The Dukes of Hazzard

Plot

The Dukes of Hazzard follows the adventures of "the Duke boys", primarily cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat) (but alternatively Coy and Vance Duke for most of season 5), who live on a family farm in fictional Hazzard County, Georgia (the exact location of which is never specified, though Atlanta is mentioned several times as the nearest big city), with their cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) and their wise old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle). The Duke boys race around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, dubbed (The) General Lee, evading crooked and corrupt county commissioner Jefferson Davis (J.D.) "Boss" Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and his bumbling and corrupt ally Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best) along with his deputy(s), and always managing to get caught in the middle of various local escapades and incidents.

It was explained that Bo and Luke were previously sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine as their Uncle Jesse made a plea bargain with the U.S. government to refrain from distilling moonshine in exchange for Bo and Luke's freedom. As a result, Bo and Luke are on probation and not allowed to carry firearms—instead, they often use compound bows, sometimes with arrows tipped with dynamite—or to leave Hazzard County unless they get permission from their appointed probation officer Boss Hogg. The details of their probation terms vary from episode to episode. Sometimes it is implied that they would be jailed for merely crossing the county line, or in other episodes the state line. On other occasions, it is shown that they may leave Hazzard as long as they are back within a certain time. Several other technicalities of their probation come into play at various times.

"Boss" Hogg either runs or has his fingers in virtually everything in Hazzard County. Hogg is forever angry at the Dukes, especially Bo and Luke, for their habit of foiling his crooked schemes. Many episodes revolve around Hogg's attempts to engage in some such scheme, sometimes with the aid of hired criminal help.

Some of these are get-rich-quick schemes, but many others affect the financial security of the Duke farm, which Hogg has long wanted to acquire for various reasons. Other times, Hogg hires criminals from out of town to do his dirty work for him and he often tries to frame Bo and Luke as part of these plots. Bo and Luke always seem to stumble over Hogg's latest scheme, sometimes by curiosity, and often by sheer luck, and quash it. Despite the Dukes often coming to his rescue, Hogg never loses his irrational dislike of the clan, particularly Bo and Luke, often accusing them of spying on him, robbing or planning to rob him, or other nefarious actions.

Production

The series was developed from the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was written and directed by Gy Waldron. Waldron was originally from Lenoxburg, Kentucky and had grown up around stock car racing culture. The film was based on the real life of Jerry Rushing, a former moonshiner from Taylorsville, North Carolina. Rushing and his brother Johnny had raced and run moonshine for their uncle in North Carolina during the 1950s, and were often accompanied by their cousin Delane. Rushing owned a 1958 Chrysler named "Traveller", after the famous horse owned by General Robert E. Lee. These events from Rushing's life formed the basis of Waldron's film. Moonrunners follows the exploits of the Hagg brothers, Bobby and Grady Lee who owned a stock car named "Traveller", after Rushing's car. The Hagg brothers ran moonshine for their uncle Jesse Hagg.

In 1977, Waldron was approached by Warner Bros. with the idea of developing Moonrunners into a television series. The network was inspired by the success of Smokey and the Bandit. Elements from Smokey and the Bandit influenced the Dukes of Hazzard, such as Sally Field's character in the film, whose costuming was notably similar to Daisy Duke and featured small shorts. Waldron reworked various elements from Moonrunners, ultimately devising what became The Dukes of Hazzard. Bobby Hagg was developed into the character of Bo Duke, Grady Lee was developed into Luke Duke, and Jesse Hagg became Jesse Duke. Their car was renamed "General Lee", referencing the "Traveller" from Moonrunners. The show was more family-friendly than Waldron's original film, with a heavier emphasis on comedy and less emphasis on the illegal or immoral actions of its protagonists.

Production began in October 1978 with the original intention of only nine episodes for a mid-season filler. The first five episodes were filmed in Covington and Conyers, Georgia and surrounding areas, including some location work in nearby Atlanta. After completing production on the fifth episode, "High Octane", the cast and crew broke for Christmas break, expecting to return in several weeks to complete the ordered run of episodes. In the meantime, executives at Warner Bros. were impressed by the rough preview cuts of the completed episodes and saw potential in developing the show into a full-running series. Part of this plan was to move production from Georgia to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, to simplify production as well as develop a larger workshop to service the large number of automobiles needed for the series.

