King of the Hill creator Mike Judge revealed in January that his new production company is working on a revival of the popular animated series, which ran on Fox from 1997 to 2010. The continuation will reportedly pick up 15 years into the future after the original series left off, opening up a whole new world for the characters that fans came to love over the course of 13 seasons.
It’s anybody’s best guess what the Hill family will embody in the year 2022 or beyond. Fans have long since speculated whether Hank would have been a Trump voter, however, the latest debate involves matriarch Peggy Hill.
Peggy, as most are aware, was known for her stubborn wherewithal that occasionally flirted with delusions of grandeur — though, it’s important to note that her character was certainly not a villain of any kind. What made the appeal of King of the Hill so beloved and universally enduring was the very fact that these characters are flawed.
So, when ScreenRant published an op-ed this week titled: “The King Of The Hill Revival Needs To Fix Peggy’s ‘Bad Mom’ Problem,” it went over about as well as can be expected. The following excerpt pointing out Peggy’s apparent “selfishness” and “narcissism” was just one of the arguments the piece makes.
Most single-family animated comedies showcase each family member’s strong personality (the King of the Hill cast of characters is not short on personality), but they also emphasize the support and love each member feels for one another. Peggy’s selfishness at the expense of her young son and niece is polarizing and diminishes her ability to provide viewers an admirable matriarch in King of the Hill. Peggy’s rehabilitated narcissism would strengthen the show’s reboot by nixing her overused toxicity.
Shortly after the piece was published, Twitter personality Mr. Chau weighed in on the discourse in a tweet that quickly went viral, setting off a debate. “Peggy Hill being a pretty bad mom and wife is more progressive than most shows,” he tweeted. However, the tweet was not necessarily a condemnation of the character, as he later followed up in a second tweet.
Others called out the article directly. MEL Magazine writer Miles Klee pointed out a factual inaccuracy in the first sentence that should have been a flashing red light to anyone proceeding with the rest of the article.
Another user correctly added that “telling King of the Hill how to write Peggy Hill has got to be one of the most Peggy Hill things you can do.”
“I won’t tolerate this attack on ‘Substitute Teacher of the Year’ 3 years running Peggy Hill,” quipped another user.
Plenty of others added to the dialogue with thoughtful, reasoned arguments for why Peggy Hill is actually the best character.
And many let our patron saint of size 16-and-a-half shoes speak for herself on the subject:
But Twitter user @SatansJacuzzi perhaps put it best, illustrating why Peggy herself would be unbothered by the reason she’s trending.
You can’t cancel the uncancelable, bitches. We hope Peggy Hill is still living her best life and still hasn’t figured out how to say “excuse me” in Spanish. Our queen probably runs the whole got dang Spanish department at Arlen High by now, and she deserves it all.