Cletus

[blah]

Does anyone know why Cletus (Rick Hurst) left the show early on in season 5?

[Brian Coltrane]

Yes, there were a couple reasons. First, Sonny (Enos ) had a return clause in his contract, if his own spin-off series "Enos" failed. It did. So for the first few eps of Season Five, Enos returns while Cletus is still around, and we get to see them on duty together.

The episode, "Coy Meets Girl" is the last episode to include Cletus. Rick Hurst left Dukes in order to take a role on a new CBS series. Unfortunately Rick's new gig cancelled within 3 months.

I always thought Cletus was a lot of fun to watch. It's a shame the Hazzard payroll didn't allow both deputies to remain.

Brian

[blah]

Thanks, although I don't recall asking for all that other info... Anyways contract clause or not I think they would have brought Enos back anyways because unlike Cletus his character actually had a story, he was original, he was friends with people on the show and he was popular enough to get his own show, so obviously when that failed he'd be broughten back... Cletus wasn't a good enough of a replacement to block Sonny's return, like Don Knotts was in Three's Company... I hated Cletus as a kid because it meant my fav (Enos) was gone... And am I just crazy or wasn't there a few episodes when Cletus and Enos didn't share the same patrol car? I haven't seen most of season 5 since it was on TNN in the 90s so... I love how in the first ep Boss says there isn't enough money in the budget for seperate patrol cars, eventho it seemed like there was an endless supply of squad cars... And they had 3 cars in Officer Daisy Duke...