For years, The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror specials have been an amazing part of the long-running franchise. Usually arriving as anthology installments that place Springfield’s finest into three unique tales of terror, the next chapter of this horror series will arrive on Fox next month. With King of the Hill returning to Hulu for its fourteenth season, bringing back the Hill family after years following the initial series finale, the next potential season won’t arrive in time for Halloween this year. Despite this fact, it’s time that Hank and his family were given a Treehouse of Horror-style series of their own.
King of the Hillfor those who might not be familiar, has tackled the spooky season in the past, with two episodes dedicated to All Hallows’ Eve. Two episodes specifically tackled Halloween in Arlen, Texas, with season four’s “Hilloween” and season nine’s “Pigmalion,” which are both spooky in their own unique ways. What makes these episodes different from the Simpsons’ usual fare is that they take place in Arlen proper and don’t have the Mike Judge-created characters placed into parodies of popular pop culture. Hank, Peggy, Bobby, and their friends would work well in terms of retaining their characters in parody stories, to say nothing of celebrating Halloween in the best way possible.
Hillhouse of Horror
What works so well about the Treehouse of Horror episodes is that anything can happen, with countless installments routinely killing off some of Springfield’s biggest characters. Giving the Hill family stories in a similar vein would help to up the ante for King of the Hill in ways we might not normally experience, thanks to its more grounded approach. Imagine if the Hills were placed into the shoes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Sawyer family, with Bobby taking on the role of Leatherface. Imagine if Dale allowed his conspiracy-addled brain to send him into a state of paranoia that made him akin to The Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lecter. There are countless possibilities for this avenue of storytelling.
As mentioned earlier, King of the Hill is a series that leans for more into a “down-to-earth” approach than The Simpsonsbut this doesn’t mean the animated show hasn’t managed to get scary when it needed to. Specifically, the episode “Pigmalion” is an example of one of the most gruesome installments of the entire series. While it might not see ghosts and goblins arriving to Arlen, the subject matter of this episode is amazingly dark for the series as a whole. Luanne finds herself being offered a job by character Trip Larsen, the CEO of Larsen’s ork Products, voiced by Michael Keaton, ironically enough. Trip, as a character, has completely lost his mind and wants Luanne to marry a pig in an effort to recreate his company’s mascots.
Obviously, the marriage doesn’t happen, and during the confrontation, as Luanne attempts to escape Trip’s clutches, the Michael Keaton-voiced character finds himself dragged into his company’s machinery. Turned into sausage after receiving a killing blow off-screen, King of the Hill treaded some dark territory that would be perfectly suited to the Treehouse of Horror-style of storytelling. Of course, this idea would be contingent on a fifteenth season of Mike Judge’s surreal series.
The Future of King of The HillSpooky Or Otherwise
There have been rumblings that a fifteenth season has been in the works, thanks to various reports and even voice actor commentary, and with the ratings the previous season brought to Hulu, it would make sense that Disney would want to go back to the Texas well. Fingers crossed that we’ll see the King of the Hill introduce a new lease on Halloween in the future. Even with all the characters aging up following its thirteenth season, the spirit of the spooky season can still reign supreme in Arlen.
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