I used to watch the Dukes of Hazard when it aired Friday Nights when it aired before Dallas on CBS. However I only started watching it during the second season. So I missed Season One.
I heard stories about Rosco in the first season as not being the comic relief for the show as he was the remainder of the show. The clumsy and bumbling incompetent law man we all grew to laugh at was not so comical in the pilot as well as season one. He was straight forward and serious and even did the dirty work for Boss Hogg as well as hired the hands to run the crooked operations including the Gambling Casino that Boss Hogg tried to start that got knocked out by Bo and Luke in one episode. His character was devious and calm and even used his gun once to shoot a crook in the climax of an earlier episode.
I heard that the change in character traits was done due to CBS thinking the Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane at the time was not a good character to have on a show due to children watching at the time. They wanted a more family friendly show so they made Rosco to be a clumsy and incompetent comical character instead of drama type who was mean by nature. This I find not believing due to the fact on the following show you had JR Ewing played by Larry Hagman who was wanted by them to be devious and mean.
Was Dukes of Hazard twerked in Season One as the gossip that I heard to please the network by creating the bumbling Sheriff Coltrane?
I don't think I started watching until the second season, but I saw the first season years later. Rosco bumbled a lot in the first season, but he wasn't as childlike or naive. The first season also included one or two instances of the word "dammit" (which was never uttered in the later seasons), and I could have sworn Boss Hogg was once seen with a hooker.
Question about Season 20 of NCIS.
In the episode Great White Open, when McGee left Gibbs on a Seaplane home standing in a bay holding a fishing pole as the plane leaves, I take was how writers wrote out the Gibbs character out of the show when Mark Harmon quit the show?
Regarding Rosco, the series' popularity with kids was indeed a major reason for turning him into a bit of a buffoon, and the actor who played him (James Best) was by all accounts heavily involved in that decision because he didn't want kids to be afraid of cops if they might need help. I don't think Dallas following on the air after the Dukes has any real significance because the target audiences were quite different—Dallas was far more of an adult-oriented show in just about every way and wasn't seen as a family show. (I'm sure our family was quite typical in that my brother and I would watch the Dukes and then were sent off to bed so our parents could watch Dallas, except that my brother, who was a huge football fan, was allowed to watch Dallas just long enough to see the theme song's shot of Texas Stadium before going off to bed.)
According to this...
Dukes of Hazzard - https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/the-dukes-of-hazzard
NCIS - https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/ncis
Neither show is available for free streaming.
Everything is available for free streaming somewhere.
Quote from: Rothman on March 05, 2024, 11:49:30 PM
Everything is available for free streaming somewhere.
The qualifier "legally" should be understood by the reader.
Quote from: ZLoth on March 05, 2024, 08:06:41 PM
According to this...
Dukes of Hazzard - https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/the-dukes-of-hazzard
NCIS - https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/ncis
Neither show is available for free streaming.
Good thing we own 15 seasons of NCIS on DVD...
Quote from: fhmiii on March 06, 2024, 08:19:10 AM
Quote from: Rothman on March 05, 2024, 11:49:30 PM
Everything is available for free streaming somewhere.
The qualifier "legally" should be understood by the reader.
Better not watch movies at a friend's house.
FWIW, the Dukes were inspired by Smokey & the Bandit because they were similar to each other in one way or another (especially being largely set in Georgia). As popular as the Trans Am was becoming in those years, the General Lee sparked a renewed interest in the generation of Chargers from which it came. I believe that the Charger, by then a personal luxury coupe and a far cry from the muscle car it was originally, had been (or was on the verge of being) discontinued when the series debuted. Boss Hogg was definitely modeled after Buford T. Justice in the movie, but without the "sumbitch" comments the latter always made so as to keep the show family-friendly, and Rosco was Junior. I've always wondered if Burt Reynolds was a fan of the Dukes, seeing how they took Smokey's premise and turned it into a series.
Quote from: Henry on March 06, 2024, 11:15:46 PM
FWIW, the Dukes were inspired by Smokey & the Bandit because they were similar to each other in one way or another (especially being largely set in Georgia). As popular as the Trans Am was becoming in those years, the General Lee sparked a renewed interest in the generation of Chargers from which it came. I believe that the Charger, by then a personal luxury coupe and a far cry from the muscle car it was originally, had been (or was on the verge of being) discontinued when the series debuted. Boss Hogg was definitely modeled after Buford T. Justice in the movie, but without the "sumbitch" comments the latter always made so as to keep the show family-friendly, and Rosco was Junior. I've always wondered if Burt Reynolds was a fan of the Dukes, seeing how they took Smokey's premise and turned it into a series.
Uh, no.
Dukes of Hazzard was essentially a television version of the movie
Moonrunners, which was filmed in 1973 and came out in 1975 (two years before
Smokey and the Bandit). The movie was written and directed by Gy Waldron, who also is credited as the creator of
Dukes. Some of the character and place names originated in the movie carried over to the TV show (Uncle Jesse, Sheriff Rosco Coltrane, the Boar's Nest), and Waylon Jennings was the Balladeer who narrated the stories in both the movie and the TV show. As 1995hoo noted, the immediate popularity with children was the reason the producers toned down the dark corruption feel of the TV show and of Rosco in particular (his original backstory was that he had been an honest cop for most of his career, but some financial shenanigans wiped out his pension just before he planned to retire and so he was forced to run for re-election again). Rosco in the first few episodes of
Dukes is cold and corrupt; no way similar to
Smokey's Junior.
Didn't Dukes of Hazzard start in 1979 and Smokey in 1980?
Regarding Burt Reynolds, don't forget he eventually played Boss Hogg (a much nastier Boss Hogg than the one in the TV version) in the 2005 movie adaptation of the Dukes.
Quote from: Henry on March 06, 2024, 11:15:46 PM
FWIW, the Dukes were inspired by Smokey & the Bandit
Quote from: Rothman on March 07, 2024, 06:57:12 AM
Didn't Dukes of Hazzard start in 1979 and Smokey in 1980?
The first part, yes. The second part, no.
Smokey and the Bandit was released in mid-1977. Filming for
The Dukes of Hazzard began more than a year later.
Questions about TV shows, eh?
Who really is the boss?
;)
Quote from: kphoger on March 07, 2024, 11:23:18 AM
Quote from: Henry on March 06, 2024, 11:15:46 PM
FWIW, the Dukes were inspired by Smokey & the Bandit
Quote from: Rothman on March 07, 2024, 06:57:12 AM
Didn't Dukes of Hazzard start in 1979 and Smokey in 1980?
The first part, yes. The second part, no. Smokey and the Bandit was released in mid-1977. Filming for The Dukes of Hazzard began more than a year later.
It was Smokey & the Bandit II that came out in 1980.