The Dukes of Hazzard is an American action-comedy television series that aired on CBS from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985. The show aired for a total of 147 episodes spanning seven seasons. The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.
Video The Dukes of Hazzard
Plot overview
The Dukes of Hazzard had an ensemble cast, which also follows the adventures of "The Duke Boys", cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat) (including Coy and Vance Duke for most of season 5), who live on a family farm in fictional Hazzard County, Georgia, with their attractive female cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) and their wise old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle). The Duke boys race around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, dubbed (The) General Lee, evading crooked and corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and his bumbling and corrupt Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best) along with his deputy(s), and always managing to get caught in the middle of the various escapades and incidents that often occur in the area. Bo and Luke had previously been sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine; their Uncle Jesse made a plea bargain with the U.S. Government to refrain from distilling moonshine in exchange for Bo and Luke's freedom. As a result, Bo and Luke are on probation and not allowed to carry firearms - instead, they often use compound bows, sometimes with arrows tipped with dynamite - or to leave Hazzard County unless they get probation permission from their probation officer, Boss Hogg, although the exact details of their probation terms vary from episode to episode. Sometimes it is implied that they would be jailed for merely crossing the county line; on other occasions, it is shown that they may leave Hazzard, as long as they are back within a certain time limit. Several other technicalities of their probation also came into play at various times.
Corrupt county commissioner Jefferson Davis (J.D.) "Boss" Hogg, who either runs or has fingers in virtually everything in Hazzard County, is forever angry with the Dukes, especially Bo and Luke, for always foiling his crooked schemes. He is always looking for ways to get them out of the picture so that his plots have a chance of succeeding. Many episodes revolve around Hogg trying to engage in an illegal scheme, sometimes with aid of hired criminal help. Some of these are get-rich-quick schemes, though many others affect the financial security of the Duke farm, which Hogg has long wanted to acquire for various reasons. Other times, Hogg hires criminals from out of town to do his dirty work for him, and often tries to frame Bo and Luke for various crimes as part of these plots. Bo and Luke always seem to stumble over Hogg's latest scheme, sometimes by curiosity, and often by sheer luck, and put it out of business. Despite the Dukes often coming to his rescue (see below), Hogg forever seems to have an irrational dislike of the clan, particularly Bo and Luke, often accusing them of spying on him, robbing or planning to rob him, and other supposedly nefarious actions, as he believes they are generally out to get him.
The role of Boss Hogg was played by Sorrell Booke, who performed frequently on radio, stage, and film prior to his role in The Dukes of Hazzard. Boss Hogg is one of only two characters to appear in every episode of the TV series, the other being Uncle Jesse Duke. His namesake is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America.
The other main characters of the show include local mechanic Cooter Davenport (Ben Jones), who in early episodes was portrayed as a wild, unshaven rebel, often breaking or treading on the edge of the law, before settling down to become the Duke family's best friend (he is often referred to as an "honorary Duke") and owns the local garage; and Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer), an honest but naive young deputy who, despite his friendship with the Dukes (and his crush on Daisy), is reluctantly forced to take part in Hogg and Rosco's crooked schemes. In the third and fourth seasons, when Enos leaves for his own show, he is replaced by Deputy Cletus Hogg (Rick Hurst), Boss's cousin, who is slightly more wily than Enos but still a somewhat reluctant player in Hogg's plots.
Owing to their fundamentally good natures, the Dukes often wind up helping Boss Hogg out of trouble, albeit grudgingly. More than once Hogg is targeted by former associates who are either seeking revenge or have double crossed him after a scheme has unraveled in one way or another. Sheriff Coltrane also finds himself targeted in some instances. On such occasions, Bo and Luke usually have to rescue their adversaries as an inevitable precursor to defeating the bad guys; in other instances, the Dukes join forces with Hogg and Coltrane to tackle bigger threats to Hazzard or one of their respective parties. These instances became more frequent as the show progressed, and later seasons saw a number of stories where the Dukes and Hogg (and Coltrane) temporarily work together.
Maps The Dukes of Hazzard
Production
The series was developed from the 1975 film Moonrunners. Created by Gy Waldron in collaboration with ex-moonshiner Jerry Rushing, this movie shares many identical and very similar names and concepts with the subsequent TV series. Although itself essentially a comedy, this original movie was much cruder and edgier than the family-friendly TV series that would evolve from it.
In 1977, Waldron was approached by Warner Bros. with the idea of developing Moonrunners into a television series. Waldron reworked various elements from Moonrunners, and from it was devised what would become The Dukes of Hazzard. Production began in October 1978 with the original intention of only nine episodes being produced as mid-season filler. The first five episodes were filmed in Covington and Conyers, Georgia and surrounding areas, including some location work in nearby Atlanta. After completing production on the fifth episode, "High Octane", the cast and crew broke for Christmas break, expecting to return in several weeks' time to complete the ordered run of episodes. In the meantime, executives at Warner Bros. were impressed by the rough preview cuts of the completed episodes and saw potential in developing the show into a full-running series; part of this plan was to move production from Georgia to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, primarily to simplify production as well as develop a larger workshop to service the large number of automobiles needed for the series.
Rushing appeared as shady used car dealer Ace Parker in the third episode produced, "Repo Men" (the fourth to be broadcast). Rushing believed this to be the start of a recurring role, in return for which he would supply creative ideas from his experiences: many of the Dukes (and thus Moonrunners) characters and situations were derived from Rushing's experiences as a youth, and much of the character of Bo Duke he states to be based on him. However, "Repo Men" would turn out to be the character's only appearance in the entire show's run, leading to a legal dispute in the following years over the rights to characters and concepts between Rushing and Warner Bros., although he remained on good terms with cast and crew and in recent years has made appearances at several fan conventions.
By the end of the first (half) season, the family-friendly tone of The Dukes of Hazzard was mostly in place. When the show returned for a second season in Fall 1979 (its first full season), with a few further minor tweaks, the show quickly found its footing as a family-friendly comedy-adventure series. By the third season, starting in Fall 1980, the template was well set in place for that which would be widely associated with the show.
