LucasDucas

To be honest, I didn't care for the Reunion film at all. I didn't think the storyline fit. It seemed a little far fetched that all three cousins left town and when the Reunion occurred, in the beginning they acted like they hadn't seen or talked to one another in years. That's not how it would have went down because the Dukes were too close. I realize that Ben Jones went on to become a US Senator, but in the show crazy Cooter leaving his garage after all his years in Hazzard to become a senator was a bit much as well. I agree that Luke would have more than likely taken over at the family patriarch because he was always the sensible one and Daisy's character had changed a little too much as well.

I enjoy a variety of movies. This is just a short list of some of my favorites: The Outlaw Josie Wales, African Queen, Dazed and Confused, almost any Adam Sandler film, Shawshank Redemption, Dead Poets Society, psychological thrillers ....

Congrats!

I would check www.amazon.com. I believe you can find at least some of his country stuff there. I know you can find all of the newer jazz oriented stuff there. You might want to try Ebay as well, they usually have a lot of hard to find things there. Good luck to you.

Everyone in Japan is in my thoughts and prayers.

I think that is one of the reasons I was always a big Luke fan. He had a lot more of a quiet cool about him than Bo who was much more of a kid (not an insult to Bo, it was his character as the younger cousin). Luke had some great one liners.

She was a terrific actress and though she had a recurring role on the Dukes, she had a very impressive resume. I have often said people underestimate what good actors the cast of Dukes was. The older characters had an impressive resume before the Dukes and then consider the success John has had in television since the Dukes and music and the success Tom has had on Broadway and music, serves all the proof you need.

There is no question Jessica Simpson is a beautiful young lady and perhaps with the right script it could have worked, but I thought the movie was horrible and I tried to be open-minded about it. To me, it played away from every one of the Dukes strengths. First, it didn't promote the sense of family the Dukes was always about. Second, the Rosco character added very little to the movie and the Boss character wasn't that great either. As we all know, James Best and Sorrell Booke were scene stealers in the series. Third, the Duke boys characters weren't well-written either. I realize that in the original series Bo was a little more naive than Luke and Luke was the smart one, but they dumbed down the Bo character way too much. Other than wanting to always race the General Lee, I am not sure what the purpose of the character was for. In the movie, the Luke character may have been a little bit smarter than the Bo character, but definitely dumbed down as well and the original Luke while certainly fond of the ladies, was a lot more picky than Bo in the series, the Johnny Knoxville character was way too much of a womanizer. I am not saying that the people in the movie aren't good actors, but the movie simply wasn't good. I suppose you could make an argument in some ways, that the Jessica Simpson version of Daisy Duke, was a little bit closer to the original series than the other characters, but still it wasn't even close.

Good thoughts, Gray Rider. I definitely could see Charlie Daniels in that role. Danny Devito is a good choice as well for the Boss Hogg role, but considering his tremendous success as a director, I doubt a new Dukes series could get him.

This looks like a great matchup. I have placed a friendly and very small wager on the Packers.

Packers 27 Pittsburgh 20. This is a classic matchup and this was a fun season in the NFL, very unpredictable.

That is one thing that I think people overlook. Obviously Boss and Rosco are a great comedy team, but there is a ton of humor with all the characters of the show. Some of the dialogue is laugh out loud humor. There are some great lines in the show.

I also believe that the cast of the Dukes, if you believe John and Tom, weren't getting many royalities on Dukes merchandise. I remember as a kid having a General Lee remote control car (never could make it jump like I wanted it to, lol). It is interesting that as much as I love the Dukes there did seem to be a lot of contractual issues and who knows who was really at fault. James Best missed a few episodes because of a lack of dressing room space based on what he said and I heard once that Sorrell Booke had some issues as well that were quickly resolved. Ben Jones (Cooter) missed some episodes as well over whether Cooter should be clean shaven or not. It is hard to know the truth or really speculate but there is no question there were some problems. Usually during the hiatus time of a television series is when writers are working on some of the scripts for a new season so I would suspect many of the Coy and Vance ones (at least the first few) were written thinking John and Tom would be there. As a kid, I hated the Coy and Vance episodes (change is hard for people, lol), so in hindsight and at that age I was unwilling to give Coy and Vance a chance. It wasn't there vault. I think one of the mistakes writers made was to make the characters exactly like Bo and Duke. Coy was the younger, a little bit wilder one that was girl crazy and Vance was the slightly older, more level headed one who got the Dukes out of a lot of messes. What is interesting is even though I was thrilled when Tom and John returned, one of the arguments was better scripts. In watching the reruns on CMT as an adult, I noticed there does seem to be a slight drop (the show is now in 7th season reruns) in the number of car chases, but (and this happens when shows get older) I actually think the quality of scripts was on the decline and some of the jumps the General made looked so fake with the model cars and it got kind of ridiculous. They made it where the General Lee probably could have jumped over the Empire State Building. There were an increasing number of episodes that made it hard to maintain a "suspension of disbelief" as well. When Coy and Vance joined the show the ratings took a big drop and though it slightly rebounded when John and Tom returned, the show never fully recovered. I do wonder if they had never left if the Dukes (because the ratings wouldn't have dropped so quickly) would have stook around for another season or two. Good topic.

