Created by
Gy Waldron
Cast
Tom Wopat …. Luke Duke
John Schneider …. Bo Duke
Catherine Bach …. Daisy Duke
Denver Pyle …. Uncle Jesse Duke
James Best …. Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane
Sorrell Booke …. Jefferson Davis “Boss” Hogg
Ben Jones …. Cooter Davenport
Rick Hurst …. Deputy Cletus
The Show
Before the days of cable, you had three channels to choose from. At any given hour you had to take what the networks were dishing out, whether you liked it or not unless you wanted to read or listen to the radio. In my mind, this had to have been a strong factor in The Duke of Hazzard lasting seven seasons on television. While it’s only considered a cult show now (no one really seems to admit to have watched the show, much less actually liking it) the show was apparently a big hit when it was on. The show made tons of money in merchandising, had a Saturday morning cartoon spin-off and now has a big screen remake that was number one at the box office in its first weekend. CMT is even showing the show in reruns on cable right now. Someone had to have been watching this show right? Apparently, there had to have been, otherwise the following for the Dukes wouldn’t be as strong as it is.
Could there be any more reasons for this? How could this show about two cousins on probation for bootlegging have millions of viewers every week? Well, it’s a hard question to answer. I can only think the show had a following similar to Smokey and the Bandit or BJ and the Bear. With its antiheroes with fast cars, bumbling villains and down home feel, The Dukes of Hazzard must have just hit a certain vain with Americans in the Jimmy Carter era.
I’m assuming season four of The Dukes of Hazzard is similar to that of its predecessors. The infamous season five would be the season featuring the replacement Dukes, Coy and Vance. But season four rides smoothly for 27 episodes on the shows time warn formula.
First, a preview of what’s about to go on makes the following episode you’re about to watch the most exciting episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard ever. This is an interesting technique and actually makes you wonder how many series did this, and why did it go away? From there, the preview goes right into a shot of Waylon Jennings’s hands playing a guitar and the show’s legendary theme. Most episodes feature perennial villains J.D. “Boss” Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best) coming up with a scheme, whether it be a “get rich quick” plan, as in the episode Coltrane VS. Duke, or a “get out of trouble quick” exemplified in the episode Sadie Hogg Day. In both cases, the scheme usually involves framing the Dukes for a crime. The Dukes fight the charges by evading justice. The episode then ends with the Dukes in a car chase with the cops in which the Dukes A) make a huge jump over a ravine or some other huge crevice where the cops are unable to make the same jump, or B) the Dukes are able to evade the cops in another fashion, usually ending up with Sheriff Coltrane crashing into some sort of road work that just happens to be going on at the time.
Every once in a while there are little changes in the formula. In the season opener, Mrs. Daisy Hogg, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Jonathan Frakes guest stars as Jamie Lee Hogg, Boss Hogg’s nephew. Unlike his evil Uncle, Jamie Lee seems to be an upstanding citizen. He’s well off due to some smart investments and comes to town to buy a failing grits mill off of his uncle. Jamie Lee evens drops charges on the Duke boys when there is an accident.
The Dukes become suspicious of Jamie Lee when Daisy (Catherine Bach), the short shorts wearing cousin of the boys, falls for the Boss’ nephew. They even plans to marry, but things go down hill when Daisy finds out that Jamie Lee doesn’t fall far from the Hogg tree. Jamie Lee has purchased the family grits mill as a base of operations for a counterfeit money plot. He makes the “funny money” and then ships it out in “Hogg Grits” packages to clients. Making matters worse is that Jamie Lee is wrapped up with some nefarious criminals, and when Daisy finds out, they kidnap her. Then surprisingly, the episode ends with the Dukes in hot pursuit of the criminals. This is the episode that breaks the formula the most (which is to say “not much at all”).
The most entertaining episode of the season is undoubtedly the installment entitled Double Dukes. The episode features Boss Hogg hiring two criminals to rob an armored car. He even has plans to have the crooks look like the Duke boys when robbery goes down. You would think that the most that Boss Hogg could do would be to have the thieve dress like the Dukes, but Hogg takes it even further. Stealing a page out of Mission: Impossible, Hogg has the fake Dukes put on rubber masks, and before you can say “Yeehaw”, the two Dukes have two doppelgangers standing there (the masked crooks are actually played by John Schneider and Tom Wopat). In a series that isn’t going for realism anyway, the episode is goofy fun. Even the General Lee has its own doppelganger in the installment. Of the course the requisite car chase is even more fun as there are two General Lee’s added to the regular lineup of Daisy’s Jeep, Uncle Jesse’s truck and every squad car in Hazzard County.
Perhaps in the 1970’s people just loved car chases. This is same decade where in theaters you could watch Smokey and the Bandit, Death Race 2000 or The French Connection and on television you watch The Dukes, Starsky and Hutch, and BJ and the Bear. While real quality can only be found The French Connection, all of these are fun on various levels. The Dukes of Hazzard is good natured, old fashioned fun. Is it really good? This is a resounding “absolutely not”. If you want good social commentary, try Star Trek. If you want a really engrossing show about people on the outside of the law and still trying to justify their existence, you want The Sopranos. If you want car chases, short shorts and goofy action, then try out The Dukes of Hazzard.
Score: 6.5/10
The Video
The show looks just as good as it did on TV, with the 1:33:1 Fullscreen video transfer being pretty nice. For a show that went off the air 20 years ago, this DVD set looks pretty nice.
Score: 7.5/10
The Audio
The Dolby digital mono audio track is just fine. Those wanting to hear Waylon Jennings’ familiar tune will be quite happy.
Score: 7.5/10
SPECIAL FEATURES:Commentary by Tom Wopat, John Schneider, and Catherine Bach on Double Dukes, The Dukes Story: Building a Legend Documentary
Commentary by Tom Wopat, John Schneider, and Catherine Bach on Double Dukes: This is a pretty fun commentary. The three of them talk all the way through the episode. They have some nice anecdotes about certain stunt men and what a family atmosphere the show has. There’s nothing really insightful here, but this is The Dukes of Hazzard we’re talking about here. The thing that you really come away with here is the kinship between the three actors here.
The Dukes Story: Building a Legend Documentary: This is The Dukes’ story from its inception till now in thirty minutes. Creator Gy Waldron talks about his pitch for the show, and the steps they took to make it a hit. A funny part comes when he admits the moment he was sure they are going to be big was when he first saw Catherine Bach in her “Daisy Dukes”. John Schneider talks about lying to producers about his age and origin to get the job and Bach discusses how she was unsure she would even get her role because she “wasn’t built like Dolly Parton.” The cast is all very gracious about the show’s success. This is a really nice look into the history of the show as Waldron speaks about all facets of the production from stunts (there were 309 General Lee’s in the show’s run as they wrecked one every jump the car made) to the infamous “Coy and Vance” season (Schneider and Wopat were pulling a Terrell Owens at the time).
Score: 6.0/10
