Here are the Top 5 Best 'King of the Hill' Episodes of All Time as the Series Returns

If you were a fan of the original run of King of the Hill, 2025 was likely a year of celebration. The series, which ran from 1997 to 2009, was renewed in 2025 for a 14th season, seemingly returning from the dead, despite all the odds against it.

In celebration of the return to the small screen of beloved Arlen, Tx., residents Peggy Hill, Hank Hill, and the whole King of the Hill family, we're taking a look at the five best episodes of all time. At least, up until now. With the series finally brought back to life, the sky is the limit for the future.

While it's not our top pick, "High Anxiety" did provide the world with one of the series most famous and most memed moments. The entire episode is a cheekily spine-tingling version of a "whodunit" Clue-like setup, where Hank accidentally becomes the top suspect in the murder of Arlen's Sheriff, Debbie Grund.

Between Hank's ill-timed smoking of a joint and the stress of Sheriff Mumford's investigation closing in, "High Anxiety" provides some hearty laughs all with a murder mystery backdrop.

Hank's relatable panic once he realizes he's smoked a marijuana joint turns to hilarity after he tries to vomit the drug up.

While it's clear that Hank didn't actually kill Sheriff Grund, the question of who actually did it was intriguing enough to make the episode a top 5 winner.

In Season 5, episode 13, "Ho Yeah" shows what happens when good intentions go awry. Peggy attempts to help a young woman named Tammy Duvall, played by Renee Zellweger, and invites them to live with the Hill family as she pursues her GED. Eventually, though, it becomes apparent that Tammy is a prostitute when her pimp, Alabaster Jones, played by Snoop Dogg, shows up at the Hill house.

In a bizarre pimp showdown, Hank has to intimidate Alabaster to leave while wearing a leopard print hat to really sell it.

"Shins of the Father" has all the classic hilarity of King of the Hill, but also a whole lot of heart. We get to see Hank's father Cotton in the flesh for once as he attempts to subvert their kinder and gentler approach to raising Bobby. But Hank eventually has a chance to confront his father and tie up some loose ends, getting some painful closure as he refuses to let his son grow up to hate women. It shows how the series can blend funny and relatability.

As the final episode of the series initial 13-season run, "To Sirloin with Love" was an emotional and epic journey closer. The emotional final scene which showed the series families going about their lives was bittersweet, including that long-sought moment of connection when Bobby and Hank discovered a mutual love for grilling meat.

Unlike many shows which finish on a low note, "To Sirloin with Love" was an embodiment of all that was good, funny, and heartfelt about King of the Hill.

Just like "High Anxiety" became a widely-memed episode, "Bobby Goes Nuts" gave us the beautiful reference of, "That’s my purse! I don’t know you!” which is used to this day.

In the episode, Bobby gets beaten up by bullies, and Hank sends him to the YMCA to learn some self defense. Unfortunately, only a women's self defense class is open, and they quickly teach Bobby to defend himself by kicking men in the privates.

A newly empowered Bobby goes "nuts," kicking men in their privates until one kick lands on Hank, and he has to talk to his son about his newly acquired superpower.

To say fans of the show were anxious about the series returning in 2025 is an understatement, because sometimes it's better to die young than live long enough to see yourself become a villain, as the saying goes. However, King of the Hill managed, in its first 13 seasons, to maintain quality throughout and continuously tell a compelling, funny, and heartwarming story.

It seems likely that the series won't abandon that core foundation of quality anytime soon.