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 The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete Fourth Season (2005)
Rated: TV. Not rated by the MPAA.
Runtime: 60 mins. episodes
Creator: Guy Waldron
Cast: Tom Wopat; Denver Pyle; John Schneider; Catherine Bach
Tagline: Yee-Hawwww!
Genre: Family/Television
Studio: CBS Television/Warner Home Video.
Official Site: promo.warnerbros.com/dukesofhazzard/index.html
Memorable Quote: "Ding Dangit Daisy! You're gonna make me have to arrest you!"
By Richard Dennis
There wasn’t a kid I went to school with when I was growing up in Central Texas that didn’t love The Dukes of Hazzard. The 70’s and 80’s were a heyday for fun, silly, and exciting television shows, and The Dukes fit right into this mold perfectly. The late 70’s / early 80’s were also a period of very successful “redneck kicking butt” films that would almost define the action genre during this time. Films like Walking Tall and First Blood set the standard for the good old “southern values” flicks, where our heroes would set the law straight and teach them a thing or two about the greater good. Debuting in 1979, itself spun off from a little-known film called Moonrunners, The Dukes of Hazzard was a perfect comedy amalgam of this kind of genre. Walking Tall filtered through a family show, as it were.
This nine-disc Fourth Season set includes all 27 episodes of the Dukes, and it’s worth noting up front that the decidedly different feel early on in the show had fully dissipated by this point and is now fully preserved on previous season collections. In the fourth season we are squarely in comfortable, goofy, predictable Dukes territory…but that is by no means a bad thing. In fact, this season contained the shows that I most remembered from my childhood. Originally filmed on location in Georgia (until someone realized it was cheaper to use back lots), the pilot and first few episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard were tonally different than what the show became by this point. Fans who remember Roscoe P. Coltrane’s bumbling antics, or his dog Flash (“little buddy”), will be in Hogg-heaven with this collection. Don’t get me wrong, these later shows are just as good, if not better, than the ones that preceded them (from a fun standpoint.) We still have that wonderful Dodge Charger, Uncle Jesse, and the lovely Catherine Bach being…well, the lovely Catherine Bach in those short, shorts. And speaking of those shorts, while the first few season’s episodes had a tad more of a racy feeling to some of the humor you won’t find much of that here. The Duke boys had pretty much cleaned up their act by Season Four.
Part of the joy of this set in fact, aside from the aforementioned “butt-kicking”, car chases, and those short, shorts, is to realize how a show could have started one way and then sort of found its footing (or its audience) along the way. By the end of this fourth season, you’ll feel like you’re in familiar territory again. It may be the most flat out “guilty pleasure” set of all of them. The 27 episodes presented here run about 45-50 minutes each and contain footage that you might not have seen if you’ve only been watching the re-runs on CMT or TNN. Episodes are edited in different ways to fit into a station’s programming, and I swear I saw things (no, not Daisy you perv) that I haven’t seen in years. It’s also worth pointing out that after this season, Schneider and Wopat exited the series for a time, with new “cousins” filling their shoes (although not nearly as successfully).
So strap in, pop open a jug of moonshine, and take a trip back down South with the Duke boys. It’s a lovely, nostalgia-fueled ride.
Richard Dennis
Screen formats: Widescreen 1.33:1
Subtitles: English; Spanish; French; Closed Captioned
Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access to 27 chapters; trailer; audio commentary; Behind-the-scenes featurette.
- Audio commentary with actors Tom Wopat, John Schneider, and Catherine Bach on “Double Dukes”.
- Featurette - The Dukes Story: Building a Legend
- 27 chapters - Mrs. Daisy Hogg; Double Dukes; Diamonds in the Rough; Coltrane vs. Duke; The Fugitive; The Great Bank Robbery; Sadie Hogg Day; 10 Million Dollar Sheriff (Part 1); 10 Million Dollar Sheriff (Part 2); Trouble at Cooter's, Goodbye; General Lee; Cletus Falls in Love; Hughie Hogg Strikes Again; The Dukescam Scam; The Sound of Music - Hazzard Style; Shine on Hazzard Moon; Pin the Tail on the Dukes; Miz Tisdale on the Lam; Nothin' But the Truth Dear Diary; New Deputy in Town; Birds Gotta Fly; Bad Day in Hazzard; Miss Tri-Counties; Hare and Share Alike: The Law and Jesse Duke; Dukes in Danger; The Law and Jesse Duke
Even though I had hoped for more commentaries on the set, what we get is a lot of fun. Schneider, Wopat, and Bach are a lot of fun to listen to and actually start to sound like a family that loves to pick on each other by the time it’s all over with. They clearly sound like they had a blast during the filming of the show. Schneider and Wopat, in particular, are a hoot. The documentary and featurettes cover familiar territory (much like the earlier seasons) but are a lot of fun nonetheless. It’s particularly interesting to watch the stars talking with such warmth about their time shooting the series. We don’t get anything new (some talk about the car, about the stars affinity for one another, etc.) but it’s interesting to watch nonetheless. Unlike the Season One set (where he was noticeably absent), at least Tom Wopat is a part of this one.
Number of discs: 9 - Keepcase style in cardboard box pullout packaging.
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Buy the DVD
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Buy Season
1 and 2
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| Tom Wopat .... |
Luke Duke |
| John Schneider .... |
Bo Duke |
| Catherine Bach .... |
Daisy Duke |
| Denver Pyle .... |
Uncle Jesse Duke |
| James Best.... |
Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane |
| Sorrell Booke .... |
Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg |
| Sonny Shroyer........ |
Deputy Enos Strate |
| Ben Jones .... |
Cooter Davenport |
| Rick Hurst.... |
Deputy Cletus |
| Peggy Rea.... |
Lulu Hogg |
| Nedra Volz .... |
Miz Emma Tisdale |
| Don Pedro Colley.... |
Sheriff Little |
| Byron Cherry.... |
Coy Duke |
| Christopher Mayer .... |
Vance Duke |
| Waylon Jennings....Augustus Gloop |
The Balladeer |
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