Hank Hill is officially back. After 15 years, the long-awaited King of the Hill revival has finally hit the 2025 TV schedule. The series last aired in 2010, and Season 14 jumps forward in time around 8 years or so, with Hank and Peggy returning to Arlen, Texas, to reconnect with their old friends after spending years working in Saudi Arabia. A now-grown Bobby, meanwhile, is living his dream as a Dallas chef.

Most of the original cast has returned for the revival, including Mike Judge as Hank, Kathy Najimy as Peggy and Pamela Adlon as Bobby, though some adjustments had to be made for those voice actors who have since passed away. I have to admit I was only a casual viewer of Fox’s animated sitcom during its original 13-season run, often preferring Futurama or The Simpsons, but these reviews have me thinking I need to revisit this series now that I'm older and a parent now.

Let’s take a look at what critics are saying about King of the Hill Season 14 now that it can be streamed with a Hulu subscription.

Critics Love Bobby’s ‘Moving Upgrade’ In The Revival

With Bobby going from a comedy-providing middle-schooler to a young adult navigating the world, this is the character that arguably sees the biggest change, and critics have thoughts on both his story and Pam Adlon continuing to voice the character. Comments from their reviews include:

• Adlon’s voice remains identical to how it was when Bobby was 11, which often proves unsettling. – Chris Bennion, The Telegraph
• Bobby, of all people, gets the most unassumingly moving upgrade: Once the show’s nasally punching bag, he’s now an earnest, hard-working young adult with a raspy, sugar-dipped twang. He’s still weird, but he’s no longer just comic relief. – Paul Attard, Slant
• The Hills’ son, Bobby, was once a chubby, geeky misfit. Happily, he has been given an upgrade that feels at once generous, eccentric and earned. – Phil Harrison, The Guardian
• Pamela Adlon nails Bobby’s sweet naïveté as he deals with cultural backlash, work-life balance, and unrequited love. – Ben Sherlock, ScreenRant
• Adlon is now a TV auteur in her own right post-“Better Things,” but Bobby’s high-pitched rasp — miraculously intact post-puberty — remains a touchstone of many childhoods spent watching reruns. – Alison Herman of Variety

King Of The Hill Revival Stays True To Its Legacy Amid Changed Political Climate

There’s no arguing how much the world has changed in the 15 years since King of the Hill last put out new episodes, so how is the reboot handling the light political commentary it’s known for? Critics say:

• King of the Hill’s approach to topicality isn’t loud or moralizing. Hank isn’t always right, and the series finds humor and heart in how he learns, however begrudgingly. That willingness to let him sit with his discomfort is part of what makes this revival feel so true to the show’s legacy. – Paul Attard, Slant
• Mike Judge’s and Greg Daniels’s writing perspective is evident here: Hank longs for an old, moderate America that couldn’t always agree, but could at least accept shared terms of reference within which they could argue. – Phil Harrison, The Guardian
• As naive as that may sound in a world where so many self-evident rights and wrongs are being routinely, dishonestly evaluated and reevaluated, the series elevates simple truths in ways that are downright inspirational. – Ben Travers, IndieWire
• I wasn’t sure how this character would play in 2025, since government conspiracies have become a much more serious issue in today’s climate, but Dale and his ridiculous theories are still just as hilarious as ever. – Ben Sherlock, ScreenRant

Overall, Critics Have High Opinions Of King Of The Hill Season 14’s ‘Fresh Perspective’

King of the Hill’s revival season seems to be a hit with critics, as it holds a perfect 100% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 33 reviews. See how they ranked the new episodes and why:

• Chris Bennion of The Telegraph, 4/5 stars: After a lumpy start, the show – and the Hills – soon slots nicely into the groove, with the timeline bringing fresh perspective on familiar characters. Hank’s sense of uselessness in retirement is handled beautifully, while watching Bobby carve out his own sense of what it is to be a man is an emotional experience for seasoned viewers.
• Paul Attard of Slant, 3/4 stars: Fourteen seasons in, King of the Hill hasn’t reinvented itself so much as it’s settled deeper into its own skin. It’s still a show about propane, propane accessories, and the minor humiliations of suburban life. But it’s also about how people learn without the need of grand gestures, and maybe even grow a little, one awkward interaction at a time. That these characters can change without losing their essence might be the show’s subtlest magic trick.
• Phil Harrison of The Guardian, 4/5 stars: Hank, Peggy and the gang are back in a changed America. It’s nuanced, subtly political, poignant TV – and there’s never been a better time for its focus on tolerance.
• Ben Travers of IndieWire, B+: Season 14 isn’t just a revival for the sake of a revival; it’s a reminder that times change, but values don’t; that compassion, decency, and common sense still have a place in America, so long as we make room for them, and that adhering to those principles yields a much better life than clinging to outdated ideas of what America and Americans are supposed to be.
• Ben Sherlock of ScreenRant, 8/10: Most sitcom revivals feel stale and unnecessary, but King of the Hill season 14 is the rare reboot that lives up to the original series, justifies its existence, and feels exciting and new.

These reviews might just be enough to turn me from a casual viewer to a full-blown fanatic. I just need to stop writing about it first so that I can pay attention.

All 10 episodes of King of the Hill’s 14th season are available to stream now on Hulu (she writes as she casually picks up the remote and closes her laptop).

King Of The Hill is now out in the 2025 TV schedule, and while it's great to see Hank and friends back for more fun and adventures, a lot has changed since we saw them last. CinemaBlend discovered as much with creator Mike Judge talking about how the series isn't meant to be nostalgic, but he also talked about a major change with Bobby Hill that was heavily discussed ahead of the return.

Those with a Hulu subscription can watch all ten episodes right now, and if they do, they'll see Bobby has changed a lot since Hank worried quite a bit about his son. He's off in Dallas, living with Joseph, and running a restaurant that is a fusion of Japanese and German cuisine. He has all this at only 21 years old, and Mike Judge talked about how his father plays into that amount of success at a young age:

As fun as it might've been to make Bobby a successful show pony as an adult doing anything from being a rodeo clown to a prop comic, King of the Hill's creative team wanted to make a more realistic outcome for Bobby, and they landed on co-owning a restaurant in a big city and living with Joseph Gribble.

As is touched on in King of the Hill, Bobby decided to opt out of going to college, and immediately went to work making his dream of running a Robatayaki once he got out of high school. Showrunner Saladin Patterson said that Bobby's decision to go right into the workforce was a topic of much discussion, and one deliberately made at the request of the co-creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge:

A lot has changed in King of the Hill since Hank and Peggy returned from Saudi Arabia, both locally and politically. While it may come as a surprise about how Bobby turned out as an adult, there is some more predictable elements to the series. For example, I'm sure no one will be shocked that Bill went into seclusion once the Hills left, and no one knew how to get him out until Hank returned.

It's all part of the fun of seeing the series return, as King of the Hill very deliberately makes Hank a fish out of water in 2025. Years in Saudi Arabia have made him unaware of the etiquette of rideshare services, or all sorts of other tech his friends have had to contend with.

As someone who saw all ten episodes ahead of their release, I was a big fan of the return. While the pilot episode felt a bit wonky due to needing to set up the return, the rest of the series feels in line with classic episodes of King of the Hill. As a longtime fan, I was more than happy, and am hoping we hear more about future episodes soon.

Catch all episodes of King of the Hill on Hulu right now. It's an easy watch for anyone that has an afternoon or evening free to watch, and I'd highly recommend it if you were someone who watched and enjoy the original run of the series.

New episodes of King of the Hill are set to premiere as part of the 2025 TV schedule years after the series originally ended in 2009. Needless to say, a lot has changed since then. Hank and Peggy will have to adapt to new elements in Arlen, Texas after spending a good deal of time overseas. Some things, however, have not changed, including the now-adult Bobby's voice. CinemaBlend actually spoke to his voice actress and the series' showrunner, who shed light on that creative decision.

I had the honor of speaking to the creators and cast of King of the Hill during San Diego Comic-Con 2025. During, the chat, I specifically asked Pamela Adlon if she'd given any thought to changing Bobby's voice for the revival. The actress said the decision was more up to Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and showrunner Saladin Patterson but that there had been a lot of discussions by the time she was officially tapped to reprise her role:

King of the Hill isn't the first series to have this unique situation, and it's actually something that's come up quite a bit in the anime genre. Dragon Ball hero Goku has been voiced by a woman, Masako Nozawa, since he was introduced back in the 1980s. While Americans are used to Goku having a distinct child and adult voice, it's not an issue at all for Japanese fans that the character is currently voiced by an 88-year-old woman.

Normally, I wouldn't compare the two, but it feels apt, given the context of how Americans see King of the Hill. Showrunner Saladin Patterson told me that the reason we'll ultimately hear Bobby with the exact same voice when viewers stream the revival using a Hulu subscription is that he decided that is what the fans would want:

The fact that Bobby Hill's voice is the exact same may be a comfort to some, especially since King of the Hill was forced to make some. Said creative moves were partially due to the death of Dale voice actor Johnny Hardwick. Toby Huss has taken over playing the character, and his former role as voice of Kahn Souphanousinphone will be played by Ronny Chieng. It's an adjustment that won't go unnoticed but, ultimately, the spirits of both characters are still alive.

I think it would be much harder to cope with a voice as iconic as Bobby Hill suddenly being changed to a more gruff tone. For me, it would've been disturbing to hear him sounding any other way, and I think the familiarity helps with some of the other changes with the character we see in the revival.

With all that said, change is a big theme of King Of The Hill's latest season, as Hank and Peggy get reacquainted with American life after living on an idyllic American base in Saudi Arabia. As someone who zoomed through the eight episodes pretty quickly, I'm already hungry for more seasons, and happy that Hank and Peggy are back in Arlen -- that they reunite with a son who still sounds like he always has.

Watch all new episodes of King of the Hill when they drop on Hulu on August 4th. I'm hoping the series gets enough attention to score a quick renewal.

The 2025 TV schedule features the return of one of my favorite animated shows, and I'm sure I'm not alone in being thrilled that King of the Hill is headed back to television. Sure, it'll be a bit different bingeing the series with a Hulu subscription rather than watching it Sunday nights on Fox, but I'm much more hung up on some of the other big changes coming in the series when it comes to Boomhauer.

Hank's womanizing friend, who always had free time and was allegedly a Texas Ranger according to the prior finale, was a gem of the series, even if you didn't always understand him. I noticed he had considerably more wrinkles in the opening sequence that was released a while back.

Boomhauer's Voice Is Markedly Slower

We only hear Boomhauer a couple of times in the recently released trailer, but it's enough to notice he's not speaking quite as quickly as he once did. Part of one of the ongoing jokes in King of the Hill was that he was occasionally difficult to understand, and yet it felt like no one on the show ever struggled to get what he was saying.

I'm wondering how this could change the show, and more importantly, how people feel about the show. Fans are already coping with a new, updated animation style, as well as new voice actors taking on the voices of other characters. It has me wondering if fans are going to reject the mountain of changes in the new series, or if they'll lean into it and it'll actually make the series more appealing as a result.

Is This Change Deliberate, Or Just A Consequence Of Time?

I'm wondering if this is a deliberate choice King of the Hill made to make Boomhauer talk slower, or if it's just a result of co-creator and voice actor Mike Judge not being able to replicate the same rampant rambling dialogue the character once had. Or, he's deliberately leaning into something that happens to those types of guys once they age. I've never been to Texas, so I can't say for sure.

I will say that all of his vocal work on the latest Beavis and Butt-Head seasons and the Paramount+ feature has been aces, without any kind of pronounced changes in how the performances are handled. So it does seem more intentional than anything.

Of course, it's not the end of the world either way. It feels like a lot of King of the Hill is going to be about change, as Hank meets new neighbors and gets used to his surroundings after living in Saudi Arabia with Peggy on a contract job. Arlen has seemingly changed a great deal since he was last there, so I can't wait to see how he copes with some of the new changes we've already seen in promotional posters and other footage.

King of the Hill will premiere all its new episodes on Hulu on August 4th. Tune in to see how Arlen has changed along with Hank and Peggy, and be prepared for some wild changes that could catch you off guard.

Only one series set to hit the 2025 TV schedule will reunite fans with a beloved TV family who’d been absent far too long. Well no, I’m not talking about Duck Dynasty or Phineas and Ferb, so maybe it’s not just ONE show. But considering King of the Hill’s revival is bringing the titular clan back for the first time since 2010, I dare say it’s more anticipated than others. That excitement only expanded with the release of new footage in the form of a Father’s Day video.

While the newly evolved opening titles provided a decent idea of what we can expect from King of the Hill’s big revival, the new footage seen below is definitely what fans like me have been waiting to see in lieu of a full trailer. And I couldn’t be more excited about something in the video, but be sure to check it out before reading on!

Even though Hank has been living and working around the globe in Saudi Arabia for years, he clearly has little issue with settling right back into his pragmatically judgmental stances as soon as he and Peggy are back in Arlen. I mean, if we immediately saw him hugging up on Bobby and showering the boy with compliments and pride, fans might think co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels went too far over the edge.

Thankfully, not only does this look like the modern classic we all know and love, but it also sounds superb, and I'm perhaps most appreciative regarding how the now-a-full-adult Bobby Hill was handled.

Pamela Adlon's Bobby Hill Voice Sounds Almost Exactly The Same

For many younger generations of King of the Hill fans out there, Pamela Adlon's Bobby was the window into this world, mixing a heaping dose of innocently dim-witted naivety with just enough idiot-savant smarts. Adlon's voice work walked that line perfectly, too, making Bobby sound slightly younger than his 14 years in the O.G. run.

Jumping forward nearly a decade in time could have easily resulted in a completely different-sounding Bobby, perhaps with Adlon being coached into giving him a deeper and potentially huskier voice that would square up with the 20-something chef's fleeting facial hair. Thankfully, that's not the case at all, and Bobby sounds almost exactly the same as he did during the initial 13 seasons.

To be sure, Pamela Adlon does add just enough of a tweak to make this Bobby stand out from his younger self, but I couldn't be happier that it's so close to what came before. And not because I'm against general changes or anything so drastic. Rather, I think that Bobby Hill boasts a kind of character purity that shouldn't be tainted, which is what could have happened if another actor stepped in and gave the character a Barry White-esque voice.

In a way, it runs similar to Mike Judge's success with the Beavis and Butt-Head revival for Paramount+ and Comedy Central, which occasionally features the dismal duo in their golden years. Had to two friends shown any legitimate signs of maturity or advancements with the opposite sex, it would have felt like two different characters, regardless of age. I guess it really all goes back to Wile E. Coyote never catching the Roadrunner, but now we're straying too far from the point.

Along with Pamela Adlon's beloved performance as Bobby Hill, some other moments in the new footage stood out, making me wish this show was already here for the bingeing.

