Saturday Morning Dukes Cartoon

[RogerDuke]

I'm having so much fun with the episode reviews I decided to do all 20 cartoon episodes as well. I'll post the first two later today. It's a bit sad that the tradition of Saturday morning cartoons is gone but it sure was a fun era while it lasted. 

[HossC]

I look forward to your cartoon reviews, Roger. I haven't watched them since I first bought the DVDs several years ago. It's about time I dug them out again!

[RogerDuke]

These cartoon episodes all start and end the same way. Uncle Jesse is back at the farm with his pet, Smokey the racoon. Jesse is reading letters sent by the Dukes. The letters let him know how their trip is going as they race Boss, Rosco and Flash around the world.  Unless Jesse says something vital to the plot, I will not mention in every review that he was on at the beginning and end. The cartoons start out with Coy, Vance and Daisy but later Coy and Vance are replaced with Bo and Luke. These reviews will be much shorter than the regular episode reviews. 

 The first episode is titled "Put up Your Dukes"

Coy, Vance and Daisy are driving the General Lee through Australia. Boss, Rosco and Flash are driving Boss's Cadillac there also. The Dukes meet their cousin Willie who has a prized kangaroo named Benny who is a champion boxer, defeating any human he faces. Boss knows that Benny is valuable so he hires two bad guys to steal him but the two double cross Boss and take his Cadillac along with Benny. In a scene from "Find Loretta Lynn" Benny drops posters of himself along the road to leave a trail. Daisy, Coy, Vance, Boss, Rosco, Willie and Flash all squeeze in the General and follow the posters to a mine where the thieves are hiding. Inside the mine, Flash sniffed Benny out and he got rescued. 

Edited November 17, 2020 by RogerDuke

[RogerDuke]

Jungle Jitters 

Coy, Vance and Daisy were low on gas in the middle of the South American jungle and when they stopped to get the gas can out of the trunk it was gone and they realized Boss stole it. They were forced to take a short cut near a volcano that was starting to come to life but they got held hostage by natives. Boss and Rosco later got caught as well and all were thrown in the same secured area. After they all broke loose, Rosco and Boss stole a giant diamond off one of the natives big idols and the pair got captured again. They were going to be sacrificed to the volcano but the Dukes saved them. They all hopped in Boss's car and drove to the top of the volcano just in time to stop the General Lee from being sacrificed. The General jumped over the mouth of the volcano and so did Rosco in the Cadillac with Boss and Flash. They all got away safely. 

[RogerDuke]

The Dukes of Venice 

The Dukes stopped to snap some pictures of the Roman Coliseum on their way to Venice and the General Lee got stolen. The thieves then robbed a bank in order to finance an even bigger job they had planned in Venice. Boss stopped at the bank later and told the Italian police it was the Duke boys even though he knew better. The thieves used their money to buy an exact replica of the priceless Marco Polo's Teapot. They stole the real Teapot and put the fake in its place but a museum employee discovered the phoney right away. The thieves got away with the real Teapot but eventually got caught by police boats and a floating General Lee that the Dukes got back. The police arrested the thieves and even arrested Boss and Rosco until they got everything sorted out. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by RogerDuke

[RogerDuke]

Morocco Bound 

The Dukes were planning on taking a ferry from Gibraltar to north Africa to go to a race in Cairo but Boss tricked them about the departure time so they were late. Daisy jumped the General onto the moving ferry though. At a hotel, Rosco got his bag mixed up with another guy and before you know it, Rosco was making wishes to the genie that squeezed out of the bottle he found in the bag. He told Boss what happened so Boss wished for a billion dollars in gold. The gold was crushing Boss so Rosco wished it would disappear. Daisy then got the lamp without knowing what it was and the Dukes and Boss started racing across the desert. They were all caught by a gang of middle-eastern guys and tied up. It was Flash to the rescue, getting the lamp and wishing them free. Daisy got the lamp again and granted the genie his freedom. A magic carpet ride then brought the Hazzard folks back to their two vehicles and it was off to Cairo. 

[Spike]

17 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

I'm having so much fun with the episode reviews I decided to do all 20 cartoon episodes as well. I'll post the first two later today. It's a bit sad that the tradition of Saturday morning cartoons is gone but it sure was a fun era while it lasted. 

