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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 explains that the very deadly criminal Rocky Marlowe (Rosco refers to him as “Public Enemy One Through Ten”) has been granted a change of venue from Springville over to Hazzard, and request that Rosco send someone to get him. Shouldn’t they just bring him out there themselves? I mean, they’ve been around this guy, know if he’s gonna be a problem or not, etc. Is this how real changes of venue work?

Anyway, Rosco eventually sends the Dukes, deputizing them in the process. He threatens to sell the General Lee out from under them to pay their fines if they don’t cooperate. They refuse his offer to carry guns, citing their probation. I’m assuming Rosco was involved in setting their probation in the first place, couldn’t he waive it temporarily?

So, they’re both super embarrassed about the whole situation, and try to sneak out of town as quickly as possible to go pick up Marlowe. Unfortunately, they run into Daisy, who makes them explain the whole thing, and she swears not to tell Uncle Jesse.  They also are noticed by this old guy, who doesn’t say anything, he just sort of mugs for the camera. I don’t know why he’s even there, or why they felt the need to zoom in on him.
The boys arrive in Springville, which looks suspiciously like a slightly redressed Hazzard County.  The sheriff thre informs them that they’re taking Marlowe, which Rosco neglected to tell them, and they’re being assisted by one Officer Price, the best sharpshooter that the Springville PD has to offer!
So they all head off, only to be tailed by Marlowe’s goons, who are trying to use the change of venue to break their boss out. This leads to a car chase that lasts for literally three and a half minutes (I timed it), during which some guy repeatedly tries in vain to get out of his truck, only to have the cars speed by him, as they are doing a Daisy-style chase by driving around in a circle. Why he doesn’t just get out the passenger’s side door escapes me.
Back at Springville PD, the cops pull the real Officer Price out of the trunk of a car, which makes one wonder who the fuck that other lady is.
So, the real Officer Price explains that the Stella Parton knocked her out and stole her uniform and transfer papers, while Chief Lacey tries to get ahold of the Dukes, who are unresponsive. They have abandoned their cop car in favor of the Ecto-1, to try and escape the notice of Marlowe’s men.


The car breaks down, and while the boys are outside fixing it, Stella tells Marlowe that she’ll break him loose when the time is right. Meanwhile, back in Hazzard, boss and Rosco lay out plans to turn Hazzard into a tourist town for when Marlowe’s trial commences. Daisy has told Jesse what was going on, and he is furious that they’d send the boys unarmed, so he tears Boss and Rosco a new one. Rosco gets a phone call telling him about the whole fake Officer Price thing, and Jesse resolves to go help Rosco and Enos save them, finally letting Daisy come along. Cooter also tags along, as what else does he have to do?

Bo and Luke and Marlowe and Stella Parton take off on foot after being chased by the gunmen, and eventually come up on the girls who took their clothes and money from the beginning of the episode. Seems they’ve just fucked over the Springville equivalent of Bo and Luke, so the boys take their car as retribution.


They see their newly acquired car is out of gas, and stop into the local ghost town of Possum Hollow to get gas. Why would there be a gas station in a ghost town? They get to the gas station and the guy won’t fill them up without an account, so they go inside to fill out the paperwork. While they’re doing so, Stella Parton lets Marlowe go, and then, once he gets a little ways, confronts him. She’s the daughter of one of Marlowe’s former associates that Marlowe framed, and wants revenge!


Everyone else arrives on the scene as the boys are in the midst of a rooftop shootout with Marlowe, who then jumps down and takes thee boys’ car. They shoot out the radiator with an arrow, and Marlowe’s men take Stella Parton and drive off, at which point Bo stops them with a dynamite arrow. The criminals are arrested and taken back to Hazzard. Marlowe gets another change of venue, so Boss doesn’t get to build his tourist town, and Bo and Luke go boar hunting. Somehow, Stella Parton doesn’t get in trouble for knocking out Officer Price.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Another good one! I really hope you keep writing.

Did they ever tie the old guy who was loitering around near the beginning of the episode back into the plot somehow?
Jay Duke said…
No, they did not. I'm thinking he was just an interesting looking extra....

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