Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for King of the Hill season 14.The King of the Hill revival ignored both Luanne Platter (Brittany Murphy) and Lucky Kleinschmidt (Tom Petty), and it weighs on the entire new season. Though the King of the Hill revival reunited most of the original cast of King of the Hill, there were some actors who couldn’t return. Both Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty died years before the revival, and they couldn’t voice Luanne and Lucky again.
King of the Hill gave tributes to many of the actors who passed away, but it also handled them differently. Johnny Hardwick (Dale) got recast, while Jonathan Joss voiced John Redcorn before his death. Tom Petty also got a tribute in King of the Hill, but Lucky and Luanne didn’t. In fact, Luanne and Lucky aren’t in the King of the Hill revival at all, and it was a mistake.
King Of The Hill Should Have Addressed Their Status
Recasting Luanne & Lucky Would Have Been Wrong, But They Should Have Made Some Appearance In The Revival
Unlike almost all the other characters from the original King of the Hill, neither Luanne nor Lucky appear in the revival series at all. King of the Hill doesn’t so much as mention Luanne and Lucky, and we have no idea what happened to them after having their daughter, Gracie. They presumably moved away from Arlen, but King of the Hill doesn’t confirm that.
The fact that Luanne and Lucky go completely ignored in King of the Hill season 14 kind of hangs over the show. Showrunner Saladin Patterson did mention that they didn’t recast Luanne and Lucky out of respect for Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty (via IGN), and I do agree with that sentiment, but I still wish King of the Hill did something with them.
The analogy I use as a sports fan is, sometimes the best way to honor someone’s work is to hang their jersey up in the rafters as a show of respect and what they meant to the organization. It didn’t seem right to recast certain characters. I don’t want to spoil anything, but (we) figured out other ways in the storytelling to honor those characters.
Most King of the Hill fans are aware that both Murphy and Petty passed away. That, coupled with the fact that King of the Hill doesn’t address Luanne and Lucky at all, creates a situation where viewers are waiting to see how the show handles Murphy and Petty’s characters only to not get any resolution. King of the Hill didn’t need to recast them, but it should have at least acknowledged them.
The Audience Needs To Know What Happened To Luanne & Lucky
King Of The Hill Season 14 Could Have At Least Told Us How Luanne, Lucky & Gracie Are Doing
One of the more aggravating parts of King of the Hill‘s decision to avoid Luanne and Lucky is the fact that there’s still a lot left to their stories. I, for one, would love to know how Luanne and Lucky fared in the years when the Hills were living in Saudi Arabia, if they stayed together, and how their daughter, Gracie, has grown up.
We got an update on Good Hank and even Junichiro in King of the Hill season 14, but Luanne, Lucky, and Gracie didn’t make the cut. Luanne and Lucky didn’t need to have some tragic fate or a massive development in the years between, but even an off-handed comment about how they ended up would have been better than ignoring them entirely.
With any luck, King of the Hill will still get a chance to give Luanne and Lucky some resolution. Mike Judge has said he wants to make more episodes of King of the Hill, as long as the audience reception supports it. King of the Hill season 15 could finally give us the update on Luanne and Lucky that fans were hoping to see this year.
King of the Hill
7/10
- Release Date
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January 12, 1997
- Network
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FOX, Hulu
- Directors
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Tricia Garcia, Adam Kuhlman, Dominic Polcino, Gary McCarver, Anthony Lioi, Jeff Myers, Allan Jacobsen, Shaun Cashman, Klay Hall, Ken Wong, Ron Rubio, Tony Kluck, Wes Archer, Matt Engstrom, Anthony Chun, John Rice, Michael Dante DiMartino, Monte Young, Brian Sheesley, Julius Wu, Lauren MacMullan, Yvette Kaplan, Steve Robertson, Pat Shinagawa
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Mike Judge
Hank Hill / Boomhauer (voice)
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Kathy Najimy
Peggy Hill (voice)
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