King of the Hill Showed that Conservatism Can Thrive on Prime Time

Last updated on: April 26, 2015 at 10:27 am by Nancy French

King of the Hill Showed that Conservatism Can Thrive on Prime Time 2015-04-26T10:27:10-05:00 Nancy French

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Screen Shot 2015-04-26 at 10.13.21 AM National Review has a great piece on “King of the Hill,” a show our family has dusted off and begun showing to the kids:

After suffering a defeat in the 2012 presidential election, dejected conservatives surveyed a television landscape filled with liberal-leaning programs and feared that the culture was lost. They need not have worried: Programming featuring traditional values has in fact thrived on TV networks. Indeed, it was a mere five years ago this spring that one of the most conservative shows from the last quarter-century left the airwaves. For 13 seasons, Fox’s King of the Hill proved to be a prime-time hit, an animated success that showcased a right-leaning, Christian family in Texas. (The show’s reruns still air on Cartoon Network. It’s also streaming via Amazon and the first ten seasons are available on DVD.)

Co-created by Mike Judge (who also executive-produced and starred), King of the Hill revolved around life in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas. Hank Hill (voiced by Judge) was a sensible, old-fashioned father who took care of his son Bobby and wife Peggy.

Each week it was Hank, the show’s voice of reason, who would calmly deal with difficult neighbors and the challenges of raising a son who confounded him. The program’s low-key tone echoed that of the Andy Griffith Show.

Often the target of nasty insults in Hollywood, it was conservatives who were the ones dishing out jokes at liberals’ expense on King of the Hill. In the season-three episode “Junkie Business,” Hank, the assistant manager at Strickland Propane, has to hire a new salesman. While interviewing various candidates, he asks an elderly man to explain certain gaps in his resumé. The senior citizen offers this:

Well, from ’33 to ’45, FDR was in the White House. So, I was on the welfare. And in the ‘60s, you had Kennedy and LBJ, so, I was on the welfare. And then from ’76 to ’81, Jimmy Carter. So, I was on the welfare.

Read the rest of Scott Whitlock’s piece here. I’m not sure if Mike Judge is a conservative, but his new HBO show “Silicon Valley” skewers the left’s “This Corporation is Going to Change the World” mentality in the most delicious way. (It is NOT for children, however.)

What other old shows have you found fun for the family? (Note: I’ve already stopped showing them the Cosby Show.)

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