King of the Hill Shares Emotional Lady Bird Tribute, Showrunner Explains New Replacement (Exclusive)
King of the Hill has returned to Hulu with a new season of the revival series, and the showrunner behind it all explained to ComicBook how they decided to pay tribute to Hank’s dog Ladybird and went about finding a new dog for the Hill family. King of the Hill’s new revival era with Hulu is set nearly a decade after the events of the original series, and there are some unfortunate realities for the animated world as Hank and the others have gotten much older. And this latest season addresses one of those realities head on.
Although fans were well enough aware that Hank’s elderly bloodhound Lady Bird no way survived until the events of the new revival series, King of the Hill has now confirmed that to be the case with an emotional tribute to the fan favorite. Speaking to ComicBook about this tribute and adding the new dog Caesar Salad to the mix for the revival, King of the Hill showrunner Saladin Patterson explained that the team wanted to wait until they felt like they had a new idea that felt both satisfying and comedic for the show.
King of the Hill Showrunner Pays Tribute to Lady Bird
Patterson revealed that the King of the Hill team was also very respectful to honor Ladybird in fans’ minds considering her importance to Hank and the history of the original series, “She was such an important character because she allows you to see a side of Hank that no one else was able to really pull out.” But knowing that Lady Bird would not be alive in the reality of the situation, the team had to embrace the fact that Hank would have this hole in his life, “We’re like, ‘Okay, do we try to fill that space with a new character, a new pet, or whatever?’
But noting that they waited to deal with Ladybird’s absence “until it felt like our characters would be dealing with that.” With Bobby out of the house and Hank and Peggy dealing with all this extra time and an empty house, “It felt like a natural progression then is…do we bring in something else or someone else to love? In this space that used to be occupied by Lady Bird or Bobby?” And when it came to filling that spot left by Lady Bird’s absence, the team had to consider quite a lot before moving forward.
How Caesar Salad Joined Hank’s Family in King of the Hill
King of the Hill Season 15’s “Care of the Dog” officially says goodbye to Lady Bird and sees Hank and Peggy fostering a new dog named Caesar Salad. When it came to figuring out what this new dog would look like an act like, Patterson revealed that the team had a lot to consider, “We don’t want it to be a Lady Bird clone, we don’t want it to be like what they used to tease The Cosby Show of doing, just introducing another little kid.” The question then came to be “What’s the satisfying and comedic way to do that?”
“The comedic way to do it is to give Hank a dog that is not the kind of dog Hank would want at all,” Patterson explained. “But a satisfying way is to then have Hank fall in love with that said dog. Which is why we ended up kind of going the path that we did.” It’s why Caesar Salad is ultimately revealed to be much older than Hank and Peggy expected, and it’s in a cool way that also falls in line with Lady Bird’s age in the original series. We’ll just have to see what’s next for Hank and his new dog in future seasons.
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