Officer Daisy Duke

Synopsis:

When Bo and Luke persuade Daisy to ask for a long-overdue raise at the Boar’s Nest, Boss responds by firing her. Back in town they look at the ‘Help Wanted’ board, but can’t find anything suitable, until Enos appears and suggests that Daisy applies to become a deputy.

With Rosco still away, Grady Byrd is promoted from his job as night watchman at the Hazzard County gravel pit. Boss is quick to show him a wanted poster for a pair of bank robbers that carries a $10,000 reward.

It’s not long before Enos spots the bank robbers, and, with un-Hazzardlike efficiency, Grady soon has them locked up. Meanwhile, still feeling guilty about Daisy’s firing, Bo and Luke help her prepare for her upcoming tests …

… and tackle the household chores.

Daisy sails through the tests and becomes a Hazzard deputy. Bo and Luke, still feeling protective of their cousin, keep Daisy out of danger by turning up to crimes and resolving situations before she can get there, like a free-fer-all brawl at the Boar’s Nest.

When Daisy finds out what’s been happening, she’s not happy and proceeds to berate Bo and Luke telling them to “back off”. Jesse is impressed with her spirit and comments “if my hands weren’t full I’d take my hat off to that girl.” Boss isn’t so happy about having a Duke in the police department, and puts Daisy on cleaning duties in the jail. While she’s there, the prisoners trick her into letting them escape. Daisy sets off in pursuit, closely followed by Boss and Grady, Bo and Luke, and Jesse and Cooter. Daisy picks up Enos along the way, but he sprains his ankle when they get out to chase the robbers on foot.

Enos even gets a quick kiss on the lips when he tells Daisy, “I really care for you,” before she heads off alone. Unfortunately, Daisy soon gets kidnapped, and the robbers try to fly off with her in a small plane they meet at Morgan’s Airfield.

Bo and Luke arrive just in time to halt their departure with some well-placed dynamite arrows. The FBI decorates Daisy for bravery and hand her the reward money, which she donates to the Hazzard Children’s Orphanage (minus the repair bill for the General). Boss decides that he’s had enough of Daisy as a deputy and gives her her old job back at the Boar’s Nest.

Commentary:

Sometimes the Dukes of Hazzard can seem timeless, and yet at others it feels like it was made a hundred years ago. When Enos puts up the job poster he says “This here Equal Opportunities law says that the sheriff’s office has gotta open jobs for ladies now, just like regular people.”

In Follow That Still Uncle Jesse says that Daisy is “the best shot in the family.” As if to prove the point, during the police test she gets five bullets through the same hole – a fact that’s only proved when Luke digs them out. In this and several other episodes the boys use Buck 110 pocket knives.

Highlights:

Daisy’s very first ticket is a parking fine for Boss. Unsurprisingly, Boss doesn’t take well to this, but eventually has to take it on the chin when Daisy offers to add “threatening a police officer” and “bribing a police officer” to his charge.

Trivia:

The town of Piru (previously seen in Luke’s Love Story) stands in for Hazzard in the chase scenes after the prisoners escape. It was also used as the setting for Hazzard in the 2007 movie The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning.

Stand-in sheriff Dick Sargent is probably best known for playing Darrin Stephens in the TV show Bewitched during the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. He took over the role when the original Darrin, Dick York, became ill.

–synopsis and vidcaps by Hoss (with info from The Dukes of Hazzard Unofficial Companion).