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22 out of 25 people found the following review useful: One of the best!, 17 June 2004 Author: Skeletors_Hood (skeletors_hood@hotmail.com) from Kansas City
A lot of people view this show as cheesy crap, full of stereotypes and short shorts, however, it is a great example of people making a show that is just plain fun.I was very young when this show was on in prime time, and my memories of this show aren't just watching the car jump a creek, blaring the famous "Dixie" horn, but it was a show that I enjoyed watching with my father every Friday night (and when the President was on, we were both ticked off). The plots seem a little too complicated for rural Georgia, but this was never meant to be high drama, only an hour of fun and escapism.I haven't watched the Dukes in years, but I am still affected by how much this show had an impact on me. My dog breed of choice is a Bassett hound, I always like to gun the engine of my car a little, and my eyes are always drawn to the color orange. Aren't yours?My friends and wife question my ongoing love of the series, often saying the show is crap. It isn't, it's just very dated. My fondness of the show however, isn't just the show itself, but remembering the good times that revolved around it between my friends and my father. It represents a time in my life when I was as carefree as the General Lee on the back roads of Hazzard. Call it what you will, but it still feels like home.
19 out of 24 people found the following review useful: What kid didn't like the Duke Boys?, 23 August 1999 Author: Dan Grant (dan.grant@bell.ca) from Toronto, Ontario
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?
18 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Based on 1974 movie, 19 August 2001 Author: mazumdar
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).
13 out of 16 people found the following review useful: The Car Wasn't the Star, 4 October 2003 Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California
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.
8 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Can anyone ever really get enough?, 11 June 2005 Author: Billie Rae Bates (BRBTVcom) from United States
OK, I'm a junkie. I just can't help myself. I watched the "Dukes" episodes when they originally aired, built a website for the show in the 1990s, watched the show again on TNN (when it was the NASHVILLE Network, you understand), wrote a book companion to the show, and now, as the show is airing again on CMT, I'm STILL watching the episodes again!Was there any other TV show like it? I don't think so. "The Dukes of Hazzard" was a one-of-a-kind. You can watch these episodes over several phases of life and maturity -- and still find value in them! Holy cow.I was always, of course, impartial to Flash, Rosco's hound, as well as the rarely appearing brother of our dastardly Boss Hogg, Abraham Lincoln Hogg, the "white sheep" of the family. And you could always appreciate the country values the Dukes always espoused ... be good to your neighbor, thank the Lord before meals, don't lie or cheat or steal."The Dukes of Hazzard" is not rocket science, it's not deep or profound or socially redeemable or whatever else. It's just plain heckin' fun!!!!
9 out of 10 people found the following review useful: That's just a little bit more than the law will allow...., 24 November 2000 Author: richardmaitla82 from London
'Just some good ol boys, never meanin' no harm - they been in trouble with the law since the day they wuz born...' So began the classiest of all hicksville county roadchase shows, where each week those loveable two modern day Robin Hoods, Beaureguard "Bo" Duke [John Schneider] & Lucas K. "Luke" Duke [Tom Wopat] would pit themselves against some ner do wells, probably from Chickasaw county, and inadvertently manage to rub Sherriff Roscoe P Coltrane [James Best] up the wrong way to boot. Cue slo-mo shots of an airborne General Lee [1969 Dodge Charger]flying down leaf littered byways with Roscoe's cruiser once again in hot pursuit.This was a fantastic early Saturday evening kid's classic, mainly because of the shows hugely appealing basic premise -Bo & Luke are on probation for running moonshine, and they have the fastest motor in the county. So they're basically outlaws with hearts of gold who never really do anything particularly anti-social, they're just fighting the system that's run by corrupt town official Jefferson Davis Hogg, AKA "Boss Hogg" [Sorrell Booke]. He's fat, he's greedy and he wears a ridiculous white suit. And to make matters worse he's always trying to aquire the deeds to the Duke's farm, managed by his long time rival Uncle Jesse [Denver Pyle]with the help of Daisy Duke [Catherine Bach]. Show me a ten year old boy who, in 1981, didn't have a major Daisy Duke fixation - I mean, her legs were insured for two million dollars. Crikey.So our renegade heroes would have at least a couple of car chases each week, they'd hang out with Cooter in the garage, take the p**s out of the educationally sub-normal deputy Cletus, stop some really bad guys from doing something dastardly and probably blow up a barn or something with a stick of dynamite fired from a bow and arrow. And that's just before lunch.It all went pretty badly wrong in about '83 when the the boys were replaced by some pseudo Duke-lite wannabes named Coy and Vance. Their names alone speak volumes. This kind of signalled the beginning of the end, and I'm not sure the show ever quite recovered. Still, it's better not to dwell on this shamefully duff period in the show's history, instead it's better to fondly remember the Dukes in all their glory - flagrantly disregarding the law, and only ever climbing into and out of the General Lee via the windows, as the doors were soldered shut. Yee-haww.