As well as its regular car chases, jumps and stunts, The Dukes of Hazzard relied on character familiarity, with each character effectively serving the same role within a typical episode, and with Deputy Cletus replacing Deputy Enos in Seasons 3 and 4, and Coy and Vance Duke temporarily replacing Bo and Luke (due to a salary dispute) for most of Season 5, being the only major cast changes through the show's run (Ben Jones and James Best both left temporarily during the second season due to different disputes with producers, but both returned within a few episodes). Of the characters, only Uncle Jesse and Boss Hogg appeared in all 145 episodes; Daisy appears in all but one, the third season's "To Catch a Duke". The General Lee also appears in all but one (the early first-season episode "Mary Kaye's Baby", the fourth to be produced and the third broadcast).
Cast and characters
Main characters
- Luke Duke (Tom Wopat) is the dark-haired, older Duke boy. More mature and rational than his cousin Bo, he is typically the one who thinks of the plan that will get the two out of whatever trouble they have got into. Luke wears a checked blue shirt (a plain blue shirt in most, though not all, second-series episodes) and a denim jacket over it in first season and a few later second-season which means he wears Double Denim episodes and he also wears Dark Blue jeans with a belt with a fish belt buckle with black boots and later brown boots and a few other checker and plaid shirts in later episodes and seasons of the show. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a former boxer. Luke was the first Duke to perform the "hood slide" across The General Lee, which is seen in the opening credits of the show (a shot taken from the second episode, "Daisy's Song") and later told by Tom Wopat to be an accident, because his foot got caught on the side of the General Lee when he attempted to jump across the hood; he also caught his thigh on the hood's radio antenna, cutting himself, resulting in such antennas being removed from later versions of the General Lee which those later versions looked similar to the ones in The Dukes of Hazzard film. However, the "hood slide" quickly proved popular and became a regular staple of episodes. The only episode to directly reference the age difference between Luke and Bo is in the seventh season opener, the "flashback" episode "Happy Birthday, General Lee," where it is stated that Luke had already been in the Marines while Bo was in his last year at high school. Though Bo and Luke share the CB call sign "Lost Sheep," in Season One episode "Money to Burn," Luke referred to himself (singularly) as "Sittin' Duck."
- Bo Duke (John Schneider) is the blond-haired, younger Duke boy (Wopat and Schneider are nine years apart from each other's age when Bo and Luke are supposed to be three years apart from each other's age). He is more of the "shoot first, ask questions later" type than Luke, and is often the one to get the duo into the various scrapes in which they find themselves, although the character did mature slightly as the series progressed; he is also the one more likely to have his eye, or heart, distracted by a pretty girl. Bo has a crush on many women in some episodes, which proves to be the Achilles' heel that leads the Dukes into trouble in several episode plots. Bo usually wears a cream-yellow shirt; it is a stronger yellow in the first and second season, a lighter cream color from the third season, and in the sixth and seventh season has more of a grey hue to it, in season 6 and season 7 he wears a tan brown shirt and more of dark blue jeans. (The only break from this norm is in the second episode produced and broadcast, "Daisy's Song," where Bo wears a red shirt for much of the story, and a sequence in the fifth episode, "High Octane," where he wears a light blue shirt. Many early publicity shots show the character to be wearing a dark blue denim shirt.) For the first two seasons he wears a blue T-shirt underneath (brown in the first episode); this was slowly phased out during the third season. An ex-stock car driver, Bo is the one who drives The General Lee most of the time with Luke riding shotgun. He and Luke take turns of driving the General Lee in some episodes as they share the car with each other (very early episodes suggest that it belongs solely to him; Luke is said to have a car that Cooter had wrecked shortly prior to the start of the opening episode, "One Armed Bandits"). Bo is known for his rebel yell, "Yeeeee-Haaa," which he usually yells when the General Lee is airborne during a jump. The Duke boys share the CB call sign or handle "Lost Sheep".
- Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) is Bo, Luke, Coy, and Vance's cousin. She is beautiful, honest, and kind, although she can sometimes be slightly over-trusting and naïve, which has led the Duke family into trouble on a number of occasions, but for the most part can handle herself well. She sometimes aspires to be a songwriter and singer, and at other times, a reporter. She races around Hazzard with her cousins, first in a yellow and black 1974 Plymouth Road Runner (later a 1972 model was used) and then, from mid-Season 2 on, in her trademark white 1980 Jeep CJ-7, christened "Dixie" with a golden eagle emblem on the hood (and the name "Dixie" on the hood sides). Daisy works as a waitress at the Boar's Nest, the local bar and pub owned by Boss Hogg, as part of an agreement with Boss Hogg so that he would give Uncle Jesse and the boys a loan for a lower interest rate so the boys could purchase the entry fee for a race in which they wished to race the General Lee. The arrangement was supposed to be for an indefinite time, but there are several times throughout the series when Hogg fires her. However, he always ends up rehiring her at the end of each episode because of various circumstances. Although Hogg is a nemesis to Daisy and her family, she is best friends with Hogg's wife Lulu. Daisy often uses her sex appeal and her position at the restaurant to get insider information to help the Dukes in foiling Hogg's various schemes. She also has the distinction of having her trademark provocatively high-cut jean short shorts named after her: "Daisy Dukes". Her CB handle is "Bo Peep." Occasionally, the variant of "Country Cousin" is used.
