Back in the 1980's, The Dukes of Hazzard was essential viewing, even here in England and what was not to like? It showed us kids in the English Midlands that there indeed WAS a place on earth where it didn't rain all the time. It had the 1969 Dodge Charger 'General Lee' AKA, the coolest car in the world and of course it had Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke.
In 1974 Gy Waldron had written and directed a movie called Moonrunners about southern moonshiners and Waldren envisioned a more family friendly TV adaptation of his characters and The Dukes of Hazzard was the very welcome result.
Our two main characters are cousins Bo and Luke Duke played by John Schneider and Tom Wopat respectively. To keep the family friendly feel that Waldren wanted, they were not moonshiners, but ex-moonshiners now on probation.
They live in the fictional Hazzard county Georgia with another cousin Daisy and their paternal uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle), who has instilled a strong sense of right and wrong in his nephews and niece and is determined to keep them on the straight and narrow. However, that task is not made easy as the 'Duke boys' are always being framed, chased and harassed by the town big wig Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and his corrupt, inept, but still essentially good natured sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane (James Best).
In order to thwart these attempts to put them back behind bars, Bo and Luke sometimes have to bend the rules, whilst their moral compass always remains at true north as most episodes usually see the Dukes coming to the rescue of other people who have also become targets of Boss Hogg's latest dastardly scheme.
Other characters include garage owner Cooter Davenport, a staunch Duke ally who's always on hand to put the 'general' back on the road when needed and also helps out the Dukes when they're in trouble. Deputy Sheriff Enos Strate, who is also friends of the Dukes and hopelessly in love with Daisy, but has to put that friendship to the test on many occasions whenever Roscoe orders him to arrest Bo and Luke. Finally, there's Cletus Hogg, Boss's dim witted cousin and deputy who like Enos, is sometimes friend, sometimes foe of the Dukes depending on the situation.
A contractual dispute with Schneider and Wopat between seasons 4 and 5 saw Bo and Luke replaced for most of season 5 by two more cousins Coy and Vance and ratings plummeted. Thankfully, those disputes were resolved soon after and Bo and Luke were back behind the wheel of the General before season's end. Even the episodes with Coy and Vance are far from terrible as the premise of the show still stayed true to it's concept despite the two new actors, but the public just couldn't accept anyone but Bo and Luke in the series.
I loved the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid and seldom missed an episode. It was such wholesome family fun. Sure, the first season was a little bit more adult in it's content with a smatter of innuendo here and there, but as soon as the programme makers found out how many young kids were fans of the show, that soon ended. To add to the wholesomeness of the show, even the 'villains' weren't very villainous as Boss Hogg and Roscoe were purposely played for comedy value and they were portrayed like light-hearted pantomime villains more than malicious and evil bad guys.
However, most episodes did have the 'real' bad guys and nine times out of ten this would see Bo and Luke helping Boss and Roscoe out of a sticky situation involving these baddies and sometimes even joining forces to beat them.
When the series first began, I was a huge fan of Bo and Luke and 'The General', but as the seasons progressed, my attention turned to Daisy, (obviously my hormones had just woken up), as Catherine Bach's portrayal of Daisy Duke became my first ever crush.
The highlights of the show each week was the car chases and the jumps that the General Lee would do, to escape, (usually from Roscoe), accompanied by the car horn sounding 'Dixie' and the obligatory 'YEEHAW' from Bo and Luke. However, anyone who knows anything about the Dodge Charger knew that whilst it could get some good air on a take off, it actually had the landing ability of a glass vase on a stone floor and you can always see the result of the jump on screen as it hit the ground in chassis bending agony, no doubt totalling that particular car forever, but seen driving perfectly well in the next shot. Therefore, a willing suspension of belief is definitely required with this aspect of the show.
The series was cancelled in 1985 after 7 seasons and the series even had a few spin offs during it's run. There was of course the cartoon as well as a short lived show called 'Enos' where we saw The character of Enos Strate move to Los Angeles and join the LAPD.
A couple of nostalgic reunion movies starring the original surviving cast was also made in 1997 and 2000. Sadly the legacy of the Dukes of Hazzard has now been totally destroyed due to two attempted reboots. First, the 2005 movie starring Sean William Scott and Johnny Knoxville, which took this great show and rehashed it in to something it never was or ever meant to be. It deviates so far from the The Dukes of Hazzard had been that all the original cast that were offered cameos in the movie, flat out refused to have anything to do with it.
Then came the Dukes of Hazzard - The Beginning, in 2007 which showed the origin story of the Dukes, which if possible was even worse than the movie that came two years before, it included profanity, nudity and was the biggest insult to the name yet.
I don't even know of a single Dukes of Hazzard fan who likes either of these movies and they should be avoided like swine flu if possible. Personally, if so need my Dukes fix, I'll just revisit the original series...or wait until such times that someone comes along with the respect and dignity this franchise deserves to do another remake or reboot some justice.
However, because of a certain flag on a certain roof of a certain car, the holier than thou 'do-gooders' are now on a crusade to try to get this wonderful show to disappear forever. They don't seem to care that every single episode of The Dukes of Hazzard was actually a morality tale in itself of how good will always triumph over bad in the end.