Rushing was initially unaware of the show's development, and received no compensation from it. He successfully sued for compensation and agreed to appear on the show afterwards in minor parts. Rushing appeared as shady used car dealer Ace Parker in the fourth episode, "Repo Men". Rushing believed this to be the start of a recurring role, in return for which he would supply creative ideas from his experiences: many of the Dukes (and thus Moonrunners) characters and situations were derived from Rushing's experiences as a youth, and much of the character of Bo Duke, he states to be based on him. However, "Repo Men" turned out to be the character's only appearance in the show's run, leading to a legal dispute in the following years over the rights to characters and concepts. Despite this, Rushing remained on good terms with cast and crew and in recent years has made appearances at several fan conventions.

Episodes

The show ran for seven seasons and a total of 147 episodes. Many of the episodes followed a similar structure "out-of-town crooks pull a robbery or commit a crime or scandal, Duke boys blamed, spend the rest of the hour clearing their names, the General Lee flies and the squad cars crash".

Cast and characters

Main characters

Lucas K. "Luke" Duke (portrayed by Tom Wopat) is the dark-haired, older Duke boy. He is typically the one who thinks of the plan that will get himself and his cousin Bo out of whatever trouble they have gotten into. Luke wears a checked blue shirt (a plain blue shirt in most, though not all, second-season episodes) and a denim jacket over it in first season and a few later second-season episodes. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a former boxer. Luke acted hypocritically on occasion, most prominently in season 1 episode 6 "Swamp Molly". Luke was the first Duke to perform the "hood slide" across the General Lee, which is seen in the opening credits of the show (a shot taken from the second episode, "Daisy's Song"). According to Wopat the slide was an accident, because his foot got caught on the side of the General Lee when he attempted to jump across the hood; he also caught his arm on the hood's radio antenna, resulting in such antennas being removed from later versions of the General Lee. However, the "hood slide" quickly proved popular and became a regular staple of the rest of the episodes. The only episode to directly refer to the age difference between Luke and Bo is in the seventh-season opener, the "flashback" episode "Happy Birthday, General Lee", where it is stated that Luke had already been in the Marines while Bo was in his last year at high school. Though Bo and Luke share the CB call sign "Lost Sheep", in the season-one episode "Money to Burn", Luke refers to himself (singularly) as "Sittin' Duck".

Beauregard "Bo" Duke (portrayed by John Schneider) is the blond-haired, younger Duke boy. He is more of the "shoot first, ask questions later" type than Luke. In the first-season episode "High Octane", his actual first name is revealed to be Beauregard. Bo had his eye, or heart, distracted by a pretty girl at times, leading the Dukes into trouble in a few episodes. Bo usually wears a cream-yellow shirt; for the first two seasons he wears a blue T-shirt underneath (brown in the first episode). This was slowly phased out during the third season. An ex-stock car driver, Bo is the one who drives the General Lee most of the time, with Luke riding shotgun. Bo was also the first Duke to jump the General Lee. He and Luke take turns of driving the General Lee in some episodes as they share the car with each other (very early episodes suggest that it belongs solely to him; Luke is said to have a car that Cooter had wrecked shortly prior to the start of the opening episode, "One Armed Bandits"). Bo is known for his rebel yell, "Yeeeee-haaa," which he usually yells when the General Lee is airborne during a jump. Bo was the only Duke to perform a roof slide (sliding over the roof of the car rather than just the hood), as seen in the season 4 episodes "Dear Diary" and "Share and Share Alike". The Duke boys share the CB call sign or handle "Lost Sheep".

Notable guest appearances

Throughout its network television run, The Dukes of Hazzard had a consistent mix of up-and-comers and established stars make guest appearances with some of them having more than one role.

NASCAR driver Terry Labonte makes a brief, uncredited appearance as a crewman in the episode "Undercover Dukes Part 1". The race cars supplied for both "Part 1" and "Part 2" of "Undercover Dukes" were supplied by Labonte's racing team owner, Billy Hagan. However, the emblems of the sponsors of the cars (at that time Labonte was sponsored by Budweiser) were covered to avoid paying royalties.