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: This was a great show., 5 July 2004 Author: rrandy71 from Tennessee
The Dukes of Hazzard was one of my favorite television shows. But when it first aired, I didn't like it. I resented it because it replaced the Incredible Hulk. But after watching two or three episodes, I saw that it was a great show. I was seven years old at the time. I've seen about every episode. I didn't care much for the Coy and Vance episodes but I still watched them. I liked the two Mean green machine episodes. The Dukes of Hazzard was based on a movie titled Moonrunners. Moonrunners had the Boars nest, sheriff Rosco Coltrane(Not James Best), the Cooter character and Waylon Jennings as the balladeer. Moonrunners also had Uncle Jessie. But not Denver Pyle or Jessie Duke. Jessie Hag. Like on the Dukes of Hazzard, Jessie Hag lived with two nephews who ran shine for him. Sadly the Uncle Jessie character dies near the end of Moonrunners. Duke fans should be thankful for Moonrunners. If Moonrunners hadn't been made, the Dukes of Hazzard wouldn't exist. I've seen both the Dukes of Hazzard and Moonrunners. The Dukes are better.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: I Liked All Five of Them!!, 17 May 2007 Author: dataconflossmoor from United States
Tom Wopat and John Schneider were, of course, tremendous, as Bo and Luke on "The Dukes of Hazzard"!! What can you say about Catherine Bach (Daisy)? Every man's dream, we won't say what kind!! Also, Chip Mayer and Byron Cherry were really good as Bo and Luke's cousins!! I liked this show!! The "Dukes of Hazzard" exemplified the term, innocuous, and interjected humorous predicaments with a g-rated sex appeal, and hilariously classic car chase scenes!! The recent release of the '2005 movie only fortified American's interest in the original series!! Many people have a yearning to reminisce about the days of the Duke Boys of Hazzard County, and their naive chicanery!!...All of the ossified, pork barreling buffoons that tried to incarcerate the Duke boys and their cousins, contributed to the comical twist in this series as well!! I liked "Dukes of Hazzard", it was indicative of a bygone era in television which garnered a particularly fond remembrance to it!! Tom Wopat and John Schneider have an immense amount of talent, as their singing voices are spectacular!! It is an undeniable fact that both of them definitely fall into the category of Hollywood superstars!! Chip Mayer is a former super model, and Catherine Bach has been voted the seventh sexiest woman EVER!! on television. Accolades like this make "Dukes of Hazzard" very noteworthy in the wonderful world of hour long adventure comedies on television!! The creativity of this series manufactured a familiarity with the television audience in terms of the rural association we have always cherished for prime time to display every once in awhile!!
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: The Dukes of Hazzard: Classic Slapstick, Satire, and Stupidity, 24 February 2006 Author: jrm23july@aol.com from New Jersey
"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.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Unforgettable True Classic Fun for the Whole Family, 29 November 2005 Author: voicemaster71 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
THIS COMMENT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS :Second to the Incredible Hulk TV series, I am also outspoken as a fan of the Dukes of Hazzard, though I didn't start off that way. I remember its premiere night. I enjoyed Wonder Woman and was waiting for the Incredible Hulk to air, but instead of the Hulk, this new show aired and I was one upset little boy. The feeling didn't stay that way for long since the Incredible Hulk eventually returned to Friday nights at 8:00. I gradually began watching bits and pieces of the Dukes and by the time the third season was on complete with all sorts of toys and merchandise being sold, I was a converted die hard fan and have remained one ever since.The Dukes of Hazzard is to me, a great southern series with comedy and adventure. It's actually nice to take a breather from all the dramas and shows where stories take place in either New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. And this show delivered. Tom Wopat and John Schneider were excellent as Bo and Luke Duke and their real life friendship provided the perfect chemistry for their characters, which is why I felt the show was so popular and this friendship was established before they auditioned together. Daisy Duke is truly a super beautiful girl and very nice in real life, since I've had the honor of meeting Catherine Bach as well as the other surviving cast members. Even I loved Daisy Duke and it's hard to imagine a guy growing up back then who didn't feel that way.Denver Pyle as Uncle Jese was truly the backbone of the series. I also fondly recall watching him as Mad Jack on Grizzly Adams as well as Pa Darling on the Andy Griffith Show. He was also a good example of a Christian man since he was also the moral backbone of the series as well.Sorrell Booke was what I call a comical villain. He wasn't even a real villain for that matter. Although he and Uncle Jesse were enemies, they were also old friends. Boss Hogg was hilarious in those ridiculous white outfits and all that eating he did. I couldn't even think about eating all that he had. James Best. There's not enough complimentary words to describe him. He has to be one of the funniest and most talented actors in history. Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane made me laugh more than any other character. His sputtering and all those sayings of his like Cuff em and Stuff em! are now legend. Whoever heard of a stupid sheriff? Watch this show and you'll see him in action. I also loved his Bassett Hound Flash.Sonny Shroyer and Rick Hurst both contributed greatly as the two deputies of the show. Enos Strate is probably everyone's favorite. Enos is the everyman whom many guys can relate to. He is honest, shy, and has a special place in Daisy Duke's heart. I hate the fact that twice they tried to marry and twice it was called off (the second time was in the reunion movie)But let us not forget the comical talents of Rick Hurst as Cletus Hogg. He was a comical genius. Just to watch him crash into the Hazzard Pond was enough to leave you in stitches. Finally, there's Ben Jones who was Cooter. This man truly loves the show and you can see it in him if you visit him when he appears at Cooter's Place, which he opened and draws millions of fans worldwide.I agree with lots of people and that the General Lee is probably my all time favorite TV car. The best season of the show was the first one when they filmed the first five episodes in Covington Georgia, giving us a realistic version of Hazzard. I even liked the first two seasons when they filmed on the Disney Ranch. I especially loved the 2 hour episode, Carnival of Thrills. The worst year of the show was when Bo and Luke were replaced by Coy and Vance. Funny thing is, the new movie sucked so badly, they actually make Coy and Vance look good. Even though things improved when Bo and Luke returned, something from the series was lost, so the last two years dragged I thought.All in all, I love the Dukes of Hazzard and I am anxious for the remaining two years to be released on DVD so the series will be complete. I give this series a 2 thumbs up.
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