King of the Hill showrunner reveals Disney made them remove F-bombs, but admits it wasn't a "big loss" because he's "not a huge fan of shows pushing the envelope in that way anyway"

Hank and Bobby Hill in the King of the Hill revival trailer — (Image credit: Hulu)

King of the Hill showrunner Saladin K. Patterson has opened up about the limitations they faced working with Hulu and Disney on the recently released 14th season – even if what was removed from the animated revival didn't feel like a "big loss" at all.

While Patterson lauded Hulu executives "as being on the same page in terms of wanting to recapture what made the original special" in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he admitted that certain compromises had to be made under the more family-friendly banner of Disney's streaming service (Hulu will be merged into Disney Plus next year).

That involved removing some stronger curse words. While King of the Hill has never shied away from having a slightly foul mouth – bitches and bastards have been thrown around the show in prior seasons – there was more of an official mandate this time around to remove f-bombs.

"The characters do curse in ways they can’t curse on broadcast. That being said, Hulu still made us go through and pull out all the F-bombs because they don’t want the TV-MA label, and it’s fine. Totally get it. It is what it is," Patterson said. "I’m not a huge fan of shows pushing the envelope in that way anyway, so it wasn’t a big loss, but it was ironic, especially considering, like you said, the history of the show being on Fox where the whole purpose was to try to push the envelope as much as you could."