After a 14-year lay-off, beloved animated sitcom King of the Hill was back on the air on Monday night (Aug. 4) when the rebooted show made its debut on Hulu. The Emmy-winning series about the super normal Arlen, Texas family led by propane salesman Hank Hill (show co-creator and Beavis & Butt-Head maestro Mike Judge), wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) and their 12-year-old aspiring prop comic son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon) features much of the original voice cast, as well as a new take on its iconic, knee-slapping theme song.
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This time around, Hank and the gang are teed up by none other than fleet-fingered picker Billy Strings, who recorded a bluegrass-tinged take on the theme song, “Yahoos and Triangles,” originally performed by Arizona rockers The Refreshments. In place of that band’s jammy, guitar rock rendition, Strings adds in banjo and fiddle, and, of course, a tasty acoustic guitar solo.
Strings was psyched about the gig, as evidenced by his caption to an Instagram post featuring the theme, in which he revisited one of Hank’s classic zingers aimed at his non-conforming son, “An F in English? Bobby, you speak English!”
King of the Hill originally ran for 13 seasons (1997-2009) on Fox and the 10-episode Hulu revival — all available now — finds Hank and Peggy returning to Arlen after a decade living in Saudi Arabia, where Hank was “assistant manager in charge of Arabian propane and Arabian propane accessories” for the Aramco oil company. Bobby is also living his best life, running a Japanese-German fusion restaurant in Dallas and living with his best pal, Joseph.
Strings is also riding high after joining Dead & Company in Golden Gate Park over the weekend for the band’s 60th anniversary shows in their San Francisco home town. Strings opened for the band on Saturday night and then joined the jam giants for a run through “Wharf Rat,” on which he switched from his traditional acoustic guitar to an electric one to match band leader and rhythm guitarist Bob Weir’s energy.
Listen to Strings’ King of the Hill theme song below.