I am curious to see how well this movie does. The modern day versions of Superhero films are always hit and miss in my opinion. The Batman films were a mixed bag, I love the first two Spiderman films (the third was so-so), and disliked the Hulk films (which was disappointing because as a kid it didn't get any better than the old Incredible Hulk series and the Dukes)

My bad! I meant to put my prediction of Green Bay over Atlanta in my last post. Maybe I just had a premonition. Atlanta is a team on the rise and I think they have a winner in Matt Ryan but are still a year or two away. Their owner Arthur Blanks seems serious about building a winner and it's good to see Atlanta supporting the Falcons so strongly. Atlanta (no offense to anyone) has always been such a frontrunning town. It also amazed me that even when the Braves were dominating every year how few games they sold out, and the Hawks get no support at all. Anyway, my prediction for the Championship games: Green Bay over Chicago-Sometimes it isn't about who is the best team overall but who is the hottest. The Packers are on a roll and have a more explosive offense. You have two good defenses battling each other but I think Green Bay can outscore them. Pittsburgh over the NY Jets-I am going to keep running my mouth about the Jets and they are going to end up winning the Superbowl with my luck, lol. The Jets play hard and are more than capable of giving Pittsburgh trouble, but though people want to talk about Tom Brady and Peyton Manning (who are both great quarterbacks), you can make a solid argument that Big Ben is the most clutch quarterback in the league. The guy already has two titles and I could see Pittsburgh easily winning another.

That would be cool. I vaguely remember the show and recall when it was on watching a few episodes but sadly I don't remember much of anything about it. I remember being glad that he had written into his contract that if the show didn't run for a certain amount of time he could go back to the Dukes. I recall seeing a show one time where the characters who played the Ropers on Three's Company were reluctant to leave Three's Company for their own series, but it was only written in that they could come back if the show didn't last a year. Much to their bad luck, it ran one and a half seasons, and Three's Company had hired Don Knotts (great actor so I mean no disrespect but I always preferred the episodes with the Ropers) and even though the show lasted barely past a year, they were not allowed to come back.

For those of you watching the Dukes on CMT. I believe they started what was the seventh and final season of the show last night. From what I remember growing up the show really showed its age during this season (it still had its moments, but they were running out of ideas) One of the things I noticed as a Luke fan that though he was my favorite character growing up, they really didn't change or explore his character that much (or the others either for that matter). He was always the one who came up with the plans etc which was vital, but with the show aging (their use of model cars for the jumps this season were obvious, lol), I think it would have been interesting to show some development in the character especially with Luke being the oldest.

