Oh frabjous day...

[ceebeegee]

...Can I just say how much I love cable TV? I found out the other day I get CMT on my lineup, which runs The Dukes of Hazzard every night. I LOVE that show! As silly and sanitized a view of the South as it is, I love it--it's a simple, known quantity that never fails to entertain. The funny thing is, I'm more of a fan now than when it came out. The other night they ran a behind-the-scenes look at it, and the actors, etc, were discussing how the CBS ("the Tiffany Network," remember, which had also cleaned house in the early '70s by booting a bunch of cornpone shows like Petticoat Junction, even though they were doing well) hated the show, and William Paley (legendary head of CBS) was on vacation in Europe when it went on the air. When he got back a few weeks later he wanted to kick it off but it was doing too well then.

Gotta say I preferred Luke to Bo. He just seemed way cuter. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I actually met Tom Wopat (and flirted with) years ago, when Mia was in Annie Get Your Gun.

Now, if I can just find Dallas somewhere on my cable lineup, I'll be a happy, happy woman. That really *was* a great show. Great acting and great writing. "What kind of slut are you off to see now, JR?" "Whoever it is, you better believe she'll be more of a woman than the slut I'm lookin' at right now, Suellen." Awesome!

Comments

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

I loved this show when I was a kid. For the first few years anyway (when they brought in "Coy" and "Vance" - and hey, you can't get more masculine names than that - I lost interest). The show started in 79, so this was when I was around, say, 8-12 years old. My parents, particularly my dad, hated this show. He thought it was moronic, and he hated that I would imitate Roscoe P. Coltrane, which I would do just to annoy him.

Now, however, when I see the show, I have to agree that it is moronic. There are some things from childhood that I can watch as an adult and still enjoy, but this show isn't one of them.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's totally moronic. No argument there--with names like "Cooter" and "Bo"? (Not even "Beau.") But enjoyably moronic. One funny thing was in the special, Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke) was talking about how overblown the stunts were--how the stunt cars would explode and whatnot when they actually did them. This show was so ridiculous, stuff like that just makes me laugh. I'd love to see the REAL (i.e., unsantizied) Dukes of Hazzard, where Daisy gets harassed and stalked for wearing such revealing shorts, and the General Lee is torched because of the Stars and Bars.

I should also add that I've also met Ben Jones (Cooter)--I worked with his brother, Bryan, when Ben was a Congressman back in the late '80s, and Ben came to some function the theater company put on.

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

"Cooter." Hee! I can't believe they had a character with that name. And that they got away with it on tv.

Come to think of it, I love how very flexible the show was with the law. The Dukes would get arrested on completely fraudlent charges every week, and then would also break out of jail every week as well. These seem like pretty serious crimes on both sides, but at the end, everyone would laugh it off in th end. Ah, the magic of tv.