During the show's second season, the show's writers began incorporating a "celebrity speed trap" into some of the episodes, as a means to feature top country stars of the day performing their hits. On its first couple of instances, the "speed trap" was featured early in the story, but for most of the cases, it was featured in the last few minutes of an episode, often used when the main story was running too short to fill episode time.

The "celebrity speed trap" feature was essentially the same each time: Aware that a big-name country star was passing through the area, Boss Hogg would order Rosco to lower the speed limit on a particular road to an unreasonable level (using a reversible sign, with one speed limit on one side and another, far lower, on the back), so that the targeted singer would be in violation of the posted limit. The singer would be required to give a free performance at the Boar's Nest in exchange for having their citations forgiven; the performer would then perform one of their best-known hits or other popular country music standard, while the Dukes, Boss, Rosco, Enos, Cletus, Cooter, and other patrons whooped and hollered in enjoyment of the performance. More often than not, the performer would give a sarcastic parting shot to Boss and Rosco.

Singers who were featured in the "speed trap" segments were:

Honorable mentions: Mickey Gilley, Loretta Lynn

Gilley's and Lynn's appearances were not solely for the celebrity speed trap. After performing a concert in Hazzard, Gilley was nabbed while leaving and forced to do a second show to nullify his citation. Loretta Lynn was kidnapped by criminals wanting to break into the music business. Lynn was the very first country music guest star on the show in 1979 and had an entire episode dedicated to her titled "Find Loretta Lynn".

Casting of Coy and Vance

The Dukes of Hazzard was consistently among the top-rated television series (at one point, ranking second only to Dallas, which immediately followed the show on CBS' Friday night schedule). With that success came huge profits in merchandising, with a wide array of Dukes of Hazzard toys and products being licensed and becoming big sellers. However, over the course of the show's fourth season, series stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider—who had already previously voiced their concern and discontent about increasingly inferior scripts being written for episodes—became increasingly concerned about a contract dispute over their salaries and merchandising royalties owed to them from the high sales of Dukes products. They felt that neither of them was being paid what was owed to them and this became very frustrating to the duo. As a result, in the spring of 1982, as filming was due to begin on the fifth season, Wopat and Schneider did not report to the set in protest over the matter. Catherine Bach also considered walking out due to similar concerns, but Wopat and Schneider convinced her to stay, insisting that if she left, there might not be a show to come back to, and that settling the issue was up to them.

Production was pushed back by a few weeks as fairly similar looking replacements were hastily hired: Byron Cherry as Coy Duke and Christopher Mayer as Vance Duke. Bo and Luke were said to have gone to race on the NASCAR circuit; how they did this considering the terms of their probation was never explained. Cherry and Mayer were originally contracted at just 10 episodes as stand-ins, still with hope that a settlement might be reached with Wopat and Schneider (in total, they made 19 episodes including one with Bo and Luke). Some scripts for Coy and Vance were originally written for Bo and Luke but with their names crossed out and Coy and Vance penned in.

The new Dukes—previously unmentioned nephews of Uncle Jesse, who were said to have left the farm in 1976 before the show had started—were unpopular with the great majority of viewers, and the ratings immediately sank. Much of the criticism was that Coy and Vance were nothing but direct clones of Bo and Luke, with Coy a direct "carbon copy" replacement for Bo and Vance for Luke, with little variation in character. This was something that even show creator Gy Waldron has said was wrong, and that he insisted, unsuccessfully, that audiences would not accept direct clones and the two replacements should be taken in a different direction character wise, but was overruled by the producers. Waldron also commented that if Bach too had walked, the show would probably have been canceled. It was reported that prior to filming, Cherry and Mayer were given Bo and Luke episodes to watch, to study and learn to emulate them, although Cherry has said in interviews that he does not recall this ever happening.

Return of Bo and Luke

Although Coy and Vance were never popular, viewers were disappointed by their departure episode, "Welcome Back, Bo 'n' Luke", which was for the most part a standard episode, with the return of Bo and Luke and the departure of Coy and Vance tacked onto the beginning. (Bo and Luke return from their NASCAR tour just as Coy and Vance leave Hazzard to tend to a sick relative.) More than a few viewers commented that they were disappointed by this, and that they would have liked to see both pairs of Duke boys team up to tackle a particularly dastardly plot by Boss Hogg before Coy and Vance's departure; but as it turned out, Coy and Vance had little dialogue and were gone by the first commercial break, never to be seen, heard from or even mentioned again.