MeTV is bringing that Saturday morning tradition back in January , doing a two or three hour block of classic Looney Tunes and other classic cartoons that WB has acquired over the years. Not to threadjack but if you're a fan of classic cartoons WB has recently released some restored cartoons in hi-def on Blu-ray sets. But be wary some cartoons have been reformatted from their original 4.3 ratio to widescreen so you lose some of the visual gags.

[RogerDuke]

5 hours ago, Spike said:

MeTV is bringing that Saturday morning tradition back in January , doing a two or three hour block of classic Looney Tunes and other classic cartoons that WB has acquired over the years. Not to threadjack but if you're a fan of classic cartoons WB has recently released some restored cartoons in hi-def on Blu-ray sets. But be wary some cartoons have been reformatted from their original 4.3 ratio to widescreen so you lose some of the visual gags.

That is awesome! Three cheers for MeTV. When I first saw the post I thought it said MTV. That's the music channel that doesn't have any music. I guess it's a sign of the times. CMT doesn't much music either even though their M stands for it too. The educational channels don't have any educational shows and the news doesn't have news anymore (only opinions). 

[HossC]

6 hours ago, Spike said:

But be wary some cartoons have been reformatted from their original 4.3 ratio to widescreen so you lose some of the visual gags.

I wonder how many have been edited for political correctness/modern tastes. Some of the older cartoons contain pretty bad racial stereotyping, and others have had smoking edited out (I see Boss still has his cigar in the Dukes cartoons). Personally, I'm happy to put up with a warning before watching them so long as they're left untouched - then I can decide if I want to proceed. When the audience is primarily children, different rules apply.

[Spike]

6 hours ago, HossC said:

I wonder how many have been edited for political correctness/modern tastes. Some of the older cartoons contain pretty bad racial stereotyping, and others have had smoking edited out (I see Boss still has his cigar in the Dukes cartoons). Personally, I'm happy to put up with a warning before watching them so long as they're left untouched - then I can decide if I want to proceed. When the audience is primarily children, different rules apply.

MeTV airs Beverly Hillbillies episodes with the Confederate flag in them and Three Stooges shorts making fun of Nazi's so I'd imagine that the cartoons should be unedited though they might have an offensive warning before them.

[RogerDuke]

37 minutes ago, Spike said:

MeTV airs Beverly Hillbillies episodes with the Confederate flag in them and Three Stooges shorts making fun of Nazi's so I'd imagine that the cartoons should be unedited though they might have an offensive warning before them.

I was watching a Beverly Hillbillies episode earlier this year and the whole time the credits ran at the end there was a carton of Winstons in the corner for an advertisement. It was one of the old black and white BHs. Since it has been illegal to advertise cigarettes for 50 years or so I wondered if that was legal. I do wonder if they will make it legal to even show a cigarette on TV someday. 

[RogerDuke]

The Secret Satellite 

Coy, Vance and Daisy are in the Arctic, trailing Boss, Rosco and Flash in an icy snowy race. They caught up with them and they all heard on the radio that an American satellite had crashed nearby and there was a $100,000 reward for its return. An Eskimo boy named Kiko found it and Boss traded a bag of jelly beans for it. The Dukes then met Kiko and, after a blizzard hit, they ended up in his igloo for shelter and were then joined by Boss, Rosco and Flash. Russian operatives showed up and tied up everybody and took the satellite. The Dukes ended up getting it back but then Boss and Rosco stole it from them and also took the General Lee. When they ran out of gas, the Russians caught them but the Dukes and Kiko showed up on a dog sled and ended up with the satellite. The reward money was used to build a school for Kiko's poor village. 

-- This is episode #4 and the 01s on the General Lee's doors are still blue so I guess they will stay that way for all 20 episodes. 

-- When Boss gave the boy the jelly beans he said they were from the American President. At the time Ronald Reagan was in office and he loved jelly beans. 

