For Toby Huss, returning to King of the Hill was filled with emotions.

Huss, who voiced Cotton Hill and Kahn Souphanousinphone during the original run of the animated comedy, stepped into the role of conspiracy theory enthusiast Dale Gribble, originated by the late Johnny Hardwick. Hardwick passed away in August 2023, several months after the King of the Hill reboot was confirmed by Hulu.

“As sad as we were, I think Greg [Daniels] and Mike [Judge] and Saladin Patterson kind of decided, you know, interiorly, that I could do the voice [of Dale],” Huss explained to DECIDER during a visit to our studio last week. “And I did it at a couple of read-throughs, and they said, ‘Yeah, that’ll work.’ And they said, ‘Do you want to do it?’ [I said,] ‘Of course I want to do it.’ Because he was an old friend, and a sweet guy, and really weirdly talented. He was a nut, but he was our lovely nut, and we loved it. He was great.”

King of the Hill Season 15 (which marks the second season of its streaming revival) premieres today, though the series has already been renewed for two more seasons at Hulu, cementing the animated comedy as a precious success in a long lineup of reboots. Huss’ co-star Pamela Adlon—who earned an Emmy nod for reprising her role as Bobby Hill—told DECIDER last year that the “handmade” and “present” nature of the show are what distinguishes it from its revival rivals. For Huss, he credits its “kindness.”

“At the end of the day, there’s nothing mean in that show. It’s about kindness, and nothing is ironic in that show,” he explained. “It’s very sincere, and it’s not a political show. They rarely make a political point on anything. So it’s about a family, and it’s about them being kind to each other and understanding each other, and at its heart, nobody gets to be mean on that show to each other.”

As for Huss himself, you’d be hard-pressed to find a hit new show that he hasn’t appeared in. King of the Hill aside, the actor has made audiences laugh on shows like Chad Powers and The Four Seasons Season 2, and even—SPOILER—met an untimely demise as Reverend Bryce on Widow’s Bay. DECIDER spoke with Huss about the latest season of King of the Hill, rooting for his King of the Hill and Widow’s Bay co-star Stephen Root in this year’s Emmys race, and whether he’s received a call about returning to The Four Seasons for Season 3. Give our chat a read below.

DECIDER: I’m so excited to talk about the new season of King of the Hill. This is the second season since its revival last summer. I am curious though: take me back to what it was like receiving that call to return to the show and what your reactions were. 

TOBY HUSS: It was a tough one because we were all still sad about Johnny passing away. And it’s, as sad as we were, I think Greg [Daniels] and Mike [Judge] and Saladin Patterson kind of decided, you know, interiorly, that I could do the voice [of Dale]. And I did it at a couple of read-throughs, and they said, “Yeah, that’ll work.” And they said, “Do you want to do it?” [I said,] “Of course I want to do it.” Because he was an old friend, and a sweet guy, and really weirdly talented. He was a nut, but he was our lovely nut, and we loved it. He was great. 

Definitely. And taking over the role of Dale Gribble from the late Johnny Hardwick, did you feel like you could infuse kind of your own touches or your own twist on the role? Or have you felt like you’re completely trying to pay homage to the original voice? 

Well, it’s interesting because it’s a little bit of a fine line I have to walk. I don’t want to change it too much because what Johnny made was so great. I mean, they had a drawing and had some lines, and Johnny came up with everything of that dude. So then they started writing for what Johnny voiced. So I don’t wanna mess with that. All I’m trying to do is stay in his world. I’ll add my things now and again, but it’s not out of Dale’s world. That’s all I want to do is stay there because his world fits perfectly in the context of the bigger Arlen, Texas, King of the Hill world. 

I saw in an interview of yours last year, you were saying you felt like you could kind of take on the role because when you did the original run of the show, you guys would record together and sometimes fill in for each other when someone was out. Has that recording structure or process changed at all? Is it more individualized now? 

Yeah, you know, it’s all individualized now. We’re not together in the same room as much as we used to be, which was really fun because we were all younger and starting out and we had this little show. So we’d drive to Fox, and we’d all show up at 10, and we would have a read-through, and then we’d go to record it. And it was just fun. We were watching each other grow up, and people had husbands and wives, they got married, and they got divorced, and they had kids. It was great. But that really cemented a lifelong friendship with all of us. So I think coming back—and even though we can’t be in the same room at the same time all the time—we still have such a connection with each other. Yeah, like, Stephen [Root]’s in town. I’ll see him and his wife tomorrow. 

That’s awesome. I know one place some of you got to reunite was at Comic-Con last summer. 

Yeah, yeah. 

Will you be back this year? 

I’m going this year, too. You know, I’d never been to one of those things. It’s nuts. Them nerds is crazy, right? Isn’t that the phrase they use? Them nerds is nuts. It was fun! I’d never been to any Comic-Con before, but that was really something else. That was great. Yeah, it was pretty fun. 

Last year was my first too, and it was an experience.

Oh really, how did you find it? It was nuts, right? 

Yes. 

Did you have guys sneaking around, looking around pillars at you? Because I did now and again. Like they’d be looking at me and they’d say, “Is that the guy?” They’d look again. Maybe he had a hat on or something, I didn’t know. And they’d sort of slowly crawl up to you. It was interesting. It was pretty funny. I hadn’t been around that for a while. 

Well, this season of King of the Hill kind of spoofs Comic-Con a little bit in one of the episodes at a sci-fi convention, which I thought was fun. What was it like getting to voice that episode after being at your first Comic-Con last summer? 