While the return of Bo and Luke was welcomed by ardent and casual viewers alike, and as a result ratings recovered slightly, the show never completely regained its former popularity. One of Wopat and Schneider's disputes even before they left was what they considered to be increasingly weak and formulaic scripts and episode plots. With Wopat and Schneider's return, the producers agreed to try a wider scope of storylines. It continued for two more seasons. Many cast members, including Wopat, decried the miniature car effects newly incorporated to depict increasingly absurd General Lee and patrol-car stunts (which had previously been performed by stunt drivers in real cars). The miniature car effects were intended as a budget-saving measure (to save the cost of repairing or replacing damaged vehicles) and to help compete visually with KITT from the NBC series Knight Rider. By February 1985, The Dukes of Hazzard ended its run after seven seasons.

Vehicles

The show is estimated to have gone through 250–355 cars during filming.

The General Lee (Dodge Charger)

The General Lee was based on a 1969 Dodge Charger owned by Bo and Luke. It was orange with a Confederate battle flag painted on the roof, the words "GENERAL LEE" over each door, and the number "01" on each door. In the original five Georgia-filmed episodes, a Confederate flag along with a checkered racing flag in a criss-cross pattern could be seen behind the rear window; this was removed because the extra decal was impossible to replicate over and over again. The name refers to the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The television show was based on the movie Moonrunners, in turn based on actual moonshine runners who used a 1958 Chrysler named Traveler, after General Lee's horse (with a slight spelling change). Traveler was originally intended to be the name of the Duke boys' stock car too, until producers agreed that General Lee had more punch to it.

Since it was built as a race car, the doors were welded shut. Through the history of the show, an estimated 309 Chargers were used; 17 are still known to exist in various states of repair. A replica was owned by John Schneider, known as "Bo's General Lee". In 2008, Schneider sold "Bo's General Lee" at the Barrett-Jackson automobile auction for $230,000. An eBay auction which garnered a bid of $9,900,500 for the car was never finalized, with the purported bidder claiming his account had been hacked. The underside of the hood has the signatures of the cast from the 1997 TV movie. Schneider has also restored over 20 other General Lee s to date. In 2008, a replica of the General Lee fetched a high bid of $450,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction.

In 2012, the General Lee 1, the first car used in filming the series, was purchased at auction by golfer Bubba Watson for $110,000. The car had been scrapped after being wrecked during the famous opening jump shoot, and was later discovered in a junkyard by the president of the North American General Lee fan club. In 2015, following a wave of sentiment against Confederate symbolism in the wake of shootings in Charleston, South Carolina (relating to photos where the attacker had posed with the Confederate flag), Bubba Watson announced that he would remove the Confederate flag from the roof of the General Lee 1 and repaint it with the U.S. national flag.

The show also used 1968 Chargers (which shared the same sheet metal) by pop-riveting the "I" piece to the center of the 68's grille, as well as cutting out the tail lights, pop-riveting the '69 lenses in place, and removing the round side marker lights. These Chargers performed many record-breaking jumps throughout the show, almost all of them resulting in a completely destroyed car. No 1970 Chargers were used, as backdating them proved to be too time-consuming.

Hazzard police cars (AMC Matador, Dodge Polara, Dodge Monaco, Plymouth Fury)

The 1975 AMC Matador was one of many Hazzard County police cars used on the series, mostly in the first season; they had light bars and working radios. A 1970 Dodge Polara and a 1974 Dodge Monaco were used during the pilot episode "One Armed Bandits"; these were also seen in the show's title sequence. From the second season, the 1977 Dodge Monaco was mostly used. From mid-season four the similar looking 1978 Plymouth Fury was used instead. The Matadors and Furies were former Los Angeles Police Department vehicles, while the Monacos were former California Highway Patrol units.

Plymouth Road Runner

A 1974 Plymouth Road Runner (yellow with a black stripe) was Daisy Duke's car in the first five episodes of the first season. For the last episodes of the first season a similarly painted 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring with a matching "Road Runner" stripe was used. In the second season Bo and Luke send it off a cliff in "The Runaway". Another identical Plymouth 1971 model car appeared in a few more episodes after "The Runaway" due to the episodes being aired out of production order.

