We’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to TV content over the last few years, particularly those who are fans of comedy and sitcoms. In just the last decade or so, we’ve been inundated with some all-time great comedies, a long list that includes shows like Community, The Good Place, Rick And Morty, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks And Recreation, and The Office, and it all wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the existence of King Of The Hill.
Speaking of comedy, the GOAT team spoke to stand-up comic and writer Simon Taylor about all things funny on It’s Been A Big Day For… below:
Vulture did a deep dive into King Of The Hill‘s influence on modern TV comedies and the links are simply staggering in terms of scope and content.
King Of The Hill was known for its uncommonly deep exploration into its characters and pushing the narrative to the limit while keeping things as grounded as possible. This approach towards TV comedy was instilled into those who worked on the show, and most of them have since used this experience to do other, great things.
A long list of writers have put pen to paper for King Of The Hill over the course of the show’s 13-year run, many of whom ended up creating or had a hand in some of your favourite comedies and movies. Seriously, just take a look at some of the writers and their post-Hill work:
- Emily Spivey – Up All Night and The Last Man On Earth
- Etan Cohen – American Dad and Tropic Thunder
- Paul Lieberstein – The Office (as Toby and as a writer/showrunner)
- David Zuckerman – Wilfred (US version)
- Dan Goor – Brooklyn Nine-Nine (co-created)
- John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky – Silicon Valley
It’s not just the writing and tone that helped shaped many of our favourite comedies. A number of directors who worked on King Of The Hill later brought their directorial experience to Rick And Morty, which may not appear to be similar to Hill on the surface but the two shows certainly share common traits in terms of deep character development.
And we certainly can’t forget the creators of King Of The Hill, Greg Daniels and Mike Judge because they’ve gone on to shape the comedy landscape after finishing off this show.
Judge co-created the critically-acclaimed Silicon Valley (with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky) while Daniels created The Office and Parks And Recreation, the latter of which he worked on with Michael Schur, who ended up creating The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (with Dan Goor).
This all only just scratches the surface of King Of The Hill‘s influence but just think about it: Had Greg Daniels not worked with Michael Schur, we may not have gotten The Good Place, a thought that definitely deserves to be stuffed into the Bad Place forever.
Vulture dives deep into all these connections (which you should definitely read here) and comes to one simple conclusion: Almost no matter where you look in the modern TV comedy landscape, you’ll almost certainly find fingerprints from King Of The Hill somewhere, and we owe that show a massive thanks for shaping comedy as we know it today.
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