The Dukes of Hazzard

Love this show so much, the cars, the family, fighting the system, it was the Fast and the Furious before Vin Diesel.

Contains one of the most underrated comedy duos ever in James Best and Sorrel Booke. There will never be another Roscoe P Coltrane or Jefferson Davis High again.

"The Dukes of Hazzard" is- I reckon- one of TV's classics from the 1980's. This is a show with great stunts and stunt people pre-CGI special effects and some well-drawn out characters.

The problem with this show, is not that it is poorly written. Some of the plots are actually very good, and "The Dukes" is a better show than some of the other idiot sitcoms of TV's post Golden era, namely "Batman", "Gilligan's Island", and of course "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" of today.

Adventure shows like "Charlie's Angels", "Wonder Woman", and "Smallville" of today have camp elements. But The Dukes of Hazzard is not just from time to time intentionally goofy, it is almost always intentionally stupid. The stupidity of the show smothers some tender moments between Uncle Jesse Duke (Denver Pyle), and his family, niece Daisy (Catherine Bach), and nephews Bo and Luke played by John Schneider and Tom Wopat.

Occasionally there is some serious drama like when Uncle Jesse is almost in tears when he's about to lose his farm to the thoroughly underhanded Boss Hogg, or lose his boys to a bounty hunter who wants to put them away for life, or Bo and Luke trying to protect a beautiful young witness from the clenches of a rogue U.S. senator. But if these tender moments give the show any credibility as a real drama, it is abruptly smothered by lots of slapstick, stupidity, redneck humor, the dimwitted Sheriff Roscoe P. Cotraine (James Best) and the antics of the totally corrupt, bloated Boss Hogg.

Long time character actor Sorrell Booke, unknown to most, but carrying credits from "All in the Family" among others plays the conniving, scheming, bloated, and thoroughly corrupt lawman of Hazzard County in the "Dukes of Hazzard". "The Dukes" was this actor's claim to fame, and Booke WAS "The Dukes of Hazzard." After Booke's untimely death in 1994, the cast members got together for three reunion specials on CBS. It was clear the Booke's presence was sorely missed. These reunion shows were lamer than the General Lee at The Battle of Gettysburg and Custer's hope of defeating the Union army. Booke's absence proved that he was the center and most irreplaceable piece to this classic 1980's comedy/adventure.

Some people down South like the "Dukes" for its fast cars chasing and colliding for half of every episode, or the hot chicks like Daisy Duke, or are intrigued by the luscious women that sometimes draw Bo and Luke into a trap. But none of that matters if you don't have an enormous presence like Booke's Boss Hogg in the middle to stir up trouble in ol' Hazzard County.

Bogg Hogg is not a demon, but he is a devil. he is cunning, conniving, shrewd, and very avaricious. He has this wrongful vendetta against Jesse Duke and is always scheming with yankees and no-gooders to rob Jesse of his farm and land. Yet Boss Hogg is not seen as a mean character, but as a buffoon. He has a monopoly over Hazzard County, and still has this obsession with foreclosing on the Duke farm, and getting Jesse Duke's two nephews "thrown permanently in the clink".

Sheriff Roscoe's "little fat buddy" also eats, and he eats, and he eats, and he eats, and he takes a cigar break, then he eats. He must consume about 20,000 calories per day. He takes pizza breaks, pigs knuckles breaks, eats ham hocks, and a family size portion of fried chicken in one sitting. A snack for him is a dozen kielbasa sausages with sauerkraut, or a sixteen scoop ice cream sundae with whipped cream, caramel, chocolate, strawberry, and butterscotch topping.

And the dimwitted Sheriff Roscoe P. Cotraine, Doesn't Boss Hogg ever let this man eat? Maybe Roscoe can't properly carry out his duties as Sheriff because he's famished. For example Boss Hogg says "Roscoe. Don't ever disturb me when I'm trying to use these here chopsticks, to enjoy me this here Chinese lunch ( a complete course with six egg rolls)."