- Jesse Duke (Denver Pyle), referred to by just about everyone in Hazzard other than Boss Hogg as "Uncle Jesse", is the patriarch of the Duke clan, and the father-figure to all Dukes who stay with him on the somewhat dilapidated "Duke Farm." Jesse apparently has no children of his own, and happily provides for his nephews and niece in the unexplained absence of all of their parents (Gy Waldron, the creator of the show, states on the DVDs that their parents were killed in a car wreck, but it was never mentioned in the show). In the third broadcast episode, "Mary Kaye's Baby", Jesse says that he has delivered many babies, including Bo and Luke. Jesse Duke, in his youth, had been a ridge-runner in direct competition with Boss Hogg whom he always calls "JD". However, while both Boss Hogg and Uncle Jesse would scowl at the mention of the other's name, the two enjoyed a lifelong "friendship" of sorts, with one helping the other when in desperate need. Jesse educated his nephews against Hogg, and often provides the cousins with inspirational sage advice. Uncle Jesse drives a white 1973 Ford F-100 pickup truck. In the barn, he also has his old moonshine-running car, called "Sweet Tillie" in its first appearance (in the first-season episode "High Octane"), but referred to as "Black Tillie" in subsequent appearances. In the second-season episode "Follow That Still" and the sixth-season episode "The Boars Nest Bears", the marriage to and death of his wife is mentioned; he also mentions marrying her in the first-season episode "Luke's Love Story". His CB handle is "Shepherd."
- Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best) is the bumbling and corrupt sheriff of Hazzard County and right-hand man and brother-in-law of its corrupt county administrator, Jefferson Davis "J.D." Hogg ("Boss Hogg"), whom Rosco calls his "little fat buddy", "Little Chrome Dome", "Little Meadow-Muffin", and several other names. In the early episodes, it is mentioned that Rosco spent the first 20 years of his career as a mostly honest lawman, but after the county voted away his pension Rosco joined Hogg in an effort to fund his retirement in his last couple of years as sheriff. Early episodes also portray him as a fairly hard-nosed, somewhat darker policeman character, who even shoots a criminal during the first season. As the series progressed and producers recognized how popular it had become with children, James Best altered his portrayal into a more bumbling, comical character. By the end of the first season, his origin had been virtually forgotten (and his job as sheriff appeared to become open ended). Rosco is also the younger brother of Lulu Coltrane Hogg (Boss Hogg's wife). Rosco frequently initiates car chases with Bo and Luke Duke, but the Duke boys usually elude Rosco by outwitting him, with Rosco typically wrecking his patrol car as a result from which he would nearly always escape unscathed. (Only two episodes -- the fourth season's "Coltrane vs. Duke" and season six's "Too Many Roscos" -- toy with the concept of him being injured. The first episode has him faking injury so the Duke Boys would lose the General Lee while the latter has James Best playing two characters. His normal character, Rosco, is presumed drowned while a criminal that looks like Rosco has a headache.) These chases are often the result of Rosco setting up illegal speed traps such as false or changing speed limit signs and various other trickery, which would evolve into being increasingly more cartoonish and far-fetched as the seasons passed. While he enjoys "hot pursuit" he seemingly (Boss Hogg as well) never intends for anyone to get seriously hurt. His middle initial, 'P', was added at the start of the second season, and only one episode (the third season's "Mrs. Rosco P. Coltrane", in which he is subjected to a scam marriage) reveals his middle name, "Purvis". Rosco also has a soft spot for his basset hound Flash, introduced at the start of the third season. His radio codename is "Red Dog". When James Best briefly boycotted the show during the mid-second season, he was temporarily replaced by several "one-off" Sheriffs, the longest standing being Sheriff Grady Bird, played by Dick Sargent, who appeared in two episodes ("Jude Emery" and "Officer Daisy Duke").
- Boss Jefferson Davis "J.D." Hogg (Sorrell Booke) is the wealthiest man in Hazzard County and owns most of its property and businesses -- whether directly or by holding the mortgages over the land. Usually dressed in an all-white suit, he is the fat, greedy, corrupt County Commissioner with visions of grandeur, a voracious appetite for food, who constantly orders Rosco to "Get them Duke Boys!" He is also Bo and Luke's Probation officer, when Bo and Luke need to leave Hazzard they always get permission from him. Boss Hogg is also married to (and dominated by) Rosco's "fat sister" (Lulu Hogg), a point that does not always sit well with either Boss Hogg or Rosco; Hogg sometimes claims that Rosco is indebted to him because of it, though his on-screen interactions with Lulu typically show him loving her deeply (and giving in to her stronger personality). In addition to his role as county commissioner he is also the police commissioner, land commissioner, and bank president. Boss is also the chief of the Hazzard Fire Department and the owner of or primary mortgage holder on most of the places in the county, including the Boar's Nest, Rhubottem's Store, Cooter's garage and the Duke Farm. It is implied in some episodes that he is the Justice of the Peace but in others Hazzard relies on a circuit judge. In the episode "Coltrane vs. Duke", Hogg represents Rosco when he sues the Dukes, implying that he is a licensed attorney. His vehicle is a white 1970 Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible, with bull horns mounted on the hood. In the first few seasons, he is almost always driven around by a chauffeur. His old moonshine-running car was called the "Grey Ghost". Every morning, Boss Hogg would drink coffee and eat raw liver (Sorrell Booke, a method actor, actually ate the raw liver). Boss Hogg is described in one analysis as "an ineffectual bad guy--hence amusing".
- Cooter Davenport (Ben Jones) is the Hazzard County mechanic, nicknamed "Crazy Cooter" (a "cooter" is a large freshwater turtle, common in the Southeast). In the early episodes, he is a wild man, often breaking the law (such as stealing the Sheriff's patrol car for impounding his in "One Armed Bandits", reportedly borrowing Luke's car prior to the same episode and using it to "run the sheriff off the road to make him mad" to facilitate the aforementioned theft of the sheriff's car, running moonshine for Boss Hogg in "Mary Kaye's Baby", seemingly breaking into Boss Hogg's home to retrieve a trophy for an upcoming race in "Luke's Love Story", and "borrowing" the President's Limousine for a joy-ride ("Limo One Is Missing") when it is accidentally left unguarded. By the end of the first season, he has settled down and become an easy going good ol' boy. Although not mentioned in the first couple of episodes, by the mid-first season, he owns "Cooter's Garage" in Hazzard County Square, directly across from the Sheriff's Department. Cooter is an "Honorary Duke", as he shares the same values and often assists the Dukes in escaping Rosco's clutches, or helps them to foil Boss Hogg's schemes. During the second season, Ben Jones left the series for a few episodes due to a dispute over whether the character should be clean shaven or have a full beard. In his absence, Cooter's place was filled by several of Cooter's supposed cousins who were never mentioned before or since. Jones returned when the dispute was solved -- Cooter would be clean shaven (although, for continuity reasons, with the episodes being broadcast in a different order to that which they were filmed, he was not clean shaven until the third season onwards). Cooter drives a variety of trucks, including Fords, Chevys, and GMCs. His CB handle is "Crazy Cooter" and he often starts his CB transmissions with "Breaker one, Breaker one, I might be crazy but I ain't dumb, Craaaazy Cooter comin' atcha, come on."
