The fifth season of '' King of the Hill'' originally aired Sundays at 7:30–8:00 p.m. ( EST) from October 1, 2000 to May 13, 2001. The Region 1 DVD was released on November 22, 2005. The Region 2 DVD was released on February 26, 2007. The Region 4 DVD was released on April 28, 2008.

Production

The

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

for the season was

Richard Appel Richard James Appel (born May 21, 1963) is an American writer, producer and former Attorney at law, attorney. Since 2012, he has served as an executive producer and co-showrunner of ''Family Guy'' on Fox. He attended Harvard University and Harvar ...

. Several of the show's original writers, such as

Paul Lieberstein Paul Bevan Lieberstein (born February 22, 1967) is an American actor, screenwriter, television director and television producer. A Primetime Emmy Award winner, he is best known as writer, as executive producer, and as supporting cast member Toby ...

, left in the middle of the season. Bobby and his friends growing up was a minor theme for the season.

Reception

In November 2000, David Bianculli of the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' labelled it as an "especially ambitious season", citing the episode "I Don't Want to Wait..." where the character Joseph hits puberty, commenting that he is "one of the first regular animated characters in a TV series to enter adolescence." Diane Werts of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote in February 2001 that, "''King of the Hill'' is blissfully free of tired irony and sarcasm, while still sharp and contemporary. Young viewers are especially lovin’ it, landing the show in prime time’s top 20 among teens and adults 18 to 34."https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-23-ca-28994-story.html In 2008, Jaime Weinman of Canadian magazine ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...

'' noted that during Season 5 and Season 6, co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels had begun to be less involved with the show. He wrote, "the style of the show in those seasons was pretty similar to the style of the first few seasons, but a little broader and wilder", adding "there was some difference of opinion as to how well this approach was working. Judge, for one, has been pretty clear in interviews that he thought the show was going wrong in these seasons, making too much fun of Hank and reflecting the obsessions of the

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

-educated writers who were running it."

Episodes

References

{{King of the Hill 2000 American television seasons 2001 American television seasons King of the Hill 05