Enjoy!
In 1974 Gy Waldron had written and directed a movie called Moonrunners about southern moonshiners and Waldren envisioned a more family friendly TV adaptation of his characters and The Dukes of Hazzard was the very welcome result.
Our two main characters are cousins Bo and Luke Duke played by John Schneider and Tom Wopat respectively. To keep the family friendly feel that Waldren wanted, they were not moonshiners, but ex-moonshiners now on probation.
They live in the fictional Hazzard county Georgia with another cousin Daisy and their paternal uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle), who has instilled a strong sense of right and wrong in his nephews and niece and is determined to keep them on the straight and narrow. However, that task is not made easy as the 'Duke boys' are always being framed, chased and harassed by the town big wig Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and his corrupt, inept, but still essentially good natured sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane (James Best).
In order to thwart these attempts to put them back behind bars, Bo and Luke sometimes have to bend the rules, whilst their moral compass always remains at true north as most episodes usually see the Dukes coming to the rescue of other people who have also become targets of Boss Hogg's latest dastardly scheme.
Other characters include garage owner Cooter Davenport, a staunch Duke ally who's always on hand to put the 'general' back on the road when needed and also helps out the Dukes when they're in trouble. Deputy Sheriff Enos Strate, who is also friends of the Dukes and hopelessly in love with Daisy, but has to put that friendship to the test on many occasions whenever Roscoe orders him to arrest Bo and Luke. Finally, there's Cletus Hogg, Boss's dim witted cousin and deputy who like Enos, is sometimes friend, sometimes foe of the Dukes depending on the situation.
A contractual dispute with Schneider and Wopat between seasons 4 and 5 saw Bo and Luke replaced for most of season 5 by two more cousins Coy and Vance and ratings plummeted. Thankfully, those disputes were resolved soon after and Bo and Luke were back behind the wheel of the General before season's end. Even the episodes with Coy and Vance are far from terrible as the premise of the show still stayed true to it's concept despite the two new actors, but the public just couldn't accept anyone but Bo and Luke in the series.
I loved the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid and seldom missed an episode. It was such wholesome family fun. Sure, the first season was a little bit more adult in it's content with a smatter of innuendo here and there, but as soon as the programme makers found out how many young kids were fans of the show, that soon ended. To add to the wholesomeness of the show, even the 'villains' weren't very villainous as Boss Hogg and Roscoe were purposely played for comedy value and they were portrayed like light-hearted pantomime villains more than malicious and evil bad guys.
However, most episodes did have the 'real' bad guys and nine times out of ten this would see Bo and Luke helping Boss and Roscoe out of a sticky situation involving these baddies and sometimes even joining forces to beat them.
When the series first began, I was a huge fan of Bo and Luke and 'The General', but as the seasons progressed, my attention turned to Daisy, (obviously my hormones had just woken up), as Catherine Bach's portrayal of Daisy Duke became my first ever crush.
The highlights of the show each week was the car chases and the jumps that the General Lee would do, to escape, (usually from Roscoe), accompanied by the car horn sounding 'Dixie' and the obligatory 'YEEHAW' from Bo and Luke. However, anyone who knows anything about the Dodge Charger knew that whilst it could get some good air on a take off, it actually had the landing ability of a glass vase on a stone floor and you can always see the result of the jump on screen as it hit the ground in chassis bending agony, no doubt totalling that particular car forever, but seen driving perfectly well in the next shot. Therefore, a willing suspension of belief is definitely required with this aspect of the show.
The series was cancelled in 1985 after 7 seasons and the series even had a few spin offs during it's run. There was of course the cartoon as well as a short lived show called 'Enos' where we saw The character of Enos Strate move to Los Angeles and join the LAPD.
A couple of nostalgic reunion movies starring the original surviving cast was also made in 1997 and 2000. Sadly the legacy of the Dukes of Hazzard has now been totally destroyed due to two attempted reboots. First, the 2005 movie starring Sean William Scott and Johnny Knoxville, which took this great show and rehashed it in to something it never was or ever meant to be. It deviates so far from the The Dukes of Hazzard had been that all the original cast that were offered cameos in the movie, flat out refused to have anything to do with it.
Then came the Dukes of Hazzard - The Beginning, in 2007 which showed the origin story of the Dukes, which if possible was even worse than the movie that came two years before, it included profanity, nudity and was the biggest insult to the name yet.
I don't even know of a single Dukes of Hazzard fan who likes either of these movies and they should be avoided like swine flu if possible. Personally, if so need my Dukes fix, I'll just revisit the original series...or wait until such times that someone comes along with the respect and dignity this franchise deserves to do another remake or reboot some justice.
However, because of a certain flag on a certain roof of a certain car, the holier than thou 'do-gooders' are now on a crusade to try to get this wonderful show to disappear forever. They don't seem to care that every single episode of The Dukes of Hazzard was actually a morality tale in itself of how good will always triumph over bad in the end.
Enjoy!