I am a huge NFL fan and I must say this is been one of the more unpredictable seasons in a long time. The NFL wanted parity and they have gotten that. The Seattle win last week was one of the best upsets in a long time. My picks and thoughts for this weekend: Pittsburgh over Baltimore- This has become as good of a rivalry as any in the league. It comes down to the fact that though Baltimore's defense is usually stellar, they just don't score many points. The Steelers are used to the Ravens still of play and though it will likely be low scoring, Pittsburgh has more offense than Baltimore has defense. Chicago over Seattle-I am actually rooting for the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs because my Titans didn't make it, but if the Packers aren't going to win it, I am rooting for Seattle. Last week was a tremendous upset and I loved the emotion of the game. There was at atmosphere you don't always seem to get at the pro level these days (though I love the NFL) and the upset just felt good. However, it is hard for me to envision Seattle being able to repeat that two weeks in a row. Green Bay over Chicago-this is potentially the best game of the four because it could go either way. Green Bay found a running game last week with Starks. This week the Bears will be prepared for that so the Packers will need something new. I am believer in Aaron Rodgers and thought it was ridiculous last week when they were claiming for him to be an upper elite quarterback he needed to win a playoff game. This is only his third year to start, the Packers were rebuilding his first year, and last season he threw for over 400 yards. It wasn't his fault they gave up over 50 points to the Cardinals. My only concern is despite having some good receivers as a whole, they seem to drop a lot of passes in key moments. Jay Cutler is streaky. I think the Packers will pressure him but if he is in one of his "zone" moments he is capable of having those games where he can light you up. New England over New York-I would love to see the Jets win this one, but it isn't going to happen. The Colts gave the game to the Jets last week. Tom Brady can light it up in any enviornment and I just don't think the Jets can match points with them. I think Sanchez has potential but he is still a year or two away from being able to win on his own. The only hope is for them to run the ball VERY WELL against New England and keeping Brady off the field like they did Peyton Manning. The Pats defense is better than the Colts defense so it is hard seeing that.

I remember when he made an appearance on Alice and I want to say Enos was with him as well. Alice was a funny show (particularly the early seasons with Flo) and at this point, I think they were looking for ways to increase ratings and the Dukes were a hot show for CBS at that time, so they did a crossover episode.

That is why I seldom agree with the critics. Not everything has to be Shakespeare. If I am watching an Adam Sandler film I basically know what I am getting. It might not always have some great life changing statement to make but there is a place for good, fun television and there is a place for more serious themed shows as well. The Dukes were a family show that was a cross between a rural comedy (almost Andy Griffith like) and an action/adventure show. What is great about the Dukes is adults could watch it and be entertained, yet it was safe for children to watch as well. Not many shows can find that balance. In terms of acting skills, some people might not know or overlook the fact that the older cast in particular did a ton of things before the Dukes. Sorrell Booke was a great actor and James Best did a ton of things as well. Denver Pyle was arguably the best known of the three and all three had great acting pedigrees. Considering John has gone on to do a lot of other television work, and Tom is considered one of the best performers on Broadway apparently someone things Bo and Luke went on to become pretty good actors as well.

This is its second season. It's a good mix of action with a little bit of humor thrown in. It should be on Fox tommorrow, give it a shot and let me know what you think.

I don't think it is doing that well in the ratings, but it is a good balance of action with a little bit of subtle humor thrown in. Any other fans out there?

I think,if there is an issue with Coy and Vance, wasn't in the acting ability (Tom, John, and Cathy were both relatively unknown at the time), but the fact that the producers essentially changed actors and names but made the characters almost identical. Coy was basically the younger, slightly wilder one and Vance was the older, more rational one that came up with most of the ideas. In some ways it was an insult not only to Tom and John, but to the fans as well and it also did a disservice to the actors playing Coy and Vance. Fans were never going to like them because their characters were too much the same.

Sometimes I think it can come across that way but I have always gotten the impression Tom is quite proud of his days on the Dukes but doesn't want his entire career defined by it which I understand. Many actors get typecasted in roles they have. It doesn't mean they aren't proud of it, but after a series is over, they often want to do other things. John may seem more vocal about the Dukes, but part of it (and this is no potshot at John) is because the two have had different careers. You can make the argument that John's career peaked with the Dukes. He has mainly stuck to television and had other great, very successful roles but he is primarily remembered for his time with the Dukes. Tom, on the otherhand, is more of a household name on Broadway. He has won a Tony and been nominated for others and is considered a bigtime performer doing live theater. Musically both recorded some country albums with some success, but John stopped recording and Tom now does music completely different than his country years. There is no right or wrong answer. Great question!

People often underestimate (great topic by the way) how difficult it is to actually be cast in a part. Hollywood is a very competitive business and sometimes even big name actors struggle to find parts. Factor in that all the younger cast members of the Dukes were basically unknown (James Best, Sorrell Booke and Denver Pyle all had some success before the Dukes) and many unknown actors go to tons of auiditions before they are offered a part. Sometimes they will read for multiple parts. You just never know with television, quite often people initially have another actor or actress in mind for a part or their idea for a character changes. I remember seeing recently that Henry Winkler (The Fonz) was only intended to be a minor character in Happy Days and he ended up being the star. You just never know.