1. It looks like they're eating actual Tex-Mex food for their family dinner, as opposed to just unidentifiable blobs.
2. The Hill family home is still rocking a phone landline, assuming the dining room phone isn't just a wall decoration.
3. "Trypp" is a wonderfully godawful name for a ride-sharing service.
4. There's a new beer-adoring neighbor (presumably) hanging out around the pit.

On the more somber side of things, the new footage doesn't feature any spoken lines from Dale Gribble, whose voice actor Johnny Hardwick passed away in 2023 after having recorded six episodes' worth of dialogue. (Series vet Toby Huss took over voicing the character after that point.) As well, no sign yet of neighbor John Redcorn, whose voice actor Jonathan Joss was shot and killed in early June 2025, with four episode's worth of material recorded.

Fans with Hulu subscriptions can get ready for beer swilling and backyard barbecues when King of the Hill's revival debuts on Monday, August 4, 2025.

I've been dying for King Of The Hill's revival to get its Hulu release date etched into 2025 TV schedule, and while we're still waiting on confirmation, we do have an official poster to check out that's both familiar and updated. As one might expect, it's the BFF foursome standing in the back alley, but now with many items that wouldn't have been around on the series when it first ended in 2010. Hank and his friends have seemingly embraced the modern era, and the new details have me wondering how they'll factor into the upcoming episodes.

Before we get to that, be sure to get a good look at Hank, Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer in the year 2025, with beers still firmly in hand. But as readers might notice, there's a lot more to look at than just that. Check it out!

Just seeing that makes me all too eager to learn when this will be available for those with a Hulu subscription. I already have some ideas on how these might hint at what the new episodes will cover, and I'm hoping we see some of these ideas play out in the new King of the Hill.

Theory #1: Dale Is Going To Try And Take Down That Cell Phone Tower

The cell phone tower in the background might be the most subtle detail of this poster, and yet if you know Dale Gribble, it'll likely be the sole thing on his mind. We hear so many conspiracy theories in the real world surrounding cell phone towers, I would be stunned if he didn't have an issue with one being set up so close to their homes.

Throughout King Of The Hill, Dale was always obsessed with out-there conspiracies, seemingly oblivious to larger, more obvious problems in his life. I wouldn't be surprised if Dale were wrapped up in waging war with cell phone companies, while ignoring some other, much larger issue in his life.

Theory #2: Bill Will Get Addicted To Food Delivery Services

Bill looks more or less the same in the poster as he did in the original King Of The Hill, maybe a bit pudgier than we last saw him. I'll admit I had hoped to see him thriving in 2025, after seeing him suffer so much throughout the show previously. Unfortunately, I think the fact that he can get delicious food sent directly to his door will only discourage him from going out further, and maybe cause more problems.

Danged Ol' Theory #3, Man: Boomhauer Will Use His Tablet To Learn A New Language, Or Speak Slower

Mike Judge had talked in the past about the King Of The Hill revival needing to be different, and it seems like Boomhauer is certainly different in this return. He seems to have embraced modern technology well, and I'm especially curious about that tablet. What if he's using a language app like Duolingo and learning a new language? I would love to hear him speak Spanish as fast as he talks, or maybe he's found a way to slow down his unique iteration of the English language that others will finally be able to understand in full. We shall see!

Theory #4: Hank Will Be Largely Resistant To Modern Technology

I think the most telling part of this poster is that, for all the modern things we see in it, Hank is not using any of them. The look of concern on his face almost suggests that he's concerned or agitated by it, which feels very on brand for him.

What I'm curious to see is whether King Of The Hill will paint Hank as the sensible person to be wary of modern technology, or if he'll look like the typical "Boomer" afraid of change and unwilling to adapt. Given how the original series went, I'm sure it'll be a mixture of both, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hank is occasionally made out to be a fuddy-duddy more often than not.

Whether these theories come to pass or not, I'm still as thrilled as ever to watch King Of The Hill's revival season. Television shows have had a good deal of success in bringing back beloved shows as of late, so I have optimism that Mike Judge won't let the fans down when it comes to his series.

CinemaBlend will keep an eye out for a release date for the upcoming return of King Of The Hill on Hulu. I'm still eager to see what's going on with Bobby, Connie, and Joseph, as well as other characters I love.

I tell you what, fans of the animated hit series, King of the Hill, have been waiting for a revival of the comedy since news came in August 2017 that Fox was actually considering bringing the beloved show back. Now, after years of wondering what an update would look like, we actually have lots of solid info on the 2025 TV schedule entry, and the details have fans all over so danged excited!

The King of the Hill revival is set to stream for those with a Hulu subscription before summer ends, so let’s take a look at what audiences can expect!

What Is The King Of The Hill Revival Premiere Date?

Luckily, King of the Hill will hit Hulu on August 4, meaning that, as of this writing, there’s less than a month left to wait before catching up with the Hills and their assorted friends and family members. The dual WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes shut down work for several months in 2023, but, as original series co-creator Greg Daniels told TVLine that November, once they

got back to work, his prediction of the show premiering in “the beginning of 2025” was pretty close to being accurate.

What We’ve Seen From The King Of The Hill Revival

While we haven’t been given an official trailer, a few quick clips of what’s being called Season 14 have been released, with the most telling of them being the new opening sequence, which you can watch, below:

As promised, things have certainly changed in Arlen!

What The King Of The Hill Revival Is About

Never in all my born days did I expect an animated show to actually age its characters this much, but a 15 year time jump was hinted at way back in 2021, when original show writer Brent Forrester revealed that tidbit during a reddit AMA. Those behind the King of the Hill revival are sticking with that plan, as Greg Daniels confirmed to Collider in early 2022 that “the characters are a bit older.”

Even better, Hulu has now given us an official synopsis:

Boy, howdy… I can’t wait to see a grown Bobby and older versions of Hank, Peggy and everyone else as they handle everyday life now!

Most Of The King Of The Hill Cast Returned For The Revival

Animated fare needs a strong cast of actors to really help immerse the audience in the world created on a show like King of the Hill. And, lucky for us, most of the original voice cast was already set to return to their roles when it was announced in early 2023. Let’s take a look at who we know for sure will return:

• Mike Judge as Hank Hill and Boomhauer
• Kathy Najimy as Peggy Hill
• Pamela Adlon as Bobby Hill
• Stephen Root as Bill Dauterive
• Ashley Gardner as Nancy Gribble
• Lauren Tom as Connie and Minh Souphanousinphone

As for Minh’s husband/Connie’s dad, Khan, actor Toby Huss will not be reviving the role, as the show has probably (and rightfully) decided that a voice performer who can more accurately portray the character’s Laotian culture would be best. However, it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not the character will be recast, written out, or if we just won’t see Kahn.

Another important character, Peggy’s niece Luanne Platter, had been portrayed by Brittany Murphy throughout the original show’s run, but, sadly, the actress died at the age of 32 in December 2009. Those behind the comedy have yet to reveal whether or not Luanne will be a part of the revival.

We Know What Will Be Done With Late Actor Johnny Hardwick’s Character

The casting news was met with an untimely tragedy in August 2023, when the actor who brought the always hilarious and incredibly unaware conspiracy theorist Dale Gribble to life, Johnny Hardwick, died suddenly at the age of 64. A few days later, TVLine confirmed that Hardwick had been able to complete recording for “a couple” of episodes of the revival. In early June 2025, Mike Judge provided an update and noted that Hardwick will actually be heard in six of the season’s 10 episodes, with the aforementioned Toby Huss taking over as Dale for the remainder of the season.

Clearing Up Confusion Over The King Of The Hill Finale

The first thing fans should know about the comedy is that you shouldn’t believe your eyes when you’re rewatching the series on Hulu, get to Season 13, and see that Episode 24, “Just Another Manic Kahn-Day,” is the series finale. Oh, no. As viewers who watched the hit the first time around will likely remember, King of the Hill aired on Fox after Sunday’s NFL games, and was frequently delayed or completely preempted if football ran long.

According to Comic Book Resources, Season 13 saw changes in the production order that led to four episodes not debuting on Fox, but several months later (in May 2010) once the season was on Adult Swim. This means that the original and planned finale for the series is actually Episode 20, “To Sirloin with Love,” which ended the show in September 2009 and left all of the King of the Hill characters in a decent place.

Mike Judge And Greg Daniels Executive Produced The Revival

Another important bit of info we have is that original series co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels have returned to executive produce the revival. Aside from KOTH, Judge has a number of great movies and TV shows under his belt, as does Dainels, who’s responsible for shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation and other great comedies.

It Sounds Like A Second Season Is Already Underway

When Pamela Adlon (the voice of Bobby Hill) talked with MovieWeb in May 2024, she also revealed that they were “in the second season [creating] the reboot.” There haven’t been any other reports of the revival having more than one season at this point, but with the amount of lead time needed to complete an animated show and get it ready for broadcast, plus the popularity of the original show, it does make sense that Hulu would have come out of the gate with at least a two-season commitment. But, we’ll have to wait for official word to come out on this to know for sure.

It’s pretty clear that the plans for the King of the Hill revival were solid, and now we’re this close to getting a look at the new adventures of everyone’s favorite Arlenians.

Mike Judge’s King Of The Hill functions well in syndication, as the vast majority of the 259 episodes are standalone stories that don’t make much of a dent in the continuity – but that doesn’t mean the series is wholly without arcs and character development. Audiences who watch the seasons in order see Luanne Platter become a more independent person, witness Joseph Gribble get hit by puberty, and get a conclusion in the conflict between Hank Hill and his hateful father, Cotton. Casual fans may be surprised by what they don’t remember about the long-running animated show.

Now that a King Of The Hill revival series is in the works as a Hulu exclusive (with confirmation that time has passed in the canon), now is a good time to refresh yourself on the goings on in Arlen, Texas, and I am happy to help you with that mission. If you don’t have time to do a deep dive into all 13 seasons of the show, I’ve put this feature together to remind you of everything you need to know about all of the main characters.

Hank Hill

At the center of everything in the King Of The Hill universe is the stalwart Hank Hill. While we never got to see him get a promotion to manager at Strickland Propane, his love for selling both the gas and related accessories has never dimmed or diminished (and the same goes for his admiration of his boss, Buck Strickland, despite many, many controversies). 

With Hank’s dad being dead (Season 12’s "Death Picks Cotton"), a life-long poison has been removed from his life, though he still has an awkward relationship with his mother, Tilly Garrison. He is known to fly into a blind rage once in a while, despite having attended anger management therapy (Season 7's "The Texas Skillsaw Massacre"), and he regularly gets frustrated with his family, but they are always his first priority.

Peggy Hill

Ever the unbearable know-it-all, Peggy Hill’s big life changes in King Of The Hill are all about her career rather than her character. She has many jobs throughout the series, but she gets semi-regular work as an elementary school substitute teacher, and though she doesn’t have a degree, she aspires to be a full-time educator. 

She is also a writer for the local newspaper, The Arlen Bystander, though her time working there is interrupted for a time when she works as a real estate agent. There are a number of negative things to be said about her personality, and she is flighty professionally, but it can be said that she is a devoted wife and mother.

Bobby Hill

Throughout King Of The Hill’s long run, Bobby Hill regularly demonstrates himself as a weird kid (as his father would say, “That boy ain’t right”), but he does find ways to connect with his father – be it as a fan of the Dallas Cowboys (Season 3’s "Hank's Cowboy Movie") or working together in a rose growing competition (Season 7’s "The Son Also Roses"). 

In “To Sirloin With Love”, the episode that was created to be the series finale, they find common ground over a deep appreciation for beef, with Bobby showcasing an innate expertise in meat grading. Whether or not this will end up being carried into the revival series is unknown. Perhaps older Bobby has turned this skill into a career and left his ambitions to become a comic behind?

Dale Gribble & Nancy Hicks-Gribble

From the King Of The Hill pilot through most of the fourth season, Nancy Hicks Gribble maintains an on-going affair with John Redcorn, and while Dale Gribble never actually discovers this illicit relationship, it comes to an end in Season 4’s "Nancy's Boys." After that, the marriage is tested by many conflicts, but it holds strong through the end of the show. 

It’s a good thing, because Dale can’t support himself and his paranoia-driven schemes via his failing exterminator business, and Nancy maintains a steady job as a popular local news anchor. It’s not yet clear how the revival series will feature Dale following the death of Johnny Hardwick, but it has been reported that the voice actor did do some work on the show prior to his passing.

Joseph Gribble

Joseph Gribble is fascinating when looked at through the lens of the nature vs. nurture debate. Like his biological father, John Redcorn, he is tall and strong (and thus athletically gifted), but he suffers the consequences of being raised by the psychopath that is Dale Gribble. 

In addition to being extremely dumb, he lacks any kind of social skills and is regularly overwhelmed by his id. Because of his lacking intelligence, he, like his dad, never puts together that he is not related to Dale, but John Redcorn does still get to have some influence on his life (see: Season 7’s "Vision Quest"). Joseph struggles greatly through puberty, so it will be interesting to see what kind of person he has become when he is reintroduced in the revival series.

Jeff Boomhauer

This is perhaps the most fascinating section to be found in this feature, as there are some major bombshells dropped about Jeff Boomhauer at the end of King Of The Hill… including the fact that his first name is “Jeff.” The character is only referred to as “Boomhauer” throughout the entire series, but audiences finally learn his name in Season 13’s “To Sirloin With Love” when we get a peek inside of his wallet.

His name isn’t the only thing we see in his billfold, however. It turns out that the womanizing, mumbling Arlenite is a bona fide Texas Ranger. His occupation isn’t something that is ever mentioned on the show, as it was purposefully kept secret like the character’s name, and the revelation actually creates a number of plot holes in the series… but now that we know, it feels like the story potential is practically unlimited for the revival series. If Hank or any of his friends or family members run into an issue with the law, it will be Boomhauer’s time to shine.

Bill Dauterive

Slovenly Army barber Bill Dauterive may be forever cursed to be the picture perfect definition of “pathetic,” but it can at least be said that he experiences personal development through King Of The Hill’s run. While he was once totally hung up on his ex-wife, Lenore, for example, he got closure to that part of his life in Season 5’s "Hank and the Great Glass Elevator." 

On a less positive note, he never finds a positive on-going romantic relationship, and while he at one point has family living in Louisiana (Season 4’s "A Beer Can Named Desire"), all of them end up dying with the exception of his cousin, Gilbert Fontaine De la Tour D'Haute Rive (Season 11’s "Blood and Sauce").

Kahn & Minh Souphanousinphone

The Souphanousinphone family moves to Arlen, Texas late in Season 1 of King Of The Hill, and though the adolescent Connie (more on her in a minute) is a positive presence, Kahn and Minh are frequent antagonists to the Hills as a result of their horrible attitudes. 

