Todd's King of the Hill Interactive Wonderland

The article I have chosen ran in the University Star and was written by a very talented and handsome young reporter. The article is about a King of the Hill exhibit at the Southwestern Writers Collection in the Alkek Library. The exhibit is basically a celebration of the show and its 11 plus seasons. The archives were donated to Texas State by one of the show’s writers and producers, Jim Dauterive. I chose this story because it is interesting and there are many possibilities for multimedia interactivity.

The first piece of interactive multimedia would be a slide show. But this isn’t your aunt Fanny’s slide show from her cruise to Alaska or bingo night. This would be a slide show with pictures, quotes, and audio from the characters of King of the Hill. Just imagine it, a slide of Hank Hill comes on the screen and you hear, “Damn it Bobby,” or “I sell propane and propane accessories.” Or better yet, a picture or two of Bobby Hill, accompanied by several of his more outrageous quotes, such as, “That’s my purse, I don’t know you.”

The second interactive feature would be a map of the Hills’ neighborhood in suburban Arlen, Texas. Using a flash animation that looks like Google Maps, have an overhead view of the neighborhood. Special locations could be the houses of the main characters, the beer-drinking fence (not a fence that drinks beer), the propane business where Hank works, or Bobby’s school. Other possibilities include Bobby’s route to school, or Hank’s route for walking the family dog, Ladybird.

The third piece would be more interactive. I would have a flash “game” where the user could select one of several memorable King of the Hill backgrounds, say, the fence in front of the Hills’ house. On top of their chosen background they would build their own King of the Hill scene. Yes, just like those sticker books we all remember from childhood, but now the user can recreate their favorite scene from the show, or make a new favorite. Additional features would include “speech bubbles” that the user could fill with hilarious dialogue.

The fourth and final feature of my interactive King of the Hill experience would be a magic 8 ball, Dale Gribble style. The user types in a question, submits it, and based on certain key words in the users’ question, the 8 ball feeds the user a response, either in text, or better, in the voice of the ultimate conspiracy theorist himself.