Now that the show is on a streaming platform, have you ever considered using more explicit language or content?
We talked about it in the beginning. For starters, they don’t look like them anymore; it seems less innocent. But there’s also something about them saying stupid things like “ass truck.” They are just really stupid and remind me of high school. It’s not like everyone’s saying, “Oh, I can hardly wait for Beavis and Butt-Head to say [expletive].”
There was a focus group they did in the 90s. The moderator says, “What would you like to see on ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’?” This one guy is just mad, he says, “I’d like to see them get on the first plane to Mexico, go to a strip club, get drunk – you know, something creative.” And I’m standing there thinking there’s really nothing funny about that. Sometimes what people think they want is probably not what they want.
We’re nearly 30 years away from a controversy in which “Beavis and Butt-Head” was blamed for the death of a young child who died in a fire, and as a result, some content has been removed from the show. How does it all feel to you now?
It seems more ridiculous now, and when I tell people about it, they kind of forgot about it and I’ll say, ‘No, this was a big deal.’ A small group of people were very angry, but it was kind of crazy. “Beavis and Butt-Head” had landed at a time when there wasn’t much going on in the world, and things were pretty good, and then suddenly everything changed – the problem is violence and television. There’s so much worse when you’re really nitpicking. That conversation seems to be a thing of the past.
In the same way that you’re asked all the time about bringing “Beavis and Butt-Head” back, I assume there are similar conversations about “King of the Hill”?
We are also exploring that possibility. I think we have an idea how that might go. I hear a lot of people say they watch it before going to bed. It might put people to sleep, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring.
My youngest daughter, about 10 years ago, was watching “Gilmore Girls,” and then I started watching it, and I’d go, oh, I like this – this has a similar Zen quality to it. Nothing terrible happens. Fox put us under pressure at the time, like, “We want life-changing events. You won’t believe what happens on ‘King of the Hill’!” That’s not for every show, you know. I don’t think everyone comes home and says, “Okay, I want to be shocked tonight.” Sometimes you just want comfort TV.