Saturday afternoons at 3pm if my memory serves me correctly Waylon Jennings would start singing, ‘Just the good ol’ boys, never meaning no harm……‘ over the top of an orange Dodge Charger on our screens thrashing through the back lanes, jumping and kicking up dust on every corner. Yes its the opening titles to The Dukes of Hazzard.
The show featured The Duke family, Uncle Jessie, cousin Daisy and cousins Beau and Luke Duke who were always getting themselves into the middle of tricky situations, mostly due to Boss Hogg setting ‘Those Dukes boys’ up during a money making or land grabbing scam and sending Hazzard countys sheriff Rosco P Coltrane and his deputy Enos or Cletus (depending which series) after them. Rest assured though it was never plain sailing as thieves, kidnappers, con men etc were always hanging round Hazzard county to stir things up. This meant gun fire, explosions, crossbows and car chases and crashes were common place in each episode. (safe place Hazzard county) Aided by their C.B radios they were all able to keep in touch during such escapades. There is one thing which was 100% certain though, The General Lee would take centre stage.
Now I’m sure we all know what or who The General Lee is? Indeed it was Beau and Luke Dukes iconic orange Dodge Charger with a black zero one painted on the side and a confederate flag emblazed across the roof. Could you get in it the conventional way? Could you hell, it was a case of jumping through the windows. Our narrator of the show Waylon Jennings informed us that the doors are welded shut like on a race car. Oh and it was a fast car, Rosco, Enos, Cletus etc could never catch The General Lee. It was almost a dead cert at least one police car would be written off and trashed in ’hot pursuit’ of those Duke boys. Every young lad watching (and their fathers for that matter) wanted their own General Lee. Even the best of cars have troubles though and whenever this orange beast was in need of some TLC Hazzard countys mechanic ’Crazy’ Cooter was on hand to help his buddies nurse The General Lee back to its best.
There was something else too that kept the dads and adolescences glued to the television screen…. Daisy Duke! Like for a lot of thirty something males I’m sure Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) in the red bikini or the iconic cut off ’daisy dukes’ denim shorts was my first crush. She worked in the local ale house owned by J.D ’Boss’ Hogg which meant she was on hand to get the inside information on his latest scam etc which usually aided her cousins Beau and Luke current sticky situation.
I will always fondly remember The Dukes of Hazzard as action packed with a light hearted family comedy element with its quirky characters and their masses of memorable catchphrases such as Roscos, “I’m going to cuff ‘em n
stuff ‘em” or “That was a horrendous crash Flash” and his legendry “cooo cooo cooo.”
I could go on forever about such a great series but I’ll leave you to reminisce yourselves or go out and discover the magic of Hazzard county first hand.
Review by Alex Smy
Things to Buy.