Revealed to suffer from bipolar disorder in Season 13’s “Just Another Manic Kahn-Day,” Kahn is insufferably egotistical. While this behavior is frequently self-destructive, it’s rarely quelled by Minh, who is also a hungry social climber. She maintains a better relationship with Peggy and Nancy than he does with Hank, Dale, Bill and Boomhauer, but it’s frequently more neighborly than friendly.

Connie Souphanousinphone

When the King Of The Hill revival series begins, will we see Bobby Hill still with Connie Souphanousinphone? That’s certainly a big question lingering in the minds of fans. Their romance is of the on again/off again variety, so it’s unclear if they will end up in a mature relationship, be we can at least hope that they have remained friends (as they are at the end of the show). 

She demonstrates extreme intelligence as a child to go along with her violin skills, which would theoretically put her on a great path going into adulthood… but given all of the pressure she is constantly under from her parents, one has to be worried about burnout.

Luanne & Lucky Kleinschmidt

As noted earlier, Luanne Platter significantly develops over the course of King Of The Hill. At the start of the show, she is living in the Hill house as a guest, but she eventually moves out, and after quitting college, she successfully earns a beauty school certificate. She gets married to Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in Season 11’s "Lucky's Wedding Suit," and their daughter, Gracie, is born in Season 13’s "Lucky See, Monkey Do." 

Given that both Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty, the voices of Luanne and Lucky, have passed away in the years since the series ended, it’s unclear what will be done with the characters in the revival series.

The King Of The Hill revival series does not yet have a release date, but work on the show has begun. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest updates from behind-the-scenes, and for a preview of everything that is on the way to the small screen, check out our 2024 TV premiere schedule.

King of the Hill fans were shocked after finding out Dale Gribble voice actor Johnny Hardwick died at age 64. The news was more surprising as no one knew Hardwick was ill. Now, the King of the Hill cast and fans have posted multiple tributes following the news to show their love for the voice actor.

After the sad news broke online, Hardwick’s King of the Hill family got on social media to express their love and admiration for the versatile actor. The first castmate to speak on his passing was Breckin Meyer, who voiced Dale’s son Joseph. He made a reference to the father-son bond between the two characters on his Twitter account in a loving tribute to the late YouTuber.

Meyer’s familial statement was spot on given the image he chose to post. It appeared the TV father-son relationship spilled over to real life as the Clueless alum and Hardwick played the mismatched animated son-father duo for 13 seasons. Breckin Meyer’s remarks were followed by fellow King of the Hill alum Toby Huss. He worked with Hardwick regularly as Hank Hill’s abusive father Cotton and Laotian neighbor Kahn Souphanousinphone on the Emmy-winning animated comedy. Huss took to his Twitter account to remember his time with the late actor.

Huss was heartbroken over losing his King of the Hill cohort. Much like Breckin Meyer, the White House Plumbers star formed a lasting bond with Johnny Hardwick by working with him for over a decade on the TV show. Of course, Huss wasn’t the only longtime cast member to express his condolences as King of the Hill co-creator Mike Judge posted an image from the series featuring Dale Gribble. Before deleting his words, Judge wrote a moving comment to his late friend and castmate:

Despite deleting his words, the Beavis and Butt-Head mastermind kept the accompanying photo up. You can see the entire Instagram post below.

The Hank Hill voice actor followed up his sweet tribute by giving an official statement to TMZ. Mike Judge chose to eulogize the late comedian as he expressed his condolences to Hardwick’s family. He stated:

Johnny Hardwick’s castmates weren’t the only ones opening up about the Dale Gribble actor’s impact. Fans sent out an outpouring of love and support for the late actor. One Twitter user shared how impactful Hardwick’s performance on the show was along with a notable clip.

Another fan chose to share not one but multiple memorable lines from Hardwick’s Dale from the original series on their Twitter. Look at their favorite Dale Gribble one-liners along with their sweet words in the tweet below.

One user hopped on their Twitter account to remember Johnny Hardwick’s Dale Gribble-style YouTube parody songs. Watch the late Hollywood writer singing his heart out as Dale in the clip below.

Another King of the Hill fan took to their Twitter account to call for the series revival to be canceled after hearing about Hardwick’s passing. Cancellation wasn’t the only thing on their mind as the Twitter user posted an on-brand meme of Dale Gribble.

Besides voicing Dale Gribble for the Fox animated series, Johnny Hardwick served as a producer, writer, and story editor throughout King of the Hill’s entire series run. He was expected to return as the nasally-toned exterminator for the series’ streaming revival. Unfortunately, Hardwick hadn’t done any voice work before his untimely passing.

If you want to revisit your favorite Dale Gribble lines from Johnny Hardwick, get a Hulu subscription to watch every season of King of the Hill. The streamer will also serve as the home to the animated revival along with other upcoming Hulu shows. It is currently unclear if Dale Gribble will be recast or written out of the reboot. Come back to CinemaBlend for more updates on the King of the Hill revival.

It can be hard for any actor to stand out on a Mike Judge project, given the sheer amount of talent involved from one end to the next, whether it’s a live-action series like Silicon Valley or an animated comedy like Beavis and Butt-Head, with the creator himself in the starring roles. But I don’t think anyone ever mentioned that to actor Chris Diamantopoulos, who seemingly effortlessly serves as a highlight anytime he pops into a scene. He was, of course, the GOAT of fictional billionaires Ross Hanneman in the aforementioned HBO satire, and reteamed with Judge for Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe and then again for the dim-witted teen slackers’ episodic reboot (which can both be streamed with Paramount+ subscriptions). 

Diamantopoulos, who is also currently starring in the mystery sci-fi adventure Mrs. Davis, talked to CinemaBlend about his ever-blooming career, and he had nothing but great things to say about bringing his talents to Mike Judge’s creations, as well as about working with the man himself.  

Magically enough, the Three Stooges vet brought up my very favorite installment from the animated series’ latest reboot, as taken from the first season’s fourth episode, in which he voiced an extremely annoying and self-obsessed character, Keith, whom Beavis initially mistakes for Butt-Head, and then cannot seem to get away from the guy. The funniest moments are when Keith attempts to impress Beavis by playing a gloriously awful rendition of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” that is still an earworm in my brain to this day. Diamantopoulos explained why it was such a great role for him, saying:

Even just looking at the character's not-quite-right face makes me giggle. 

Whether it's animated or live-action, the Inside Job star says Mike Judge has a way of making every project great from a director's perspective, because he's such a collaborator and enjoys embracing others' work. In his words:

Mike Judge and Greg Daniels are currently in the throes of riviving King of the Hill for fans with Hulu subscriptions, and I know I'm not the only person hoping that Chris Diamantopoulos finds his way into Arlen, Texas for that show's highly anticipated return. Hank Hill definitely needs a fast-talking neighbor that's easier to understand than ol' Boomhauer. 

While he didn't say one way or another whether that's in the cards, he did share that he'll be in yet another one of Judge's productions, and one that also involves a reteaming Silicon Valley's Zach Woods. The actor will be supplying his vocal skills for the in-development Peacock animated series In the Know, which will star Judge, Woods, Succession's J. Smith-Cameron, Grand Crew's Carl Tart, Percy Jackson's Charlie Bushnell and Hacks' Caitlin Reilly. 

And to be expected, Diamantopoulos also had some very kind words for Zach Woods, saying:

It's a great time to be a Chris Diamantopoulos fan, as he can be heard in Beavis and Butt-Head airing new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+, he can be seen in Mrs. Davis (also airing on Thursdays on Peacock), and he can be heard in an entirely different context as part of the wildly popular new video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor . Not to mention his work in other recent series such as AMC's Lucky Hank and Prime Video's Daisy Jones & the Six. 

Given the way some streaming services and cable channels have been dropping cancellation bombs on already ordered/produced new projects, as well as reversing renewal orders and completely excising shows from content libraries, it’s been a little hard to put ample faith into entertainment. But King of the Hill’s long-anticipated revival was officially confirmed by Hulu, and that’s the kind of good news that can make someone completely forget about whatever those worries were that someone mentioned at the top of this paragraph. (Note to self: check for propane leak.) Putting aside any such pessimistic feelings, let’s talk about the biggest reasons to be extra-excited when it comes to King of the Hill returning to audiences in the near-ish future.

Both Mike Judge And Greg Daniels Are Returning (With A New Showrunner)

It’s safe to say no future version of King of the Hill would exist without co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels both being directly responsible for bringing it back, but let’s triple-dipple-down on celebrating both comedy masterminds being on board as executive producers. Not to mention Judge’s return to the recording booth for Hank Hill’s signature drawl.

Taking on showrunner duties for Hulu’s King of the Hill will be longtime TV scribe Saladin K. Patterson, who most recently brought The Wonder Years back for ABC with a Black family at the forefront. Patterson’s writing and producing resume also includes a wide array of comedic fare that includes Frasier, The Big Bang Theory, The Bernie Mac Show, Two and a Half Men, The Last O.G., Psych and Dave, among others.  

Beavis And Butt-Head's Return Proved Mike Judge's Humor Is Timeless

I cannot speak highly enough about last year’s double dose of Beavis and Butt-Head magnificence, first with the feature Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe and then with a season of the unendingly hilarious TV revival. The latest version excelled even beyond what the original MTV series delivered (and then delivered again with its 2011 revival). To be clear, B&B’s revival could have been dogshit, and I would still be putting on my Arlen High letterman jacket in anticipation for the Hills’ return, but now my confidence is size-appropriate for the region. 

Most Of The King Of The Hill's Cast Will Be Back

Beyond Mike Judge reprising his role of Hank and the warble-mouthed neighbor Boomhauer, fans can also expect to hear the familiar voices of Kathy Najimy as Pamela Adlon as mother and son Peggy and Bobby Hill, respectively.  As well, Stephen Root will be back as the fuzzy-brained but always loving Bill;  Johnny Hardwick will again lend his instantly recognizable nasal tones to Dale and his ever-present paranoia; and Ashley Gardner will be back to put up with Dale as his wife Nancy. Lauren tom is confirmed to be back with the dual roles of Minh and daughter Connie.

One Cast Member's Absence Has A Positive Silver Lining

The always hilarious Toby Huss served as the voice of Minh's Laotian hubby Kahn for the entirety of King of the Hill's run, but the actor isn't part of the initial casting news that Hulu shared. While that definitely sucks regarding many of the other characters that Huss voiced over the years, it's only a good thing when it comes to Kahn, given the animated world now putting in more of an effort to cast actors who can correctly personify their characters' culture. According to TVLine, Hulu has yet to respond to inquiries about recasting the role with another actor. Hopefully Huss can return in some way, albeit voicing other characters.

King Of The Hill Will Be Set In The Present Day

While it's not entirely clear how King of the Hill will be handling its characters' ages when it returns, Hulu did confirm it will remain set in Arlen, Texas, and will have a current-day timeline. That can only mean some acerbic-as-fudge humor is on the way when it comes to how Judge, Daniels and Patterson will skewer small town politics and the baffling rise in online conspiracy theories. If Dale isn't leading his own QAnon-esque following by minute seven, I'll eat his sunglasses.

The Hope For Tributes Honoring Brittany Murphy And Luann

Actress Brittany Murphy, who memorably voiced Luann Hill throughout King of the Hill's run, tragically passed away in 2009 at the age of 32. It's hard to imagine the revival finding anyone else to voice the character in any capacity, so I'm interested to see if and how the writers and animators will pay tribute to Murphy and Luann's combined awesomeness.

King Of The Hill's Shift From TV To Streaming 

Obviously, King of the Hill isn't ever going to win any Most Offensive Show On TV awards, even if somebody made those up after another one of those gas leaks makes things dizzy again. There's some light cursing, adult humor and subject matter that probably isn't great for toddlers, but it's still a family-friendly show. While I don't expect that to change all that drastically with the move to Hulu, the change in formats will still provide for smaller, universe-enriching changes that fans might not see coming. For instance, Paramount+'s Beavis and Butt-Head revival very notably upped the comedic ante by way broadening the animations for the main character's facial reactions, allowing for plenty of unexpected Chuck Jones-esque moments that weren't there before. 

Without any clear release window happening just yet, let’s all bring our ice chests out and gather around the fence to away King of the Hill’s return. Nabbing a Hulu subscription now will give everyone access to all the movies and TV shows coming soon to the platform. Head to our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see everything big that’s already confirmed for premiere dates in the coming months.

It wasn’t that long ago when landing a series order with a massive streaming service like Netflix meant that one’s show would actually go through with production and land a release date down the line. Unfortunately, the times have changed, and nothing seems to be 100% guaranteed anymore until it’s already been out for a week and has merch being sold at Target. Such is the case with the would-be new animated comedy Bad Crimes, starring Nailed It’s Nicole Byer and Good Girls’ Lauren Lapkus, which was canceled in the midst of production on its first season.

First ordered to series back in January, at which time Netflix confirmed a 10-episode first season, Bad Crimes is the creation of former Full Frontal with Samantha Bee writer Nicole Silverberg, with the backing power of King of the Hill co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. Judge also created Beavis & Butt-Head and its recent revival, while Daniels is arguably most famous for The Office, and both were set to executive produce the new series alongside Silverberg, Byer and Lapkus. 

A dark comedy in the vein of other recent animated shows such as Paradise PD and Inside Job, Bad Crimes was set to take on procedural elements with a story following Byer’s Kara and Lapkus’ Jennie, a pair of FBI agents who bring series dedication to their cross-country efforts to solve harrowing cases, keep their friendship intact, reach higher career goals, and bang a bunch of dudes. Quite the admirable to-do list, I’d say. 

But now the show’s future is obviously in dire jeopardy now that Netflix has backed out of its initial order. According to Variety, there is a chance for Bad Crimes to live on elsewhere, as the comedy is being shopped around to other outlets with the hopes that someone else will step in and bring it to life. Considering Mike Judge and Greg Daniels are involved, it might make sense for Paramount+ or Prime Video to opt in. 

It’s noted that this project’s cancellation likely connects back to Netflix losing its former Head of Animation Mike Moon, who vacated the position in July and shifted to Illumination to jumpstart an adult-geared animation banner called Moonlight. (Hopefully that doesn’t mean TV-MA projects for the Minions, but who knows?) Moon was replaced by Billy Wee, who served in a similar capacity for HBO Max, but it’s not clear what the issue is with Bad Crimes that sealed its fate. 

Canceling series seems to be a go-to move for Netflix in 2022, as the streaming giant has curbed quite a few projects so far this year, from the cult animated comedy The Midnight Gospel to the freaky sci-fi horror Archive 81 to other genre entries like Resident Evil and First Kill. And this wasn’t the first time it happened with a show that was still in the midst of production. Perhaps the biggest instance for an animated project was the plug getting pulled on the first major adaptation of Jeff Smith’s seminal comic series Bone, which sparked Smith to issue an excellent response at the time. But Netflix also shockingly canceled the comic adaptation for Grendel, which was already finished filming when the bad news hit. 

