The Friday night lineup in those days was Dukes, followed by The Love Boat, followed by Fantasy Island. I didn’t know it was racist. I thought it was a sort of Robbin Hood story with cool car jumps and a corrupt Sheriff of Nottinghazzard.
That’s because that’s all it was.
The racist shit was just a lilly for the southern broadcasters to hang their hat on.
I saw a couple episodes when I was a very small child and I don’t remember anything racist. They were just like running from the cops and solving crimes sometimes right?
Pretty much. The only ‘racist’ bit was having the confederate flag on the roof.
And calling it General Lee.
That too. It was basically coded racist, but wasnt. Like the opposite of a crypto-fascist or something.
I definitely support that we’ve pushed this show out of the forefront, but this is where a lot of the arguments for the flag as a ‘symbol of southern pride’ come from. It’s a weird argument, and it is definitely not a fair one, but there’s very fond associations in the south with that car even from people who had no clue where the flag came from. Super successful attempt to help the confederate flag be seen as acceptable, whether on purpose or not.
It’s a weird show too for someone who isn’t from the south… Racial diversity is non-existent in the show, but that’s also pretty accurate for its location… It had some awesome car scenes, but no depth. The only hot take in the show beyond the flag painted on top (which wasn’t even a hot take then) was that the government was widely seen as corrupt and it was more than a bit sexist.
Yeah, hell, Sheriff Little, the black sheriff from the neighboring county was actually pretty competent. Yeah, it was mostly white, but the black people were always smarter than Roscoe or Boss Hogg.
I dont think op ever watched the show.
OP definitely did watch the show and it’s accurate.
So how was it a hate crime car? What hate crimes did they commit?
Also incest? Where the fuck did that come from? What are you, a fujoshi, shipping daisy and luke? Luisy?
Oh boy.
Non-Yank here. Enjoyed and still do TDOH. Names like “General Lee” and “Jefferson Davis Hogg” are meaningless to me, except as they appeared in the show, and the car could equally have been called Lieutenant Bob or Sergeant Pete. The flag on top of the car was just a fancy design.
If at all possible could you consider this an educational NSQ? Please?
So aside from the use of those symbols and specific names, where exactly - with reference to timestamps and episode numbers - are the racism and incest?
Are you assuming that just because Bo and Luke were frequently within 100 yards of Daisy that they must automatically be shagging her off camera? In which case it’s a gay show too because for exactly the same reason Bo and Luke must be shagging each other.
And I have no idea why you think it’s loaded with hate crimes. Please refer to a specific instance so that I can understand.
General Lee - Robert E Lee, general of the Army of Northern Virginia, the main army for the Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis - president of the Confederate States of America.
The Flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#First_flag?wprov=sfla1
The whole war was about slavery. The Confederate states wanted to have slaves. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, they threw a tantrum, claimed the election wasn’t legitimate (sound familiar?), then seceded and tried to form an independent nation.
Anyone who says that it was about states’ rights is being disingenuous. The Confederate Constitution mentions slavery and includes regulations for it.
The Confederacy also wanted to deport all Jews (except for one - the Secretary of The Treasury) and eventually conquer Mexico and use them as slaves as well. The brown ones.
The Confederacy also would have enslaved any Native Americans remaining in those states.
The vast majority of southern soldiers were too poor to ever own a slave and were treated only slightly better than slaves. It was very obviously the white supremacist elitist class exploiting everyone else.
The Republican party regurgitates a lot of the Confederate talking points.
What about the incest?
Brb, going back to 2009 and sailing a new ship on tumblr. Gonna be bigger than Zutara!
Now the question, Luiasy or Dake?
Apart from the confederate flag itself, this show was pretty much anarchist. They spent every episode humiliating the cops and breaking any unrighteous law they could. The show treated the flag as set dressing.
They also came from a family that canonically resisted the Union during the civil war. And there’s very few black people in the show whatsoever. So.
I know the hate symbol has always been a hate symbol, but if there’s any show where you could say “it was a product of its time” (the 70’s, btw) I think it’s this one.
I was never into it or pretty much anything country-related, being an Airwolf, Mission Impossible (the reboot), and MacGuyver kinda kid, but Dad liked it, and explained it to me pretty much the way you did.
I was like 3 when airwolf went off the air, but the theme song still pops into my head occasionally. That show was awesome.
Just for you, what is easily the best cover of this theme.
Don’t forget the rather unfortunate usage of a bunch of people cruising around in the Confederate car all being named “Duke.”
See, there was once a man named David, who was the leader of a wacky little group of goofballs back in the '70s. That li’l jokester even went so far as to get everyone to call him a grand wizard, which is such a zany thing to ask people to do, but people totally did it with a straight face
Anyway, I wonder if it’s a coincidence. Who knows?
He was leader in 1989. The first episode was in 1979, a decade earlier.