The Dukes of Hazzard Season One
Join Luke and Bo Duke--a couple of good old boys--and their cousin Daisy Duke in
season one as they stay just ahead of
the sheriff in their souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger, The General Lee, and have fun
thwarting the plots of the corrupt county boss.
Season One
The Dukes of Hazzard was part of America's redneck fetish in the mid-to-late 1970s, otherwise evident in popular songs, movies, and television shows highlighting fast cars, truckers, citizens' band radio, moonshine, irreverent hicks, and clueless lawmen. Created by writer-producer Gy Waldron and inspired by his own 1975 bootlegging comedy, Moonrunners, Dukes milked seven seasons of material from the tale of a Deep South family of reformed whiskey-makers and their running feud with a greedy impresario and his chief lackey, a buffoonish, venal sheriff.
This three-disc season one set includes
all 13 initial episodes of Dukes from 1979, a period fans fondly recall because
some of the programs were shot on location in Covington, Georgia, rather than a
Burbank backlot. Also noteworthy is that a couple of key characters,
particularly Hazzard County's corrupt lawman, Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best),
hadn't gelled yet into permanent hayseed stereotypes and were arguably more
interesting at the beginning. At the center of the action is Sheriff Coltrane's
nemeses, cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), a couple of
wild boys buzzing through the backwoods in the "General Lee," a souped-up Dodge
Charger. Bo and Luke are good at heart but have to behave themselves while on
indefinite probation, complicating but not halting their efforts to vex Roscoe
and his patron, diminutive bigwig Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke). The enmity runs
both ways: Roscoe and Boss Hogg, with the aid of witless Deputy Enos Strate
(Sonny Shroyer), dream up ways of eliminating the Dukes--including their wise
old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle)--but their efforts always backfire.
While every episode is a variation on the previous one, predictability is a virtue in Dukes. The series pilot, "One Armed Bandits," finds Luke and Bo, with help from their sexy cousin, Daisy (Catherine Bach), diverting slot machines (smuggled into Hazzard County by Roscoe and Boss Hogg) to sundry watering holes where they can raise money for Bo's girlfriend's charity. In "Money to Burn," Boss Hogg tries to frame Bo and Luke for robbing an armored truck, while in "Deputy Dukes," the unarmed guys are forced by Roscoe to escort a deadly prisoner from one town to another. The Dukes hit back in "Daisy's Song," investigating a scam that took Daisy for $50 and implicates, of course, Boss Hogg and Roscoe.
Yes, it's a show about rubes, car stunts, and a legacy of moonshine, but there's something comforting about it, in a tongue-in-cheek way. --Tom Keogh
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by John Schneider and Catherine Bach {episode: One Armed Bandits}
Documentary:The 20th Anniversary Hazzard County Barbeque {reunion documentary RT 30:00}
Featurette:Dukes Driving 101: A High Octane Salute {featurette including interviews w/ professional race car drivers RT 8:00}
Other:The Dukes of Hazzard : The Return of the General Lee video game trailer
Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
83 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Dukes available on DVD..., April 18, 2004
By C. T. Morris "-- Topher"
This review is from: The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete First Season (DVD)
Finally, the first season of Dukes on DVD. The characters took some time to flesh out before they became the stereotypical heroes and villians that most viewers remember the show for. In the beginning, Rosco was more of a corrupt cop and less of a lovable dope, which in many ways I prefer. Boss Hogg was also a bit more intelligent of a character in the beginning. And rather than just basing shows on car chases and "how to frame the Dukes this week" as in later seasons, the first episodes were intelligently written schemes that the viewer can easily get lost (in a good way) as to what's going on. The first five episodes were filmed in Covington, GA (before they moved to familiar backlot in Burbank, CA), and you really get the sense that these are southern people in the South, rather than the stereotypical backwoods feeling you get from the Burbank episodes. That these early episodes focused more on plot is most evident in "Mary Kay's Baby," the only episode in all seven seasons to not feature the General Lee. And personally, I'll buy this set just to get "Daisy's Song": since there were only 13 episodes in the first season, when Columbia House distributed these episodes on VHS cassette at two shows per tape, this is the show that got left out of their catalogue.
Also worth noting is that when TNN was showing the Dukes a few years back, heavy edits had to be made to each show to fit modern commercial breaks. When I got Columbia House's versions, I found that significant chunks, usually integral to understanding the plot of a given episode, were now present and accounted for. Having all 13 episodes available without edit is another reason worth picking this up as opposed to watching it on television.
By the end of the season, the characters were already becoming what we remember them to be, in my opinion, for the atmosphere and for the writing, season one is the best of the series.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Cant wait to see them duke boys again!, March 27, 2004
By J. Smith
This review is from: The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete First Season (DVD)
One of the best shows ever on television. Here are the first seasons shows:
1. One Armed Bandits-In the series opener, confederate cousins Bo and Luke Duke find out about Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane smuggling illegal slot machines into the county. To make him mad, they hijack the slots with the help of Daisy and give the proceeds to the orphanage.
