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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).
"But there were situations where the Disney of it all put some limiters on us that I know Fox would not have, even though we were on Hulu and streaming, which theoretically has broader S&P [standards and practices] than Fox," Patterson said.
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."
King of the Hill aired on Fox for 13 seasons from 1997 to 2010. The revival season, which features a hefty time skip as viewers return to Arlen, dropped all of its episodes on Hulu on August 4.
Our King of the Hill season 14 review praised the "sense of warmth and renewed connection between viewer and character" as the Hill family came back together in very different circumstances, including Bobby's new job as a chef in a Japanese fusion restaurant.
For more, here are our picks for the best King of the Hill episodes to date.
