Hazzard

Now you have twice as many reasons to stay up all night. CMT is airing 2 episodes of “The Dukes of Hazzard” back-to-back every night this week! So go ahead and have a pot of coffee with dinner, and stay awake to catch these classics:

The Dukes in Hollywood – Wed 11/16 at 1:00 a.m. 

Cool Hands Luke and Bo – Wed 11/16 at 2:00 a.m.

Go West Young Dukes – Thurs 11/17 at 1:00 a.m.

Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard – Thurs 11/17 at 2:00 a.m.

Danger on the Hazzard Express – Fri 11/18 at 1:00 a.m.

Sittin’ Dukes – Fri 11/18 at 2:00 a.m.

“Cool Hands Luke & Bo” offered fresh excitement late in the series, by getting the Dukes in a heap of trouble outside of Hazzard.  For once, the bad guys aren’t coming to Hazzard from out of town – they’re at home in Osage County, and the Dukes just happen to wander over there.  Nice goin’, boys.  And can anyone listen to Daisy’s emotional protest without feeling sympathy? It’s rare we see Daisy in tears, even if  just for a moment.

Another original idea is explored in “Go West Young Dukes.”  It’s the closest thing to time-travel that we get in The Dukes of Hazzard, and it’s pulled off rather well. This Duke-ified western admits the remarkable resemblance between the current day Dukes and their storied ancestors, and from there, it’s just plain fun. It’s obvious that John Schneider and Tom Wopat relished the opportunity to do something different.

In the not-so-great department, “Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard”  is ruined by the over-use of model cars doing stunts that do not look believable in the least.  This episode had the potential to be a touching story about how a celebrity race car driver helps a  sick little boy. Instead, it was overstuffed with poorly executed, unnecessary “action” scenes of matchbox cars flying over toy buildings and landscapes. 

On the positive, Cale performs his role well, and Bo delivers a couple bad puns that are worth it just for Luke’s expression. James Best, as Rosco, delivers an ad-lib that we probably shouldn’t even mention.  This scene has often been cut from the TNN and CMT airings to make room for more commercials. Good thing we YouTube’d it.