THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701010044
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 178 lines
ONE GAVE US ``The Simpsons,'' the other created ``Beavis and Butt-head.''
Starting at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 12, Greg Daniels and Mike Judge bring to Fox a new animated series set in Redneck City, Texas - ``King of the Hill.''
It's one of a handful of new series, and revamped series, that will shake up the winter doldrums in the TV month ahead.
``King of the Hill'' is about Hank Hill; his wife, Peggy; 12-year-old son, Bobby; 18-year-old niece, Luanne; and neighbors named Gribble and Boomhauer living in Arlen, Texas. They are blue-collar, Ford-pickup-truck-driving, power-tool-loving, Willie Nelson-Ross Perot-type Texans whose chain-link-fenced yards are too small for riding mowers, but they buy them anyway.
When they are not hanging out in each other's garages, Hank and his friends will most likely be found in a hardware store or carrying their kids to Little League games, where Bobby Hill and the other players are urged to give 110 percent at the very least.
Hank Hill's accent (the letter ``w'' comes out sounding like ``dubya'') is as thick as salsa but nowhere as hard to grasp as Boomhauer's.
Boomhauer strives to explain a ``Seinfeld'' plot to the boys:
``Ol' George cum in dere an then Kramer cums sliddin' in. He always does dat.''
Might this be a Tex-Mex version of ``The Simpsons''? The ``Beavis and Butt-head'' kinfolk we've never known?
Daniels and Judge, who has seen his big-screen version of ``Beavis and Butt-head'' soar at the movie box office lately, say ``King of the
Hill'' will not be an amalgamation of the two series. However, Judge has drawn the characters and will lend his voice to several of them.
``We're striving to do something that is just as distinctive and funny as `The Simpsons' and `Beavis and Butt-head,' '' said Daniels.
``Hank and his neighbors will be warm, good people who find a lot of things that irritate them in every-day life,'' said Judge.
From what I have seen of ``King of the Hill,'' it is not as edgy or outrageous as ``Beavis and Butt-head'' and not nearly as sharply written as ``The Simpsons.'' In the first episode, the story line about social workers suspecting Hank of child abuse because Bobby has a black eye - a baseball struck him when he was dozing on first base - is silly even for a cartoon.
Will adults attach themselves to this show as they have to ``The Simpsons''? Judge thinks so. Cartoons are not just for kids anymore, he said.
``You'd be surprised to learn how many 50-year-old women write fan letters to Beavis and Butt-head,'' said the man who started drawing at age 28 after working a year and a half as an engineer. That work depressed him.
Now he's delighted to be in show biz, where people pay him millions to think up the adventures of the extraordinarily ordinary.
Hank Hill, the assistant manager at Strickland Propane with a short temper and a dislike for bureaucrats, pops up in January as the networks begin The Second Season. That's when shows that have been warming up in the bullpen finally get the call to pitch.
They include the somewhat familiar starchy Navy drama ``JAG,'' which didn't catch on with NBC but returns to prime time at 9 p.m. Friday with CBS. And ``The Naked Truth,'' a show that failed to connect with viewers when it was on ABC despite a powerhouse personality in the lead - Tea Leoni. NBC adds it to its must-see Thursday night lineup.
The Second Season in a nutshell:
With great hopes, Fox brings on ``King of the Hill'' Sundays at 8:30 as a companion piece to ``The Simpsons,'' which airs at 8. Fox on Monday moves ``Ned and Stacey'' to Mondays at 9 p.m. ``Married With Children'' follows at 9:30, teaming with ``Melrose Place'' for Fox's Mature Monday.
CBS on Wednesday at 9 p.m. launches ``Orleans,'' in which a gray, thin, less-than-bouncy Larry Hagman plays a New Orleans judge with ambitious, lusty children. The swagger of J.R. Ewing is gone. In the pilot episode, there's so much going on at once that Hagman is all but lost. The ``Orleans'' regular time slot will be Wednesdays at 10.
``JAG,'' with Catherine Bell replacing Tracy Needham, who replaced Andrea Parker, as David James Elliott's sidekick, is still the outrageously uptight, military-men-and-women-as-robots series it was on NBC. Imagine Marines stealing the Declaration of Independence. Imagine sailors clicking their heels together like storm troopers. Silly.
Also new on CBS is ``Coast-to-Coast,'' a newsmagazine that will begin Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. It has a lighter touch than, say, ``48 Hours,'' with stories about mayors who campaign against litter and hitchhiking correspondents relying on the kindness of strangers. CBS also announced that ``EZ Streets,'' the dark and not-easy-to-follow cops-and-bad guys drama starring Ken Olin, will return. But CBS didn't say when.
NBC, which doesn't need much help in its primetime lineup, except for maybe Saturday, brings on two sitcoms that would probably be instant hits on other networks. ``Chicago Sons,'' which is about three brothers behaving badly, debuts Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
Jason Bateman is one of the three Kulchak brothers sharing an apartment in Chicago near Wrigley Field in ``Chicago Sons.'' He plays Harry, the smart one.
