Money to Burn - HazzardNet

Synopsis:

Burning money is against Boss’s religion. He also figures two million dollars is better than one million. So when a shipment of a million dollars in old bills from the Hazzard Bank is scheduled to be shipped to Atlanta to be replaced with new bills, Boss plans for the truck to have an “accident” and for the money to burn in the truck, thus prompting the insurance to pay the million to the Atlanta Federal Bank so that Hazzard can get the new bills (and Boss can keep the old bills for himself). He swaps the old money for old phone books and sends the truck and driver (his cousin Cletus) off on his merry way. The real money is then hid at the coffin works and in the style of “Ocean’s 11” Boss plans to bury the money until things cool over. Boss’s plan would work except…Bo and Luke come upon Cletus and the burning truck and help put out the fire, saving the one bag of old phone books that Boss wanted burned. Thinking the Dukes must have seen the phone books (which they didn’t) Boss figures to frame them for attempting to hijack the truck.

Commentary:

Like many of the early episodes, instead of starting out where Boss is trying to frame the Dukes, the Dukes just find themselves walking right into it, oblivious. Boss’s schemes would work, if it weren’t for Duke luck of being in the right place at the wrong time. Boss’s scheme in this particular episode really would have worked had Boss not panicked thinking the boys had noticed the phone books in the money bag.

Highlights:

The first episode to introduce us to Cletus. A face that would be welcomed back as a temporary deputy in the second season when Enos takes a leave of absense for his appendix, and then later in the third season when Enos goes off to LA.

The early episodes featured some of the best dialog between Jesse and Rosco. The exchange between the Sheriff and the Duke Patriach when Rosco stops at the farm is classic.

Rosco: “Now, Jesse, before you get riled, this only a social visit.”

Jesse: “Social only as long as it’s short.”

And then …

Rosco: “…and to see if you’ve seen any suspcious lookin’ characters runnin’ around heah…”

Jesse: “Only the one I’m lookin’ at.”

The ending of the coffin with the money in it being accidentally cremated also borrows from the Ocean’s 11 movie. But I doubt the movie had a sign above the cremation conveyor belt that said “Hogg’s Heavenly Blaze to Glory.”

Trivia:

Bo and Luke’s hearse looks a lot like the ambulance they drove in “Deputy Dukes.” Only black. LOL.

Hoke Howell, who plays the watchman that gets tossed in the coffin by Bo and Luke, played parts in several forgettable movies in the 1970’s but probably best qualified to be in the Dukes of Hazzard after being in the 1977 film Grand Theft Auto (tho’ he played a preacher LOL). He also had an uncredit bit part in the 1965 Jimmy Stewart movie Shenandoah which James Best and Denver Pyle both had parts in. He also played parts in several television shows including Happy Days, The Rookies and Bonanza. He had a repeat role on The Andy Griffith Show as Dud Wash.