Brian Coltrane

Every day at HazzardNet is Sadie Hogg Day! Mufn and MaryAnne really run the place; I'm just the talking sock puppet. Hmm. Sock Puppet Day....

Sorry, we didn't mean for that to be an April Fool's! I plain forgot about it and I'm thinking some other folks did too.

Just found out that the price goes up by $5.00 tomorrow. Not a heart attack, but five bucks is five bucks. And in keeping with our policy of promoting ALL things Dukes of Hazzard, lemme remind ya that "Hazzard Comes to Galax" has an admission fee of $10, (kids $5) and that shindig is one-day only on June 2nd. If you missed our last newsletter (shame, shame...) you can check out this other shindig at the link here. Galax is including a stunt show by the Northeast Ohio Dukes. Whereas "Homecoming" does not have stunts planned for this year's event, thus far. Note that Hazzard Homecoming is organized and promoted and owned by Dukes of Hazzard cast member Ben Jones. Hazzard Comes to Galax has been organized and promoted by a couple of Dukes fans/local business owners and their event has quickly snowballed from a meet n' greet with Jimmie and Sonny a year ago, to the full-scale blowout they're putting on this summer. HazzardNet is neutral in all this - we suggest ya go to both events!

Don't forget, if you want the EARLY BIRD TICKET DISCOUNT for Hazzard Homecoming, you need to BUY NOW! Per Ben's site the early bird discount ticket price ENDS in 13 hours! One day pass is $15, Two-day pass is $20, plus each ticket has a couple bucks transaction fee. Go to CootersPlace.com for more info.

This inteview touches on John's feelings about the success of "October Baby" and also mentions his Dukes days. What stuck out about this interview though, is how John wisely handles controversial topics. In this day and age of hot-headed, bombastic opinions, his take is refreshingly cool. Hollywood Reporter Interview w/John Schneider 03/29/12

Thanks for the images Hoss! I'm still wondering of the new GL models actually have the flag sticker in the box, even though they took pains to avoid showing it on the product photo. Looks like I have more editorial material for the next newsletter....

Welcome Country Rebel, make yourself at home!

Excellent question and good points, C.D. According to lore, the idea for a more "serious" Dukes script came from the producers, who thought it might win back the fading Dukes audience. Bruce Howard wrote the script for "Witness: Jessie Duke" but told producers he doubted the serious story would win back Dukes fans, since it was light-hearted hijinks that brought people to the show to begin with. Good as the script was, Bruce was correct; it wasn't enough to make the audience return, Coy and Vance were still intruders on sacred ground.

I haven't seen any model kits in at least a couple years, and they used to be all over the place where I live. Tho' there's a major hobby store about 20 miles away, I'll have to check it and see what I can find. I'm especially curious about this GL model with no rebel flag. I'm wondering if the flag decal is actually in the box, and just not shown on the outside photo in order to appease anti-flag zealots or what. Personally, I think Dukes fans are more likely to be offended by the missing flag, than non-Dukes fans would be about the flag being present...I mean, who's buying the models here? Mini-rant over. I need to get one of those Ghost of GL kits! That looks like it still has the flag, too. Maybe I'll find one in my Easter basket this year.

I'll take the soapbox for a minute since MaryAnne's not looking. I already vented my spleen in the last Newsletter with an editorial about the whole NASCAR snub of the General Lee. But I wanna respond to C.D. here about the NAACP a little more. First, a lot of things the NAACP does, are positive. But they have a mission against he rebel flag. It was the NAACP that put enough pressure against the State of Georgia, some umpteen years ago, that Georgia altered their state flag to appease them. That powerful victory set a precedent that continues today.The NAACP will never cease it's attack on the rebel flag. In fact I remember some scuttlebutt years ago about a John and Tom concert that was cancelled because the NAACP called up the city and said they'd boycott the town or something if there was a General Lee on that theater stage. My memory on this is sketchy, but I wrote the homepage article about it for HNet years ago, so you'd think I'd remember. I can't recall if the NAACP thing was disproven or if they refused to comment or what. Anyway. I have a rebel flag as an avatar here on HazzardNet. Someday, I may be personally be challenged by some zealot who's on a seek-and-destroy mission against the rebel flag. HazzardNet itself, as a whole, may someday find itself on the defensive about the display of the rebel flag in our logos and banners. But I understand why it upsets some people, so if any such confrontation arises, we'll handle it diplomatically. And if The Dukes of Hazzard comes under attack as a whole, we will not remain silent. How could we? Because we'd be next at HazzardNet; as would the Confederate General Lee fan club or any other group or website that inferred anything politically incorrect, such as the display of yon rebel flag, or the preservation of orange clunker cars adorned with said flag, or the promotion of a tv show that refuses, after all these years, to fade away into memory, and take the rebel flag with it. Yeehaa, my friends.

This is gonna be one heck of a bike! Can't wait to see if you get an A-Team or a KITT version going. There's no stopping ya!

