DUKES OF HAZZARD, THE: REUNION! (TV)
Summary
A television film reunion for “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a comedy adventure series about Luke and Bo Duke, cousins living in Hazzard County, revolving around a car race to decide the fate of Hazzard Swamp.
The narration begins by talking about the fates of various Hazzard County residents: Bo has become a professional race car driver; Luke has become a smokejumper for the forestry service; Daisy is coming out of a failed marriage to pursue a PhD in ecology at Duke University; Cooter has become a United States Congressman; Rosco has taken over where Boss Hogg left off; and Uncle Jesse organizes a “Hazzard Homecoming” event to bring everyone together for a reunion. Cooter arrives first and is curious as to why the other townsfolk don’t seem to acknowledge Uncle Jesse at all. Later Bo returns and introduces Uncle Jesse and Cooter to his girlfriend Tammy. Daisy and Luke arrive soon thereafter, and Uncle Jesse explains the whole situation: a land developer named Josephine “Mama” Max came to Hazzard County looking to construct a theme park in Hazzard Swamp, and would need to go through Uncle Jesse’s property to do it. He goes on to say that Mama Max sued him for access to the swamp, and the residents of Hazzard County are now upset with Uncle Jesse for denying them the jobs and money that the theme park would provide. The Duke family is upset about this, noting that the theme park would be ecologically disastrous to the swamp’s local fauna.
The Dukes listen as “Boss” Rosco makes a press conference along with Mama Max; the two of them have become business partners. She announces that she will sign the lease for the theme park that Saturday, and treats its construction as inevitable, even promising to go circumvent the construction around the swamp with the aid of a causeway. Rosco announces a race as part of the festivities, and Uncle Jesse reveals that the General Lee has been stored in Cooter’s garage for years, hoping to use it against a car sponsored by Mama Max. Mama Max decides to raise the stakes by asking Uncle Jesse to wager his land access against Mama Max dropping the lawsuit against him, all dependent on the success or failure of the General Lee in the race. Bo immediately agrees, although Luke suspects foul play. They discover that the challenger car is driven by Buzz Kilroy and is the “double zero,” the only vehicle ever to beat the General Lee in a race. Despite the odds against them, they decide to try to fix up the General Lee and do their best.
Meanwhile, Daisy attends the Hazzard County “Toughest Person Contest,” watching her friend Bertha Jo compete in a boxing match. Rosco is in Mama Max’s corner, as she promised him a cut of the profits from the theme park. Secretly she despises him and calls upon a “ringer” for the race in the form of disbarred race car driver Cam Cutler, who has a penchant for causing mayhem and destruction. Cooter takes the Duke boys to his barn to inspect the General Lee, but finds that it is empty, confirming Luke’s suspicions that they have been set up. Suddenly Enos, now an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department, appears and notes that the car must have been stolen long ago due to the lack of observable physical evidence of its theft. They reason that the car may be in the possession of mechanic Red Perkins, but when they visit his shop they find that he has retired to Florida and it is now being run by his daughter Mavis. Red sent most of the cars he got from Cooter to be destroyed, but it turns out that he kept the General Lee and used it as a rooster enclosure. Despite its disheveled state, the Duke boys are overjoyed to see the car again.
Enos goes to see Daisy at Uncle Jesse’s place. He gives her a bag full of letters he wrote to her weekly but couldn’t bring himself to mail. He asks her out to dinner the following night and she agrees. Rosco sees the Duke boys bring the General Lee in for repairs and tries to warn Mama Max about their chances in the race; he believes that the Dukes deliberately made the General Lee look decrepit in order to fool the competition. She puts his mind at ease by introducing him to Cam and assuring him that she has other tricks up her sleeve to make certain that the Dukes lose the race. The Dukes, Cooter, and Mavis begin the arduous task of cleaning up the General Lee, and Bertha Jo continues to advance in the Toughest Person Contest, and Daisy is on hand to congratulate her. Bertha Jo confesses that she is uneasy about the possibility of facing her boyfriend Bubba in the contest, as she fears that her victory might negatively impact their relationship. She contemplates throwing the fight, but Daisy advises against it.
After a long and difficult series of repairs, the General Lee is cleaned and restored to functionality. The Dukes take the car out for a test drive and careen past Cletus at a speed trap. He and Rosco try to pursue the Dukes, but Bo gets away by jumping over a creek and causing Rosco and Cletus to crash into each other. The Dukes continue to test the car and are watched by Cam, who pulls up beside them in his own vehicle. The Dukes do not recognize their pursuer, who challenges them to a race. Luke recommends that they save it for the real race on Saturday, but Cam becomes aggressive and starts ramming the General Lee. He soon manages to flip the car and send if off the road. That night, Enos picks up Daisy for their date, and they kiss. Cooter tows the General Lee in for repairs and the Dukes go out to dinner at the Boar’s Nest, joining Enos and Daisy. They spot Cam at another table, and Bo finally recognizes him, reasoning that he is the driver they will be facing against that Saturday. They go see Cam and his entourage and ask that they help pay for repairs, but the two parties end up insulting each other and a fight breaks out. Enos steps in to help them out, and together they emerge victorious and walk out of the Boars Nest laughing.
