Beavis and Beyond

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND MIKE JUDGE’S OTHER CREATIONS

Beavis and Butt-head

1993–1997 (WRITER, ACTOR)

Judge had been considering becoming a math teacher when he conceived of his breakout MTV cartoon about a pair of sex-obsessed high schoolers: “I was thinking about why I would never want to teach high school, and they were it.”

King of the Hill

1997–2010 (WRITER, ACTOR)

Judge began developing this animated sitcom—and its hardworking Texan paterfamilias—after trying to fix a fence at his then home in Dallas. “My neighbors started to help,” he says. “And it just turned into them fixing the fence without me.”

Office Space

1999 (WRITER, DIRECTOR)

To create this cult comedy film satirizing office culture in the mid-’90s, Judge drew from his former life as a software engineer in Palo Alto.

Idiocracy

2006 (WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER) Judge was in line for the teacup ride at Disneyland with his kids when he saw two women break into a Jerry Springer–style fight— and had a vision of the future. He soon began working on this prescient sci-fi movie about an America that has embraced antiintellectualism and consumerism.

Qualityland

TBD (WRITER, PRODUCER)

This forthcoming HBO satire, based on a novel of the same name, is about a dystopian future where technology optimizes every aspect of people’s lives.

A5

TBD (WRITER, PRODUCER)

“I’m optimistic when it comes to Silicon Valley technology,” Judge says, “but a little bit scared about genetics.” This comedic HBO limited series will focus on a bioengineer who finds the gene that makes people into jerks—and has to figure out what to do next.