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MillimeterAll Hail!
Apr 1, 1997 12:00 PM, Jennifer Vacchio
The animators and writers of The Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead have created King of the Hill, Fox's animated sitcom about life in the fictitious Texas suburb of Arlen. The half-hour show stars Hank Hill, a propane salesman; his faithful wife, Peggy; their 12-year-old son Bobby; Luanne, their 18-year-old live-in niece; and neighbors.
"It has a lot of charm and is not real cute," says supervising director Wes Archer, of Film Roman, Hollywood. Archer, one of the original animators of The Simpsons from the Tracy Ullman days, recalls reactions at the debut of The Simpsons. "People thought they were so ugly at first, but after refining them they started to look more attractive," he says.
Mike Judge, creator of MTV's Beavis and Butthead, came up with the initial concept of King and further developed the show with writer/executive producer Greg Daniels, who also worked on The Simpsons. "I liked that the script was very observational humor," says Daniels. "It is real-world and not crazy, and although the show has some of the same elements as Beavis and Simpsons, it is also unique. King is a populist show where Simpsons is satirical and Beavis is nihilistic."
Film Roman creates the storyboards and timing sheets for the show, which are shipped off to Korean ink-and-paint shops Rough Draft and Plus One. "TV animation is limited. We are not allowed an unlimited number of drawings," says Archer, "which is why the storyboards need to be drawn precisely. We are cranking out half-hour episodes, so we can't be as lush as if we were working on a movie where you have more like a year or two to perfect the animation."
After the animation process is completed, the 35mm film is transferred to Digital Betacam and edited on a Spectra System at Fox by Mark McJimsey, supervising editor, and Joe Boucher, producer. Audio editing is done on an Avid AudioVision by sound editor Bobby Mackston; sound effects are done by Greg King of Sounddogs, Culver City. The creative team is currently working on King's 22-show second season, as opposed to their 13-episode first season. "When you have a new show it takes at least a year just to build up a library of how you want the backgrounds and characters to look," says Archer, "But once you have that down it just gets easier."
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.