The Dukes repair the General Lee again and contemplate using chicanery of their own against Mama Max and her people, but Uncle Jesse forbids it. He reveals that Mama Max has more at stake than she indicated: the geological structure of Hazzard Swamp makes it impossible to build a causeway there, meaning that if she loses she will be unable to construct the theme park at all. He admonishes the Duke boys to win the race “fair and square.” Mama Max reveals to Rosco that she has had her people create a car identical in appearance to the double zero but fitted with a supercharged racing car engine, making it far faster than any regular vehicle. Rosco notes that such a tactic is illegal, but Mama Max assures him that the Dukes will not detect this deception, as the regular double zero will be used for the pre-race inspection and subsequently will be switched out for the identical car. Rosco is sent away, and Mama Max reveals that she has given him counterfeit money. Privately, Rosco expresses some reservations about his actions, questioning whether he truly wishes to see the swamp destroyed. Enos and Daisy go for a picnic in the swamp, where he admits that his real reason for returning for the Hazzard reunion is to propose marriage to her. Daisy is at a loss for words at this development, and is so startled that she drops the ring on the ground. She becomes distracted when she believes that she has discovered a new species of fern, but responds that she will marry him. Men working for Mama Max collecting soil samples in the swamp happen to observe this scene.
Mama Max is convinced that Daisy has discovered the same thing that she and her people discovered: that the swamp is a repository of valuable gallium arsenide. Daisy contacts her university about her discovery and awaits a fax in return. While waiting, she tells Luke, Bo, and Uncle Jesse that she has accepted Enos’s proposal. Her family is happy and surprised by this, and she announces that they are to be married that Saturday at the finish line of the race, making it the biggest wedding in Hazzard County’s history. The university sends back an environmental impact study for Rosco to fill out about the swamp development, which Daisy anticipates will take him weeks to complete. This will leave him unable to sign the lease for the swamp without incurring a federal investigation. She and Enos also ask Rosco to officiate their marriage, as he is the justice of the peace. Mama Max advises Rosco to pretend as though the form has been misfiled in order to give them enough of a delay to secure the lease. Secretly she orders her men to eliminate Daisy before she can cause more trouble; she hopes to secure the lucrative gallium arsenide in order to sell as materials for making supercomputer processing chips.
Bertha Jo continues to advance in the competition and is overjoyed when she learns about Daisy’s upcoming wedding. Daisy asks her to be her maid of honor and she accepts. While out making preparations for the wedding, Daisy is knocked unconscious and kidnapped by Mama Max’s men. They call Uncle Jesse and promise to release Daisy unharmed if the Dukes lose the race, and demands that they not reveal anything about the situation to anyone in Hazzard. However, they feel obligated to tell Enos the truth when he comes over to see her. They realize that Mama Max’s actions are too extreme and risky to be concerned with nothing but a theme park, and reason that there must be something more going on that they are not aware of. Daisy speaks to Mama Max and informs her of her upcoming wedding, and how her absence will arouse more suspicion than she had anticipated, possibly enough to have the race called off. Although she is being help captive at the Hazzard Cotton Mill, Daisy asks Mama Max and her men to help plan her wedding and run errands for her, and Mama Max reluctantly agrees to advise her.
The Dukes try to devise a way to somehow rescue Daisy during the race, while Daisy tries to subtly call for help by having Mama Max’s people call the bakery and leave a suspicious message about her wedding cake. The baker calls the Duke residence asking about Daisy, and the Dukes realize that Daisy is having the kidnappers run errands for her, and believe they can locate her by tailing them on one of these errands. Their investigation manages to provide a clue letting them know that Daisy is being held at the cotton mill. They scout out the cotton mill and its heavily armed guards, and decide to go forward with their plan to rescue Daisy during the race. They believe that they can deviate from the race course as long as they hit each checkpoint along the way, providing them with enough leeway to pick up Daisy. Buzz is given instructions for switching out the two double zero vehicles, and is threatened into compliance when he expresses reluctance to cheat.