Nicole Byer was already at the center of production issues at Netflix earlier this year when filming for the latest batch of Nailed It! Halloween episodes was halted due to crew members walking off the set. The service did release the four episodes that were filmed in October 2022.

So while viewers won’t be able to watch Bad Crimes with a Netflix subscription, hopefully someone else will step in and save the show from being thrown in the metaphorical slammer. Head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what shows are definitely premiering in the coming months.

To call Mike Judge one of the most talented and influential voices in comedy would not quite be a justified description. In reality, he is the man behind more than a few of the most memorable voices in comedy history, such as both of the titular teen heroes of Beavis and Butt-Head and multiple roles from King of the Hill.

That is only counting the characters he has voiced on TV as there are many other characters he has also played in live action titles, many of which he was also the driving creative force behind. Let’s talk about some of the actor, writer, director, and producer’s greatest hits with our picks for the best Mike Judge movies and TV shows you can stream, buy or rent digitally, and purchase on physical media — starting with, arguably, his most iconic creation.

Beavis And Butt-Head (1993-Present)

A pair of irresponsible and unsupervised teen boys constantly, and unwittingly, get themselves into trouble and, usually, at the fault of their own stupidity. 

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: Rarely has comedy of such an infantile degree been translated into something so fun and charismatic, which Mike Judge did as the creator and star of Beavis and Butt-Head — an enduringly popular staple of MTV’s best animated TV shows which was recently revived on Paramount+ exclusively.

Stream Beavis and Butt-Head on Paramount+.
Buy Beavis and Butt-Head on DVD on Amazon.

Beavis And Butt-Head Movies (1996, 2022)

The continuing adventures of the dim-witted teens include a cross-country trip to find their missing TV, during which they become wrapped up in an FBI manhunt, and a court-ordered sentencing to space camp, which results in an accidental journey into the future.

Why they are some of Mike Judge’s best: Mike Judge’s iconic duo have starred in two of their own feature-length movies — the theatrically released, star-studded Beavis and Butt-Head Do America in the mid-1990s and the “very, very stupid and very, very funny,” sci-fi infused Paramount+ exclusive, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, more recently.

Stream the Beavis and Butt-Head Movies on Paramount+.
Rent/buy Beavis and Butt-Head Do America digitally on Amazon. 
Buy Beavis and Butt-Head Do America on Blu-ray on Amazon.

King Of The Hill (1997-2010)

A salesman of propane and propane accessories (Mike Judge) tries to do right by his wife (Kathy Najimy), son (Pamela Adlon), and live-in niece (Brittany Murphy) while struggling with the mundanity of life and the eccentricities of his friends and neighbors in a Texas suburb.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: For years rumors have circulated about a possible revival for Judge’s second and longest-running animated series, King of the Hill — a no-holds barred satire on Southern life and its own awkward culture clashes for which Judge also served as co-creator (with Greg Daniels) and the voice of several characters.

Stream King Of The Hill on Hulu.
Buy King Of The Hill on DVD on Amazon.

The Goode Family (2009)

The adventures of a family that is committed to living a lifestyle based entirely on what they believe is right and just, no matter the cost.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: One of the Mike Judge’s more short-lived animated comedy series was The Good Family — an interesting satire released way ahead of its time, which Judge created with fellow King of the Hill producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky.

Stream The Goode Family on Peacock.
Stream The Goode Family on Tubi.
Buy The Goode Family digitally on Amazon. 
Buy The Goode Family on DVD on Amazon.

Idiocracy (2006)

An Army private (Luke Wilson) selected for a human hibernation experiment due to his average IQ suddenly finds himself smarter than anyone else on earth when he wakes up centuries later in a future where intelligence has grossly devolved.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: If you thought that Beavis and Butt-Head was the “dumbest” of Mike Judge’s creations, then you need to see Idiocracy — a criminally underrated, star-studded satire produced and directed by Judge that is profoundly more clever, and alarmingly relevant, than one might initially believe.

Stream Idiocracy on Starz.
Rent/buy Idiocracy digitally on Amazon. 
Buy Idiocracy on DVD on Amazon.

Silicon Valley (2014-2019)

A group of lowly, but ambitious, computer engineers (including Silicon Valley cast lead Thomas Middleditch) struggle to navigate the cutthroat world of the modern tech industry and keep their data compression platform afloat.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: Mike Judge has also made things about smart people, such as his next major collaboration with his Goode Family co-creators, Silicon Valley, the Emmy-winning, tremendously sharp, HBO original satire that he is able to bring an authentic perspective to considering his prior experience working at a tech startup, according to the New York Post.

Stream Silicon Valley on HBO Max.
Buy Silicon Valley digitally on Amazon. 
Buy Silicon Valley on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Office Space (1999)

After a hypnosis session goes wrong, a hapless computer programmer (Ron Livingston) suddenly adopts a carefree attitude that helps him work his way up on the corporate ladder and later inspires him and his friends to rebel against his corrupt boss.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: The first time that Mike Judge took on the tech industry was when he made his live-action, feature-length directorial debut with the biting workplace satire, Office Space — a now beloved comedy classic that also stars Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh, the epitome of dreadful movie bosses.

Stream Office Space on Freevee through Amazon. 
Buy Office Space on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Extract (2009)

The owner of a dairy extract manufacturing facility (Jason Bateman) must contend with a potentially adulterous wife (Kristen Wiig), an attractive new temp who might be secretly working against the company (Mila Kunis), and dissatisfied employees conspiring a rebellion.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: For his next send-up of the life of an office drone, writer and director Mike Judge took on a whole new workplace environment with Extract — another winning satire with stellar supporting cast, including Academy Award winners J.K. Simmons and Ben Affleck.

Rent/buy Extract digitally on Amazon.
Buy Extract on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Tales From The Tour Bus (2017-2018)

Anecdotes about popular musicians and their craziest moments while on the road are compiled from trusted sources or the subjects themselves and reenacted through animated segments narrated by Mike Judge.

Why it is one of Mike Judge’s best: Both another inside-look at the irreverent goings-on of a certain profession and, easily, Judge’s most inventive animated TV series yet, Tales from the Tour Bus is a captivating and revealing quasi-documentary series profiling country music artists like George Jones in the first season, and funk icons like James Brown in the next.

Buy Tales From The Tour Bus on Apple iTunes.

Honorable Mention: The Spy Kids Movies (2001-2003)

After discovering their parents (Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino) are secret agents and rescuing them from a corrupt children’s media mogul, a girl (Alexa Vega) and her younger brother (Daryl Sabara) become official operatives and take on missions involving an island overrun with strange mutant creatures and a video game that redefines virtual reality.

Why they are some of Mike Judge’s best: One of Mike Judge’s most unique and unexpected acting roles is in Robert Rodriguez’s dazzling, family-friendly espionage franchise as Donnagon Giggles — an OSS agent rescued from being one of Floop’s Fooglies in the first Spy Kids, who becomes the antagonist of Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams before turning good again in Spy Kids 3: Game Over.

Stream the Spy Kids movies on HBO Max.
Rent/buy the Spy Kids movie digitally on Amazon.
Buy the Spy Kids movies on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Which one of these hilarious movies and clever TV comedies is the best of them all? We will let you be the judge.

Having first been announced two years ago, when the world was still in the early thick of quarantine-mode, Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head at last made its streaming debut for Paramount+ subscribers, and no one should consider it hyperbole when I say it doesn’t suck more than anything ever didn’t suck before. Which is to say, it’s an endearingly wonderful return to form for creator Mike Judge and his two most horned-up, self deluding creations. As the world around us gets increasingly more complex and disturbing, few are better than Judge at crafting comedic spaces where only inconsequential joy exists, even when his projects are merely reflecting the worst of us. And, uhhh, we all know what you like to do in front of a mirror, Beavis.

Watching the first two episodes was a delight, with the only drawback being that I hadn’t magically transported to the future where all of the Paramount+ eps were available for me to just marathon, but unpredictable shit like that probably would have presented its own problems. In any case, here are a handful of the thoughts that went through my head as I giddily watched Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head.  

1. I’m Still Amazed The New Show Premiered So Soon After Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe

Okay, so my first thought might technically be a cheat, but Mr. Van Driessen left the classroom, and you better not rat me out, dill-munch. Before the show actually started, as soon as the title screen popped up along with that signature guitar lick, I was awash with a unique glaze of gratitude to be sitting down watching new Beavis and Butt-Head TV content not even six weeks after having giggled myself to lunacy with the release of Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. And all after having spent the past eleven years without anything new. 

2. I Want To Design A Beavis And Butt-Head Themed Escape Room 

Given the premiere’s first segment is called “Escape Room,” there likely isn’t much confusion surrounding this non-random thought. I felt this to a slightly lesser degree with MTV’s 2011 revival, but with Beavis and Butt-Head back in the zeitgeist at a time when pop culture branding has stretched beyond already questionable limits, the world needs way more awesome shit with B&B on it. (And I don’t just mean 3,000 kinds of vinyl figurines, although I’m not leaving those on the shelf either.) Building on the surprisingly quality video games and books released in the 1990s, a Beavis and Butt-Head escape room would be a superbly ridiculous way to experience this dumbed-down universe. And if it happens to be themed specifically after the bathrooms and mummy room from the episode, and there were people to score with, that’d be, uh heh-heh, that would be pret-ty cool, too, Butt-Head. 

3. Beavis And Butt-Head’s Immaturity And Stupidity Is So Much Easier To Swallow Than Anything Online 

While fans already know the characters’ middle-aged versions will be back after showing up in their second feature, Beavis and Butt-Head start off the season in the same teenage form fans have known them as for almost 30 years now. And while I can easily understand why people from all generations could find this show to be severely grating to the nerves, I remain whole-heartedly more eager to spend time with this lovingly crafted low-brow inanity over rage-scrolling through the rampant stupidity and crassness on Twitter, YouTube, and elsewhere online. Mike Judge and the writers continue to excel at “shit-talking without hate-mongering” with Beavis and Butt-Head, where so many others would have long ago doubled-down on taking things too far. 

4. Beavis And Butt-Head Commenting On YouTube And TikTok Videos Is The Smartest Example Of Pop Culture Evolving

Immediately after yelling at clouds about the demons of the Internet, I’d like to ASMR-whisper huskily right into a microphone to congratulate the Beavis and Butt-Head team on proving my decades-old hypothesis that Mike Judge deserves to be paid all the dollars to watch and comment on every form of visual media that exists. While I wasn’t so overtly enthused about the show further shifting away from music videos when plans were first announced, I understood why it was happening, and I’m more than pleased to say I guffawed harder watching them riff on the YT/TikTok videos than I did during the music ones. Smartest move ever, of anything. You hear that, hot water and sliced bread?

5. Fire! Fire! Fiiirrrre!

Arguments can be had about how much modern TV and film trailers give away, but I can’t think of a more genius move than the show’s first trailer revealing Beavis having a face-to-face with a dumpster fire. No other single word is more associated with the pyro-appreciating teen, I’d think — fire, not dumpster, or face, or having — and the trailer didn’t even tip its sauce-stained hat to the idea that the segment would be entirely focused on Beavis and the fire, without Butt-Head making an appearance at all. It was a fire, umm, fun surprise to see the fire, dammit, to see the show take a creative left turn so fire… quickly. 

6. Episodes Should Be Way Longer, So That We Could Get 30 Minutes Of Just Video-Watching

By the time the third couch commentary came up in the premiere, I reached the point of wondering just how high I should set a crowdfunding campaign to capitalize on the aforementioned idea of securing Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head-voiced commentary on multitudes of video content. And also wondering whether or not any of it was legal or ethical without actually talking to Judge first, before landing on “Let’s seeeee here, no?” for both. But dammit, with the new episodes coming in at just over 20 minutes each, there’s just not enough time for all the things I want. And I realize the first two episodes are available now, and I can watch them both in a row, but… dammit, Butt-Head… it’s time to stand around, or to take a stand, or something, mmk. I’d probably complain if they cut out more of the storylines, too, since I will never get tired of hearing Beavis holler his way through wasp attacks.

7. Butt-Head Softly Slapping Beavis’ Face Is My New Favorite Sound 

Not a whole lot of extra fluff to add to this self-explanatory entry. But the second episode delivered both true face-smacking scenes, particularly when Butt-Head lied about a bug being on Beavis’ face, and we also got the amazing new addition to face-smacking canon during the ASMR video commentary. My laugh when Butt-Head violently caressed Beavis’ face was easily louder than anything else in that segment. It shall become my new morning alarm. 

8. I Just Love Beavis And Butt-Head So Damned Much

As awesome as it will be whenever the sorta-gestating King of the Hill revival finally happens (he says optimistically), I’m admittedly surprised by how much I’ve specifically enjoyed this once-in-a-generation brand of humor returning for a new generation, and without missing a beat along the way. While perhaps not seated in the same realm of the animated kingdom as Looney Tunes, Hayao Miyazaki, and Disney, there’s a similar timelessness threaded into Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head — for me, at least — in that it tickles my brain in exactly the same way the show did when I watched as a youth, despite both the creator and the viewer (me) being decades older now. There’s something magical about that, right? I don’t know if there’s a science to why Beavis’ fasciation with a power drill in “Boxed In” is such a damned delight, especially if that part was taught while there was a power drill around. Is it too late to shoehorn a Calvin and Hobbes comparison in?

Everyone should obviously check out Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head now that it’s made its on Paramount+, with August 4 also marking the day when more of the original MTV episodes will be available on the service. 

As little interest as I have in hanging out with dimwitted eterna-teenagers in real life, I could not be more pumped for Paramount+’s upcoming Beavis and Butt-Head revival series, with creator Mike Judge back in the driver’s (ed) seat. The duo’s latest shenanig-adventures will kick off anew in early August, with Judge on-hand at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con to promote their streaming TV debut on the heels of the hilariously ridiculous feature Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. Expectedly, the creator fielded questions about another one of his beloved projects, King of the Hill, which is rumored to be getting its own revival at some point. Specifically, he was asked about the idea of a crossover between the two shows. 

Addressing the ever so harsh reality that Beavis and Butt-Head being an early MTV classic and King of the Hill being a 20th Century Fox series made it impossible for any legitimate crossovers to feasibly happen, Mike Judge did admit that was an idea that he’d considered in the past, via THR. To the point where the two animated hits theoretically already have connective DNA, if one wants to go the legally non-binding head-canon route. Here’s what Judge said: 

Anyone who watched Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill during the ‘90s no doubt made the mental connection between the way Mike Judge voiced the teen’s neighbor Tom Anderson and the latter comedy’s lead Hank Hill. It’s basically the same, with his Hank performance obviously becoming more polished over time. And by all means, they look enough alike that someone might suspect this person messing with a propane tank is Hank Hill, even though it isn’t. (Okay, maybe the WitSec version of Hank Hill who's in trouble with Breaking Bad villains.)