- Deputy Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer) is a friend of the Dukes, but, while working for Rosco and Boss is often forced into pursuing the Dukes and/or arresting them on trumped-up charges. In the early episodes, Enos is shown to be a rather good driver (and respected as such by Bo and Luke), but by the end of the first season, he is shown to be as incompetent a driver as Rosco. When he returns from his stint in Los Angeles, he seems to be able to stand up to Boss and Rosco slightly more, and sometimes refuses to participate in their schemes. In the early episodes, Rosco frequently calls him "jackass", which soon evolved into the more family-friendly "dipstick" as the show became a hit with younger viewers (though Boss Hogg, who would also use the term "jackass" of Sheriff Rosco, would occasionally return to calling Enos this in later seasons). Enos has a crush on Daisy Duke that she often uses to the Dukes' advantage in unraveling Hogg and Rosco's schemes. Enos is very much in love with Daisy, and although Daisy seems to love him back, it is supposedly only as a close friend. In the penultimate episode, "Enos and Daisy's Wedding", the two plan on getting married, only to have Enos call it off at the last minute due to an attack of hives, brought on by the excitement of possibly being married to Daisy. Later, in the first reunion movie, Enos and Daisy become a pair again and plan to get married, but this time Daisy backs out at the last minute, upon the unexpected sight of her ex-husband.
- Deputy Cletus Hogg (Rick Hurst) Boss Hogg's second cousin twice removed, is generally friendly and dim-witted. Like Enos, Cletus is often forced by Rosco and Hogg to chase the Dukes on trumped up charges. While Cletus is good-hearted, and sometimes resentful of having to treat the Dukes in such a way, he is somewhat more willing to go along with Hogg and Rosco than Enos. Cletus has a crush (though not as bad as Enos' crush) on Daisy and is even convinced she wants to marry him. Like Enos and Rosco, Cletus frequently ends up landing in a pond when pursuing the Duke boys in a car chase. Cletus makes his first appearance as the driver of a bank truck, part of Hogg's latest get-rich-scheme, in the first-season episode "Money To Burn", and becomes temporary deputy while Enos is away in the second-season episodes "The Meeting" and "Road Pirates". Leaving a job at the local junkyard, he becomes permanent deputy in the third season's "Enos Strate to the Top". After Enos' return, the pair both serve as deputies and share the same patrol car until 1997's reunion movie. Each of the Hazzard County Sheriff's Department officers drives various mid- to late-1970s Chrysler mid-size B body patrol cars, most often a Dodge Monaco or Plymouth Fury.
- Coy Duke (Byron Cherry) is another blond-haired cousin who moves to Uncle Jesse's farm along with his cousin Vance after Bo and Luke left Hazzard to join the NASCAR circuit in season 5. Like his cousin Bo, he often drives the General Lee and is a bit wilder than Vance and chases women; he and Vance are only in the first 19 episodes of season 5 and Coy and Vance are in only one episode with their cousins Bo and Luke when they return from the NASCAR Circuit. Supposedly, with cousin Vance, Coy had previously lived on the Duke farm until 1976, before the series had started.
- Vance Duke (Christopher Mayer), an obvious replacement for Luke, filled the void of a dark-haired Duke on the show. Like Luke, Vance is more the thinker and the planner of the duo along with being more mature than Coy and he is also a former Merchant Marine.
- The Balladeer (voice of Waylon Jennings) sings and plays the Dukes of Hazzard theme song, "Good Ol' Boys", and also serves as the show's narrator. During each episode, he provides an omniscient viewpoint of the situations presented, and regularly interjects comical asides during crucial plot points (often, during a freeze frame of a cliffhanger scene right before a commercial break) and "down home" aphorisms. (These freeze-frame cliffhangers were often abridged in showings in some countries, such as the commercial-free BBC in the United Kingdom.) After numerous requests from fans to see the Balladeer on-screen, Jennings finally appeared in one episode, the seventh season's aptly titled "Welcome, Waylon Jennings", in which he was presented as an old friend of the Dukes.
- Flash (Sandy and others) is a slow-paced Basset Hound and Rosco's loyal companion, who hates Hogg but loves the Dukes. She first appeared in the first official third-season episode "Enos Strate to the Top" (season opener "Carnival of Thrills" was held over from the previous season), although was not formally "introduced" in that episode. Initially referred to as a boy, Flash is later regularly a girl (despite an occasional male reference afterwards). Flash was added at the start of the third season, after James Best suggested to the producers that Rosco have a dog. Rosco doted on Flash, often calling her "Velvet Ears." Flash was portrayed by several Basset Hounds (distinguishable by different facial colors), the most regular being "Sandy". James Best bought a share of Sandy, who was rescued from an animal shelter and was trained by Alvin Mears of Alvin Animal Rentals. Sandy lived to age 14. A stuffed dog named Flush was used for dangerous work.
The pilot episode was to include a barber modeled after Floyd Lawson on The Andy Griffith Show as a regular character, but was eliminated when the final draft of the pilot's script was written and before the show was cast.