2. Daisy's Song-Bo and Luke investigate a record piracy ring that took Daisy for $50 to publish her song, and end up in the middle of an FBI raid... and so is Boss Hogg.
3. Mary Kaye's Baby-Bo and Luke pick up an old friend who is pregnant, as has over $100,000 in hot money stolen from the mob - who is after them. To make matters worse Rosco is after them because the car they are driving is loaded with moonshine.
4. Repo Men-Bo and Luke are anxious to buy an old wreck of a car from the crooked local dealer Ace Parker that has a good engine in it. But Ace only will sell it to them if they repossess a car for Boss' wife Lulu. But their probation is at stake when they discover that counterfeiters now own the car.
5. High Octane-Uncle Jesse fires up the old still for a good cause: to make moonshine that can make a combustion engine run to win a contest of a workable fossil-fuel that could save the country's pollution problems, and get the Dukes $10,000 in cash. But a revenue agent is on to the sneaky Dukes, and so is Boss Hogg who wants to take Jesse's moonshine to the contest like it was his.
6. Swamp Molly-Swamp Molly, an old moon shining colleague of Uncle Jesse's want to make "one last run" and wants the Dukes to help - since Molly saved Jesse from the Feds back in '38. But Boss and Rosco are already onto Molly and the Dukes.
7. Luke's Love Story-In the annual Hazzard Obstacle Derby, a dirty illegal notorious race, Amy Creevy is the first woman to enter. Luke is smitten with her and they build a relationship, but he has a hard time accepting that he can't chase other women if he stays with her. Meanwhile, Boss Hogg needs to win because his mama's ashes are in the winning trophy, but Enos is driving for him. So he threatens to sell Cooter's truck unless he becomes a crasher in the race to make sure that Enos wins.
8. The Big Heist-While Boss Hogg is busy counting out illegal moonshine money, Neil Bishop, an old customer of Boss' whom he ripped off, robs him. But after Rosco has his car towed away, he makes a getaway in the General Lee, framing Bo and Luke. He then goes to the Boar's Nest and sweet talks Daisy into spending the night in their farm.
9. Limo One is Missing-Special agents drive the Presidential Limousine through Hazzard County and they stop at the Boar's Nest. While it's there Cooter hot-wires it and takes it for a joy ride and then put it in the Dukes' barn when it runs out of gas.
10. Deputy Dukes-After Bo and Luke are arrested (for being at the wrong place at the wrong time), Rosco deputizes them to pick up a prisoner in Springville to take back to Hazzard for a trial. But the prisoner is Rocky Marlowe, public enemy number 1 and his associates will stop at nothing to bust him loose.
11. Money to Burn-Boss Hogg schemes to pocket $1 million in old, ragged bills his bank has marked for burning at the Federal Reserve Bank and has Bo and Luke as the fall guys framed for robber is armored truck so he can also collect on the insurance company.
12. Route 7-11-When the General Lee need repairs for about $300, Bo and Luke get jobs driving an 18-wheeler. It turns out to be a rolling casino with rigged games and one of Uncle Jesse's old cronies is losing money on it. So Bo and Luke try and form a plan to get his money back.
13. Double Sting-After Bo and Luke are arrested for fighting with a stranger, Tom Colt at the Boar's Nest, but in the jail, the local physician suspects that Colt has a case of the plague and Quarantines the jail with the police, Bo, Luke and Uncle Jesse there. Then the bank gets robbed by two crooks disguised as Laurel and Hardy and Daisy gives chase.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I am so glad they are bringing the Dukes to DVD, May 16, 2004
By Harry (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete First Season (DVD)
I grew up watching the Dukes of Hazzard on TV. It was good back then, and it is just as good today, maybe even better. The plot is fairly simple, it does not really take a detective to watch the show. You have the Duke boys, who Boss Hogg wants to send back to jail because they keep thwarting his scams. Thier Uncle Jessie, who they live with, was at one time a moonshiner who now is a lawful citizen. Now Boss Hogg is not an angel himself, he is always comming up with a scam to make money, and the Duke boys often find themselves in the middle of it. But all is not lost, because Uncle Jessie, Daisy, and Cooter will come to the rescue to make everything alright again in Hazzard County.
I think what I liked most about this show was, for the half an hour it was on tv, it was a break from reality. You got to see basically good people having a good time. Even Boss Hogg, the "bad guy" in the series had a good heart, although he was a little greedy with the fried chicken and money. I laughed every time he smacked Rosco's hand when Rosco tried to take a peice of fried chicken. And I loved the car, watching the General Lee jump creeks, ponds, barns and other cars. Daisy was as sweet a southern bell as any I have ever seen. And Rosco often had me laughing so hard, with his little noises and facial expressions. I highly reccomend this series. Anyone who has a kids heart will love this show.
|
|