Reports of the death of the weird white table with green accents have been greatly exaggerated. It's still around and just so happens to be filled with a load of new Dukes stuff. Let's take a look.
First up is a "rack pack" of Series 3 Dukes of Hazzard trading cards. I have a few of these value packs. Because they each have different cards in different positions, I grab them when they aren't too expensive. I'm weird like that.
This is a strange piece. It's a two-pack of original lunch box stickers. Toward the end of the golden era, a plastic lunch box was released that was less expensive than the standard metal lunch box. It was released in red and orange. It is actually more rare than the metal version now. This is a standard Thermos brand plastic lunch box with this sticker on it. I'm not really sure how these stickers got out into the public. I've seen a roll of six stickers sell on ebay before, but I was outbid on it. This two-pack popped up and I jumped on it. The stickers are rather big and in great condition. Another mystery of Dukes of Hazzard collectibles. Uh oh, writing a sentence like that makes me want to write a post dedicated to "Mysteries of Dukes of Hazzard Colectibles!" Yup, now that it's in quotes I have to write it, one of these days.
Next up are two very cool new patches from Cooter's Place. Michael Smith, the general manager of Cooter's and generally great guy, really does a great job with his product design for the stores. These embroidered patches are quality made and have a great look. I picked them up when I helped sell Cooter's merchandise at the Pittsburgh World of Wheels with Catherine and Tom. If you're shopping at CootersPlace.com, you should add these to your cart.
I recently bought a whole bunch of TV Guides. Officially, the Dukes appeared on four covers of the iconic magazine. I have copies of each, but they aren't in perfect condition. Another collector recently put each up for sale and I am familiar with this collector's products and their condition. I decided to buy the lot. These are the four issues that have the Dukes on them. The dates are:
The first issue with the Dukes on the cover has an article about John Schneider. It discusses John's shuck and jive about being from Georgia to land the role of Bo Duke. When I first saw the title of the article, I thought it said Smallville, and that would be something.
July 12, 1980
The first issue focused on John, and this one is all about Tom. It discussed his background and how it never went "Hollywood." He still hasn't. One interesting part of the article mentions he was dating Maryellen Aviano at the time. She was working as Catherine's stand in. I never knew that.
March 7, 1981
This issue has a great article about Sorrell Booke. My grandfather, Larry Franks the first, really loved Boss Hogg and was known to say, "Can you believe he went to Yale and can speak five languages?" I just remembered that the TV Guide was a staple at my grandparent's house and I'm sure that Poppy read this article. Reading this great article about Sorrell written during the heyday of the Dukes was really special and it gave me a connection to my grandfather. That's really what collecting is all about. Thanks Boss, say hello to Pop up there.
May 1, 1982
I'm learning a lot reading these articles. A lot of the lure about the show came from these TV Guide pages. This issue is all about the General Lee. It talks about the crew never referring to the General as a prop or just a car, but always as The General just like calling the actors by name. It has a story about executive producer Paul Picard taking a first unit General home when his car was in the shop and getting pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer just so he could tell his kids he caught the General Lee. It even mentions the story about the producers leaving pamphlets on Chargers in parking lots of grocery stores when they were running low on cars. Those are all stories I'd heard before, but this is the source. Funny, I'd always heard the grocery store story was at the end of filming and led them to use miniatures, but this issue came out during season 3. Funny how tales get warped. This is another great article. It even mentions that there were "dozens to hundreds" of fan built replicas on the road at that time. That's awesome.
Cast members from the Dukes were on the cover two other times. Tom Wopat was featured with Eric Estrada from Chips and Greg Eylgan from BJ and the Bear on August 18, 1980 and Catherine Bach was featured with George Burns on September 15, 1984.
The first article is about "hunks" on TV. I guess they couldn't find a picture of Bo and Luke without shirts.
The second article is all about George Burns and barely mentions Catherine. I happened to notice the final season premiere aired that week and I included the synopsis above. I then noticed a bearded Luke Duke staring me down on the next page. Who knew he stared in a TV movie that aired immediately after the season premiere? Barbara Mandrell in Burning Rage with Tom Wopat! I can picture the commercial now.
Along with the purchase, I picked up these two mini-magazines. TV 81 and TV 82. They both have Dukes on the cover along with Webster, Facts of Life, ChiPs, BJ and the Bear, and Loni Anderson. They contain little stories and articles about all the popular shows on TV. I haven't dived in to them yet.
Keeping with the TV theme, here is a local TV listing that has the Dukes on the cover from 2000. It features the Dukes when they did the second reunion movie, Hazzard in Hollywood. It's a fun addition to the collection.
The final magazine was available from the same seller so I threw it in. It's the popular tabloid US Magazine from March 4, 1980. I haven't leafed through it to see what kind of gossip it's filled with. Maybe one day.
The Dukes were released on VHS in the late '90s in different packages. I never really bought them when they were new because they were expensive and I foresaw the advent of DVD box sets long before they were a reality (no I didn't.) I kind of feel bad for the people who bought single tapes that contained one or two episodes, especially those who bought the Columbia House tapes that really got expensive. I bought a box load for less than ten dollars once. This is a unique three-pack of VHS tapes. I picked it up pretty cheap. It's three single episode tapes packaged together.
The three episodes are High Octane, To Catch a Duke, and Officer Daisy Duke. There is a band around the three tapes that have a picture of each tape box cover and rebel flags around it.
I remember these tapes being on the shelves of Suncoast Video at the mall. That was a cool store I mostly forgot about. It was kind of dark in those stores. Weird. I don't remember seeing a three-pack like this.
The big finish for this blog post is the Gordy Harmonica. I'm really excited about adding this to the collection. You may remember I remarked about not knowing this item existed a few years ago.
Gordy items are rare to begin with, but this a more rare because it was released two years later than the majority of Gordy Dukes pieces. It has Coy and Vance on the package instead of Bo and Luke. It came out in 1983.
This is labeled as the Double Reed Model; there is no single reed model. The package has a nice, albeit small, cast picture from the Coy and Vance year. Unfortunately it's partially covered by the original price tag.
You can see the group shot in this picture of Dave DeWitt's collection. There aren't many products that have both Enos and Cletus on them. If you squint, you can see Cletus, Flash, Rosco, Daisy, Coy, Uncle Jesse, Boss Hogg, Cooter, Vance, Enos, and the General Lee. That's a lot of characters for such a small picture. Dave's Harmonica is in a little better condition than mine, but I'm sure happy to have one. I'm filling holes in the collection and I'm really happy about it.
