King of the Hill cancelled by Fox, may be renewed by ABC

It was announced over the weekend that next year, King of the Hill is finally going to end its television run at Fox.

Of course, King of the Hill has been on the scrap pile before, and come back before, but there seems to be a certain finality to the recent announcement of its cancellation. While I haven't read a statement from Mike Judge, I have a feeling he was aware this was coming.



As the second longest running primetime animated series in history, it has covered a lot of ground and has made a lot of comments about American society in its simple and quaint way, and I think that's why it lasted so long.

In fact, as a sitcom, it was probably one of the few that was most grounded and in keeping with reality, which is really ironic given the number of series that during the same time period ended up so far removed situationally from reality, they were cartoonish themselves.

I also think that it is a testament to the show's quality that Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been very respectful to the show over the years when they've at some point mocked their other peers on one level or another.

While I am sad to see it go, I also accept that every show has a shelf life, and I think it is unfortunate that the show likely got the axe to make way for The Cleveland Show, especially since the most recent episode of King of the Hill beat American Dad, another MacFarlane creation.

Of course, I get to look forward to the upcoming animated show Judge is working on for ABC called The Goode Family, which seems to take the King of the Hill model from the other perspective, as it seems to follow a family with a more urban and far more liberal spin to them. From what I've read, the Goodes seem like exactly the kind of people that so irked Hank Hill, which may end up being the strength of the show, and I hope that the audience that Fox is abandoning could conceivably follow Judge to a new network... especially if ABC sees value in renewing King of the Hill for themselves like the network did with NBC's Scrubs, as Fox has acknowledged that there is another network interested in taking over the show. Of course, only time will tell what will happen with the various projects of Mike Judge.

Tags: mike judge, king of the hill, goode family, fox, scrubs, cancelled, abc, animated, hank hill, seth macfarlane, american dad, situation comedy, sitcom, arlen