The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete First Season

Amazon Price: $18.99 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $27.98

"Finally, the first season of Dukes on DVD. The characters took some time to flesh out before they became the stereotypical heroes and villians that most viewers remember the show for. In the beginning, Rosco was more of a corrupt cop and less of a lovable dope, which in many ways I prefer. Boss Hogg was also a bit more intelligent of a character in the beginning. And rather than just basing shows on car chases and "how to frame the Dukes this week" as in later seasons, the first episodes were intelligently written schemes that the viewer can easily get lost (in a good way) as to what's going on. The first five episodes were filmed in Covington, GA (before they moved to familiar backlot in Burbank, CA), and you really get the sense that these are southern people in the South, rather than the stereotypical backwoods feeling you get from the Burbank episodes. That these early episodes focused more on plot is most evident in "Mary Kay's Baby," the only episode in all seven seasons to not feature the General Lee. And personally, I'll buy this set just to get "Daisy's Song": since there were only 13 episodes in the first season, when Columbia House distributed these episodes on VHS cassette at two shows per tape, this is the show that got left out of their catalogue.

Also worth noting is that when TNN was showing the Dukes a few years back, heavy edits had to be made to each show to fit modern commercial breaks. When I got Columbia House's versions, I found that significant chunks, usually integral to understanding the plot of a given episode, were now present and accounted for. Having all 13 episodes available without edit is another reason worth picking this up as opposed to watching it on television."

Release Date: 06/01/2004

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