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Fifteen years after its original run, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels' animated sitcom was finally revived as King of the Hill Season 14, which premiered on Hulu on August 4, 2025.
King of the Hill is one of the most beloved sitcoms (debuted in 1997) that follows the Hills, an American family in the fictional city of Arlen, Texas. The sitcom is based on Hank Hill, a propane salesman, and his family, co-workers, and neighbours/friends.
While King of the Hill Season 14, which saw a seven-year time jump after the Season 13 finale, managed to bring back the majority of the original voice actors, including Mike Judge, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, and Kathy Najimy, a major character was recast.
Fans of the original sitcom were quick to notice that Dale, Hank's next-door neighbour and conspiracy theorist, sounds a bit different in the revival. One of the obvious reasons for this change is that the characters have aged and naturally sound different. However, another reason for this change is that Dale's original voice actor, Johnny Hardwick, passed away in 2023.
The late actor managed to record seven episodes of the revival, with Toby Huss (Cotton Hill and Kahn) taking over as Dale's new voice actor in King of the Hill Season 14.
More on this in our story.
Why does Dale sound different in the King of the Hill Season 14?
The tragic reason behind King of the Hill Season 14 changing Dale's voice actor is that the original voice cast, Johnny Hardwick, died in 2023, two years before the sitcom revival. Hardwick was 64 years old when he was found dead in his Austin home in August 2023. The exact reason behind his death could not be determined.
Hardwick has voiced Dale throughout the sitcom's thirteen seasons and even managed to record seven episodes in King of the Hill Season 14, before his tragic demise. Fans might have noticed a title card mourning and honouring the original Dale voice actor's passing in Episode 7, following which a different actor took over.
Since Hardwick managed to voice Dale for seven episodes, he does sound different in the remaining episodes, but fans have largely appreciated the new voice actor, as a Reddit fan wrote:
''He threw me off as dale but a couple episodes in it got a lot more accurate, yea it’s still not dale but he has it down pretty well.''
Who is the new Dale voice actor in King of the Hill Season 14?
Dale does not sound drastically different in King of the Hill Season 14, even after Hardwick's passing, because Toby Huss transitions into Dale's voice seamlessly. The actor has also been a recurring voice cast for two of the major characters in the sitcom (since its inception) and took over for Dale from Episode 8 after Hardwick's passing.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Huss revealed:
"In terms of Dale, I think I did one read through where I read Dale in the room, and they just thought, 'Well, hell, I guess Toby is close enough. Let's let him do it.' But it was a really sweet and humbling thing for them to ask.''
Appreciating Huss, his co-star Steven Root (Bill Dauterive) added:
"Nobody could replace Johnny, but Toby could further Johnny's wonderfulness."
While Huss took over for Dale in King of the Hill Season 14, his original character Kahn was also recast in the revival. Huss voiced for Kahn Souphanousinphone Sr., Hank's frenemy, who emigrated to Arlen from Laos. To make their revival more culturally appropriate, Crazy Rich Asians fame Ronnie Chieng was roped in to voice Kahn in the revival, who has received mixed reviews from the audiences.
Discussing this significant change in the revival, Dale's new voice actor added:
"Now we are, and I think it's a much better place to be as a society and as a culture to ask and then give some answers. And if the answers mean you have to make some corrections, let's make some corrections."
Another character voiced by Huss, Cotton Hill, was killed off in the revival. However, he does make an appearance in Season 14 in a flashback sequence.
King of the Hill Season 14 is streaming on Hulu.
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