When John Schneider auditioned for the role of Bo Duke, he came to the audition in a dilapidated pickup truck, sporting a week-long beard growth, wearing overalls and a white T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in a sleeve collar, and carrying a can of beer, trying to look the part. At the audition, Schneider drank the beer and said he was from Snellville. The producers bought his "Good Ol' Boy" act and Schneider was hired on the spot.
Recurring characters
Notable guest appearances
Throughout its network television run, The Dukes of Hazzard had a consistent mix of up-and-comers and established stars make guest appearances.
Others
NASCAR driver Terry Labonte makes a brief, uncredited appearance as a crewman in the episode Undercover Dukes Part 1. The race cars supplied for both part 1 and part 2 of Undercover Dukes were supplied by Labonte's race owner, Billy Hagan. However, the emblems of the sponsors of the cars (at that time Labonte was sponsored by Budweiser) were covered to avoid paying royalties.
The celebrity speed trap
During the show's second season, the show's writers began flirting with the idea of incorporating a "celebrity speed trap" into some of the episodes, as a means to feature top country stars of the day performing their hits. On its first couple of instances, the "Speed Trap" was featured early in the story, but for most of the cases, it was featured in the last few minutes of an episode, often used when the main story was running too short to fill episode time.
The "celebrity speed trap" feature was essentially similar: Aware that a big-name country star was passing through the area, Boss Hogg would order Rosco to lower the speed limit on a particular road to an unreasonable level (using a reversible sign, with one speed limit on one side and another, far lower, on the back), so that the targeted singer would be in violation of the posted limit. The singer would be required to give a free performance at the Boar's Nest in exchange for having their citations forgiven; the performer would then perform one of their best-known hits or other popular country music standard, while the Dukes, Boss, Rosco, Enos, Cletus, Cooter, and other patrons whooped and hollered in enjoyment of the performance. More often than not, the performer would give a sarcastic parting shot to Boss and Rosco.
Singers who were featured in the "speed trap" segments were:
Honorable Mentions: Mickey Gilley, Loretta Lynn
Gilley's and Lynn's appearances were not solely for the celebrity speed trap. After performing a concert in Hazzard, Gilley was nabbed while leaving and forced to do a second show to nullify his citation. Lynn was kidnapped by criminals wanting to break into the music business. Loretta Lynn was the very first country music guest star on the show in 1979 and had an entire show titled "Find Loretta Lynn."
Note: Janie Fricke was the only guest country star who did not perform a song, celebrity speed trap or otherwise. She played an accomplice to a robber in an episode who hid money in the dashboard of the car that was to become the General Lee.
Casting of Coy and Vance
The Dukes of Hazzard was consistently among the top-rated television series (at one point, ranking second only to Dallas, which immediately followed the show on CBS' Friday night schedule). With that success came huge profits in merchandising, with a wide array of Dukes of Hazzard toys and products being licensed and becoming big sellers. However, over the course of the show's fourth season, series stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider became increasingly concerned about a contract dispute over their salaries and merchandising royalties owed to them over the high sales of Dukes products. Neither were being paid what was owed to them and this became very frustrating to the duo. As a result, in the spring of 1982, as filming was due to begin on the fifth season, Wopat and Schneider did not report to the set in protest over the matter. Catherine Bach also considered walking out due to similar concerns, but Wopat and Schneider convinced her to stay, insisting that if she left then there might not be a show to come back to, and that settling the issue was up to them.
Production was pushed back by a few weeks as fairly similar looking replacements were subsequently, hastily hired: Byron Cherry as Coy Duke and Christopher Mayer as Vance Duke. Bo and Luke were said to have gone to race on the NASCAR circuit; how they managed to do this, bearing in mind the terms of their probation, was never explained. Cherry and Mayer were originally contracted at just ten episodes as stand-ins, still with hope that a settlement might be reached with Wopat and Schneider (in total, they made 19 episodes including 1 with Bo and Luke). Some scripts for Coy and Vance were originally written for Bo and Luke but with their names quite literally crossed out and Coy and Vance penned in.
The new Dukes -- previously-unmentioned nephews of Uncle Jesse, who were said to have left the farm in 1976, before the show had started -- were unpopular with the great majority of viewers, and the ratings immediately sank. Much of the criticism was that Coy and Vance were nothing but direct clones of Bo and Luke, with Coy a direct "carbon copy" replacement for Bo and Vance for Luke, with little variation in character. This was something that even show creator Gy Waldron has said was wrong, and that he insisted, unsuccessfully, that audiences would not accept direct character clones and the two replacements should be taken in a different direction characterwise, but was overridden by producers. Waldron also commented that if Bach too had walked, the show would have most probably been cancelled. It was reported that prior to filming, Cherry and Mayer were given Bo and Luke episodes to watch, to study and learn to emulate them, although Cherry has said in interviews that he doesn't recall this ever happening.
Hit hard by the significant drop in ratings, Warner Bros. renegotiated with Wopat and Schneider, and eventually a settlement was reached, and the original Duke boys returned to the series in early 1983, four episodes from the conclusion of the fifth season. Initially, part of the press release announcing Wopat and Schneider's return suggested that Cherry and Mayer would remain as part of the cast (though presumably in a reduced role), but it was quickly realized that "four Duke boys" would not work within the context of the series, and due to the huge unpopularity associated with their time on the show, they were quickly written out of the same episode in which Bo and Luke returned.
Return of Bo and Luke
Although Coy and Vance were never popular with the majority, a few viewers were disappointed by their departure episode, "Welcome Back, Bo 'N' Luke", which was for the most part a standard episode, with the return of Bo and Luke and the departure of Coy and Vance tacked onto the beginning (Bo and Luke return from their NASCAR tour just as Coy and Vance leave Hazzard to tend to a sick relative). Even a few viewers commented that they were disappointed by this, and that they would have liked to have seen both pairs of Duke boys team up to tackle a particularly dastardly plot by Boss Hogg before Coy and Vance's departure, but as it turned out, Coy and Vance had little dialogue and were gone by the first commercial break, never to be seen again.
