The Big Heist

Title screen

Season 1, Episode 8
Original Air Date: 30 March 1979
Directed by: Bob Claver
Written by: Bruce Howard
Created by: Gy Waldron

Plot Summary

Fred McCarren as Neil Bishop

Hazzard County meets its politest bandit when a masked man robs the County Commissioner in his courthouse office. The fella has to make his getaway in the passing General Lee, because the Sheriff has towed his vehicle to the Impound Yard. After the boys drive the robber out of town, he orders them out of their car, and tells them they'll get the General back unharmed and gassed up, since it's the least he can do. Bo gets him to agree to a car wash too.

While the boys are making yet another escape from Rosco (Boss assumed that the masked robber was Bo Duke, seeing as he only saw Luke at the wheel of the General as it passed), Daisy meets a fella at the Boar's Nest who gives her a down-on-his-luck story. She agrees not only to let him stay the night in the barn, but also to help him get his car back.

Bo and Luke make it to still site #2 (the one closest to the Boar's Nest) to talk to their uncle, only to be captured by the Sheriff, Enos and their employer, Boss Hogg, who says it was the boys who robbed him. While the boys are taken to jail, Jesse heads back to the farm with his truck. At the farm he meets Daisy and this fella, who says his name is Neil Bishop and that he's a chicken rancher from Clarion County. At Daisy's urging, however, Jesse heads to town with her car to try to figure how to help the boys out of jail.

Daisy, in the meantime, picks up on Neil's odd behavior (his itching to unload Jesse's pickup truck...which was where he stashed the money when he arrived at the Boar's Nest). She pulls the distributor cap from his car, and when he tries to leave the farm, she holds a shotgun to him. The tables turn when Jesse comes back to the farm. Neil gets the gun from Daisy, and Jesse arrives in time to confirm his suspicion based on the information Bo and Luke gave him at the jail, that the polite young man down on his luck was the same one that robbed Boss.

Bo and Luke shuck and jive Enos that they want to confess...and they end up tying him to a chair and hanging him on a wall.

They return to the farm to find Jesse and Daisy being held by Neil. Neil explains his reasons for taking Boss's money, telling them how Boss sold him a worthless tractor and ten chicken incubators not worth a damn. "You tell a good yarn," Jesse says, to which Daisy's adds "but you're still holding that gun." Realizing he had no reason to be holding the Dukes at bay, he throws the shotgun to Luke and the bag of money to Bo. He also tells them the bag contains "liquor money". Realizing that Neil stole Boss Hogg's illegal liquor money, the Dukes make a plan to help Neil out and clear own their names.

Regular Cast

• Tom Wopat as Luke Duke
• John Schneider as Bo Duke
• Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke
• Denver Pyle as Uncle Jesse
• James Best as Sheriff Rosco Coltrane
• Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg
• Ben Jones as Cooter
• Waylon Jennings as The Balladeer (voice)
• Sonny Shroyer as Enos

Guest Cast

• Fred McCarren as Neil Bishop
• Stuart Nisbet (as Stu Nisbet) as Harvey Essex
• Bill Meadows as Station Attendant
• Kristopher Marquis (as Kris Marquis) as Willis

• 
  Stuart Nisbet as Harvey Essex
• 
  Bill Meadows as Station Attendant
• 
  Kristopher Marquis as Willis

Crew

• Supervising Producer: Hy Averback
• Co-Produced by: Gy Waldron and Ralph Riskin
• Executive Producer: Paul R. Picard
• Executive Story Consultants: William Raynor and Myles Wilder
• Story Editor: Bruce Howard
• Associate Producers: Skip Ward and Albert J. Salzer
• Director of Photography: Dominic Palmieri (as Dominick R. Palmer, Jr.)
• Art Director: Kirk Axtell
• Title Song Composed and Sung by: Waylon Jennings
• Music Performed by: The Waylors
• Music Produced by: Richie Albright
• Unit Production Manager: Albert J. Salzer
• First Assistant Director: Bill Baker
• Second Assistant Director: Fred Wardell
• Second Unit Director: Paul Baxley
• Second Unit Director of Photography: George Koblasa
• Second Unit First Assistant Director: Wendy Shear
• Film Editor: Russell Livingstone (as Russ Livingstone)
• Music Editor: Abby Marable
• Sound Editing: Angel Editorial, Inc.
• Sound: Andrew Gilmore (as Andy Gilmore)
• Set Decorator: Joanne MacDougall
• Property: Daniel Stoltenberg (as Dan Stoltenberg)
• Special Effects: Michael Wood
• Makeup: Jeff Angell
• Hair Stylist: Monique DeSart (as Monique DeSart Brandt)
• Men's Costume Supervisor: Joseph Roveto
• Women's Costume Supervisor: Darlene Engle (as Darleen Engle)
• Additional Music by: Fred Werner
• Archery Equipment and Program Consideration Furnished by: Martin Archery
• Casting: Vivian McRae
• Location Facilities Provided by: The Burbank Studios
• A Paul R. Picard Production in Association with Warner Bros Television

Own The Big Heist

The Big Heist
Previous Episode: Luke's Love Story	Season 1 Episode 8	Next Episode: Limo One is Missing