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Judge has always performed the voices for both Beavis and Butt-head, and he is taking on Hank Hill and one of his sidekicks, Boomhauer. The latter character's purposely inscrutable speech was inspired by a voice-mail message Judge received a few years ago from a ranting Southerner who, Judge ultimately deciphered, was calling to complain that Beavis &Butt-head didn't start on time. Judge listened to the tape 40 times initially and now plays it repeatedly every time he records Boomhauer's dialogue.
"Mike has an unbelievable ear for normal conversation," notes Johnson. "He is obsessed with the details and nuances of the way people talk. If you go anywhere with Mike in his car in Austin, he'll pop in a tape of some recorded conversation, some prank phone call." Adds Judge's friend, movie director Richard Linklater (Slacker): "Mike just has that gift of being tapped in. He has all these great facial expressions and voices. Ask him to re-create a lunch he had with David Geffen."
By all accounts, a life of dining with casually chic moguls does not seem to be one Judge is avidly pursuing. He has made a choice to live away from the fray of show-business capitals. With the help of video-conferencing and other technology, he oversees both TV series--King is produced in Los Angeles and Beavis in New York City--from his office in Austin. His wife Francesca stays home with the couple's two daughters, one five and the other two, neither of whom gets to weigh in on their father's work because they aren't permitted to watch TV programs that have commercials.
Perhaps by the time Judge completes his next big project, the girls will be old enough to become fans. He is about to begin writing a script for a live-action comedy film he hopes to direct. Its subject? The eerie modern construct that is the suburban office park. Maybe someday Judge could do a catchy musical about aluminum siding.