While the return of Bo and Luke was welcomed by ardent and casual viewers alike, and as a result ratings recovered slightly, the show never completely regained its former popularity. One of Wopat and Schneider's disputes even before they left was what they considered to be increasingly weak and formulaic scripts and episode plots. With Wopat and Schneider's return, the producers agreed to try a wider scope of storylines. However, although it continued for two more seasons, the show never fully returned to its former glory. Many cast members decried the miniature car effects newly incorporated to depict increasingly absurd General Lee and patrol car stunts (which had previously been performed with real cars by stunt drivers). The miniature car effects were intended as a budget saving measure (to save the cost of repairing or replacing damaged vehicles) and to help compete visually with KITT from the NBC series Knight Rider. In February 1985, The Dukes of Hazzard ended its run after seven seasons.
Vehicles
The General Lee (Dodge Charger)
The General Lee was based on a 1969 Dodge Charger owned by Bo and Luke (the series used mostly 1969 Chargers in the beginning; later on, they also modified 1968 Chargers to look like 1969s by installing 1969-model taillamps, taillamp panels, and grilles). It was orange with a Confederate battle flag painted on the roof, the words "GENERAL LEE" over each door, and the number "01" on each door. In the original five Georgia-filmed episodes, a Confederate flag along with a checkered racing flag in a criss-cross pattern could be seen behind the rear window; this was removed when it was felt that this extra detail did not show up enough on-screen to warrant the already very tight time constraints of preparing and repairing each example of the car. The name refers to the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The television show was based on the movie Moonrunners, in turn based on actual moonshine runners who used a 1958 Chrysler named Traveler, after General Lee's horse (with a slight spelling change). Traveler was originally intended to be the name of the Duke boys' stock car too, until producers agreed that General Lee had more punch to it.
Since it was built as a race car, the doors were welded shut. Through the history of the show, an estimated 309 Chargers were used; 17 are still known to exist in various states of repair. A replica was owned by John Schneider, known as "Bo's General Lee." In 2008, Schneider sold "Bo's General Lee" at the Barrett-Jackson automobile auction for $230,000. An eBay auction which garnered a bid of $9,900,500 for the car was never finalized, with the purported bidder claiming his account had been hacked. The underside of the hood has the signatures of the cast from the 1997 TV movie. Schneider has also restored over 20 other General Lees to date. In 2008, a replica of the General Lee fetched a high bid of $450,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction, indicating the significant interest in the car as a cultural icon. In 2012, the "General Lee 1", the first car used in filming the series, was purchased at auction by golfer Bubba Watson for $110,000. The car had been scrapped after being wrecked during the famous opening jump shoot, and was later discovered in a junk-yard by the president of the North American General Lee fan club. In 2015, following a wave of sentiment against confederate symbolism in the wake of shootings in Charleston, SC, (relating to photos where the attacker had posed with the Confederate flag), Bubba Watson announced that he would remove the Confederate Flag from the roof of General Lee 1 and repaint it with the US National Flag.
The show also used 1968 Chargers (which shared the same sheet metal) by changing the grille and taillight panel to the 1969 style, and removing the round side marker lights. These Chargers performed many record-breaking jumps throughout the show, almost all of them resulting in a completely destroyed car. The 1970 Chargers were modified by removing the chrome bumper and changing the taillights.
The Duke boys added a custom air horn to the General Lee that played the first twelve notes of the song Dixie. The Dixie horn was not originally planned, until a Georgia local hot rod racer drove by and sounded his car's Dixie horn. The producers immediately rushed after him asking where he had bought the horn. Warner Bros. purchased several Chargers for stunts, as they generally destroyed at least one or two cars per episode. By the end of the show's sixth season, the Chargers were becoming harder to find, and more expensive. In addition, the television series Knight Rider began to rival the General Lee's stunts. As such, the producers used 1:8 scale miniatures, filmed by Jack Sessums' crew, or recycled stock jump footage -- the latter being a practice that had been in place to an extent since the second season, and had increased as the seasons passed.
Some of the 01 and Confederate flag motifs were initially hand painted, but as production sped up, these were replaced with vinyl decals for quick application (and removal), as needed.
During the first five episodes of the show that were filmed in Georgia, the cars involved with filming were given to the crew at H&H body shop near the filming location. At this shop, the men worked day and night to prepare the wrecked cars for the next day while still running their body shop during the day. Time was of the essence, and the men that worked at this shop worked hard hours to get the cars prepared for the show.
The third episode "Mary Kaye's Baby" is the only one in which the General Lee does not appear. Instead, the Dukes drove around in a blue 1975 Plymouth Fury borrowed from Cooter that Luke later destroyed by shooting an arrow at the car, whose trunk had been leaking due to the moonshine stowed in the back.
The Duke boys' CB handle was (jointly) "Lost Sheep". Originally when the show was conceived, their handle was to be "General Lee" to match their vehicle, but this was only ever used on-screen on one occasion, in the second episode, "Daisy's Song", when Cooter calls Bo and Luke over the CB by this handle, although they were actually driving Daisy's Plymouth Roadrunner (see below) at the time. As it became obvious that the "General Lee" handle would be out of place when the Duke boys were in another vehicle, the "Lost Sheep" handle was devised (with Uncle Jesse being "Shepherd" and Daisy being "Bo Peep").
Hazzard police cars (AMC Matador, Dodge Polara, Dodge Monaco, Plymouth Fury)
The 1975 AMC Matador was one of many different Hazzard County police cars used on the series, mostly in the first season; they had light bars and working radios. A 1972 Dodge Polara and a 1974 Dodge Monaco were used during the pilot episode "One Armed Bandits", these were also seen in the show's title sequence. From the second season, the 1977 Dodge Monaco was mostly used. From mid-season four the similar looking 1978 Plymouth Fury was used instead. The Matadors and Furies were former Los Angeles Police Department vehicles, while the Monacos were former California Highway Patrol units.