Of course, it’s narratively impossible for Anderson to be Hank’s father, given Toby Huss’ unforgettable role as the gripe-lord Cotton Hill on King of the Hill. But I think there are enough similarities between the different series’ characters that a closer look at their family trees is warranted. 

With the way things are going now on the corporate front, it’s hard to tell whether it’s easier than ever to make a Beavis and Butt-Head crossover happen with King of the Hill, or if it’s even more unattainable. But what is definitely plausible, at the very least, is a TV return for KotH. While he didn’t say much, Mike Judge did address that inquiry at SDCC, answering with: 

Now we just sit back and wait for Judge to pull the rug out from under all of us by revealing that Todd and Boomhauer are brothers. That danged ol' bully, man.

Keep your eyes peeled for Arlen, Texas references when Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head debuts for Paramount+ subscribers on Thursday, August 4. Head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are popping up soon.

It’s only been a few weeks since Beavis and Butt-Head’s first feature in 26 years — the well-received Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe — and somehow the gods have aligned the stars so that fans are already getting a first full look at the duo’s return to the small screen. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this pumped up about watching something so intentionally dumb, but that’s 100% the case here, and the Paramount+ trailer proved to be worth all of that excitement. Plus, it revealed the revival’s premiere date, and it’s right around the corner. The same place where Beavis makes his fudge.

Beavis and Butt-Head’s resurgence in episodic form will reach Paramount+ subscribers starting on Thursday, August 4. And as everyone who watches the trailer will see (even those who didn’t check out the film yet), creator Mike Judge hasn’t missed a beat in the years since the dimwitted duo were last seen watching music videos while making other characters’ lives seem that much more rewarding in comparison. If anything, the gap since MTV’s single-season revival in 2011 just makes the show’s signature juvenile humor that much more refreshing somehow. It’s clear that these characters remain near and dear to Judge’s brilliant brain, which can only mean good things for viewers.

The trailer offers a smorgasbord of hilarious moments that I can’t wait to see play out in full. Beavis getting manic with a power drill in the middle of Mr. Van Driessen’s class? Love it. Butt-Head’s face lodged in Beavis’ butt as they fall down stairs while inside a carboard box? Love that, too. Beavis knocking down a hornet’s nest with a rake and then apparently mailing that hornet’s nest to Mr. Van Driessen before or after also getting one in the mail? My life has been empty without this. 

Honestly, I could have watched just that first third of Beavis and Butt-Head’s first trailer and been perfectly sated, but there was thankfully another minute chock-full of weird, uncomfortable and gross moments, not to mention more of Beavis in various forms of pain. (His lip getting caught on a fishing hook is nothing short of divine.)

Plus, as someone who shamelessly loves escape rooms, I’m wholeheartedly down to watch Beavis and Butt-Head put their combined brain (intentional lack of plural usage) together to make it out of there. Of course, as indicated by them finding clues in the building’s bathroom, they probably missed a few instructions along the way. And one of those instructions was probably “learn stuff.”

There's one thing you'll never have to teach Beavis, though: Fiirrrrrre.

So head to the window, make sure Todd’s not skulking around outside, and then set your calendars for Beavis and Butt-Head’s premiere on Paramount+ on Thursday, August 4. While only seven of the previously released seasons are currently available to stream on the platform, it’s already been confirmed that all 11 seasons, plus the original music videos, will be added to the service in the near future. Combined with the upcoming return of Clone High and the Daria spinoff, it's a pretty good time to have been obsessed with MTV animated series.

In the meantime, check out other awesome TV shows that Paramount+ has to offer, and head to our 2022 TV premiere dates to see what new and returning series are on the way.

MTV’s best ‘90s duo is back, with Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, a new movie more than a quarter-century since they “did” America. That’s welcome news for those who grew up chuckling along with Beavis and Butt-Head's lowbrow humor. Despite a quick revival in 2011, today’s audiences might not be as familiar with the sophomoric duo — unless they’ve happened to catch some episodes on MTV Classic — but Mike Judge is ready to introduce a introduce Beavis and Butt-Head to a new generation (of Paramount+ subscribers). 

Its trailer dubs Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe as “the dumbest science fiction movie ever made,” and while that seems self-deprecating or at least self-aware, in the case of this titular pair (huh-huh), dumb was never a bad thing. But let’s let the critics be the judges of that. The reviews are in, so let’s take a look at what they’re saying about the movie, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. Our own Eric Eisenberg rates the movie 4 out of 5 stars, saying it's very, very stupid, but the double-entendres and immature humor are as funny as ever for its intended audience:

Danielle Ryan of SlashFilm rates the movie 8 out of 10, also saying it's unknown if Beavis and Butt-Head can win over any new fans, but those who have always enjoyed Cornholio and giggling at the double entendres will have a blast. This critic says the plot retreads some of the same ground as the previous movie, but it's still as genius as it is stupid.

Daniel Fienberg of THR says Beavis and Butt-Head still come off as funny and pathetic (in a good way), but he questions how deeply we really want to explore how the pair would act in the modern world. Either way, Mike Judge and the rest have done well by using their travels to make an actual movie and not a bloated episode of television:

Owen Gleiberman of Variety says this is the sequel that nobody was asking for, but Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is still snarky and likeable enough to get by:

Kate Erbland of IndieWire grades the movie a B-, saying that Top Gun: Maverick is the summer's clear winner at pleasing a nostalgic fanbase, but Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe might be a lock for second place. 

It sounds like Mike Judge is bringing the nostalgia in all the right ways, even if (especially if?) it's all still very dumb. If you want to see the infamous duo try to navigate life in the 21st century, you’ll be able to do it much like we did it back in the ‘90s — on your screens at home. Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe will be available for streaming exclusively on Paramount+ on Thursday, June 23. Be sure to check out some of the other best movies on Paramount+, as well as our 2022 Movie Release Schedule to see what other films are coming to theaters soon. 

While surely not part of any kind of actual plan, it’s bizarrely perfect that 2022 is a year that audiences see the tandem return of Jackass (in the form of Jeff Tremaine’s Jackass Forever) and Beavis & Butt-Head (in the form of Mike Judge’s Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe). Both have origins that tie back to the early decades of original television programming on MTV, but more importantly, both brands have a genuine awareness of what they are – and what they are is “very stupid.” There is an unabashed immaturity that is at their core, and they share a comedic sensibility that can best be summed up with the perspective that a man being hit/ smacked/whacked/etc. in the testicles is fundamentally hilarious.

Obviously this is not everyone’s cup of tea, and critics/parents have been raising objections to the material since the shows’ respective inceptions. But both Jackass and Beavis & Butt-Head have found incredible success speaking directly to the audience they know perpetually exists, and an unwillingness to grow up even after 20/30 years of existence has led to wonderful contemporary success.

Back in February it was utterly delightful to see Johnny Knoxville and his friends return to purposefully destroy their bodies and abuse one another for our amusement in Jackass Forever, and now the same can be said about the titular duo in Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe – who have not evolved in any single way since they were introduced back in the early 1990s, and for that we can be thankful. The circumstances in which they find themselves are more extreme than ever in the new feature, but the results are still the same: which is to say they’re still inducing forehead smacks, disbelieving head shakes, and hysterical fits of raucous laughter.

Bringing us back to the year 1998, Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe opens with the latter kicking the former repeatedly in the groin – with the background of the activity being the high school science fair. As you’d expect based on the pair’s history, things end up going horribly wrong and multiple explosions occur, leading the two teenage idiots to find themselves in a courtroom facing sentencing. Rather than dolling out a typical punishment, however, the judge (Chi McBride) is inspired by an episode of Touched By An Angel to show leniency towards the boys, and he offers them the opportunity to attend a NASA space camp instead of sending them to juvenile hall.

While at the special science course, Beavis and Butt-Head prove themselves bizarrely adept at executing a penetrative docking maneuver, and it gets them an opportunity to travel to space and try it for real – though their interpretation of the offer is that they are going to the cosmos for the purpose of having sex with the mission’s leader, Serena Ryan (Andrea Savage). When their true incompetence reveals itself to extreme levels, Serena attempts to have them killed so that she can save the rest of her crew, but instead she sends the morons on a journey through time and space that sees them travel through a black hole back to Earth in the year 2022.

It plays fast and loose with plotting, but Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe is a ridiculous and fun adventure.

That may seem like plenty of plot for a film that comes in under an hour-and-a-half long, but truth be told that description only barely scratches the surface of all the things that happen in Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe. Once they return to Earth, the protagonists are endlessly determined to take Serena up on her “promise” and get laid for the first time, and while that takes them on a journey from one ridiculous circumstance to the next, they are also pursued by both Serena and agents from the FBI – the former wanting to kill them before they can spill any secrets, and the latter wanting to examine and dissect the heroes as sci-fi mysteries... And then there is also the intermittent appearances of a Beavis and Butt-Head from an alternate reality who desperately try to get the duo to commit to a plan that will save the fate of the universe.

Structurally speaking, the movie is kind of a mess, and at no point do you have any clear idea of where it is headed next. But that chaotic energy works for Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe in a way that wouldn’t work for just about any other film because it speaks directly to the way that the characters function (which is to say completely without any kind of real logic).

As it veers from an extravagant nacho buying montage, to a prison riot sequence, to a long ride with the characters in a portable toilet, it doesn’t really make any sense, but it works because Beavis and Butt-Head themselves don’t register how utterly insane their journey is. Mike Judge’s only mission seems to be to try and squeeze as many laughs as he can out of the material, and it’s thankfully a mission that proves to be a success.

Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe won’t convert any haters, but it will delight all pre-existing fans.

With its time travel story and toe-dipping into the multiverse, one can certainly register an attempt to literally modernize Beavis and Butt-Head, and part of the fun of the film is seeing them adjust to elements of the modern world like smart phones – but mostly the movie is a celebration of the fact that these characters don’t change, and after more than three decades that’s actually pretty remarkable. Popular culture has evolved a great deal since the 1990s, but the perversion, lazy double-entendres, and lacking attention spans are all as giggle-inducing as ever. Mike Judge knows what fans what with the duo, he doesn’t hesitate to deliver full bore, and it’s fantastic.

Those who have never cared for Beavis and Butt-Head will still find no joy in Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe, and I have no idea if it will speak at all to newer generations – but it can be said with absolute certainty that the movie is a gift to Gen X and Millennial fans, and it should be cherished for the genuine idiocy that it is.

Fans of MTV’s legendary slacker cartoon comedy Beavis and Butt-Head got a nice surprise a couple of years ago, when it was announced that the duo were coming back to TV with a show on Comedy Central. We also found out that the metalheads’ second film was being planned, to help kick off the adventures we’d see on the new series, and now Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge has shared a bizarre first look at the now middle-aged characters for that Paramount+ movie.

When this second Beavis and Butt-Head revival was revealed in early July of 2020, we were told that this new wave of couch potato mayhem would involve our beloved dumbasses dealing with modern day issues as (gasp!!) middle-aged men. And, now that Mike Judge has shown the older twosome on Twitter, well, you can see just how odd meeting up with them again is going to be. Take a look!

WOW. Alright, obviously neither Beavis nor Butt-Head have ever been what one would call pleasant to look at, but I still think it would be fair to say that the years have not been kind to either of them. And, honestly? That’s not far off from what anyone who watched them scheme, head bang, inhale junk food, and inflict grievous bodily harm on each other would have expected.

But! I say that while still fully shocked at just how similar Beavis looks to his former teen self, while Butt-Head…uh…does not. Even seeing that Beavis has a tiny pot belly and has seemingly aged into an even angrier version of the boy we once knew, the Butt-Head transformation is stunning to a degree that I bet no one expected. Did you immediately recognize him? Because I, for sure, didn’t, and I spent far too many hours in the ‘90s watching that dope “huh, hu, huh, huh, huh,” at any and everything that was even vaguely sexual.

When the Beavis and Butt-Head movie hits Paramount+ this year, it will be the first time we’ve seen them since their brief 2011 revival, which came after the show originally ran for eight seasons (from 1993 through 1997), and one previous movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996). While we don’t specifically know what this new film will be about, the series is said to feature the now much older not-so-gentle men being confronted by younger generations, particularly Gen Z, and give viewers meta-commentary on themes that appeal to both groups. 

Mike Judge noted in his post that the Beavis and Butt-Head movie “and more” will be coming to Paramount+ this year, and it’s unclear right now if that means the show (which was already given a two-season order by Comedy Central) is moving to the streamer, or if some of the previously planned spinoffs and specials from the new series will also be arriving there in 2022. Either way, I guess we all best be prepared for the onslaught, and go gather much TP for our bungholes before we poop ourselves with laughter.

While you wait for Beavis and Butt-Head to return at some point this year, be sure to check out what’s coming to television soon with the 2022 TV premiere dates!

Just as Robocop Returns felt like a comfortable prospect, what with co-writer/director Neill Blomkamp on board for what seemed like a go picture, a wrench was thrown into the works. Blomkamp has now departed the project, as MGM wants to get the film underway in timely fashion and the District 9 creator is set on making a horror-thriller elsewhere.

So now there’s a movie that needs to be made with a director’s chair sitting vacant and waiting to be filled. If MGM wants to do things right and save RoboCop Returns, it needs a special breed of director to carry the torch of satirical sci-fi action into the 21st century.

That specific criteria could only be covered by a select group of directors, and nine names in particular come to mind. RoboCop Returns stands the best chance at being the long awaited sequel fans have always wanted, if it lands one of the following candidates we humbly submit to your attention.

The Wachowskis

If you were to just take The Matrix alone into consideration, The Wachowskis would have enough action and sci-fi credentials to land the gig of directing a RoboCop sequel with no problem. That said, limiting their filmography to that specific point would not only be unfair to them, but it’d also excise a very important piece of the puzzle.

With later films like Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and even Jupiter Ascending, The Wachowskis engaged in more criticism towards the bureaucracy of the modern, corporate world. Combining their skill set from the entirety of their film canon, this famed pair of directors could make one hell of a comeback on the back of RoboCop Returns, especially since that big Matrix rumor turned out to be false.

Boots Riley

When you make a satire as sharply witted and visually stunning as Sorry To Bother You, it becomes a calling card for a film like RoboCop Returns. As this proposed sequel is supposed to act like a directly linked sequel to Paul Verhoven’s original, it would really help if a director can put together a biting wit and some eye-popping effects work.