[RogerDuke]

The Dukes of London 

Boss and Rosco were stuck at a railroad crossing because a train had stopped. While there, Flash got out and met Regina, the Queen's Royal Bassett Hound. The two were look-a-likes and the next thing you know, Regina left with Rosco while Flash was left behind. The Dukes (of Hazzard that is) came along and picked Flash up but the Queen's assistant thought they had dognapped Regina and after a police chase they were caught and thrown in jail. Now, Flash was with the Queen and Regina was with Rosco but nobody knew the difference. Vance got one phone call in jail and called the Queen, who mistakenly thought he was a different kind of Duke and ordered the Dukes freed. Back at Buckingham Palace, Flash got away and the British press reported Regina was missing. Boss realized the dogs had been switched and called the Palace about a possible reward but while he was talking, Regina hopped in a double-decker bus and on the next stop, found Flash. The two jumped in a hot air balloon. Vance shot it down with an arrow and the two hounds ended up on a moving speed boat but Coy and Vance rescued them and then Flash and Regina were returned to their rightful owners. 

-- Hmmm, a sequel would have been nice.....a litter of puppies a few weeks later

[HossC]

2 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

-- This is episode #4 and the 01s on the General Lee's doors are still blue so I guess they will stay that way for all 20 episodes.

The continuity and accuracy in the cartoons is pretty poor. I posted a few inconsistencies here. In 'The Dukes of London', the policeman who stops the Dukes with what he thinks is the Queen's dog has a pink mustache (it wasn't colored in) for part of the scene.

49 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

Boss and Rosco were stuck at a railroad crossing because a train had stopped. While there, Flash got out and met Regina, the Queen's Royal Bassett Hound.

-- Hmmm, a sequel would have been nice.....a litter of puppies a few weeks later

That would be a railway crossing in England, Roger.

The Queen famously keeps and breeds corgis, but I suppose that wouldn't make such a good story.

Aren't Flash and Regina both female? Where would the puppies come from?

[RogerDuke]

5 hours ago, HossC said:

 

Aren't Flash and Regina both female? Where would the puppies come from?

ROFL......ummmm.......woops! ROFL again. My mistake. In my defense, Flash was called a boy at first. I'm going to pay attention to see if Rosco is calling her a girl or not in these cartoons. Watching these cartoons is like watching them all over again since I don't remember too much about them. The Christmas one is the only one I remember well because I've seen it often. This London episode has been my favorite of the 6 I've seen so far. BTW Hoss, London Canada is just across Lake Erie from me. 

Edited November 21, 2020 by RogerDuke

[HossC]

9 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

This London episode has been my favorite of the 6 I've seen so far. BTW Hoss, London Canada is just across Lake Erie from me. 

Despite other inaccuracies, the British police were driving recognizable Rover SD1 cars. With their 3.5 V8, they were iconic police vehicles in the '80s, especially in their more common "jam sandwich" livery (the white cars with an orange stripe down the middle looked like a jam (or jelly in the US) sandwich). You can see one here.

Someone once suggested that I could see a band when their tour visited London. It turned out to be the one in Canada!

[RogerDuke]

The Greece Fleece

While the Dukes were running out of gas on their way to Athens, Boss called an old friend of his, Big Nick Metropopolous. Nick was the boss of Gravias City. Nick used his lawman and framed the Dukes and threw them in jail. While the Dukes were escaping through the drain tunnels Boss and Nick were making another deal. Nick wanted to give Boss his niece's (Malina) dowery of gold coins in exchange for Boss marrying her. Boss agreed. The Dukes got recaptured and put back in jail. Malina came to see them and they told her Boss was already married. She didn't want to marry him anyways. Her true love was a man named Stavros. She helped the Dukes to break out and in the end, her and Stavros were the two that got married. 

-- I have to admit, this was an unusual plot for a kid's cartoon. 

[RogerDuke]

The Dukes of India 

Boss called his friend the Grand Brazier and made a deal to slow down the Dukes so he could win the race. The Brazier hired guys to trap the General Lee in a tiger pit. Then we learn that Vance has a look-a-like, Prince Ahmad, they could pass for twins. Ahmad was due to be promoted to Sultan the next day and was the nephew of the Brazier. If he didn't show up for the ceremony, the Brazier was next in line to get his weight in jewels so the Brazier had Vance locked up, thinking it was Ahmad. Ahmad switched places with Vance but all 3 Dukes got caught and all 4 got locked up. Ahmad then used an elephant to free them all and they went to the ceremony. When they got there they found Boss disguised as the Brazier to get his weight in jewels. Boss and the Brazier didn't get away with their schemes. Ahmad ended up becoming Sultan. 

