The
showrunners for the season were
John Altschuler and
Dave Krinsky. The eighth production season was the first to fully utilize digital ink and paint, although four episodes ("New Cowboy on the Block", "After the Mold Rush", "Flirting with the Master" and "Rich Hank, Poor Hank") were holdover episodes from the
Season 7 (7ABE) production line and were still traditionally colored. The last of these produced was "Flirting with the Master", while the last aired was "Rich Hank, Poor Hank". This season saw Luanne have more of a prominent role again, after several seasons as a minor character due to
Brittany Murphy's rising film career. In a 2003 interview with
Cinescape, Altschuler commented, "she [Brittany Murphy] came to us and was actually pitching ideas to us about how to get Luanne more involved in the show. She's just truly a great team player who loves the show and does anything we ask her to do. She's how we got
Elijah Wood to do the show."
Brad Pitt, guest star on the episode "Patch Boomhauer", first expressed interest in appearing on
King of the Hill after his then-wife
Jennifer Aniston appeared in the Season 7 episode "Queasy Rider". Pitt was a fan of the series, and pitched the idea that he'd voice Boomhauer's brother. Originally, this character was modeled after Pitt, but the show's animators decided to make the character look closer in appearance to Boomhauer. ==Episodes==