Plymouth Road Runner
A 1974 Plymouth Road Runner (yellow with a black stripe) was Daisy Duke's car in the first five episodes of the first season. For the last episodes of the first season a similarly painted 1971 model with a matching "Road Runner" stripe was used. In the second season Bo and Luke send it off a cliff in "The Runaway." Another identical Plymouth 1971 model car appeared in the background a few more episodes along with the Jeep CJ-7 until it was finally dropped altogether.
Jeep CJ-7
Dixie was the name given to Daisy Duke's white 1980 Jeep CJ-7 "Golden Eagle" which had a golden eagle emblem on the hood and the name "Dixie" on the sides. Like other vehicles in the show, there was actually more than one Jeep used throughout the series. Sometimes it would have an automatic transmission, and other times it would be a manual. The design of the roll cage also varied across the seasons. When the Jeep was introduced at the end of the second season's "The Runaway", it was seen to have doors and a slightly different paint job, but, bar one appearance in the next produced episode, "Arrest Jesse Duke" (actually broadcast before "The Runaway", causing a continuity error), thereafter the doors were removed and the paint job was made all-white, with "Dixie" painted on the sides of the hood. These Jeeps were leased to the producers of the show by American Motors Corporation in exchange for a brief mention in the closing credits of the show.
Ford F-100 pickup truck
Uncle Jesse's truck was a white Ford pickup truck, most commonly a Sixth generation (1973-1977) F100 Styleside. However, in the earliest episodes it had a Flareside bed, and varied between F100 and F250 models throughout the show's run. Bo, Luke and Daisy also drove Jesse's truck on occasion.
Cadillac Coupe de Ville
A White 1970 Cadillac De Ville convertible was used as Boss Hogg's car, notably with large bull horns as a hood ornament. In early seasons, Hogg was almost always driven by a chauffeur, who was normally nameless and had little or no dialogue, but identified on occasion as being called "Alex"; and played by several different uncredited actors, including stuntman Gary Baxley. This chauffeur would often be dressed in a red plaid shirt and deep brown or black Stetson hat, but on occasion would be an older man, sometimes dressed in more typical chauffeur attire.
Hogg is first seen to drive for himself in the second season opener "Days of Shine and Roses", where he and Jesse challenge each other to one last moonshine race. From the fourth season onward, except for a couple of brief reappearances of the chauffeur (during the fourth season), Hogg drove himself around in his Cadillac (or occasionally driven by Rosco and, in the series' finale, by Uncle Jesse) and frequently challenged others by invoking his driving expertise from his days as a ridge-runner. Unlike other vehicles in the series, Boss Hogg's Cadillac is typically treated with kid gloves. The car is almost always seen with its convertible top down, with the top only being seen in two episodes, "Daisy's Song" (the chauffeur was called "Eddie" in this episode), the second to be produced and broadcast, and briefly in the second-season episode "Witness for the Persecution", when Cooter is returning it to the Court House after repairs.
Ford Custom 500
A Green and blacked out 1971 Ford Custom 500 sedan named Black Tilly was used by Uncle Jesse to make moonshine runs.
Theme song
The theme song "The Good Ol' Boys" was written and performed by Waylon Jennings. He was also "The Balladeer" (as credited), and served as narrator of the show. However, the version released as a single is not the same version that was used in the show's opening credits; the single version has a repeat of the chorus and an instrumental to pad out the length, uses a different instrumental mix that emphasizes the bass, and replaces the last verse with an inside joke about how the TV show producers "keep on showing (Jennings's) hands and not (his) face on TV."
In 1980, the song reached #1 on the American Country chart and peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Broadcast history
- The series was originally broadcast in America by CBS on Friday nights, at 9:00 p.m. and later 8:00 p.m., preceding Dallas.
- Until TNN (The Nashville Network) was purchased by Viacom, it aired reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard. Some months after the creation of "The National Network" (shortly before its change to "Spike TV"), the program was absent from much of television for quite some time. Viacom's country music-themed cable network CMT (the former sister network to TNN) aired the show from 2005 to 2007 at 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern time every weekday. CMT began airing the series in late February 2005. It also aired Monday-Thursday on ABC Family.
- The series was broadcast by BBC1 in the United Kingdom, debuting on Saturday March 3, 1979 at 9:00 pm (just several months after it began in the US). Popular with all ages (and as some of the more adult elements of very early episodes faded out of the series), it quickly moved from its post-watershed position to a more family-friendly Monday evening slot at 7:20 pm. Soon a massive hit, it moved from Monday evenings to prime time Saturday evening (times varied, but typically around 5:25 pm), where it stayed for a number of years. Later when ratings began to dip (partly caused by the change to Coy and Vance, and partly to do with competition from ITV, with new hit shows such as The A-Team), it moved back to Mondays, making the odd return for short runs on Saturdays. Late episodes also popped up occasionally on Sunday afternoons, and the remaining episodes of the final season were broadcast on weekday mornings during school holidays in the late 1980s.
- In 1992, UK satellite channel Sky1 bought a package of the program, owning the rights to the first 60 episodes produced (running up to "The Fugitive"), showing the series on Saturday afternoons at 4 p.m. They later showed the episodes they owned again, including a stint showing it in a weekday 3 p.m. slot, running for fifty minutes (including commercials) with the episodes heavily edited for time as a result, often leaving gaps in the plot. Despite requests from fans, they did not secure the rights to later episodes. The series was later run on the satellite channels Granada Plus and TNT. UK satellite channel Bravo began airing reruns in August 2005.
- In Brazil, the series was named Os Gatões (The Big Hunks), which limited its popularity among the male audience.
- The series was also shown in the Netherlands by Dutch broadcasting organization AVRO, with Dutch subtitles, rather than being dubbed.
- It was shown on Nine Network in Australia from September 1979 until the end of the series, and repeated throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It was quietly rerun on Pay TV channel TV1 in the 2000s, but is now shown on Nine Network's subchannel, Go!.
