James Best Archives - Page 3 of 5

Double Episodes of Dukes of Hazzard on CMT!

Now you have twice as many reasons to stay up all night. CMT is airing 2 episodes of “The Dukes of Hazzard” back-to-back every night this week! So go ahead and have a pot of coffee with dinner, and stay awake to catch these classics:

The Dukes in Hollywood – Wed 11/16 at 1:00 a.m.

Cool Hands Luke and Bo – Wed 11/16 at 2:00 a.m.

Go West Young Dukes – Thurs 11/17 at 1:00 a.m.

Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard – Thurs 11/17 at 2:00 a.m.

Danger on the Hazzard Express – Fri 11/18 at 1:00 a.m.

Sittin’ Dukes – Fri 11/18 at 2:00 a.m.

“Cool Hands Luke & Bo” offered fresh excitement late in the series, by getting the Dukes in a heap of trouble outside of Hazzard. For once, the bad guys aren’t coming to Hazzard from out of town – they’re at home in Osage County, and the Dukes just happen to wander over there. Nice goin’, boys. And can anyone listen to Daisy’s emotional protest without feeling sympathy? It’s rare we see Daisy in tears, even if just for a moment.

Another original idea is explored in “Go West Young Dukes.” It’s the closest thing to time-travel that we get in The Dukes of Hazzard, and it’s pulled off rather well. This Duke-ified western admits the remarkable resemblance between the current day Dukes and their storied ancestors, and from there, it’s just plain fun. It’s obvious that John Schneider and Tom Wopat relished the opportunity to do something different.

In the not-so-great department, “Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard” is ruined by the over-use of model cars doing stunts that do not look believable in the least. This episode had the potential to be a touching story about how a celebrity race car driver helps a sick little boy. Instead, it was overstuffed with poorly executed, unnecessary “action” scenes of matchbox cars flying over toy buildings and landscapes.

On the positive, Cale performs his role well, and Bo delivers a couple bad puns that are worth it just for Luke’s expression. James Best, as Rosco, delivers an ad-lib that we probably shouldn’t even mention. This scene has often been cut from the TNN and CMT airings to make room for more commercials. Good thing we YouTube’d it.

Thank You Veterans!

HazzardNet salutes our Veterans for their service to our country. The greatest act of patriotism, the greatest love for freedom, is demonstrated by those who have been in our Armed Forces.

To the generations who have served before us, thank you. To those who currently serve, thank you. Your valour has preserved our nation, and continues to protect us all.

HazzardNet would also like to give a personal salute to Dukes of Hazzard cast member James Best, who enlisted in the Army Air Corps during WWII. He became an M.P. while stationed in occupied Germany, courageously facing many ordeals.

Our sincere thanks to you, Jimmie, for your service.

Tom Wopat Lands Role in Quentin Tarantino Flick

Tom Wopat, known to us as Luke Duke from “The Dukes of Hazzard”, has landed the role of Marshall Gill Tatum in Tarantino’s 2012 movie, “Django Unchained.” This is a spaghetti n’ grits southern-western, promising bullets, havoc and revenge.

In a nutshell, freed slave Django teams up with his bounty-hunter mentor to rescue his enslaved wife from a sadistic plantation owner. The latter will be played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Tom is no stranger to modern westerns, having played Colonel Slocum in the 2010 movie, Jonah Hex. While Tom’s main bread n’ butter has been Broadway musicals for many years, he continues to obtain roles in movies and television. Additionally, he performs live concerts in an array of venues, receiving critical acclaim for his smooth, crooning jazz vocals.

The Django Unchained cast also includes actor M.C. Gainey, who portrayed Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the 2005 big-screen Dukes of Hazzard movie.

Another Hazzard connection is that director/screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was once a student of James Best’s camera technique school. In his book Best in Hollywood: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful, James remarked that he told Tarantino he was a “lousy actor” and that he should “take up writing.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Django Unchained is in pre-production status, and is expected to be in theaters by December 2012.

Hazzard Homecoming Made Fans Happy

The dour economy and an iffy weather forecast couldn’t keep Dukes of Hazzard fans away from Sperryville, Virginia. Thousands of fans traveled from around the country and the globe to be a part of Hazzard Homecoming this last weekend. Cast members who attended the event included promoter and organizer Ben Jones, along with James Best, Cathy Bach, John Schneider, Rick Hurst, and Sonny Shroyer. There were also plenty of General Lee’s to admire.

If you didn’t get to go to Hazzard Homecoming, you can get a feel for the event by watching this newscast by WYMT-TV. Reporter Steve Hensley interviewed a few cast members and talked to some fans at the event. One of the fans looks suspiciously like Paul Harrington of the Canadian Dukes. We’re pointing this out just to see if he’s paying attention.

Back to the reporter – Steve is the same reporter who shared the original WYMT video of the Dukes of Hazzard cast appearances in Hazard Kentucky in 1981. We featured this video in our June 5th article. This reporter has been very kind to Dukes fans, so we figure it’s only fair to give him a big salute here on HazzardNet. Steve, you might just be our Fan of the Month for September, at this rate!

At the end of the Hazzard Homecoming newscast, there’s a hint of “more to come” from Dukes cast members during the next Black Gold Festival in Hazard, Kentucky. We don’t know if that means they’re just going to recap the 1981 highlights, or if there’s direct cast involvement in this year’s event. We’ll try to find out!

25 Million Dollar Sheriff

Dukes of Hazzard fans may remember an episode called “10 Million Dollar Sheriff” where Rosco inherits money by mistake. Here in the real world, James Best, who played Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, is saying there’s been a mistake, alright, and Warner Bros. made it.

A lawsuit filed by Best against TimeWarner states that he has been shorted his share of royalties from Dukes of Hazzard merchandise. Specifically, merchandise that bears his likeness. Best was entitled to 5% of these proceeds. (is that 50% of 50% of 50%?) The dispute arises from the lack of accounting by Warner Bros; Best has received $175,000 in the past 30 years from merchandise sales – but he reckons he should have received 5 to 25 million.

Doing the math roughly, Warner is saying it made 3.5 million from Dukes merchandise with Best’s likeness – while Best is saying they probably made more like…a billion.

Best’s claim also includes a share of merchandise revenue from any Dukes product with Flash on it. Adding the dog to the show was his idea and he held 50% ownership of the pooch.

We took a quick look at what we could find with Sheriff Rosco’s likeness, and came up with the following: packaging for Mego action figures, back cover cases for Columbia House VHS tapes, the front artwork for The Dukes of Hazzard music CD, and DVD box back covers for Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 7. There were also a number of metal TV trays, wastebaskets, and…heck, we can’t count all the stuff Warner Bros authorized back in the day with Rosco on it.

But Warner Bros is going to have to count it, and disclose it, to settle this lawsuit. Best claims he made numerous efforts over the years to obtain fair accounting, without success.

Tom Wopat and John Schneider sued Warner Bros over merchandising revenue during the 5th season of the show. The dispute resulted in a temporary walkout by the two actors and the introduction of temporary replacement stars, Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer. It was eventually resolved to Wopat and Schneider’s satisfaction, and the replacements were given the heave-ho without fanfare.

We will keep you posted as this story continues. Who knows…maybe ol’ Rosco will get his “pension” here, after all! And what a pension it could be.