HossC

One of yesterday's episodes of Hart to Hart finally had another Dukes guest star - Robert Tessier who was Mitch Henderson in 'The Runaway'. The reason I quoted my previous post about it being funny is that the same episode featured another familiar face (to me) - Joseph Stern. When I looked him up, I realized that I knew him from a guest spot in M*A*S*H. As luck would have, out of all 251 episodes of M*A*S*H, his episode was on tonight! ETA. I'm just watching the next episode of M*A*S*H and it has another Dukes guest cast member from season 2 - William Watson who was Simon in 'Dukes Meet Cale Yarborough'.

I just wanted to go briefly off topic to mention former F1 and Champ/CART driver Alex Zanardi. It looks like the only other time I posted about him was in 2012. As a quick recap, Alex's open-wheeled racing career was cut short when he lost both legs in a Champ car race in 2001. Although he later spent four years driving touring cars in Germany, it was as a paralympic athlete where he really made a name for himself, winning four gold medals at hand-cycling. Last month he suffered serious head injuries when he collided with a truck while racing his handbike in Italy. Today I read that, after three operations, he's been brought out of his medically induced coma so that he can be transferred to a recovery facility. There's obviously a long way to go, but at least this seems like positive news.

It's funny how this guest stars thing goes. I watched another two episodes of Hart to Hart today and didn't spot anyone from Dukes. I didn't recognize any of the guest stars in the first episode ('Murder Between Friends'). The second, 'Cop Out', featured Burr DeBenning who was in a couple of episodes of CHiPs and The Fall Guy. It also had an early appearance of Markie Post who went on to be Terri Michaels in The Fall Guy. The Terri Michaels character basically took over from Samantha 'Big Jack' Jack who was played by Jo Ann Pflug (Helen Hogan in 'Route 7-11') - that's the closest I could get to a Dukes connection!

That guy who was reviewing episodes hasn't posted one for a couple of weeks - they normally stimulate a bit of conversation! I've recently mentioned a few occasions when I've spotted Dukes guest cast members in CHiPs, but this afternoon I got to see a couple of episodes from the first season of Hart to Hart which, like the first season of Dukes, dates from 1979. The first, 'Jonathan Hart Jr.', featured Michael Alldredge (Wheeler in 'People's Choice' and Coogan in 'The Ransom of Hazzard County') as a police lieutenant. The second, 'Death in the Slow Lane', also had a familiar face - Andra Akers (Molly Hargrove in 'Birds Gotta Fly'). Over the last couple of days it's been quite depressing looking up some of these actors on IMDb because I keep coming across people who've died young. In this case Michael Alldredge and Andra Akers were 56 and 58 respectively. It was even worse at the weekend when I checked out a cast member in CHiPs and found she'd been killed by an ex-partner just a month after the episode aired - she was just 22! I suppose it's the luck of the draw - the stars of Hart to Hart, Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers are now 90 and 77 respectively.

Roger, I forgot to ask how your daughter and her family are doing.

OK, this is newspaper reference rather than TV, but it fits here. This is from the front page of yesterday's edition of one of the UK's national newspapers, the Daily Star (thanks to my brother for the heads up). The Russian hackers are apparently known as "the Dukes", hence the headline.

I hope she gets better soon, Roger, and that you don't get any symptoms.

A few minutes from the end of 'The Meeting', Rosco crashes into the patrol car left outside the police station by the mobsters a few seconds earlier. The following exchange occurs between him and Boss: Boss: Rosco, you dang dodo brain, you did it again! Rosco: It is a mess, ain't it? I guess they'll cancel my insurance now. Boss: Because you can't see two feet. Rosco: I hit it, didn't I? Boss: I ought to hit you. Come on, let's go.

They have the National Health Service over in the UK, but not here. It costs €50-60 just to visit your doctor in Ireland (unless you have a medical card). Over in the UK, your hospital bills would be covered after an accident as long as you're entitled to free medical care (i.e. you're not there on holiday etc.).

I think it might have been in 'The Meeting' in season 2, but I'll have to check.

Over here you have to have a minimum of what's known as third party insurance, i.e. they pay for damages to the other party if the accident's your fault. If you get caught driving without insurance you can get fined up to €5,000 (about $5,670 at today's rates) and be nearly halfway to losing your driving license. The basic insurance usually gets bundled into a combined policy called third party, fire and theft. I remember a comedian back in the '80s saying that when he was offered this he'd replied something like "Don't be stupid, who's going to steal a car that's on fire?"

Welcome to HNet, mbkix. The only models I have are diecast. Andrew D Charger Chaser is our most recent model kit specialist (remember the 'Lee 1' wreck?), and Boss JD Hogg made a great General Lee a couple of years ago - see here.

Detroit

Sorry to hear about Charlie's passing, Roger. I know he was a big favorite of yours, although I didn't know (or possibly remember) that you'd been lucky enough to meet him three times. Until I joined HNet, I only knew Charlie for 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia', but now I know a few more of his songs. It's a shame that the music forums have gone quiet, because I used to enjoy being introduced to songs and artists that I didn't previously know. Here's two of your favorites, Roger: Charlie Daniels - (What This World Needs Is) A Few More Rednecks Charlie Daniels - Simple Man

Here are some screengrabs of the square: The episode has some other Dukes connections. Obviously Lynda Carter was in the 2005 movie. The cast also includes Tim O'Connor who was Thackery in 'Bad Day in Hazzard' and Doris Dowling who was Stacy Williams in 'Treasure of Hazzard' and Jenny in 'Go West, Young Dukes'. This Wonder Woman episode originally aired on February 2, 1979, which was the same day as the premiere of the second Dukes episode, 'Daisy's Song'.

Can I ruin a good NASCAR thread by saying that I'm looking forward the F1 season finally starting this weekend?

The video below has clips of that Wonder Woman episode interspersed with commentary on it. That's definitely Hazzard Square. I spotted the courthouse, gazebo and the street with Boss' house in the short bits that I watched. As an aside, a place I used to work had a customer named Linda (with an "i") Carter who I mainly dealt with on the phone. I eventually met her, and she wasn't wearing the outfit!

One of the bad guys, Harry Ray, was played by Royce D. Applegate. He was also a bad guy in a episode of CHiPs that I watched recently. The same episode also featured Dawn Jeffory who played Natasha in the season 5 Dukes episode 'Comrade Duke'. Royce D. Applegate had to wait until season 7 to return to Hazzard when he played the insurance adjuster in 'Enos and Daisy's Wedding'.

wrench

craft (as in hovercraft)

When talking to Rosco, Boss regularly refers to Lulu as his "fat sister", but Hortense is referred to as Lulu's "skinny sister". I don't think I've ever noticed that Rosco was left out of the relationship with Hortense. You learn something new about Dukes every day! Another highlight of this episode is the mid-air patrol car crash.

For those of you who've forgotten, Avery Schreiber was Wendel in 'Double Sting'. Another familiar name came up at the end of the episode above: "Produced and Directed by Rod Amateau". Rod also produced and directed several episodes of Dukes, and even appeared as Manny in 'Repo Men' - one of only two acting credits.

Here you go, Roger, this is the first episode:

As your Unofficial Companion will tell you, Cathy was actually away filming Circus of the Stars. This episode also contains the great Waylon line, "Friends, don't it make you kind of feel sorry for folks coming to Hazzard thinking it's just like any other place?"

I sat down to watch Dukes this evening, and it wasn't in the schedules. I wondered if it had been pulled, but the channel's Facebook page says they only had the rights to the first three seasons. I hope they get the other four, or at least repeat the first three.