``They live in a world where the behavior of women confuses them, baseball is life and kielbasa is considered a health food,'' said series creator John J. Strauss. NBC is giving this series a big promotional push.
Leoni, who is thought of by some as the Lucy of the 1990s, is back as Nora Wilde from the series ``The Naked Truth'' that flopped on ABC. This time around, she has a better job (advice columnist on a magazine) and a new boss (George Wendt of ``Cheers'').
The new ``Naked Truth'' gets the greatest time slot in primetime - Thursday night at 9:30 between ``Seinfeld'' and ``ER'' - starting Jan. 16. ``Homeboys in Outer Space'' would pull a 20 share in that timeslot.
When meeting with TV writers not long ago, NBC Entertainment boss Warren Littlefield said it was a big mistake for ABC to let Leoni get away - just because her series didn't work.
``They should have fixed it,'' said Littlefield.
NBC's fixer-upper is executive producer Jay Daniel, who has given ``The Naked Truth'' a glossier look.
``Tea has the ability to combine style and elegance with great physical comedy,'' said Daniel. ``Actresses who can be gorgeous and funny at the same time are rare.''
Where does the arrival of Leoni on NBC leave ``Suddenly Susan,'' now seen at 9:30 p.m. Thursday? Off the NBC schedule until Feb. 27, when it returns at 8:30 p.m., nudging ``The Single Guy'' into TV limbo.
NBC on Monday premieres a new daytime soap opera from Aaron Spelling. In ``Sunrise Beach,'' Jason George of Virginia Beach, a University of Virginia grad, plays a street-smart lifeguard. The cast also includes two big names: Lesley-Anne Down and Leigh Taylor-Young.
ABC on March 28 will cancel ``The City,'' its lowest-rated daytime soap, and replace it with a spinoff of ``General Hospital.''
UPN has ready to go a new sitcom, ``Social Studies,'' which brings icy Julia Duffy (``Newhart'') back to series TV. She plays the mistress of a co-ed boarding school who secretly lusts for a hunky phys ed teacher. Vegetarian nerds take control of the cafeteria. Students give the faculty wardrobe tips. It's like no school you've ever attended.
The Warner Brothers' network produced two new sitcoms to air soon, including one based on the campy ``Buffy, the Vampire Slayer'' movie. Sarah Michelle Geller in the lead role confronts witches and blood-sucking things in bad makeup when she's not at cheerleader practice.
The other new WB sitcom is ``Smart Guy,'' in which a 10-year-old math whiz played by Tahj Mowry moves up to high school, where he doesn't fit in.
It's fun watching him try to connect with the big kids, who can't approach his IQ.
No dates set for the premieres of these series.
At ABC, producer-writer David E. Kelley of ``L.A. Law,'' ``Chicago Hope'' and ``Picket Fences'' has created a show about hungry young lawyers slaying giants such as the tobacco companies in ``The Practice,'' which will likely start late in January. No firm date as yet. Good show.
Also coming later this winter on ABC is a series (``Gun'') about how one pistol passes through many hands, messing up lives week after week. Also coming is an Arsenio Hall sitcom. ``Politically Incorrect'' with Bill Maher begins at 12:05 a.m. weeknights on ABC this month, but not in Hampton Roads.
The most eagerly awaited series is probably ``King of the Hill.'' Fox is selling it pretty hard - almost as hard as Daniels and Judge campaigned to have the series air right after ``The Simpsons.''
Daniels says he expects ``King of the Hill'' to do very well at 8:30 Sunday nights, when kids and adults share time before the tube. Don't worry, Mom and Dad. This show is not too hip for you.
``It's the perfect position to be in when we introduce our characters to the world,'' Daniels said of the Sunday time period. ``Don't look for jokes. The humor will be in the acting.''
See grown men standing around a pickup truck with the hood up, looking deep into the engine for the source of a thumping sound.
Kathy Najimy gives her voice to the character of Peggy, Hank's wife. She's one of those I-told-you-so wives. ``But these two are never mean to each other. She's a wife and mother, and into it really strong and proud,'' said Najimy.
Najimy says don't you dare call Peggy just a housewife.
Peggy is a substitute Spanish teacher. ``Los estudiantes son mis amigos.'' She pitches on a women's softball team, writes a column for a local weekly newspaper (``Peggy Hill's Musin's'') and serves as a notary public. She is not bashful about discussing Hank's low sperm count.
From where exactly in Judge's imagination did the Hill clan spring? ``From observing my in-laws and the bubba-type neighbors I've had. My point of view, my humor, comes from the observations I make.''
So, Judge actually knew and observed a couple of guys like Beavis and Butt-head when he was growing up?
``Of course,'' said the man who majored in physics in college. ``Doesn't everyone know a Beavis or a Butt-head?''
Or a Hank Hill? ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
"King of the Hill"
"Orleans"
"The Naked Truth"
Photo
NBC
David James Elliott stars in ``JAG'' Friday at 9 p.m. on CBS.