Daisy asks Mama Max to be a part of her wedding, serving as a sort of surrogate mother for her; Mama Max agrees, having never had a daughter of her own to plan a wedding for. She also reveals that she has hired another gang, led by a man only known as “Mojo,” as “extra insurance” against any meddling by the Duke boys. The day of the race arrives and Mama Max’s goons continues to set up tricks to waylay the Dukes. Bertha Jo and Bubba are finalists in the Toughest Person Competition, making her uneasy. The race begins and the racers start loading bottles of water into the cars, as per the rules of a “moonshine race.” The Dukes encounter trouble immediately since Mama Max’s men affixed their packages together with packing tape. The race proper begins with the Dukes lagging behind, and further complications ensue at the first checkpoint, when Mama Max’s goons set up a roadblock to send them off the track. They plow through an old farmhouse in midair, but manage to recover and get back on track. Meanwhile, both Bertha Jo and Bubba find themselves unwilling to fight each other properly.
Bo and Luke meet Enos at another checkpoint and split up; Enos goes with Bo in the General Lee to continue the race while Luke drives off in Enos’s van to the cotton mill. Cam switches to the duplicate double zero while no one is looking and continues the race. After some taunting between the two of them, Bertha Jo knocks out Bubba and wins the competition, although the crowd boos her for this. Bo and Enos cut cross-country after a checkpoint to head to the cotton mill while Luke infiltrates the compound with the aid of a zip-line. Bertha Jo and Bubba are chased out of the arena and take refuge in their van. Luke scouts inside and reports on the addition of Mojo and his gang, and advises that Bo get help before they make their rescue attempt. While heading back to town, Bo and Enos run into Bertha Jo and Bubba arguing in the woods about their fight, and ask them to help him take down Mojo and his gang. Together they manage to take out the guards at the front gate and work their way inside; meanwhile Mama Max commands Mojo and his gang to disarm themselves of their guns, much to their disappointment.
The four of them burst in and defeat all of the goons, and Enos frees Daisy. The Dukes resume the race, but not before forcing one of the kidnappers into the trunk of their car instead of the “moonshine” and taking Daisy and Enos along in the back seat. They encounter Buzz and Cam switching the two double zero cars and pull over to investigate. Buzz tells them the truth about the two cars, and reveals that he removed the spark plug from his own car in order to prevent Cam from winning. Cam is intimidated into leaving Hazzard County, and the Dukes agree to a fair race against Buzz to the finish line. Moreover, Daisy is to change into her wedding dress in the back seat during this final leg of the race. Buzz pulls ahead, forcing the Duke boys to go cross-country on rough terrain in order to keep up. The Dukes arrive at the finish line moments before Buzz, granting them the victory.
They inform Rosco about the kidnapping and he is angry at Mama Max; he reveals that he planted the gallium arsenide in Hazzard Swamp in order to con her into building the theme park, using a scheme described in Boss Hogg’s memoirs. He tries to arrest her, but Daisy prevents it, explaining that she is the matron of honor at her wedding. She also clears up Mama Max’s misunderstanding about her discovery in the swamp. All this confusion is put aside for the time being in order to carry out Daisy and Enos’s wedding. Before it can finish, however, Daisy’s ex-husband L.D. arrives; he is now the bus driver for a country band and has apparently gotten lost. Upon seeing him again, Daisy faints. Upon awakening, she realizes that she cannot get married, as she has still not gotten over the turmoil caused by her previous marriage. She apologizes to Enos, who is saddened but understands, hoping that one day she will change her mind. The Dukes jokingly suggest that Bertha Jo and Bubba get married, and they decide to take them up on the suggestion and resolve their earlier struggle. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:03:43
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:84973
- GENRE: Comedy; Action/Adventure
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Action/Adventure
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Gy Waldron … Executive Producer, Writer, Based on characters created by
- Skip Ward … Producer
- Ira Marvin … Producer
- Russell Livingstone … Associate Producer
- Lewis Teague … Director
- Steve Wariner … Music by
- Fred Werner … Music by
- Archie Jordan … Theme Music by
- Larry Bastian … Theme Music by
- Tom Wopat … Theme Music by
- John Schneider … Theme Music by
- Tom Wopat … Cast, Luke Duke
- John Schneider … Cast, Bo Duke
- Catherine Bach … Cast, Daisy Duke
- Denver Pyle … Cast, Uncle Jesse
- James Best … Cast, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
- Ben Jones … Cast, Cooter Davenport
- Sonny Shroyer … Cast, Enos Strate
- Rick Hurst … Cast, Cletus Hogg
- Gary Hudson … Cast, Riker
- Cynthia Rothrock … Cast, Bertha Jo
- Stella Stevens … Cast, Mama Max
- Daniel Anderson … Cast, Buzz Kilroy
- Travis McKenna … Cast, Bubba
- Ann Walker … Cast, Sara Jane
- Emily Procter … Cast, Mavis
- Craig Branham … Cast
- Jennifer Lyons … Cast
- Mark Murphy … Cast
- Don Williams … Voice, The Balladeer
- Sorrell Booke
- Phil Mandelker
- Jim Mohlmann
- Paul Picard