Welcome to HAZZARD COUNTY!
Broadcast history
The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network from January 26th 1979 to February 8th 1985. It was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners.
The series was broadcast by BBC One in the United Kingdom, debuting on Saturday March 3rd 1979 at 9pm. (just several months after it began in the US). Popular with all ages, it soon moved to a more family friendly Monday evening slot at 7.20pm. Soon a massive hit, it moved from Monday evenings to prime time Saturday evening, where it stayed for a number of years. Later when ratings began to dip (partly caused by Bo and Luke being replaced by 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 tail-end of the series was broadcast on weekday mornings during school holidays in the late 1980s.
Overview
The series followed Bo and Luke Duke, two cousins living in a rural part of the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia racing around in their modified 1969 Dodge Charger, the 'General Lee' evading corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg and his county sheriff Rosco P.Coltrane. Bo and Luke had been sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine - their uncle Jesse made a plea bargain to stop brewing moonshine in return for the boys to forgo jail time and instead be placed on probation. As a result, Bo and Luke were not allowed to carry firearms (they often used bows & arrows, sometimes tipped with dynamite) or leave Hazzard County (although the exact details of their probation terms varied from episode to episode...sometimes it was implied that they would be jailed for merely crossing the county line...on other occasions, it was shown that they may leave Hazzard as long as they were back within a certain time limit).
Corrupt commissioner Boss Hogg, who either ran or had fingers in just about everything in Hazzard County was forever angry with the Dukes, in particular Bo and Luke, for eternally foiling his crooked scams and was always looking for ways to get them out of the picture so his plots had a chance of succeeding. Many episodes revolved around Boss trying to engage in an illegal scheme with criminal associates. Some of these were get-rich-quick schemes, though many others affected the financial security of the Duke farm, which Boss had long wanted to acquire for nefarious reasons. Other times, Boss hired known criminals from out of town to do his dirty work for him, and often tried to frame Bo and Luke for various crimes such as bank robbery (thus resulting in imprisonment and allowing Boss easily to acquire the Duke farm). Bo and Luke always seemed to stumble over Boss' latest scheme, sometimes by curiosity, and often by sheer luck, and put it out of business.
Due to their fundamentally good natures, the Dukes often ended up helping out Boss Hogg, begrudgingly. More than once Boss was targeted by former associates who were either seeking revenge or had turned against him after a scheme unraveled in any number of ways...Boss' greedy nature, Rosco's big mouth or the criminals simply outsmarting Boss and Rosco. Sometimes criminals who were even more crooked and ruthless than Boss came to town. Sheriff Rosco also found himself in trouble more than once. On such occasions, Bo and Luke usually had to rescue their adversaries as an inevitable precursor to defeating the bad guys...these instances became more regular as the series went on.
Country singing superstar Waylon Jennings performed the famous theme song to the show (Good Ol' Boys), and acts as The Balladeer, narrating the adventures of each episode.
Copyright © 2009 - Danny Hall (danny_duke01) - All Rights Reserved.
All trademarks and copyrighted materials are property of their respective owners.
