Never Meanin' No Harm

I've been a Dukes of Hazzard fan since I was thirteen. I was off on summer vacation and my cousin told me about this old show that TNN was running, and, looking up to him as I did, I checked it out. It was unfortunately when the station was running some of the early Coy and Vance episodes (we'll get to that later), but I more or less liked what I saw. It had everything a teenage boy could want: cool car chases, broad slapstick, and a girl in skimpy shorts. I was hooked.

This is all your fault.

Over the next five years, I ate up everything Dukes related, scouring the nascent Internet for any and all information I could find about the cast, the characters, but especially the car. You know the one, the 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee.


Still my dream car.

I even went through a period of months where I carried a printed out photo of Daisy Duke in my wallet, which, fifteen years out, is super sad and dorky.

It was this photo. I never said I was cool.

This continued through high school, even leading me to take some classes I never would have normally, like Auto Shop. I was going to own that car one day, and I needed to know how to work on the thing.

Things cooled for me when, through a series of events, I was told that I could not get a driver's license, and would likely never be able to get one (fourteen years and counting since then).

No soup for you!

Anyhow, I moved on to other things, but the show never truly left my radar. I was super excited to meet Catherine Bach in 2005, and John Schneider in 2009. But I haven't watched the show in a very long time, which leads me to where we are now. Inspired by the great things being done over at Full House Reviewed, I decided to rewatch the show starting from the very beginning to see if it holds up. Hopefully someone will read along as I find out.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Just heard about this place by Full House Reviewed. My grandma owned a Charger ('73, though.)

August 4, 2013 at 12:13 AM

Jay Duke said…

Hey, glad you found your way over! I hope you enjoy the blog.

And the 73 Charger, while not as grand as the General Lee, is a very cool car indeed.

August 5, 2013 at 10:03 PM

Anonymous said…

Another Michigan person! Good to see you!

August 16, 2013 at 4:52 PM

Season 2, Episode 6, “The Ghost of General Lee”

In which the reports of death are greatly exaggerated… We open, like most times, with Rosco chasing Bo and Luke. Bo remarks that they didn’t even do anything, they’re just testing out the General Lee’s new camshaft. Rosco radios Enos the Dukes’ location, and his reply is garbled, due to what seems to be a faulty radio. Luke bets Bo that he can fool Rosco into losing them using his Enos impression over the radio. He does, and we are treated to a shot of Tom Wopat lip synching over an audio track of Enos-type phrases. As a result of this, they lose the police. Meanwhile, over in Sweetwater County, Chief Lacey (who used to be chief of police in Springville County back in season 1 ; I guess maybe he took a different job? Or, more likely, the continuity is non-existent) drops a couple of con men off at the Hazzard line, methodically naming off, and then destroying, their tools for fixing games of chance. He then tells them that if they ever come back, they’ll be going away for 10 ye

Season 1, Episode 10: “Deputy Dukes” – Originally Aired 4-13-1979

In which the Dukes become deputies and meet a minor country singer… The General Lee is tailing an unfamiliar convertible down some back road. This is weird, until it’s revealed that Bo and Luke are attempting to get some strange. The girls suggest going skinny dipping in the nearby lake, and the boys readily agree. Bo and Luke strip down and get in the water, only to have the girls run off with their clothes and the money that they had won in something called a “Snipe Hunting Contest.” They hot-wire their car and chase after the thieves, who have just sped past Rosco. He gives chase, and Bo and Luke catch up to him and slam into Rosco’s car, causing the door to fall off. I’m not sure that this could actually happen, but hey, it’s funny. He arrests them for a whole bunch of charges, including indecent exposure. So, they end up stuck in jail, and our story can really begin At the jail, Rosco receives a phone call from the chief of police of neighboring Springville County. He ex

Season 2, Episode 8, “Hazzard Connection”

In which there’s a demolition derby, and my spell check does not care for the name of the villain… We open at the Boars Nest, where Bo and Cooter are drooling over the new waitress, Bessie Lou, while Luke looks on in disgust, remarking “She walks like a trucker!” Afterwards, Rosco is searching a truck and trailer full of junked cars, under suspicion that the driver’s boss, Augie Detweiller, is smuggling something. The Balladeer pipes up and fills us in on who Augie Detweiller is, and that he steals fancy racing engines and then puts them into junked car bodies, so he can then smuggle them out of the county and sell them. Wouldn’t it be easier to just operate somewhere closer to a city, which is certainly full of chop shops and the like? Back at the farm, Bo and Luke are waiting for Cooter to help them repair something, and he’s late, because Cooter is a jerk. Daisy comes outside and tells the boys that Cooter just called from Colonial City, and wants them to come pick up some

Tonight, on "The Dukes"

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