- The series was popular in Colombia, dubbed to Spanish. Some late-night reruns continue to the present time.
- In Italy the series started to air in September 1981 on Canale 5, under the title Hazzard and quickly became very popular with the viewers.
- CMT aired The Dukes Ride Again, a special marathon which featured episodes from the first two seasons, on the weekend of September 10, 2010 and have begun airing episodes weeknights at 7 pm and 11 pm Eastern time starting September 13, 2010.
- The series aired weekdays on New Zealand's channel The Box. Previously it aired on TVNZ for its original run, being repeated on Saturday afternoons in the early 1990s.
- CMT began to re-air The Dukes of Hazzard reruns in high-definition, on January 5, 2014.
- TV Land began to air The Dukes of Hazzard reruns on June 10, 2015, but removed them just three weeks later as a response to the Charleston church shooting and the ensuing debate over the modern display of the Confederate flag.
Syndication
Soon before the series ended its original run on CBS, The Dukes of Hazzard went into off-network syndication. Although not as widely run as it was back in the 1980s and the years since, reruns of the program do continue to air in various parts of the United States.
Notably, television stations that aired the show in syndication include KCOP Los Angeles, WGN-TV Chicago, KBHK San Francisco, WKBD Detroit, WTAF/WTXF Philadelphia, KTXL Sacramento, WVTV Milwaukee, KMSP Minneapolis-Saint Paul, among others.
Nationwide, the show also aired on ABC Family (2000-2001, 2004) and CMT (2005-2007, 2010-2012, 2014-15) and TV Land (2015); TV Land dropped the show in the wake of protests and controversy surrounding the display of the Confederate flag.
The Nashville Network bought The Dukes of Hazzard from Warner Bros. in 1997 for well over $10 million; not only did it improve the network's ratings, the show was also popular among younger viewers, a demographic TNN had a notorious difficulty in drawing; The Dukes of Hazzard has run either on TNN or sister network CMT ever since.
Nielsen ratings
Episode list
The show ran for seven seasons and a total of 145 episodes. Many of the episodes followed a similar structure "out-of-town crooks pull a robbery or commit a crime or scandal, Duke boys blamed, spend the rest of the hour clearing their names, the General Lee flies and the squad cars crash".
Spin-offs
- A spin off named Enos aired on CBS starring Sonny Shroyer and lasted 18 episodes before being cancelled.
- An animated version of the show called The Dukes aired in 1983 and produced by Hanna-Barbera. The first season fell under the Coy and Vance era of the live-action show and thus they were adapted into animated form. By the second season, Bo and Luke had returned, and they replaced Coy and Vance in the cartoon.
- Several video games based on the show were created:
- The Dukes of Hazzard for ColecoVision (1984) and ZX Spectrum (1985); also planned for the Atari 2600
- The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home (1999)
- The Dukes of Hazzard II: Daisy Dukes It Out (2000)
- The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee (2004)
- In 2005, the Humana Festival of New American Plays premiered a full-length comedy-drama entitled Hazzard County by Allison Moore. The story centers on a young widowed mother and a visit she receives from a big city television producer. Interspersed with recollections of Bo, Luke, and Daisy, the play takes a deep look at southern "good ol' boy" culture and its popularization through the lens of American mass media.
- In 2014, AutoTrader made a commercial where Bo and Luke shop for a new car while being chased.
Films
There were two made-for-TV reunion movies that aired on CBS, The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! (1997) and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000). Also made were The Dukes of Hazzard in 2005 and a direct-to-video prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning in 2007.
Home media
DVD
Warner Home Video has released all seven seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard on DVD in Regions 1 and 2. The two TV-movies that followed the series were released on DVD in Region 1 on June 10, 2008 and in Region 4 on June 4, 2014. In Region 4, Warner has released only the first six seasons on DVD and the two TV movies. The Complete Series & 2 unrated feature films box set was released on DVD in Region 1 on November 14, 2017.
Streaming
The TV series was also made available for streaming and download through a variety of services.
Legacy and influence in popular culture
In 2005, Tom Wopat and John Schneider were reunited during "Exposed", a fifth season episode of the television series Smallville. Wopat guest-starred as Kansas State Senator Jack Jennings, an old friend of Clark Kent's adoptive father Jonathan Kent (portrayed by Schneider). In the episode, Jennings drives a 1968 Dodge Charger--the same body style as The General Lee.
Lizard Lick Towing featured an episode with its repossession specialists Ronnie Shirley and Bobby Brantley repossess a General Lee replica.
In 2015, in the wake of renewed debate about the symbolism of the Confederate battle flag (which was prominently featured on the General Lee 's roof and panel behind the rear window in the first five episodes), reruns of the original series were pulled from circulation. Warner Bros., which owns the property, announced it would also no longer create merchandise bearing the flag, including miniatures of the General Lee. Although this has led to people making their own custom General Lees and selling them.
Tourist attraction
Artifacts from the show are on display in Luray, Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee and in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Cooter's Place in Luray is overseen by Ben "Cooter" Jones from the series. The Gatlinburg location features a gift shop, Dukes of Hazzard-themed indoor mini golf and go-cart track, with a small display of costumes, collectibles and artifacts from the show.
Covington and Conyers, Georgia; where the original five episodes were produced, have been two major tourist attractions for Dukes of Hazzard fans.
Dixie Outfitters in Branson, Missouri on Highway 76 has the General Lee and Rosco's police car signed by Daisy, Cooter, Cletus and Enos.
References
Further reading
- Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of "Crazy Cooter", by Ben "Cooter" Jones, 2008. Crown. ISBN 0307395278
- The Dukes of Hazzard -- The Unofficial Companion, by David Hofstede, foreword by Catherine Bach. 1998. Renaissance Books. ISBN 1-58063-038-3
External links
- The Dukes of Hazzard official Facebook page
- Dukes of Hazzard on IMDb
- The Dukes of Hazzard at CMT.com
- Who sang the theme song and also served as the narrator on The Dukes of Hazzard?
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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