The Dukes of Hazzard, season 1 (13 episodes)

Luke: "It ain't gonna work."
Bo: "Can't miss."
Luke: "What if it does work? What are we gonna do with all them slot machines?"
Bo: "Well, never thought about that."

release year: 1979
genre: TV comedy
viewing setting: home DVD, 4/713/15 and just the pilot on 6/24/04

synopsis: A couple of good ol' boys raise hell and generally do good deeds in fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.

impressions: This is silly fun. It's even sillier than "The A-Team" but entertaining in a different sort of way. Not once but twice in this pilot episode, a car is driven around in circles while being chased by another car, and county music plays in the background. Somehow, this show makes things like that watchable. It is true that the show took several episodes (I'd say about five) to reach its stride; by the final episodes of the first season, though, I was laughing out loud at some of the deceptively clever humorous lines. The narration and commercial-break cliffhangers by Waylon Jennings were crucial to the overall pace and tone of the show's events.

acting: Tom Wopat is the older, more level-headed cousin, with John Schneider as the younger, more chaotic one. Catherine Bach is the country-girl cousin who singlehandedly started a revolution in short shorts at the time. Denver Pyle is the old, wise family patriarch. Sorrell Booke is the money-hungry Boss Hogg. James Best is the dim-witted sheriff under his control.

final word: good simple fun, will bring back memories if you were a kid in the 1970s, otherwise you might be stupiefied.

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