Jeep CJ-7

Dixie was the name given to Daisy Duke's white 1980 Jeep CJ-7 "Golden Eagle" which had a golden eagle emblem on the hood and the name "Dixie" on the sides. Like other vehicles in the show, there was more than one Jeep used throughout the series, which were both manual and automatic transmission. The design of the roll cage also varied across the seasons. When the Jeep was introduced at the end of the second season's "The Runaway", it was seen to have doors and a slightly different paint job, but, bar one appearance in the next produced episode, "Arrest Jesse Duke" (actually broadcast before "The Runaway", causing a continuity error), thereafter the doors were removed and the paint job was made all-white, with Dixie painted on the sides of the hood. These Jeeps were leased to the producers of the show by American Motors Corporation in exchange for a brief mention in the closing credits of the show.

Ford F-100 pickup truck

Uncle Jesse's truck was a white Ford pickup truck, most commonly a sixth-generation (1973–1977) F100 Styleside. However, in the earliest episodes it had a Flareside bed, and varied between F100 and F250 models throughout the show's run. Bo, Luke and Daisy also drove Jesse's truck on occasion.

Cadillac de Ville

A white 1970 Cadillac de Ville convertible was used as Boss Hogg's car, notably with large bull horns as a hood ornament. In early seasons, Hogg was almost always driven by a chauffeur, who was normally nameless and had little or no dialogue, but identified on occasion as Alex; and played by several uncredited actors, including stuntman Gary Baxley. This chauffeur was often dressed in a red plaid shirt and deep brown or black Stetson hat but was on occasion an older man, sometimes dressed in more typical chauffeur attire.

Hogg is first seen to drive for himself in the second-season opener "Days of Shine and Roses", where he and Jesse challenge each other to one last moonshine race. From the fourth season onward, except for a couple of brief reappearances of the chauffeur (during the fourth season), Hogg drove himself around in his Cadillac (or occasionally driven by Rosco and, in the series' finale, by Uncle Jesse) and frequently challenged others by invoking his driving expertise from his days as a ridge-runner. Unlike other vehicles in the series, Boss Hogg's Cadillac is typically treated with kid gloves. The car is almost always seen with its convertible top down, with the top only being seen in two episodes, "Daisy's Song" (the chauffeur was called "Eddie" in this episode), the second to be produced and broadcast, and briefly in the second-season episode "Witness for the Persecution", when Cooter is returning it to the Court House after repairs. When filming close-up shots inside the studio, a similar-looking 1967 De Ville is used. The door vent windows were eliminated for 1969, and the small, round, chrome exterior mirror is noticeably different from the 1970 model's large, square, brushed stainless mirror.

Ford Custom 500

A green and blacked out 1971 Ford Custom 500 sedan named Black Tillie was once used by Uncle Jesse to make moonshine runs. It makes its only physical appearance in "High Octane" (season 1 episode 5). A 1967 Ford Mustang coupe, known as Black Tillie II, was used in "Days of Shine and Roses" (season 2 episode 1). It was used for a race between Jesse Duke and Boss Hogg to settle their argument over who was the better moonshiner, where because of the agreement with the federal government they carried 10 gallons of water to replace the moonshine.

Theme song

The theme song "Good Ol' Boys" was written and performed by Waylon Jennings. He was also "The Balladeer" (as credited), and served as narrator of the show. The version released as a single is not the same version used in the show's opening credits; the single version has a repeat of the chorus and an instrumental to pad out the length, uses a different instrumental mix that emphasizes the bass, and replaces the last verse with an inside joke about how the TV show producers "keep on showing [Jennings's] hands and not [his] face on TV".

In 1980, the song reached No. 1 on the American Country chart and peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Broadcast history

United States

The series was originally broadcast in America by CBS on Friday nights, at 9:00 p.m. and later 8:00 p.m., preceding Dallas from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985. The darker tone of Dallas made it a good complement to Duke of Hazzard, and the two shows were successful as a double feature.

