Season 14 of the annual ATX Television Festival is underway in Austin, TX. If you missed my recap of Day 1, you can find it here. Day 2 for me began with a quick breakfast at the press/industry lounge before heading up to the badgeholder lounge to talk with some friends and compare plans for the day.
My first panel of the day was “Downloading with UPLOAD”. This was a micropanel in the small “Den” conference room in the Hyatt which sits 60 people at best. Fortunately, I had a Fast Forward pass for this.
Upload is a Prime Video comedy set in a world where tech giants have manage to monetize the afterlife, allowing people to upload a copy of themselves into a digital afterlife when they die, as well as many ways to spend money to make that afterlife more comfortable. Three seasons have already aired, and the fourth/final season has already completed filming.
The panel was moderated by Damian Holbrook (TV Guide Magazine), and included creator/showrunner Greg Daniels and stars Kevin Bigley & Zainab Johnson. It was a really fun discussion about the show, characters, and the afterlife in general. They talked about how the idea for the series came about, the long process of getting the show made (the actors had been under contract since 2017!), and some earlier concepts/versions that ultimately didn’t pan out. They gave a few hints about the upcoming season, and Johnson accidentally let it drop that her character becomes a corporate spy. The panelists also discussed rapidly changing technology, self-driving cars, and AI. Bigley was constantly praising his Amazon overlords and joking that they had drones watching for any negative comments.
After the panel, I grabbed some lunch at the press/industry lounge in the Roaring Fork inside the Stephen F. Austin hotel, and chatted with some other press folks. In the back room of the restaurant is where Hulu held its press room for King of the Hill.
The animated series King of the Hill ran for 13 seasons on FOX, from 1997-2009. Now, 15 years later, it is returning for its 14th season in a new revival on Hulu, which is set to premiere Monday, August 4, 2025 with 10 episodes.
The season 14 revival picks up several years after we last saw the Hill family – Hank and Peggy Hill are now retired and return to a changed Arlen after years of working in Saudi Arabia; and Bobby is 21 and living his best life while navigating adulthood as a chef in Dallas.
I got the chance to participate in a rountable interview with executive producer/showrunner Saladin K. Patterson and voice cast Pamela Adlon (“Bobby”), Lauren Tom (“Minh”) & Toby Huss (taking over the role of “Dale”). They talked about some of the changes as the series jumps ahead, but that these are still the characters that fans loved. I asked the actors if they had any catchphrases they were excited to say again, and Patterson talked about how he started off as a fan of the series and was excited to take over as showrunner of the series for the revival.
Look for the interview to be posted closer to the release date of Season 14.
Next, I headed to get in line for another smaller panel in the Hyatt “Living Room”. Each year, Universal Studio Group’s annual “Funny AF” panel collects various people working on Universal-property comedies to discuss how they broke into the business, what makes good comedy, and so on. This year, the panelists included Lang Fisher (co-creator/showrunner of The Four Seasons), and actors Oscar Nuñez (The Office), Mekki Leeper (St. Denis Medical) & Kerri Kenney-Silver (The Four Seasons). It was a funny discussion with the panelists constantly riffing off one another—all of them were always “on” and quick to make a joke.
There weren’t any other panels that I could squeeze in before the night’s marquee event, so I headed back to the press/industry lounge where they had some snacks layed out. I then wandered up to the hour hour that was happening in the badgeholder lounge.
The night’s big marquee event in the Paramount Theater was the KING OF THE HILL Revival Sneak Peek presented by Hulu. I never realized just how popular and meaningful this show was for Texans, who turned out in droves for the panel, many decked out KOTH gear.
Variety‘s Michael Schneider moderated the panel with co-creators/executive producers Mike Judge & Greg Daniels, executive producers/showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, and stars Pamela Adlon, Lauren Tom & Toby Huss. They showed some clips from the series, both the past and the upcoming season, and had a fun and spirited discussion about the show and characters. They talked about aging up Bobby, and how things have changed in Arlen since we last saw the Hills.
There was one awkward moment in the middle of the panel when a Native American man stood up and started yelling at the stage. Mike Judge appeared to confirm that the man was a voice actor on the series, but both the panelists and the audience were in confused silence for several minutes before the man finally left.
Afterwards, the panel finished out without any other interruptions, though any potential audience Q&A was canceled at that point. Fans of the series should be excited to revisit their favorite characters this August!
At 800 Congress, Hulu held a massive KING OF THE HILL Backyard BBQ. So I headed across the street, where the line outside for food was moving quite quickly. They were grilling up cheesburgers of course with propane), or your choice of chili, potato salad or coleslaw. The food was quite good. There was also a cart where you could get a root beer float style drink, but made with Orange Coke.
Inside, there was a station for a photo op with Hank and the gang, as well as several bars with themed drinks. There was also a table handing out cool Yeti tumblers and bottle openers with the ATX and KOTH logos on them. Unfortunately these were only given to folks with a Camp badge so I didn’t get one.
After this, I headed across the street to the State Theater for A Late Night Show with Greg Iwinski presented by Plex. This event was designed to give attendees the feel of attending a taping of a late night show. The show was hosted by Emmy-winning writer Greg Iwinski (Last Week Tonight, The Late Show) who was joined by announcer/sidekick Jim Fagan (The Tonight Show) and a team of veteran late night writer-performers. During the show he was joined by guests George Wallace (who did a five-minute stand-up routine) and Beau Willimon. There were many different segments, and lots of commercial breaks for Plex. I thought this was really well done—though it also reminded me of why I never watch late night shows anymore (they seem to mostly be about politics).
As we left the theater, Plex was handing out fresh cookies, a magnet and a button for Greg Iwinski’s non-campaign.
There was still 30-minutes left to the Late Night Happy Hour presented by A+E Studios at the bar at the Stephen F. Austin hotel, so I headed around the corner to that. While I had missed whatever celebrities’ had made an appearance, I found some camp friends and we discussed our days. There was also some free swag, an A+E branded dopp kit with various things to help with late nights. Eventually I had to call it a night and yet some sleep for the next day.
With the ATX TV Festival, there’s a lot of overlapping programming that you want to see and hard choices must be made. Today there were many panels I wanted to see but couldn’t get to due to timing. Once nice thing is that the panels usually make their way to the ATX TV YouTube channel/Podcast, so you should be able to watch/listen to them in the near future. Just some of the other programming I was interested in but missed today included “Anatomy of an Acorn TV Series” which included Jane Seymour, “Kevin Williamson Career Retrospective presented by Universal Studio Group” which included guest James Van Der Beek, “DUSTER presented by Max” screening and Q&A, Mystery Guest micropanel which ended up being The Pitt‘s Katherine LaNasa, and “Showrunner Award: David E. Kelley”.