Director Boots Riley is just that sort of director, as his cinematic corporate takedown feels like a cousin to the sort of message the 1987 original was sending when it came to the activities of the corrupt OCP. Not to mention, if there’s enough time for a bit of a rewrite before production, Riley could lend his darkly unique vision to ensure that RoboCop Returns hits harder than ever in a modern economy.

Mike Judge

RoboCop films definitely need a pedigree when it comes to action filmmaking, so in that respect, Mike Judge would have to bone up on how to make his potential vision of RoboCop as combat ready as Paul Verhoven’s series originator. However, when it comes to potentially hiring the mind behind Beavis and Butthead and Idiocracy to direct RoboCop Returns, the world wouldn’t have to worry about his satirical skills.

One could even argue that’s the harder part of the RoboCop formula to master, as one can easily learn action, but satire isn’t as readily taught. Thinking about the ways Judge used both of those landmark projects to say something about popular culture and political degeneration, the stage would be set for RoboCop Returns to bring the franchise back to its socially charged roots.

Lexi Alexander

Hollywood owes Lexi Alexander big time for making a movie as absolutely bonkers, and as joyously fun, as Punisher: War Zone. A film that wasn’t afraid to get bloody or go over the top with its violence and humor, her work on that movie felt like a direct descendant of RoboCop’s 1987 madness. As such, granting Alexander the director’s duties for RoboCop Returns would be one hell of a payback.

Alexander’s directing skills have only gotten sharper through working on such popular shows as Arrow, Supergirl and How To Get Away With Murder. But perhaps the greatest asset in her toolbox is the fact that Lexi Alexander has personal experience in martial arts and stunt work. So if you ever wanted to see what RoboCop Returns would look like if it was a stunt-filled masterpiece with high levels of cartoony snark, Ms. Alexander is the person you want to hire.

Edgar Wright

There has never been a genre that Edgar Wright couldn’t make his own. From Shaun of The Dead to Baby Driver, with Hot Fuzz in-between, the man’s hit a lot of spots on the map of moviemaking. Droll wit, slick action and well-tuned performances are all hallmarks of his work, so RoboCop Returns feels like a film that could not only sing in his hands, it would also be a payoff to most of the work he’s already done in his career.

You can practically see Simon Frost as a slimy OCP executive, Nick Frost as a scientist who’s keen on keeping Alex Murphy an autonomous hero for the people, and at least one shoot-out of insanely fantastic proportions. If RoboCop Returns goes to Edgar Wright, not only would we see things landing in the right hands, Wright just might be able to respectfully reinvent what being a RoboCop movie truly means.

Rachel Talalay

Rachel Talalay may not be the most readily apparent option for directing RoboCop Returns, but in a similar mode to that of Lexi Alexander, Talalay knows how to go out there with her work. Just look at her work on films like Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare and Tank Girl, and you’ll see a special sort of filmmaker. Recently, her television work has been her claim to fame, as Talalay has directed episodes of shows like Supergirl, Riverdale and The Flash, but there’s one show that qualifies her extensively to work on RoboCop Returns.

With three two-part season finales of Doctor Who under her belt, and two of those seasons involving work with the Cybermen, Talalay has work with robotic characters and sarcastic humanoids locked down. Throw that in with her previous experience in some very experimental films of the ‘90s, and this project starts to look like a fantastic fit.

Dan Trachtenberg

10 Cloverfield Lane was one hell of a debut for director Dan Trachtenberg to cut his cinematic teeth on. Jumping straight into an anthological entry in a pre-established franchise is daunting even if you’re a practiced hand at filmmaking, but Trachtenberg did it in style and won a lot of fans in the process.

RoboCop Returns would be a fantastic fit for this auteur’s genre-ready hand, but if you need some more selling, try this on for size. Without Dan Trachtenberg’s skills, we may have never gotten Amazon’s The Boys as a regular series, as he directed the pilot. Setting up a world of over-the-top action and darkly comic corporate malfeasance isn’t for everyone, but Trachtenberg is clearly up to the task.

Kathryn Bigelow

Most folks know Kathryn Bigelow for her more serious films like The Hurt Locker and Detroit, both of which are socially relevant dramas that have a poignant message to deliver. So RoboCop Returns with her at the helm would definitely be able to play the notes of the story that see sympathy for the cyborg law enforcement agent at their most human.

However, in her earlier films Near Dark and Strange Days, there was a very horror/sci-fi slickness that gave us anti-heroes and sympathetic villains that knew how to smile when they were engaged in shady activities. It’d practically be like coming home for Bigelow to take over this new RoboCop sequel, and her prestige worthy skill set could be the sort of sheen the series could use in its latest iteration.

Paul Verhoven

Sometimes, if you want a job done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. If the folks at MGM really want to get things going with RoboCop Returns, while also ensuring this new film feels like a true successor to the RoboCop name, it’s best if they bring back the man himself. Paul Verhoven should be brought back into the RoboCop series in order to directly connect his original film to the future.

As Verhoven is still an active film director, his satire muscles haven’t had that much of a flexing since 1997’s Starship Troopers. While that project may have felt like an oddity at its time of release, the level of dark humor it engaged in was way ahead of the curve. Ideally, if we want RoboCop Returns to be as effective as the first film in the series, you’re going to want to bring the man who helped start it all on board to steer the ship right.

RoboCop Returns is in a crucial stage right now, as the right director means everything to how this production can and will move forward. Neill Blomkamp is a big act to follow, as the man’s vision of science fiction seemed pretty spot on for the project. But as you can see, there’s others that could make some pretty interesting fits in the RoboCop landscape. All that needs to happen is for the studio to make the right choice.

It's almost absurd to consider the fact that 25 years have passed since Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-head first graced MTV with their immature perversions and hot takes on music videos. Judge is currently still putting out fan-beloved cable comedies, but many fans will always hold Beavis and Butt-head up as his magnum opus. (Huh-huh, "magnum.") As it happens, Judge also feels that way, saying this:

Mike Judge's answer will almost definitely be celebrated by fans who also peg Beavis and Butt-head as a favorite among the creator's works. With its simple concept and even simpler characters, the animated comedy became a hit with audiences who were equally fond of the duo's apathy-driven logic and MST3K-esque riffs on popular music.

As such, Beavis and Butt-head became the surprising meal ticket that launched Mike Judge's career in a big way, leading to films such as the fan-favorites Office Space and Idiocracy. As well, Judge's work on MTV's animated projects led to arguably his most successful TV venture, King of the Hill. (More on that show's potential return in a bit.)

Currently, Mike Judge is still making cable TV a better place with HBO's tech satire Silicon Valley and Showtime's animated Tales from the Tour Bus. Seeds from Beavis and Butt-head can be recognized in both shows, too, from the "everything sucks" attitude of Silicon Valley's Gilfoyle to the music-focused hilarity of Tales from the Tour Bus. Plus, I believe it's quite obvious how a movie like Idiocracy is a natural extension of the characters' combined intelligence.

Beavis and Butt-head's influence and popularity was proven in full with 1996's feature film Beavis and Butt-head Do America. It happened again in 2011, when MTV reteamed with Mike Judge for a new season of episodes that were largely received as favorably as the initial run was. That return only lasted for one season, sadly.

While fans would definitely like to see more Beavis and Butt-head in the future, Mike Judge has actually been working on bringing King of the Hill back to TV in some way. It sounds like we're getting closer than ever to getting that revival, too, even if the scheduling has to be perfectly timed. In his words:

Yeah, we're still having conversations about it. Nothing yet. We've just all been busy with other stuff. All the people involved and who we've been talking to, I guess I'm not supposed to say. [Laughs.] But we've been talking about it over the last year, and I think we might have a way to do it. So yeah, that's another one we're kicking around.

We're always hoping for as many Mike Judge projects on the air as possible, so we'll be keeping a close eye on how things shake out for him in the coming months. You can currently watch the recently premiered second season of Mike Judge Presents Tales from the Tour Bus on Cinemax at 10 p.m. ET.

Fox mentioned last year they were in early discussions for a revival of King of the Hill, and fans of the series got pumped to see more episodes based around Hank Hill, Texas, propane, and propane accessories. Mike Judge recently said he's all for that, provided he could make one thing different. Judge said he'd love to bring back the Hill family and the whole gang, but only if they're older. Here's how he put it:

Mike Judge is all for bringing back King of the Hill, but according to his comments to Rotten Tomatoes, he wants his characters to have aged. Provided Judge is wanting to progress his characters' ages the same amount of years the show has been away that means Hank Hill, Peggy and the bulk of the adult gang would be in their early 50s. Younger characters like Bobby, Joseph, and Connie would be in their early 20s and probably in college. Provided that's the kind of time jump that Judge is considering, it almost sounds as though it would be a new show entirely even though the show's title and characters are the same.

That said, age is just a number, and while The Simpsons can still write perpetual storylines for their ageless characters, perhaps Mike Judge can find more inspiration with an older King of the Hill character lineup. For example, the middle-school-aged Bobby Hill was great for tons of laughs back in the show's original run, but the thought of Bobby as a legal adult and what the show could do with that is incredibly fun to consider. If it's incredible to think of from a fan perspective, then one can only imagine what ideas Judge already has in mind provided Fox would be cool with his bold new direction for the series.

After all, some things about King of the Hill will never change regardless of age. Hank Hill was already an uptight and sometimes oblivious middle-aged man, and that's probably not going to be any different however far into the future this show chooses to go. The things that do, like adult Bobby, would easily make up for the loss of characters like Luanne, and allow the show extend further into young-adult territory that never made sense with her character, but be perfect for Bobby.

A King of the Hill revival is still a ways away from happening, but repeats of the series can be watching weekdays on Adult Swim at 8:00 p.m. ET. For information on upcoming programming new or returning that is headed to television in 2018, visit our midseason premiere guide.

Outside of its widespread critical acclaim, HBO's Silicon Valley has dealt with its fair share of criticisms in its first four seasons, from the male-heavy cast to slightly repetitive story beats. But the comedy caused its biggest ruckus when comedian and star T.J. Miller left the show after Season 4 wrapped, with multiple reasons floating around for the impetus. Now, creator Mike Judge and others have opened up a bit about what Miller's behavior was reportedly like on set, and how it likely paved the road to his departure. In Judge's words:

Mike Judge's comments there, along with those of others sources that spoke with THR, paint a picture where T.J. Miller isn't the most dependable or punctual co-star to have around. He was allegedly known to just not show up sometimes, and when he would, it often would often be whenever everyone had already been waiting on him. It's stated that table reads would start up late, and schedules would have to be flipped around to make up for it. What's more, those table readings would sometimes be hindered even more when sources said it was apparent Miller hadn't even looked at the script before that day.

And then there's the intoxicant element. Show sources claim that T.J. Miller's willingness to imbibe on alcohol and other substances was no secret to everyone, and it's alleged that T.J. Miller would occasionally appear to be under the influence whenever he would arrive on set. And he would apparently fall asleep between takes on occasion, which caused some scheduling snafus. Overall, it was reportedtly a huge problem for all involved, since no one knew which version of Miller would show up for work. There definitely were days when everything was peachy keen, and Miller's comedic talents would be on full display without issue. But there were no guarantees, and it apparently caused some strife with a co-star or two.

T.J. Miller, who'd initially explained his public quitting away by saying the public needed a "villain," combatted some of the above claims and offered up his own explanation about why his behavior was erratic at times during Silicon Valley's run.

A constant lack of sleep would certainly explain some of Miller's issues, but even if they could all be washed away, that wouldn't have made it any easier for the writers to keep giving his character captivating stories. In the sea of Silicon Valley's tech-centric goons and industry vets, Miller's Erlich Bachman was a bong-toting pitchman, so there weren't a lot of places left to take the character. So it seemed to make perfect sense to write him into the abyss at the end of Season 4, though Mike Judge claims he did offer Miller three Season 5 episodes to close things out for Erlich. (Miller turned that down.)

Silicon Valley can't come back soon enough, and the Erlich-free Season 5 will premiere on HBO on Sunday, March 25, at 10:30 p.m. ET. Be sure to tune in, and then head to our midseason premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows that are on the way.

Silicon Valley is a show where, presumably, anything goes. Fans have seen a horse copulate, a monkey masturbate, and heard enough phallic jokes to last a lifetime. Having said that, Mike Judge is super impressed by one particular moment from Season 4 that he still can't believe happened, and it's pretty awesome. Judge talks about that moment and the seemingly limitless boundaries of HBO below:

While perhaps not a response that many would expect, it is really impressive that Mike Judge and the Silicon Valley team were able to pull enough legitimate tech companies together to host a fake convention of sorts. It's even more impressive that the series would go to that length to emulate the look and feel of an actual convention rather than simply work some Hollywood magic and pretend the con is filled out when, in reality, it isn't. While Judge tells THR he's surprised the tech companies were willing to sit through stage direction and a fake convention, surely few balked at the opportunity to appear on one of the hottest tech-based shows currently on television!

For Silicon Valley fans who may not remember the episode, "Hooli-Con" featured the crew, sans-Erlich Bachman, traveling to the Hooli convention in an effort to trick attendees into downloading their app by masking it as a wifi access point. The episode features Dinesh and Gilfoyle traveling around the con to place their access points and Richard attempting to perform a petty prank on the boyfriend of a woman he was seeing. With so many companies in attendance, one has to wonder if there was any infighting amongst them regarding which booths would sit in closest proximity to Pied Piper. Then again, it's tricky to say whether or not placing one's company booth right next to a fictional company with a rep like Pied Piper is a good or bad business strategy.

Silicon Valley has been confirmed for Season 5 in 2018, although it will be happening without T.J. Miller. Miller, who has been more than vocal about his departure from the show has finally spoken up about why he's been talking about it so much, and it actually makes sense. He also had a goofy response to a fan who was caught fondling himself during The Emoji Movie that's better than the reviews the film is getting. Be sure to read up on all of that, or travel on over to our fall premiere guide to see a great list of shows that can't be missed.

Dangit, Bobby! The current TV revival-lution doesn't really have any boundaries for what can and can't be brought back for modern audiences, but most will likely agree an animated series is easier to return to than most live-action stuff. Even when one of the characters involved is King of the Hill's put-upon propane salesman Hank Hill. Don't tell him just yet, but it looks like Fox is opening the door for a potential return to east Texas with new episodes of King of the Hill.

Now, before anybody goes pulling couches and 12-packs out to the road, let it be known that this is the earliest stage possible for any potential King of the Hill revival. During the TCA summer press event (via TVLine), Fox Chairman and CEO Dana Walden stated that Fox execs had an "exploratory" initial conversation with co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels about where a King of the Hill comeback could go, and apparently there were enough good ideas to inspire a need for more talks. According to Walden:

Throughout King of the Hill's 13-season run, the animated comedy went from Bill Clinton's era through all eight years of George W. Bush's terms to Barack Obama's first year in D.C. It's interesting to think that if King of the Hill returned to TV a full decade after it originally bowed out, it would still keep its Presidential streak going with Donald Trump. Now, we're not even willing to throw conjecture at how Dale might feel about the current state of the U.S. government, because the black helicopters are gonna show up.