Until TNN (The Nashville Network) was purchased by Viacom, it aired reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard. Some months after the creation of "The National Network" (shortly before its change to "Spike TV"), the program was absent from much of television for quite some time. Viacom's country music-themed cable network CMT (the former sister network to TNN) aired the show from 2005 to 2007 at 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time every weekday. CMT began airing the series in late February 2005. It also aired Monday–Thursday on ABC Family.

CMT aired The Dukes Ride Again, a special marathon which featured episodes from the first two seasons, on the weekend of September 10, 2010, and have begun airing episodes weeknights at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern Time starting September 13, 2010.

CMT began to re-air The Dukes of Hazzard reruns in high definition, on January 5, 2014.

TV Land began to air The Dukes of Hazzard reruns on June 10, 2015, but removed them just three weeks later as a response to the Charleston church shooting and the ensuing debate over the modern display of the Confederate flag.

Soon before the series ended its original run on CBS, The Dukes of Hazzard went into off-network syndication. Although not as widely run as it was back in the 1980s and the years since, reruns of the program do continue to air in various parts of the United States.

Notably, television stations that aired the show in syndication include KCOP Los Angeles, WGN-TV Chicago, KBHK-TV San Francisco, WKBD Detroit, WTAF/WTXF Philadelphia, KTXL Sacramento, WVTV Milwaukee, KMSP Minneapolis–Saint Paul, among others.

The Nashville Network bought The Dukes of Hazzard from Warner Bros. in 1997 for well over $10 million; not only did it improve the network's ratings, the show was also popular among younger viewers, a demographic TNN had a notorious difficulty in drawing.

International

In the United Kingdom, the series aired on BBC One, debuting on Saturday March 3, 1979 at 9:00 p.m. (just several months after it began in the U.S.). Popular with all ages (and as some of the more adult elements of very early episodes faded out of the series), it quickly moved from its post-watershed position to a more family-friendly Monday evening slot at 7:20 p.m. Soon a massive hit, it moved from Monday evenings to prime-time Saturday evening (times varied, but typically around 5:25 p.m.), where it stayed for a number of years. Later when ratings began to dip (partly caused by the change to Coy and Vance, and partly to do with competition from ITV, with new hit shows such as The A-Team), it moved back to Mondays, making the odd return for short runs on Saturdays. Late episodes also popped up occasionally on Sunday afternoons, and the remaining episodes of the final season were broadcast on weekday mornings during school holidays in the late 1980s. In 1992, Sky1 bought a package of the program, owning the rights to the first 60 episodes produced (running up to "The Fugitive"), showing the series on Saturday afternoons at 4 p.m. They later showed the episodes they owned again, including a stint showing it in a weekday 3 p.m. slot, running for 50 minutes (including commercials) with the episodes heavily edited for time as a result, often leaving gaps in the plot. Despite requests from fans, they did not secure the rights to later episodes. The series was later run on the satellite channels Granada Plus and TNT. U.K. satellite channel Bravo began airing reruns in August 2005. Reruns are currently shown on Forces TV.

In Brazil, the series was named Os Gatões (The Big Hunks), which limited its popularity among the male audience.

The series was also shown in the Netherlands by Dutch broadcasting organization AVRO, with Dutch subtitles, rather than being dubbed.

It was shown on Ten Network in Australia from September 1979 until the end of the series, and repeated throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It was quietly rerun on pay TV channel TV1 in the 2000s, but is now shown on Nine Network's subchannel, Go!.

The series aired weekdays on New Zealand's channel The BOX. Previously it aired on TVNZ for its original run, being repeated on Saturday afternoons in the early 1990s. In May 1984, a doctor and member of the Auckland Health Board called for the programme to be taken off-air for promoting reckless driving; the production of the story for the Network News was featured in the 1985 documentary Network New Zealand.

Spin-offs

A spin-off series called Enos, starring Sonny Shroyer, aired on CBS from November 1980 to May 1981 and lasted a total of 18 episodes before being canceled.

An animated spin-off series called The Dukes aired in 1983 and was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The first season fell under the Coy and Vance era of the live-action show and thus they were adapted into animated form. By the second season, Bo and Luke had returned, and they replaced Coy and Vance in the cartoon series.

Feature films

Two made-for-TV reunion movies aired on CBS, The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! (1997) and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000).

The film The Dukes of Hazzard was released in 2005, and a standalone prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning in 2007.

