The Balladeer
The idea of having a balladeer rather than a narrator in the TV series, and having country music legend Waylon Jennings play that role, came from the movie Moonrunners. Each story was a ballad, and the Balladeer took the viewers through that story, getting some of the best lines along the way. From the writers' point of view, having a balladeer provided a easy way to cover unshot scenes, or to get from point A to point B without having to write a page of dialogue for the actors. They simply let the Balladeer bridge the gap.
The implied storyline was that Waylon was a friend of Uncle Jesse, and that Waylon was forever in debt to the stranger who gave him enough money to buy another guitar after his had been stolen before his first professional gig.
TV Movies
For the TV movies, two more country music singers took on the role of the Balladeer. In The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! it was Don Williams, and in The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood it was Mac Davis. Unusually, Mac Davis' balladeer appears on screen a few times during the movie.
2005 Movie
It was another country music singer, Junior Brown, who played the Balladeer in the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie.
2007 Movie
In a break with tradition, the 2007 TV movie The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning used actor Gary Cole as the Balladeer.