Well, it’s certainly hard to spoof a Comic-Con, isn’t it? It’s really hard to spoof a thing that’s so wonderfully spoof-able. That’s great. But those are your fans. You know, those are the guys that have been with us since the beginning. And they grew up with this group of people in Arlen. And I think aging the people up was such a great idea and also a really difficult idea. I don’t think people realize. Because I don’t want to see Rick and Morty older. That’s awful. I don’t want to see an older Morty. Who cares about old Morty? But they were somehow able to take Bobby and make Bobby a little bit older. And people, they kind of took to it pretty quickly. And Dale’s older. Everybody’s older. But it’s really interesting.  It’s a hard thing to pull off, I think, with Mike and Greg and Saladin, especially. I mean, he really had to sort of walk this very fine line, and he did it; he did a great job. 

Completely. And this series has stood out among a slew of recent revivals as one that’s more than worthy of a return. What do you think it was about the series that makes it so timeless? 

Well, it’s about, you know, at the end of the day, there’s nothing mean in that show. It’s about kindness, and nothing is ironic in that show. It’s very sincere, and it’s not a political show. They rarely make a political point on anything. So it’s about a family, and it’s about them being kind to each other and understanding each other, and at its heart, nobody gets to be mean on that show to each other. If you watch it, Dale might do something awful, but he’s Dale, and you kind of forgive him. And he understands it as much as he can in his own Dale-like way at the end of the episode. But they’re not mean people. So you get to have a respite from the polarized nature of this country sometimes. And you get to watch these people not be mean to each other and struggle and find their way through life and love on each other a little bit. It’s nice. 

Completely! Something that I love about this revival is that it does pay homage to the original run so well, and continues these original storylines. One that gets continued is Nancy infamously having an affair with John Redcorn, and Dale being completely unaware. However, that affair may have finally come to an end in this season, though Dale still has no knowledge. Do you think he’ll ever find out? 

There’s a wonderful part of Dale that I think honestly believes that no one would ever stray from him, that there’s no way Nancy would have something else. Even if he saw some guy, which he probably did. I don’t remember exactly, but he probably saw John Redcorn walking out of his front door at one point in the morning and just went, “Hey John.” Didn’t think anything twice about it. So there’s something wonderfully blind about Dale, and there’s something wonderfully blind about a lot of the characters in there. Which is this sweet — people are blind. We walk around—you got a bunch of blind spots, I hate to tell ya, so do I. We all have little weird blind spots that we can’t see, we can’t access, and Dale’s that dude. I don’t think he ever thinks that Nancy would step out on him. 

Like King of the Hill, you’ve been in some of the year’s most talked-about shows, one of them being Widow’s Bay.

 Yeah! What a fun one that was, right? 

I have to ask, what can you share about that experience and working with Matthew Rhys on this series? 

He’s really wonderful. He’s really great. And Hiro [Murai], the director, was really great, and everybody on there was top-notch and really fun. And you could say a line now and again that wasn’t in the script, and they didn’t care; you could improvise something. They were great. And Stephen Root, of course, was killer in that. It’s time to load him up with a couple of Emmys here and there now. He was just great in that, and it was so fun to hang out with all those guys. 

Totally, and Stephen received an Emmy nomination for the series. 

Yeah, man.

And the series got 19 Emmy nominations in total. Have you been in touch with him or any of the cast about this or since the nominations were announced? 

Oh, of course. Yeah, [if] Steve gets a nod, you’ve got to yell at him, at least in a text, and I’ll see him tomorrow night at my show. And yeah, it would be good to have him around. It’d be a nice Emmy winner. Wouldn’t it be nice? I think, has he won one yet? I don’t know. Maybe for animation. I don’t know if he’s won a live-action one yet. He was nominated for Barry, I think. But enough about Stephen Root, all right? We’re not here for Stephen Root, are we? Ladies, please! [Laughs].

And another show you have appeared in this past year, Chad Powers, playing Glen Powell’s dad. Have you heard anything about Season 2 or when production might start? 

Well, we already wrapped season two, so that’s done. More shenanigans, more shenanigans with makeup. I don’t think you’ll be able to… You might be able to recognize me in a big scene. Probably not [laughs]. We’ll see. More shenanigans with the old, yeah, Glen Powell. He’s fun.

You’ve also appeared in both seasons of The Four Seasons on Netflix. That’s hopefully going to start production soon as well. Have you gotten a call about potentially returning to Season 3? 

No, I haven’t. Whatever they decide is great by me. But they’re the greatest. It’s great to watch Tina Fey in that because I think she’s doing everything she wants to do with this show. It’s so brilliant, and the actors are so good in that. Great to see Kerri Kenney-Silver come up and really inhabit a place that she hasn’t been able to do yet. So she’s wonderful, and Will Forte is an old buddy. And yeah, Colman [Domingo]’s wonderful, and Marco [Calvani], it’s just, it couldn’t be better, man. It’s so fun. You know, you watch that thing, don’t you? Come on. Yeah. It’s another show where there’s a humanity to it, like King of the Hill. There’s a kindness. Even though those people might really get contentious, God, they love each other, and that’s what families do. And they’re a real family on that show. It’s a family they chose. And the ones in Arlen are the family that we chose, too. And some of them are real families—there’s the Hills—and then the family they chose, and Dale’s, for whatever reason, is a wonderful part of that wacky family.