Now that the show is on a streaming platform, did you ever think about using more explicit language or content?
We talked about it at the start. For one thing, it doesn’t appear to be them anymore; it seems less innocent. But in addition, there’s something about them saying silly things like “butt wagon.” They’re just really dumb and remind me of junior high. It’s not like everybody’s going, “Oh, I can hardly wait for Beavis and Butt-Head to say [expletive].”
There was a spotlight group they did within the ’90s. The moderator goes, “What would you prefer to see on ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’?” This one guy is just offended, he’s like, “I’d prefer to see them get on the primary plane to Mexico, go to a strip joint, get drunk — you already know, something creative.” And I’m standing there pondering there’s nothing funny about any of that, actually. Sometimes what people think they need might be not what they need.
We’re nearly 30 years faraway from an issue where “Beavis and Butt-Head” was blamed within the death of a young child who died in a hearth, and some content was faraway from the show because of this. How does that every one feel to you now?
It seems more ridiculous now, and after I’ll tell people of it, they’ve form of forgotten and I’ll say, ‘No, this was like an enormous deal.’ A small group of individuals were very offended, nevertheless it was pretty crazy. “Beavis and Butt-Head” had landed right at a period when there wasn’t so much occurring on the earth, and things were pretty good, after which suddenly, the whole lot just turned — the issue is violence and tv. Now, there’s a lot worse for those who’re going to actually nitpick. That conversation appears to be a thing of the past.
In the identical way that you simply get asked on a regular basis about bringing back “Beavis and Butt-Head,” I presume there are similar conversations about “King of the Hill”?
We’re in the course of exploring that possibility, too. I believe we now have an idea of how that might go. I get a variety of people saying they watch it before they go to bed. Possibly it puts people to sleep, but that doesn’t mean that it’s boring.
My younger daughter, about 10 years ago, would watch “Gilmore Girls,” after which I began watching it, and I’d go, oh, I like this — this has an identical Zen quality to it. Nothing too horrible happens. Fox, on the time, was pressuring us, like, “We wish life-changing events. You won’t consider what happens on ‘King of the Hill’!” That’s not for each show, you already know. I don’t think everyone comes home and goes, “OK, I need to be shocked tonight.” Sometimes, you simply want comfort TV.