While we're going to keep our hopes alive for King of the Hill's potential return to come together, many complications would need to get worked out. Particularly when it comes to Mike Judge and Greg Daniels actually having the time to sit down and plan out how to bring the Hills and their friends into the here and now. Judge is presumably busy mentally preparing for Season 5 of Silicon Valley, and his brand new animated series, Cinemax's Tales from the Tour Bus will be debuting on Friday, September 22. And while Greg Daniels isn't currently 4 seasons deep in an HBO satire, he's probably thinking about how to bring The Office back, too, along with his other projects.

_King of the Hill, _immortalized by Arby's earlier this year, would have one major setback in returning to the small screen: the death of Brittany Murphy, who voiced Peggy's niece Luanne. It's hard to guess whether another actress would be brought in, or if the show would honor the character by retiring her (or whatever one does in that situation).

Considering the three animated series that King of the Hill aired alongside back in 2009 are all still on the air -- including The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad -- it would be kind of amazing for the drawl-filled comedy to return to Fox to share the schedule grid with those shows again. (Even if American Dad is on TBS now.)

Remember, these are still the early days, but it's never too early to flood the Internet with hopeful suggestions for Fox to get behind more King of the Hill. While waiting for more updates, head to our summer TV guide and our fall TV schedule.

Separately, Mike Judge and HBO have given audiences a lot of different and sometimes extreme subject matter to process. Together, they’ve given us the satirical comedy Silicon Valley, and though the show’s topics are often of a tech-based nature, Sunday night’s episode got extremely primal during one scene that featured a pair of horses having sex during a conversation between Richard and his new boss, Stephen Tobolowsky’s Jack Barker. And because you were wondering, everything involved in that graphic equine coupling was completely real. Well, almost completely.

As far as the actual horse sex goes, Mike Judge says that was 100% genuine, but that it definitely wasn’t how the scene was first envisioned for the characters’ conversation.

Though some horses are inseminated artificially, thoroughbreds do it naturally, which helped the show’s cause in that respect. And after the research was done, it doesn’t seem to have been that tough of a process to get the scene together, as it was mostly a matter of finding the location, horses and wranglers, as well as getting the American Human Society there. Only two horses were used, since all it took was one take to make the magic happen, so to speak, though other horses were set in case it didn’t work initially.

Speaking of the act itself, that’s actually where some liberties were taken in the scene. Here’s how Judge explained that part to THR when asked how long it took to “get the money shot.” (Which is totally visible to anyone watching on something bigger than a smartphone.)

Gross. Anyway. You might recall that HBO and horses haven’t exactly had the best history together, what with the high-profile drama Luck going through some legal hell and cancellation after multiple horses died during production. But rather than balk or get weary about any of it, Judge says that HBO exec Amy Gravitt actually requested more of the horses banging on screen. It’s not TV. It’s comedic horse porn. You can check it out in all its erect glory below.

Silicon Valley had already given the world the most elaborate dick joke imaginable, and it didn’t seem likely that any other penis-related moment could top it. But now we have this merry mare-y display of animal affection. What do you guys think we’ll get in Season 4? Maybe they’ll double back to this and show a horse plowing into Gavin Belson. It’d be crude, but not undeserved.

Silicon Valley airs Sunday nights on HBO.

Office Space didn’t explode in popularity when it was first released. In fact, analysts initially considered it a bit of a failure because of its low box office. In the subsequent years, however, the film started getting recommended and passed around like an undiscovered gem until a really high percentage of the population had seen it. Now, it’s firmly entrenched as one of the more quoted and watched movies of the 1990s, and apparently, it had a lasting effect on the restaurant industry, as well.

You know those pieces of flair Jennifer Aniston repeatedly bitched about in Office Space? Well, they were based off the real life buttons many servers actually had to wear at the time at a number of chain restaurants including TGI Fridays. A few years after the film came out, however, the chain discontinued the use of flair. Why? Apparently because people wouldn’t stop making Office Space references about it.

Here’s a portion of what Office Space creator Mike Judge told Deadline…

We all owe Mike Judge a huge thank you because, I think, I speak for everyone when I say, flair was disgustingly ugly…

An overwhelming majority of movies come and go without having any lasting impact. Whether they’re good, bad or mediocre, people stop talking about them within a few years, and within a decade or so, they’re barely remembered at all. Fortunately, a lucky few of them stick with people. They offer something unique enough and memorable enough that we collectively decided to keep quoting and watching.

That’s the thing about Office Space. The technology might be out of date, but the way the characters interact and the nightmarish picture of mid-level management and bad bosses rings just as true now. The world is filled with Bill Lumberghs. There’s nothing Mike Judge can do to change that. Not even his hysterical new workplace comedy Silicon Valley can rid the world of shitty, passive aggressive bosses, but flair is certainly a good place to start.

Related 

• Watch the real Michael Bolton hilariously recreate Office Space scenes.
• Office Space's Bill Lumbergh made a comeback for these hysterical commercials.  

Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley pilot has signed two actors to play very different roles. Glory Daze’s Josh Brener and The Office’s Lindsey Broad have joined the pilot in the single camera comedy that is set to be executive produced by Scott Rudin, John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky, and Judge himself.

The comedy will be pretty dark and will follow a group of hackers living in the particular valley mentioned in the title "where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success." According to Deadline, Brener and Broad will co-star in the series, although one of them will get a better character name than the other.

Let’s start with the sort-of normal named character. Broad will play Tandy, a young lady looking for love, but also a comfortable life. She’s not the type to go to any lengths to get what she wants, however. She’s described as loyal and not a cheater. In the silly nicknames department, Brener will play Big Head, a character who still rolls with the nickname he earned in middle school and who joins the hacker community after creating an app that tracks women who are sporting erect nipples. That app seems like it would fit well in the world of Idiocracy.

HBO announced the Silicon Valley comedy was in the works just a couple of months ago and in the time since, the network has already signed on a few names, including comedian and actor T.J. Miller andFun Size’s Thomas Middleditch. We’ll let you know if any other big castings waft our way.

Mike Judge has a knack for creating great, long-lasting characters that find cult status. Titles like Beavis and Butthead and Office Space are great bits of pop culture and you can make anyone smile just by explaining that you need TP for your bunghole or showing them your red Swingline stapler. Idiocracy falls under that umbrella as well. While perhaps not as popular as some of Judge's other works, there is a large underground community of people of always use Brawndo to mutilate their thirst. And for those people I have some very good news.

MovieLine recently spoke with Terry Crews, who played the memorable role of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in Idiocracy, and the actor confirmed that there have been some rumblings of a possible spin-off featuring his character. "Me and Mike [Judge] are talking right now with Fox about some Camacho stuff," Crews told the site. "We literally met with Fox a week ago. It’s so cool." In the movie the character is a former porn star and professional wrestling champion who was elected president in a distant future where stupid people have taken over the Earth by over-breeding.

For those hoping the President Camacho will be back on the big screen, you might not want to get ahead of yourself. Crews says that the project will most likely be web-based. "We’re going to start off on the internet and do some small interstitials with Camacho." Crews will next be seen in The Expendables 2, which is due out on August 17th, and stay tuned for our own one-on-one interview with him next week!

It’s been a long (uh huh huh) time since 10-year-old Nick Venable first watched Beavis and Butthead on MTV. If it’s shocking that 19 years have passed since it first attacked airwaves, consider that a block of music videos probably played before or after it. 1997 came along and began an extreme dearth of shirt-hooded sugar-rushers asking for T.P. for their bunghole. Then King of the Hill soon Texas drawl-fucked us out of hard (uh huh huh) rock inanity for the next 13 years. If one can say anything about Mike Judge, as one can if one has a mouth, it’s that he allows too long a gestation period between his more genius projects. And I’m including Extract and The Goode Family in there. But then, cue the angelic “ahhh” sounds, Beavis and Butthead was resurrected for 12 new episodes. I hold this Blu-ray in my hand, and while it doesn’t make me feel like God, it makes me feel like I could kick God’s ass. As it were.

It is not an effortless task explaining the appeal of this self-aware celebration of stupidity. Their first segment in 14 years, “Werewolves of Highland” features the duo of Beavis and Butt-head allowing a rabid homeless man to bite them repeatedly, because they think it will turn them into a werewolf, which will attract girls. A satire of American youths obsessed with romanticizing formerly horrific monsters? Possibly. A hilariously gory way to bring back this particular brand of counter-counter culture? Absolutely. And viewers who don’t like the cartoon should take pleasure in watching their failure, as they lay slumped over on the couch, infected and pus-ridden. Everyone wins!

Enough about new viewers, though, because this set is for hardcore (uh huh huh) fans. It’s akin to a greatest-hits album comprised of new renditions as done by the artist, only without the cringe-worthy awfulness. The Great Cornholio returns in full force, held up as the Messiah after he drills an action figure through his hand and a cultish group mistakes it for stigmata. The duo try to get girls, though I’m certain sex would be alien to them. (They ask a girl’s father for her “hand” in marriage, assuming it means something more than its metaphor. Also, they assume an abortion clinic is a brothel. Connect the dots.) They fuck around at Burger World a few times, once involving a pet rat. They try out a few other accidental jobs, including tech support and military drone operators. Situations are misconstrued, as when a Highland evacuation due to toxic gas leaks invites them to assume they are survivors of an apocalypse, leaving them free to ransack all the houses in the neighborhood. Van Driessen, Stuart, and Coach Buzzkill show up. And of course, there’s some major ass-kicking performed by Todd. Go Todd!

Lest anyone thinks the music videos are gone, you’ll be only half-disappointed. Many “artists of the half-decade” are skewered, such as MGMT, Lil Wayne, Battles, and Cage the Elephant, among others. (I don’t know why, but it amuses me that they’re familiar with deadmau5.) But the majority of the interstitials come from other original MTV programming, although there is a fake movie review and a UFC fight involved. These shows include 16 and Pregnant, True Life, Teen Mom, and, most notably, they deservedly berate the fuck out of Jersey Shore, especially Deena. I would pay good money to see them go MSTK3K over entire episodes of the Shore. But I suppose I’ll let their resurgence be the one dream realized this past year.

The episodes themselves are bright rainbows over golden showers. When it comes to the actual Blu-ray disc itself, though, things come up short (uh huh huh). The intended crude animation looks as crisp as it possibly can in high-def, but the 3:4 aspect wastes the format. It’s also intentional, but doesn’t justify paying extra money to get it on Blu-ray in the first place. If any show would welcome the return of VHS, it would be this one.

The extras are equally disappointing. “2011: San Diego Comic Con Panel” is a 20-minute Q&A with Mike Judge, joined by fanboy Johnny Knoxville, as he discusses the show history, characters and their voices, and Judge’s past in general. Well worth a watch, it begs for Mike Judge to showcase himself more often in public appearances. However, the “Interruptions” features are ridiculously slight, offering minute-long phone conversations between B&B and cast members from Jersey Shore. I assume they played as promotional material on MTV. It’s not even worth mentioning “Silence Your Cell Phone,” where they tell theater-goers to shut up, but I just mentioned it. I guess it was worth only that.

Honestly, I don’t give a pet rat’s ass about extras and aspect ratios. My nostalgia and immaturity rarely form such a cohesive bond, and this disc allowed it to happen. Just as honestly, I didn’t watch the initial airings, as my remote control tries to pour water over itself and electrocute me anytime MTV is considered. I watched them on Hulu. I’m not ashamed. Thank you for bringing these guys back into our lives, Mike Judge. Many happy and horny returns.

Length: 264 min.

Rated: Not rated

Distributor: MTV Productions

Release Date: 2/14/12

Starring: Mike Judge

Directed by: Yvette Kaplan, Tony Kluck, John Rice, Roy Smith, Ted Stearn

Produced by: John Altschuler, Mike Judge, Yvette Kaplan, Dave Krinsky, Tom Lassally, Michael Rotenberg

Written by: John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky, DJ Javerbaum, Brad Pope, Jeff Goldstone, Kristofor Brown, Sivert Glarum, Michael Jamin, Greg Grabianski, Boyce Bugliari, Jamie McLaughlin, Bo Weinberg

Visit the Beavis & Butt-head Official Website

Anyone in their mid- to late-20s learned how to play frog baseball, light their farts on fire, and headbang until their necks bleed from MTV’s original animated troublemakers, Beavis and Butthead. But ever since 1993’s Beavis and Butthead Do America, the duo, despite occasional appearances at MTV awards ceremonies, has been sorely missed. But for those of us who grew up on the dimwits’ adventures, we’re in for a treat come this Friday.

The pair are going to be giving a little introduction in front of Jackass 3D where they’ll fill us in on all things three dimensional, appearing in 3D themselves. Have no fear, though, dear reader. According to /Film, the tag team will be just as cheaply animated as we remember them being and will still live in a hand drawn world. No CG animated update, thank God.

Back in July, it was finally confirmed after years of rumors that Beavis and Butthead would return to their couch on MTV for brand new episodes. Obviously, using Jackass 3D is a great way to hit the exact demographic that would be interested in hearing what a couple of metalheads had to say about music videos new and old.

So if you can’t wait to get a heaping dose of dumb (and I say that with love), then grab yourself a ticket to Jackass 3D this weekend and hear what your favorite perpetually teenaged miscreants have to offer.

Last last week we heard rumors that Mike Judge might be bringing Beavis & Butt-head back to television. Now they’re more than rumors, it’s confirmed. Beavis & Butthead are back!

MTV says new episodes are in the works, and it’ll stick to the traditional Beavis & Butthead format. Creator Mike Judge had hinted in the past that if he brought them back he might age them, but word is that this will be the same teenage Beavis & Butt-head as always. They’ll keep the same minimalist animation style and, somewhat surprisingly given MTV’s recent disinterest in airing them, they’ll still spend the bulk of their time on a couch commenting on music videos. It’ll be modern artists in their crosshairs this time, MTV plans to launch them at the likes of Lady Gaga. I can’t wait to hear what Beavis thinks of Poker Face.