[RogerDuke]

The Dukes in Urbekistan

In the middle of the Urbekistan wilderness, Coy, Vance and Daisy run across Debra Farr of London who is looking for her missing geologist father, who was last known to be searching for a legendary diamond mine in a valley. The area is so dangerous that even her guides ran away from the wild animals and men who dress like animals, known as the Urbeks. The Dukes found the mine with her, and inside, located her father, who had just dug up a basket full of diamonds. Boss and Rosco came in later and when the Urbeks showed up Boss ended up with the diamonds but lost them and the race around the world started up again. 

[HossC]

3 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

In the middle of the Urbekistan wilderness...

I don't understand why the writers invented a country called Urbekistan. If they wanted it to be fictional, why change just one letter of Uzbekistan? Then again, maybe someone misread/mistyped the title and nobody spotted the error.

[RogerDuke]

The Dukes in Hong Kong

Boss tricked the Dukes into thinking his Cadillac was out of commission so they would let their guard down. He had a hydra-boat rigged up under his car and took a shortcut through the water. Boss went to his acquaintance, Lo Phat Chow where he met pirate Captain Crikey. Boss made a deal with Crikey who sent his thugs to slow down the General Lee by capturing it in a giant net and putting the Dukes in cells on his ship, the Sea Scum. They escaped and swam to shore and got the General back. Crikey then took Boss, Rosco and Flash out to sea with intent to kill them. The Dukes rigged up a paddle/sail boat under the General. Just as Rosco and Boss were walking the plank above circling sharks, Flash hit a lever that sank the ship. The pirates swam to shore and the Dukes rescued Boss, Rosco and Flash. 

[RogerDuke]

4 hours ago, HossC said:

I don't understand why the writers invented a country called Urbekistan. If they wanted it to be fictional, why change just one letter of Uzbekistan? Then again, maybe someone misread/mistyped the title and nobody spotted the error.

That is a good point Hoss. It must have been an error. They weren't shy about using other real places. The spelling hasn't changed since the early 80s has it? 

[HossC]

54 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

The spelling hasn't changed since the early 80s has it? 

As far as I can see, it became the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (part of the USSR) in 1924, and then the independent Republic of Uzbekistan in 1991, so while it may have been the Uzbek SSR when the cartoon was made, there was never a spelling with an R in place of the Z.

[RogerDuke]

5 hours ago, HossC said:

As far as I can see, it became the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (part of the USSR) in 1924, and then the independent Republic of Uzbekistan in 1991, so while it may have been the Uzbek SSR when the cartoon was made, there was never a spelling with an R in place of the Z.

It's a good thing the episode title didn't cause any international incidents. It was a sensitive time period back them. That would have been terrible if a Dukes of Hazzard cartoon would have triggered WW III. 

[RogerDuke]

The Dukes of Scotland

When driving past Loch Ness, Daisy spotted the monster but Coy and Vance didn't. The 3 Dukes went to a castle inherited by their friends from Hazzard, June and Billy Bob Steward. They, and their unfriendly servants, claimed the castle was haunted by the ghost of Angus McCavish, who had gone missing centuries ago while hunting for the monster. Boss, Rosco and Flash came to the castle too. Daisy was the first to see Angus and later Rosco saw him. Boss and Rosco then found a huge pile of British money and loaded it in his Cadillac. In the morning the Stewards came up missing and a servant, Mrs. Murdock claimed the monster took them. The Dukes found out someone was faking the ghost with modern technology to scare people away and also found a printing press where money was being counterfeited. Daisy got kidnapped and Mrs. Murdock and her partner said they'd kill her and the Stewards if the boys didn't get the money back from Boss, who had already left. After bringing the money back they encountered Detective McDougall and the police. McDougal had been working undercover as a butler. Mrs. Murdock and her partner were arrested. When the detective showed them how the fake, mechanical Loch Ness monster worked the real one attacked it. 

-- What a great episode...best cartoon yet...it had a bit of a Scooby-Doo feel to it. 

-- Hey Hoss, there were two scenes where there was a closeup of the one pound note. Except for the crossed Queen's eyes, how real do they look? The scenes are when the Dukes find the printing press and at the end when they take the money from Boss.