear that's filled
(22:18):
with Jerry Springer and all this otheristthat. Yeah, extreme hardcore of the
late nineties really were to pitch.This show took balls, in my opinion.
But when you've got when you gotthe credit that it builds up with
beavers and butt head, you canunderstand why they went with him anyway.
Absolutely. Yeah. Plus, youknow, I think we should talk a
bit about the cast as well,because I mean my judge, of course
(22:41):
provides provides some of the voices tosome of the characters, primarily hang Hill
of course, but you've got PamelaAdlin there, who's probably the scenes stealer,
probably the most valuable player, voicinglittle Bobby Hill. And just you
know, Pamela Adlin's gone on tohave great scashy at her own show Better
Things, that's just wrapped up afterfive seasons. But you know, I
(23:03):
think this is one of the rolesthat really really made her. The late
great Brittany Murphy in there as louAnn. But you know, there's an
incredible array of guest stars as well. I mean, you had Alan Rickman
in there at some stage, youhad Tom Petty, had Johnny Knoxville coming
on board, Willie Nelson's in thefourth episode, Oh my god, the
(23:23):
great Tammy Winnett, yeah, iscoming up in there. So yeah,
it's an incredible uh, just aarray of talent voicing these characters and doing
just a terrific job with it.I mean, and Judge himself just is
fantastic as Hank. I wonder ifSeth McFarlane looked at this and went,
maybe I should do this as well, because when you want a character to
(23:47):
be a certain way. Mike saidhe never really planned to be Hank,
but you sort of became Hank.And I think if you are voicing the
character, A, you've got thepower behind you, because the show can't
exists with at you anymore, sothat the station cakit withview like I guess
they could, but they probably won'tat this point. And B you can
make sure that the character is portrayedin the way that you exactly well,
(24:07):
because sometimes it can be hard toexplain what you want this character to be.
But um but yeah, because Sethmcfarund the exact same thing. He
voiced characters on Family Guy and thenTrey and Matt obviously Sleeps South Buck as
well, they basically voiced the show. Um but there was there's just so
many people that, like he's saying, Brittany Murphy, they said that when
she did Luanne, which she auditioned, everyone else was making her this ditzy,
(24:29):
dumb blonde right where she while sheis dizzy, she was more like
a happy, joyous kind of dizzyas opposed to dumb blonde, you know
what I mean. So though,like Brittany was always going to get the
role. But we can't miss StephenRoot of course from Office Space. Even
Milton Milton He's the reason that mightJudge's career even kicked off in the first
lot Stephen Root but their character.But he played Milton in Office Space,
(24:51):
and then he goes on to playBill. Um. He originally auditioned for
Dale, apparently, but he knewBill was a better fit. And he
said that he did the audition forBill over the phone, and he said
there was a bit of a pauseafter he did that the audition. After
he did his role, Judge justdoes the Hank voice and goes as finally
as it could be, and hewas like, well, I think I've
got the role then, So hegot the job. But yeah, but
let's not forget Kathin to Jimmy asPeggy. True learn too many nineties kids
(25:17):
as the wacky nun and sister actvery much focus. True. You know,
I've never seen Hokus Pocus never neverhave. Wow, there's another one
to add to the movie Guys podcast. I think we might have to Yeah,
yeah, maybe around Halloween time.Yeah, but yeah, she's I
think without her it doesn't work.Really brings heart to the show because the
(25:37):
dynamic between Hank and Peggy really iswhat keeps people around. I think,
like you got the comedy from Bobbyand think, I mean, the relationship
between Hank and Bobby's also very important. But I think in Peggy and Hank,
if you can't believe that relationship,the show doesn't work. No,
No, it provides a foundation.You're absolutely the right. But yes,
like I said, I'm just I'mso excited to finally delve into this years
(26:00):
and yeah, but thank you somuch guys for tuning into this little welcome
to the show. But it's goingto be a really hell of a good
time. Like I said, thisshow is going to be for you.