Beavis & Butt-head first aired in 1992 and the Mike Judge created series ran until 1997 on MTV. In 1996 they got a full-length feature film called Beavis & Butt-head Do America and they’ve made a couple of cameos since leaving the airwaves in 1997. Most recently they resurfaced to review Mike Judge’s new movie, Extract:

Extract continued Mike Judge's unfortunate trend of putting out funny movies that nobody actually sees. To its credit, it at least outpaced his last movie, Idiocracy, but it would be hard not to since the marketing campaign for that movie basically consisted of the studio sending armed thugs to chase off anyone who happened to stumble into one of the three theaters it played in. Extract is also a bit more mainstream and accessible than his far-out sci-fi comedy, but even with a return to the workplace-comedy style that make Office Space a cult hit and a cast including Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, and Mila Kunis, it still only managed to pull in $10 million or so. Hopefully, Extract will follow in Office Space's footsteps and break out on DVD. Given a lot of the dreck that passes for comedy these days, Extract deserves a lot more attention than it got.

Writer-director Mike Judge recently hosted a virtual roundtable with press to promote Extract's release tomorrow on Blu-ray and DVD. We've got the full transcript for you below, and you can also check out the movie's official site right here.

Even with all of the pressures Joel faces at home and at work what is it that makes him a successful boss?

I think what ultimately makes Joel a successful boss is that he genuinely likes making extract. For me, I enjoy directing movies, making animated TV shows, and in order to do that, you sometimes have to tell people to do things they don't want to do, or make choices that people don't agree with. And I really don't enjoy telling people to do things they don't want to do, but it goes with the territory. I think there are some bosses out there -- and these would be bad bosses in my opinion -- that are in it because they actually get off on telling people to do things they don't want to do; they get some kind of weird pleasure out of making people do things for the sake of making them do things. They get off on the power of it all or something. I think Joel really likes making extract and seeing it get out there in stores and restaurants, and that informs all the decisions he makes, so it's always coming from the right place. I think that's how to be a good boss.

Why vanilla extract? Any symbolism or subtext there?

No symbolism or subtext. I try to avoid that sort of thing.

I noticed in Extract that you were mostly able to stay away from pop culture references (outside of Dancing with the Stars). How difficult is it to write a story that doesn't entail some of that dated material?

Well, when I first wrote the script, that reference was Will and Grace. That shows you how long ago I wrote it. I'm not big on pop culture references in general -- probably because I'm pretty out of it lately, and I'm not great at doing that kind of comedy anyway. I also wrote it back when only a small percentage of the population had cell phones. That's why there's all this stuff in there with landlines, pay phones, busy signals, call waiting, etc. I was a little worried about that, but no one seems to have been bothered by it.

Would you ever consider doing a sequel to Office Space?

I kind of feel like this movie is sort of a follow up to Office Space. I based Office Space on my own experiences working in the cubicle world, and I based a lot of this on my experience being a boss and running what was basically an animation factory on Beavis and Butt-Head. I think when you go from complaining about the man keeping you down, to becoming the man, you realize that being the man is no picnic either. At one point a while back I considered doing a sequel to Office Space, but I wouldn't do one now. Since that movie came out there have been two great TV shows -- the British Office and the American one -- and dozens of commercials set in cubicles, so I kind of feel like I wouldn't want to go back to it at this point.

What were the challenges of filming in a fully functional working factory?

Because we were on a tight budget, we had to shoot a lot of stuff while they were still working -- they were really bottling. A lot of the background that you see in the movie is actually real people working -- not extras. It was loud enough in there that they couldn't hear us yelling "action" and "cut," and they just kind of got used to us being there, so I got some pretty natural acting in the background because they weren't acting like they were working; they were really working.

How different in approach is your storytelling when it comes to animation and live action? Do you bank ideas that were too cinematic when you were working on King of the Hill and The Goode Family and save them for your feature work?

Actually, they are pretty similar approaches. And you can actually get pretty cinematic in TV animation, I think, as The Simpsons has done. I think I never got too cinematic with King of the Hill just because of the nature of the show and the characters, not really because it was animated.

Did you always have Jason Bateman in mind for the lead role?

I started writing this a long time ago -- I think it was shortly after Office Space came out. I originally wasn't thinking of any actor in particular, just writing it. Jason had done King of the Hill and I always liked him, but when I saw him in Arrested Development, I thought he would be perfect for this, and when I rewrote it and finished it, I was imagining him as the lead. It's a similar character to what he did in AD, but I think Joel is a little less slick or something. Jason was the first actor I gave the script to, and he said he liked it and wanted to do it, so it was him from the get go.

Animation or live action -- which do you prefer, and why?

I think they're more similar than you might think from the point of a writer/director. I liked animation when I was just doing short films myself -- doing everything myself. That was really satisfying work -- making a film one frame at a time, getting it back from the lab, and watching it for the first time. That was about as good as it gets I think.

Did you shoot the film digitally? If so, how did you like/dislike the process of working in digital?

I shot it on all on film. In fact, we didn't even do what's called a "D.I." which is how most films are finished nowadays. So if you saw it in the theater, you saw a print that was struck right off a negative. I actually like what happens to the look of film when you put it through that process.

The bong scene with Bateman was hilarious. What type of Blu-ray extras will we see on that?

There is a deleted scene that comes right after that where Ben's character does a really lame apology to Jason's character. It's a scene I loved, but somehow didn't fit where it was in the movie.

Have you enjoyed the resurgence of rated-R comedies, and has that opened up any other doors for you, given that your material has a bit of an edge to it, or has it inspired you to go even edgier than what you've done previously?

I think there have been some great R comedies in the past couple years -- The Hangover, Superbad, etc., but for me it's not ever about edgy or not edgy. Something is either funny or interesting or it's not, and sometimes something funny falls into the R-rated territory, but not always. Some people are surprised to hear that Office Space is R rated, because it doesn't seem that edgy I guess. I think anytime anyone has ever tried to be deliberately edgy, or to "push the envelope," it's usually sucked and lost money. I think there are a lot of movies that are hard-R rated that are really good and made money, but it's because they are good, inspired movies.

Since you keep the budgets low, are you pretty much afforded full creative control on your directorial projects? Is this the "director's cut?"

Yes, pretty much. I take full responsibility.

Would you ever do a live-action TV series or another feature-length animated film?

I would definitely like to do a live-action TV series. I don't know that I would do another feature-length animated film any time soon. Unless maybe it was a CG project.

There's a dignity to the characters -- and the work itself -- in your film. Talk about establishing that element while at the same time finding the humor in the colorful characters.

That's pretty important to me because I've worked these kinds of jobs, and I remember feeling like Hollywood was sometimes out of touch with us, and always appreciating it when it felt like a movie or TV show got something right -- like there was someone out there in Hollywood who understood what most of us go through. I also used to feel like a lot of characters in movies and TV seemed to have endless cash and free time, and you either didn't know much about their job or they didn't seem to have one. Finding the humor while still having some dignity to the characters is something that is also important to me. I don't think about it that much; I'd like to think it comes naturally. To me it's just like when I would sit around with my friends telling stories about people I work with and doing imitations of them and that sort of thing.

In your previous films you've had a hand in directing, writing, and producing. Which is your so-called labor of love out of the three?

I mostly like the writing and the editing, and I like when it's over.

Has the gradual embracing of your first two live-action movies made it easier to be patient for a film like Extract to find its audience and a fan following?

Yes. Also keeping the budget low on this has helped.

In the bonus material, Jason and Ben talk about their long dialogue. How much did you let them improv or is it all from the page?

I like to let the actors feel like they can be loose with the script up to a point, because I want them to feel comfortable, and when they really get the character and what's happening in the scene, then the improv wouldn't drift too far anyway. I'm not really precious about my writing, but I usually find that in the editing room we end up pretty close to what was on the page. I think if you write good dialogue, it sounds like people spontaneously talking, so audiences think it's improvised, which is a good thing, I think. I would say in this movie, the most improv that would up in the movie came from Ben Affleck. He threw some stuff in there that I just loved and it wasn't in the script.

While so many other comedies tend to shoot for these big company stories, you tend to reside in settings with small town folks as the main characters (King of the Hill, Office Space, and now Extract). What draws you to these small town stories?

I would say my stuff resides in suburbs of big towns also, or small towns that are near big towns. I guess that's because I've mostly lived in places like that -- Albuquerque, New Mexico; Richardson, Texas; etc. I think that a lot of writers in film and TV in the past have tended to come from New York or big east-coast cities, and there have also been great stuff written about really small hick towns, and so I feel like I can maybe bring a different perspective on things with a suburban setting.

Where does your fascination with groin jokes come from?

I do find it fascinating that a guy getting hit in the nuts always gets a laugh in movies -- even from me -- and I'm also not above using that for a cheap laugh, myself. At some point, an evolutionary biologist should try to figure out why we laugh at that. I think if they figure out why a sense of humor and laughing even evolved in the first place -- how that could possibly have contributed to survival of the species -- then one of the first things they should figure out is why getting hit in the nuts always gets a laugh in movies and cartoons. I could go on about this for hours, but I won't. I actually talked about this with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond.

One of the performances we especially enjoyed was from Clifton Collins Jr. as Step. He's been incredibly diverse this year. Can you talk a little about him as an actor and what he brought to the film?

I love Clifton and have wanted to work with him for a while. I just never had a part that was right for him. I actually hadn't thought of him for this part either. He usually plays a Chicano gangster or a serial killer, so I hadn't thought of him, but then he walked into the room with a trucker hat on, and suddenly he went from looking like a Chicano gangster to Festus from Gunsmoke. I love him as a redneck. He also makes a great Romulan. He's a true chameleon. And now he's a big award-winning country music video director also, with Zack Brown Band.

Did Ben Affleck find it liberating to play a quirky supporting player for a change? He was great in the film...

You would have to ask him if he found it liberating, but it sure seemed like he did. I think he had a lot of fun doing it, and it was a blast for me to work with him on it. I really liked what he did. I had never met him before this and when I heard he wanted to do it, I was surprised at first -- pleasantly so -- and then when I met with him, he started telling me about a guy he knew growing up in Boston and he started imitating him and I just thought it was great. We did a read through of the script early on and I just loved watching him and Jason do these scenes and play off each other.

In the bonus feature "Mike Judge's Secret Recipe," you talked about working in the factory on musical merchandise, but was your personal factory experience and the people you dealt with similar to what we saw of the factory workers in Extract?

There were some similarities from when I worked in a factory, but I probably got more inspiration from working on Beavis and Butt-Head, where I felt like I was running a factory and having to deal with all it's employees. It was a Butt-Head factory basically.

Watching the special features on Extract, Mila Kunis mentioned that she may have been based on an actual person you know. Were the characters based off people you actually knew? And if so, how would you personally deal with a person so intrusive like Nathan?

No one is based specifically on one person, but I think most writers base characters on people they have known. The character of Nathan wasn't any one specific person, but I did have a neighbor -- a woman -- who was a nightmare. It was in a gated community, so there was only one way out, and she would flag you down and just park herself in your window and just start talking. She would basically make it so you had a choice of either listening to her forever, or being rude and interrupting her, or even worse, pulling away while her arms were rested on your window.

Was it your idea to cast rocker Gene Simmons as bench lawyer Joe Adler?

Yeah, I had originally described the character as looking like Gene Simmons with a ponytail and a suit and tie. I was kind of naive though, in that I thought no one would recognize him without the Kiss makeup on. I didn't realize how huge the reality show was. The only time I had ever seen him without the makeup was on Politically Incorrect about nine years ago and thought he would be great playing an agent or high-powered attorney.

Was there instant chemistry when the actors began working together or did it take some time for them to gel?

For the most part it was instant. Most of them had already worked together or knew each other, so it all gelled nicely.

Earlier today Cinema Blend was the first place to exclusively debut a new, Mila Kunis themed character poster for Mike Judge’s Extract. Now we have three more to go with it. That brings the total number of posters for Extract up to five. Number of posters released by Fox for Judge’s last movie Idiocracy? Zero. Thank you Miramax for supporting genius.

Extract, is the latest comedy from writer/director Mike Judge (Office Space, King of The Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head). Joel, played by Jason Bateman, is one step away from selling his flavor extract factory and retiring to easy street when a freak workplace accident sets in motion a series of disasters that put his business and personal life in jeopardy. The film also stars Kristen Wiig, Mila Kunis and a bearded Ben Affleck all of whom you can see in the brand new character posters below:

I’m ridiculously excited about Mike Judge’s next movie Extract. Even more so since for once, he seems to have the backing of a movie studio which is actually interested in having people see his movie. The film is another workplace comedy, only forget the cubicles. This time Judge has Jason Bateman stuck in a perfume factory with Mila Kunis.

Miramax has just sent us an exclusive first look at a new character poster for the film. Better still it’s the character almost anyone with a working libido would almost certainly prefer to look at. This is the first in four characters posters to come for the film. Check out factory ready Mila Kunis in her Extract poster below:

While hanging out at the panel for his new movie Extract, director and all around genius Mike Judge was of course, pelted with questions about some of his past projects. When asked about the possibility of more Beavis and Butt-Head, he shocked everyone by revealing that it’s not only possible, but they’ve actually put together a few ideas for a sequel to the 1996 Beavis and Butt-Head Do America film.

Says Judge, “That keeps coming back. We have a couple of treatment, and if people really wanted it, it’s not out of the question. We're doing the usual every 3 or 4 year talk about it.” I think it’s safe to say folks, that was a tease. I’m envisioning a closet somewhere in Mike Judge’s house full of brilliant Beavis and Butt-Head ideas just waiting to be unleashed, if only we all shout loud enough for them. Grab your blogging megaphones and start yelling. Bring on Beavis and Butt-Head 2.

UPDATE: Katey caught up with Judge after the panel, and while she couldn't get much in with other journalists asking weird questions, he did give us a little more information on how they judge fan interest. "I guess they do tracking. They did something 4 or 5 years ago, they did some tracking on that. And Beavis and Butthead awareness in general."

He also revealed that his favorite part of the show was Beavis and Butthead's commentary over silly music videos-- commentary that can be the most difficult part of the show to see.

Want more from Comic Con? This is just the tip of the lightsaber. Get it all right here.

Mike Judge fans have a lot to be excited about. Not only does the brilliant satirist behind Office Space and Idiocracy have a new movie coming out September 4, Extract, but he and cast members Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Kristen Wiig will all be at Comic Con next week to take fan questions and be ogled and adored by the assorted geeks.

To get you excited about the movie (well, even more excited than you were when you saw the trailer), we've got four exclusive images from the film, featuring Bateman, Wiig, Kunis, and my favorite, a hippied-out Ben Affleck giving Bateman's character advice from behind a bar. Check them all out in the gallery below.

If you're going to Comic Con next week, make sure to check out the Extract panel on Saturday in Hall H at 1:30. Or, if you're not in the mood for giant crowds, you can stop by the Extract booth (#3913) to insert yourself into the Extract trailer. No, I don't understand how it works either, but sounds like fun, right? They'll send you away with the trailer on a USB drive that also includes exclusive new Extract photos, posters, and other stuff Miramax thinks you'll enjoy.