Nobody gets mad too much around here. Except MaryAnne, she's the one you gotta watch out for.

Anybody going to see Ben Jones at the International Auto Showcase at the New York State Fairgrounds this weekend? If so, we'd greatly appreciate any photos you can share! Just a reminder, there are a slew of cast appearances coming up and many of these were listed in our March 2012 Newsletter. We will also do our best to post reminders on our Facebook page a good week or two before any event, and we try to keep the Forums updated here as well, but obviously in Ben's case I forgot to cross-post it on the Forums until the last minute.

CD95, ol' buddy, once yer 21 I'll se about that Guinness for ya. Hoss, great screen capture there. I can't get my video thang to pull from the Dukes animated DVD's. I can pull everything else tho'. You've never seen a leprechaun? I guess next year, you'll have to dress up like one and pull what this ol' codger did on my neck of the woods. I gotta admit there was an audacious brilliance to it.

Hoss, thanks for posting a working link. I shouldn't post stuff at 2 and 3 a.m. because I botch it half the time. Ya know, with gas prices going the way they are, I'm afraid we're gonna see more rough n' tumble classic cars hitting the market at lower prices. The good news is, it could be a good time to pick up a classic car on the cheap. The bad news is, I'm afraid more of them will become sacrificed for parts, if there's more money to be made in selling the pieces rather than the whole vehicle.

"Med O' Mufn." Heh heh! Roger, green milk is fun to celebrate with. You know what's fun too, is green mashed potatoes with dinner. I hope ya'll had a good one. I didn't do anything too crazy for St. Pat's. The weather was great, so I walked around town with friends and watched for lunacy. And I wasn't disappointed. Saw an older guy dressed up as a leprechaun - green suit, green top hat, short white beard, the works - and he was going up to women and giving them kisses on the cheek "for luck" and wishing them a happy St. Patrick's Day. And totally getting away with it. He looked like he was having the time of his life.

To all of our Irish friends, and to all of our honorary Irish friends, Happy St. Patrick's Day! May you have all good things in abundance. Cheers! Brian O'Coltrane

The Buy it Now price on ebay is $12,999.99, and the seller is considering offers. All the offers to date have been refused by the seller; something like 14 offers have come in so far. The car is on ebay for 5 more days as of the time of this post. This General Lee runs, has had some work done, but there's more to go. Check out all the photos on ebay. At first glance this General doesn't look too bad, but as you look through all the pictures you get a better idea of what you're dealing with. The photo I posted here is the best of the bunch, but don't let it fool you.

You guessed it - our next Fan of the Month will be announced in April. Meanwhile, Capt Redneck will continue to hold the title. As always we have a number of fans worthy of Fan of the Month, but the calendar got ahead of me again.

Another update for ya. Hazzard Homecoming 2012, produced by Ben "Cooter" Jones and the lovely Miss Alma, has confirmed the following cast members in attendance: Rosco - Jimmie Best Enos - Sonny Shroyer Cletus- Rick Hurst Daisy - Catherine Bach *** *** *** Will "Bo and Luke" be there? They've been invited, but have not yet confirmed their participation. Remember that discounted tickets are only avail through the end of March! Get 'em at Cootersplace.com .

Cool! It's pretty dang close to the moonshine mobile, could be fun to add to the collection. Thanks for the news and the pics!

Awright, I checked CMT's website today, and it still shows the Dukes on. The next airdate per CMT is March 13th at 2 a.m. eastern, for the episode, "Deputy Dukes." And lo, when I checked the national listings ( I use IMDB.com's TV listings, if ya'll are curious) this matches up. But I swear it wasn't there yesterday when I looked, because I went out as far as it goes, like two weeks, and worked my way back every dang day, and there wasn't any Dukes on CMT. I think they're just tryin' to drive me nuts. Anyhow, based up what I see today - no promises it'll be there tomorrow - the Dukes are still on CMT, after a few days break.

I've seen trends changing with the internet, especially with mobile devices and public wi-fi spots being so commonplace. We used to be slower in the summer, but the last couple years it seems to only slow down right before school starts and the first week or two in Sept. Then once everybody is settled into their routines, it's business as usual. I believe people spend less time on the net in the summer, overall, but they probably still long on just as often, making quick hits on social media and news sites, and checking email and such. We got a few weeks of Lent remaining, we'll have to see how things go after that. Good to hear from you again, bwgath!

Thanks for chiming in, ya'll. I'm gonna guess that Lent might have something to do with it, since other sites and pages seem to having a lull too, and it's pretty consistent with the timing. And the internet can become all-consuming, so I imagine there may be some wisdom to taking breaks from it. Myself, I'd find it very difficult to give up for days on end. I'd probably crack by 72 hours.

I'm afraid you might be right. I checked the national listings for the next two weeks, and I'm not finding it on CMT. I'll keep an eye open for news - but sometimes y'all are on top of things before I am. If anybody finds out something, feel welcome to post here.