The Dukes of Hazzard: One-Armed Bandits (pilot episode)

release year: 1979
genre: comedy, TV pilot
viewing setting: home DVD, 6/24/04

synopsis: A couple of good ol' boys raise hell and generally do good deeds in Hazzard County, somewhere in the deep South.

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. Some have said the show is racist, which simply isn't true: it's just country. Of note: the narration and commercial-break cliffhangers by Waylon Jennings were some of the best aspects of this show.

something this movie has that no other movie has: The General Lee, a '69 Dodge Charger with "01" and a Confederate flag.

acting: Not many of the principal cast had settled into their roles at this point, and it shows. Several of them were either more serious in these early days, or else lacked chemistry with other characters. After just the one episode, only John Schneider, Catherine Bach, Denver Pyle, and Sorrell Booke had made any kind of lasting impression on me.

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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