King of the Hill is now in the works on a new revival series, and it might be the time for Dale Gribble to find out that Joseph isn’t actually his biological son. King of the Hill‘s original run came to as close to perfect of an end as an animated series could hope for. It ended without many mysteries for the rest of the characters, and teased that they would all be heading into a bright future despite the fact that we wouldn’t be following them anymore. Now that King of the Hill is coming back with a new series, there will undoubtedly be shake ups.
Joseph’s parentage had been one of the core side plots for King of the Hill as while Dale had nothing but love for his wife and son, it was made clear early on that his son was actually the biological child of John Redcorn, a man that Nancy Gribble had many affairs with. Despite Dale being so paranoid and untrusting of the world around him, he never really had any doubt that Joseph was his son despite the blatantly obvious happening in front of him. But with the new episodes, this could finally happen and we could see how Dale feels about it all.
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Will Dale Find Out About Joseph?
According to updates from those involved with the production, King of the Hill‘s new revival series is taking place nearly a decade after the events of the original series. This means that nearly ten years have passed as Joseph continues to age, and John Redcorn himself likely loses patience with the fact that he’s not as involved with his biological son’s life as he wants to be. This was one of the key plot points of the original series between Dale and John, but the two eventually formed a friendship that seemed to temporarily settle things between them.
But ten years is a long, long time. Plenty of changes have been made to the characters in the series that are more than just them all getting older. Joseph himself has always been shown to be curious about why he seems so different from his parents, and an adult aged Joseph is even more likely to have connected the dots eventually. It’s something that even could have happened off-screen in the years ahead of the new series’ stories that we’ll see when they premiere.
Why Dale Won’t Care
But the question of whether or not Dale will figure out Nancy cheated on him ultimately won’t matter. While he might feel betrayed by Nancy, Dale has shown nothing but love for his son regardless. As has been seen multiple times through the original King of the Hill series, Dale is a great father. While he has his shortcomings when it comes to seeing eye to eye with his son, the two ultimately share a very close bond. It’s even to the point where Dale was challenged with the idea that Joseph isn’t his biological son directly and he didn’t back down.
In the Season 6 episode, “Of Mice and Little Green Men,” Dale actually confronted the idea that Joseph wasn’t his son. It was in a roundabout way as he believed that aliens had impregnated his wife, and it was Hank that talked him out of giving up. Hank told Dale that he was the one that was around for all of the important moments of Joseph’s life, and thus he was his father. This was what Dale needed, and thus he was able to confidently claim Joseph as his own. In Dale’s way (even convincing himself that he must have been abducted and those are his genes Nancy was implanted with), this was Dale overcoming his doubts that the son in front of him wasn’t his.
So even if he discovers that Joseph isn’t his own biological son, he’s already been through the process of accepting Joseph anyway. He’s already broken through his doubts, and love Joseph as his son either way. It’s not going to change his relationship with his son, and while it might shift things around for his relationships with Nancy and John Redcorn, at the end of the day Dale is still going to love Joseph regardless.
Dale Already Might Know, Anyway
There’s also a good chance that Dale already knows about all of this anyway. Along with “Of Mice and Little Green Men” teasing the fact that Dale already suspected Joseph wasn’t his own son, there have been a few key examples that have had Dale put the pieces together on his own. It’s teased that Dale might be too oblivious to truly understand what’s going on in his own (which adds to the tragic irony of his paranoia), but it also could be that he’s already fully accepted the reality and just doesn’t outwardly acknowledge.
The two big examples you can point to for this are Season 7’s “Vision Quest,” as Dale quite literally sees his subconscious telling him that John Redcorn is Joseph’s father. The second is Season 12’s “Untitled Black McCormick Project” where John Redcorn’s surprise daughter appears in the neighborhood and Dale figures out that she shares similar DNA with Joseph. In both cases, his thoughts go so off the mark that he convinces himself that he’s still involved genetically. What these importantly showcase is that deep down, Dale likely understands that Joseph isn’t his own.
So while King of the Hill’s new revival might be where Dale finally pieces together that Joseph isn’t his genetic son, it’s also not the first time he’s discovered this fact. We’ve seen multiple examples of Dale coming face to face with this reality only to brush it off, so it’s likely going to be the same case here. But there’s one big difference this time around, unfortunately, and that’s Johnny Hardwick’s role in the revival overall.
Johnny Hardwick, Dale Gribble’s voice actor, was reportedly only able to record “a couple” of his episodes before his tragic passing. If this big scene were to happen, it might not be in one of these episodes. If Dale is recast for the series’ future, then it’d be weird to then do this kind of story without the famous actor that brought him to life in the first place. This is all such a wild tightrope to walk, but the King of the Hill team is likely very up to the task for the new revival.