James Best as Sheriff Roscoe is the king of slapstick comedy, and his deputies are the princes. Roscoe is the perfect foil figure to the Duke boys, and could never catch them to help silence them during Boss Hogg's nefarious schemes. He'll trip and fall on his own shadow, or hit himself in the back of the neck with a shovel. The Dukes always overcome the blustering and deviancy of Boss Hogg to save him and Sheriff Cotraine from the clenches of the real dangerous criminals. Yet Hogg continues to play every trick in the book to swindle old Jesse Duke out is farm and send his two boys "to the pokey". When will he ever learn common decency?

"The Dukes of Hazzard" is a show that thrives on intentional stupidity. This show is actually dumber than "The Beverly Hillbillies", a 1960's CBS classic with a lot of the same redneck silliness as the more modern "Dukes". I mean how many times can you go the right way down a one way street and encounter head on traffic? Unlike "The Beverly Hillbillies", "The Dukes" had charisma, character depth, charm and lots of color, and was very cartoonish. I mean how many people in rural Georgia have a sparkling red & orange car with an eight cylinder engine, and four wheel drive that can easily outrun a Sheriff or jump a river? Them Duke boys' car can do it.

I just realised that this series was based on the 1974 movie "Moon Runners," which didn't have the Duke family, but it did have characters named Uncle Jesse, Cooter, and Waylon Jennings as the Balladeer. The main characters, Bobby Lee Hag and Grady even had a stock car which they raced. The car wasn't named "General Lee," but was named after Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveler. They significantly cleaned up the story to make it family-friendly for television. In the movie, the main characters were involved in the illegal alcohol business. Uncle Jesse was a moonshiner who was in trouble with other local moonshiners because of his insistence on quality. Bobby Lee was a rum runner, who used his big old Chevy to outrun the local sheriff and the revenuers (tax authorities).

Eight years after Fred Silverman's infamous "rural purge", this show burst on the scene and instantly became a hit. Even though the show did get a lot of heat for the outlandish plots, simplistic characters and scantily clad women, especially Daisy, this show struck a chord with the American public during the late 70's/early 80's. Also, you could tell that this show was done very tongue in cheek and that the cast had a lot of fun doing it. The only bump in the road that hurt its momentum was when John Schneider and Tom Wopat left the show due to a contract dispute. When the producers thought that those two could be replaced by a pair of actors that were almost identical to their predecessors. However the show went downhill during this period. Also, the producers thought that it was the car and not the two leads that everyone turned in to see. However, when the ratings dropped and soon the producers were begging Schneider and Wopat to return.

Even though this show wasn't Shakespeare, it still was one of the highlights of C.B.S.'s Friday night lineup.

I remember being eight years old when I started watching this show. I would anxiously await the Friday line up that included The Incredible Hulk, Dallas, Falcon Crest and this one. That was a great Friday line up, highlighted of course by the Dukes. What was so appealing about this show to so many people was it's virtue. I'm sure parents wanted their kids to watch it because you couldn't have a better show for their kids to watch. It was safe. The Dukes were polite, virtuous and church going. How could they not like that? How could a parent object to anything like that? But of course as kids we liked it for different reasons.

Stunts, fast cars, Daisy, Boss Hogg and Roscoe. The Dukes of Hazard was so absurd sometimes but it always entertained you and more often than not it made you laugh. Could you imagine what the script must have looked like when they first pitched it to studio? Could you imagine how silly Roscoe must have looked on paper? I mean how do you write in his ridiculous laugh? How do you write all of his idiosyncrasies? Or was that all James Best? I don't know, but it sure was funny.

TV is different now in the 90's and beyond. Shows are more gritty and real and there is nudity and foul language and talk of homosexuality and alcoholism and a plethora of other issues. And that is fine. I like shows like Dawsons Creek and Friends and such, but Dukes of Hazard is a throw back to a simpler time. It is a time in television history when innocence was combined beautifully with humour, fast cars and lots of scenes of the General Lee jumping creeks. This was so much fun to watch and even when Coy and Vance came on the show, it was still okay.

The Dukes of Hazard was classic TV. My generation looks at this like my parents generation looks at Leave It To Beaver. Has twenty years really gone by?