Put Up Your Dukes!

Hey kids (of all ages), it's Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Many live-action TV programs got Saturday Morning Cartoon incarnations. I DREAM OF JEANNIE, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN, and HAPPY DAYS, just to name a few. THE DUKES OF HAZZARD (see my previous upload) was caught in that net as well.

Thing was, just as production of the animated series was about to begin, there was a contract dispute between the show's leads (mostly over their cut of the enormous merchandise business associated with their characters) which lead to them going on strike. The Suits figured they could just hire another pair of actors to play another pair of Duke cousins and keep on going. The Suits were idiots, and the ratings crashed like Rosco's cruiser.

Meanwhile, the cartoon production was done with the Faux Duke cousins, Coy and Vance, along with most of the regular cast doing their voice work. Hanna-Barbera invoked the spirit of their old WACKY RACES, having Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco in a 'round the world race with the Dukes.

By the time the second batch of the cartoons was being made, the actors' strike was settled, so Bo and Luke Duke returned. They abruptly replaced Coy and Vance on the regular show with only a cursory explanation and unceremonious send-off. On the cartoon, I think they just switched without even acknowledging the change.

In any event, this animated spin-off didn't make that big a splash in the declining scene of 1980s Saturday Morning Cartoons, and has been largely forgotten. It was really kinda' redundant from the start. By the time it went onto the air, the Prime-Time parent series had degenerated into a veritable cartoon itself.

Here is the very first episode of THE DUKES,from February 1983.

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