Attached is a copy of a letter I've just sent to Fox's KotH mailing address regarding the announced move to Hollywood. Anybody else so inspired can use same address to do so.
It may be, as some people here have guessed, that the announcement is just a joke or a publicity stunt, or that they're really only talking about a brief visit or temporary move. If so, then Fox needs to clear up the confusion right away. Creating interest in the show is one thing--playing games with the (loyal) audience is another.
DS =========
May 5, 1998
"King Of The Hill" Watt Plaza Attn: Erica Clare 1875 Century Park E., 4th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90067
Dear "King of the Hill" Creators and Producers:
Fox TV's announcement that "King of the Hill" is moving its setting to Hollywood represents either a bad joke on the viewers or an artistically appalling decision. If it's the former, I hope you'll clarify things with an announcement next Sunday. If it's the latter, I hope it's not too late to reverse.
For two years, Mike Judge has been creating one of the shows on commercial American TV least bound by the tired imitativeness that results from never setting foot outside of the west side of L.A. or the Upper East side of Manhattan. The closest precedent I can think of is Rosanne, whose vision was also uncompromising and which also dominated the ratings as a result.
"King of the Hill", at its best, is the television equivalent of Faulkner or Eudora Welty, with humor anchored in deep roots in small-town, traditional, Southern (Texas variety) American culture. Faulkner himself lived in and wrote for Hollywood, but he was never dumb-ass enough to consider moving the Snopses there, because he knew where his power and vision came from.
If you guys are losing yours, it's time to take a vacation. Pack all the writers and animators into a Winnebago and take a leisurely tour from El Paso through San Antonio down to Brownsville and back up again via Austin, Houston, and Dallas, with a final educational stay of a few days in a Motel 6 somewhere in the Panhandle. Keep off the Interstates; keep your radio tuned only to Tejano music and fundamentalist Christian sermons. Then drive over to Santa Fe and pretend to be rich, obnoxious Texan tourists. Write down and sketch everything you see and hear.
I promise that you'll have enough new material for the next couple seasons, and that you'll never go whoring after false gods again.
Sincerely,