Draft:King of the Hill season 14

The fourteenth season of King of the Hill will be released onto Hulu on an unknown date. It will mark the first season to premiere on Hulu, the first to be co-produced by series co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels' company, Bandera Entertainment, and the final production to feature the involvement of Johnny Hardwick, who voiced Dale Gribble, but passed away during its production. It will also be the first season not to have the involvement of the Fox Broadcasting Company, and the first not to feature actress Brittany Murphy, who voiced Luanne Platter, and musician Tom Petty, who voiced Lucky Kleinschmidt, respectively, as Murphy and Petty passed away between the period before the show was renewed for a fourteenth season, which occurred since the release of Season 13, and before production began on Season 14.

The delay in the release of the revival also marks the longest hiatus in the show's history, as the previous season was originally intended to have served as its finale.

Background
Following "To Sirloin with Love", the original intended series finale, and the last four episodes that aired in syndication, Fox decided not to renew the show for a fourteenth season, and instead announced that Seth MacFarlane, creator of one of Fox's other popular programs, Family Guy, had created a new series for the network, titled The Cleveland Show, which would take King of the Hill's place on the schedule.

Some sources later suggested that ABC (who were recently airing Mike Judge's other program, The Goode Family) saw the potential into acquiring syndication for the series, however in January 2009, the network's then-president, Steve McPherson, later denied by this by saying that they had "no plans to pick up the animated comedy."

At the Beavis and Butt-Head panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2011, Judge said that there were no plans to revive the series at the time, but didn't rule out a possibility for them to do so in the future.

In August 2017, then-Chairman and CEO of Fox Television Group, Dana Walden, confirmed that the network entered "preliminary conversations" with Mike Judge and Greg Daniels to bring the show back.

In a March 2018 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Judge suggested that if a revival for King of the Hill were to be made, he would like for the characters to be aged-up.

On March 20, 2019, The Walt Disney Company acquired ownership of the series upon their acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Later that same year, the Fox network debuted Bless the Harts, with its creator, Emily Spivey, and co-executive producer, Christy Stratton, previously serving as story writers on King of the Hill. While Mike Judge himself was not involved in its development, he did however, grant permission for Spivey to incorporate the Mega Lo Mart from his show, thus making Bless the Harts a series set loosely within the same universe. Bless the Harts was cancelled by Fox in 2021 due to low ratings after two seasons and spanned 34 episodes.

On March 25, 2020, Daniels reiterated that him and Judge were sharing ideas for a potential revival with each other, hoping that their plans would move forward in the future. The following year, series writer Brent Forrester stated that co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels were in "hot negotiations" to bring the show back, while the "Trump administration made it suddenly very relevant again" and concluding that the "characters have all aged 15 years."

In January 2022, it was announced that Judge and Daniels co-founded a new animation company known as Bandera Entertainment, and while no official details were revealed, it also was revealed that a revival for King of the Hill was slated to be in-development. Seven months later during a panel at San-Diego Comic Con, Judge provided an update on the revival, mentioning that the show "-has a very good chance of coming back." In September, Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn confirmed that Fox would not be airing the fourteenth season, citing the network's preference to air the company's own programming besides its existing legacy shows.

Development
A revival was officially announced to have been commissioned by Hulu on January 31, 2023, whose service will provide exclusive syndication to the show's upcoming fourteenth season, as the platform also holds the streaming rights to the first thirteen seasons in the United States. Saladin Patterson joined the newest season as an executive producer and showrunner, alongside executive producers Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein of 3 Arts Entertainment, and Dustin Davis of Bandera Entertainment, with co-production by 20th Television Animation, 3 Arts Entertainment and Bandera Entertainment. The following voice actors and actresses were confirmed to be reprising their roles: Mike Judge as Hank Hill and Boomhauer, Kathy Najimy as Peggy Hill, Stephen Root as Bill Dauterive, Pamela Adlon as Bobby Hill, Johnny Hardwick as Dale Gribble, and Lauren Tom as Minh, respectively.

According to Stephen Root, the cast began conducting table readings in April 2023. He also reiterated that the story line for Season 14 will feature a "time jump" with an older Bobby, as previously reported.

On August 8, 2023, Johnny Hardwick, who provided the voice of Dale Gribble during the show's first thirteen seasons, passed away at the age of 64. Despite originally being scheduled to return for the entirety of the season, TVLine reported that he was only able to finish recording his lines for a couple of episodes before recording sessions were properly concluded by cast members, with IGN reaching out to "a source close to the production", who was able to verify the claim, with the article also noting that Season 14 was now set for release "sometime in 2024".

In a November 2023 interview with co-creator Greg Daniels, he confirmed that the series had been affected by the Writers Guild of America strike that occurred earlier that same year, with the show's writing staff halting work during the duration of the strike, but resumed once it had concluded. As a result of the added delays, the season was pushed back to a possible release date of "the beginning of 2025". He also mentioned that he was not sure whether or not Kahn's character would return, but clarified that the role would be recast if so, and by noting that Toby Huss' previous portrayal was because they "didn’t have the budget to to hire a special performer for each voice."