Video games

Several video games based on the series were created:

The Dukes of Hazzard for ColecoVision (1984) and ZX Spectrum (1985); also planned for the Atari 2600

The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home (1999)

The Dukes of Hazzard II: Daisy Dukes It Out (2000)

The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee (2004)

Home media

DVD

Warner Home Video has released all seven seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard on DVD in Regions 1 and 2. The two TV movies that followed the series were released on DVD in Region 1 on June 10, 2008, and in Region 4 on June 4, 2014. In Region 4, Warner has released only the first six seasons on DVD and the two TV movies. The Complete Series and Two Unrated Feature Films Box Set was released on DVD in Region 1 on November 14, 2017.

Two one-shot DVDs were also released by Warner, the first one containing three episodes from the TV series (one from each one of its first three seasons) and the second one containing the first episode from it and a behind-the-scenes featurette that announced the upcoming premiere of the 2005 film.

Streaming

The TV series was also made available for streaming and download through a variety of services.

Reception

Season 1 garnered a mixed reception from critics. Tom Shales (The Washington Post): "Within five minutes, the program is out of breath from pandering so pantingly to its audience. [...] If this show succeeds, every television critic in America may as well quit." Peter Hartlaub, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle: "Unfortunately, the first Dukes season wasn't the best, with a low budget and characters who found their footing as the series continued (Cooter started out a numbskull type)." Conversely, Danny Graydon (Empire) writes: "Today, Hazzard's considerable charm endures, even if the sheer predictability is wearing."

Legacy and influence in popular culture

Alice

Sorrell Booke and Sonny Shroyer appeared in 1983 during "Mel is Hogg-Tied", an eighth-season episode of the television series Alice. Booke guest-starred as Boss Hogg, who is a distant cousin of Jolene Hunnicutt, arrives from Hazzard County and tries to swindle Mel into selling his diner to him for $1. Shroyer also guest-starred as Deputy Enos Strate.

Hazzard County

In 2005, the Humana Festival of New American Plays premiered a full-length comedy drama entitled Hazzard County by Allison Moore. The story centers on a young widowed mother and a visit that she receives from a big city television producer. Interspersed with recollections of Bo, Luke, and Daisy, the play takes a deep look at Southern "good ol' boy" culture and its popularization through the lens of American mass media.

Smallville

Tom Wopat and John Schneider were reunited in 2005 during "Exposed", a fifth-season episode of the television series Smallville. Wopat guest-starred as Kansas State Senator Jack Jennings, an old friend of Clark Kent's adoptive father Jonathan Kent (portrayed by Schneider). In the episode, Jennings drives a 1968 Dodge Charger—the same body style as the General Lee.

Daisy Dukes

Daisy Duke was almost always dressed in very short blue jeans shorts. That style of shorts became known as "Daisy Dukes". Katy Perry references "Daisy Dukes" in her number one single “California Gurls”. A 1993 rap song titled "Dazzey Duks" by the Miami-based rap duo Duice and the 69 Boys was also a reference to the shorts Daisy wore in the series.

Only Fools and Horses

The series is referenced in the British sitcom Only Fools and Horses; it is one of Grandad's favourite television programmes.

Lizard Lick Towing

Lizard Lick Towing featured an episode with its repossession specialists Ronnie Shirley and Bobby Brantley repossessing a General Lee replica.

AutoTrader commercial

In 2014, AutoTrader made a commercial where Bo and Luke shop for a new car while being chased.

Confederate battle flag

After the 2015 Charleston church shooting, renewed debate about the symbolism of the Confederate battle flag (which was prominently featured on the General Lee's roof, and the panel behind the rear window in the first five episodes) prompted TV Land to pull reruns of the original series. Warner Bros., which owns the property, announced it would also no longer create merchandise bearing the flag, including miniatures of the General Lee. During the 2020 George Floyd protests, Amazon reportedly considered removing the program from its streaming service.

Cooter's

Artifacts from the show are on display in Luray, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Cooter's Place in Luray is overseen by Ben "Cooter" Jones from the series. The Pigeon Forge location features a gift shop and a small display of costumes, collectibles and artifacts from the show.

Covington and Conyers, Georgia, where the original five episodes were produced and filmed, have been two major tourist attractions for The Dukes of Hazzard fans.