So we want you guys to getinvolved. Message us King of the hillmailbag
at gmail dot com. Tell uswhen we get to each episode, what
you love about the episode, askus questions about the episode. Just just
(26:22):
tell us what you love so muchabout King of the Hill. Plus,
we are looking for the biggest Kingof the Hill fans out there who want
to come on and be guest guestpodcasts, get guest hosts with us as
well. We want to We wantus to be the fan made King of
the Hill podcast. And like Isaid, we do do several other podcasts,
all available at four finger Discount dotcom Dot a fourth finger discount the
Simpsons podcast. It's been going foreight years. We're talking Seinfeld, the
(26:44):
one about friends going down to Southpark. Plus you can find the movie Guys,
as well as Tales of Futurama onour Patreon channel. And if you
do have a few dollary dues sparein your pocket each month, we would
love if you could help support thisshow. This network is crowdfunded. We
don't have any sponsorship ads in thepodcast, so we would really love if
you could support us here at fourfur discount, even if it's just one
dollar per month. If you alllistening right now supported us for a dollar
(27:07):
a month, it would really helpus grow. Like I said, I
quit my job last August, sowe really were banking on you guys to
help support and help fund this network. So thank you so much, guys,
once again fortuning in. You guysare absolute legends. You can find
all the links to all of ourshows and our Patreon in the description of
this podcast. But mister Davis,is there anything else you want to tell
the listeners out there before we beforewe let them go? Oh honestly that
(27:30):
just like Daniel, I'm really lookingforward to yeah, sink and my teeth
into the King of the Hill.Just based on what I've seen thus far,
it is very, very, veryenjoyable, and I'm looking forward to
talking about it with my mandana andwith all of you. Just an example
of some fan mail that we wantto hit from you guys. So I
said, we asked the patrons,and we said what does the show mean
to you? And this person here, Sadric Alfaro, says they figured out
(27:53):
how to play the theme song ontheir dad's guitar in midter school and it
convinced their father to get them theirown guitar. I'm like, that's awesome,
because let's not let's not full around. King of the Hill is one
of the greatest theme songs of alltime. I was remembered it as the
show that I never watched but haslike my favorite theme song. It's just
you hear it, You're like,I'm fucking set Like this has got me
going. I love the theme,so I'm the King of the Hill.
(28:15):
Another example here is like Andrew jpsis the fact that felt like a serious
comedy compared to The Simpsons and SouthPark and Family Guy and all the shows
at the time. The jokes werethere, but it seemed a lot more
subtle than other animated comedies at thetime. You really have to pay attention
and I think, yeah, nineyear old Dana didn't have the attention span,
but thirty four year old Dando certainlydoes. But yes, King of
the hillmail Bag at gmail dot comis our is our email. Please write
(28:38):
in. We would love to hearfrom every single one of you, and
please rate and review us on ApplePodcasts, Spotify or wherever you do find
this podcast. We would really appreciatesupport, and like I said, Patreon
link it's in the scripture of thispodcast if you want to help us that
way as well. Enjoying the fourthingerdiscount community on Facebook. There's exclusive to
patrons where Guy and myself were inthere every single day bantering with you all.
(28:59):
This has been the very first episodeof that pod, ain't right.
The next episode we're going to bereviewing the pilot. This podcast will be
coming to you every Sunday night,seven thirty pm Australian Eastern daylight time.
We're gonna be doing it bi weekly. But if we do get enough support,
if there are enough listeners out therewho want to jump on the Patreon
bandwag and help support us, giveus the give us the incentive to make
this weekly. We'll put in theextra yards. We'll make this a weekly
(29:21):
podcast at the moment, all theother shows that won't be. It's a
bit much at the time. We'vegot two small kids, it's a bit
much, and not guy's got afull time job as well, so it's
a bit hard to sort of addanother show weekly to the repertoire that we're
already putting out there for free forall you guys. So if you do
want to help support us and makethis show a weekly podcast, you can
jump on the Patreon bandwagon. Wewould really appreciate that as well. But
this has been that pod ain't right. Next episode, we're going to be
(29:44):
reviewing the pilots. To send inyour memories and your favorite moments about the
pilot episode and what you like isto talking about there in the pilot episode.
King of the hillmail Bag at gmaildot com. I am Dando,
mister Davis. Any final words forthose incredible listeners out there. This pod is right
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