A Delightful Discovery on The Dukes

For Christmas, my lovely wife bought me the Dukes of Hazzard dvd set. It indeed has every episode through all 7 seasons.  I've been making my way through every one of those episodes (about 1 per day) ever since.

Setting there on the shelf below the TV where it belongs.  Truly a jewel in anyone's collection.

When I was a kid, the Dukes of Hazzard was my Paw Patrol.   I would watch this every night of the week it was on (Monday? Friday?) and enjoy the antics of all the characters as well as all of the very awesome and swell car crashes that I was sure to see so so often.  I do believe this show still holds the record for most cars wrecked per episode.  I read the number was about as high as 62.  Can anyone confirm this?  Maybe that number is higher. 

Y'know, seeing all of those car crashes happening on the show week after week really had an affect on me.  I've been nothing but reckless with my vehicles ever since I got a driver's licence.  I've never stopped for a red light, stop sign, or moving train in my life.  I've always found some way to jump over any obstacle no matter how much damage I do.  Also, seeing that "flag of the confederacy" atop the car named after the biggest southern general in America's civil war, well that always gave me a strong ambition to make the "antebellum south rise again".  HA HA HA!  And if you actually believe that "malarky" you're just as naive as Enos and as tetched as Roscoe.

Watching these dvds, I was definitely enjoying the nostalgia factor as one would imagine.  Every time Roscoe said "KEW KEW KEW" I was 7 years old again.  Every episode was pretty much like that for me.  However, one particular episode stood out for me for an additional reason.

t's an episode in Season 6 entitled A Boy's Best Friend.  I won't type out an entire episode synopsis here.  I'll just talk about the story points relevant to the discovery I made.  It goes as follows:

A small orphan kid is feeling very sad.  So, the "hearts of gold altruists" Bo and Luke decide that giving the kid his own dog would cheer him up.

It works of course.

But..... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN... resident villain Boss Hogg steals the kid's dog for his own nefarious purpose.

Which, as you could imagine, makes the boy all kinds of sad.

The video embedded below is at the point in the episode where the boy is wallowing the most in his sorrow.  Listen closely to the kid's voice here. 

If your first thought was "that doesn't quite sound like the kid's natural voice", then I think you would be right.  This performance sounds like it was done by the very great voice actress herself, June Foray!

If you doubt me, compare the above video with a Bugs Bunny cartoon made at around the same time.  In this one, June Foray is the voice of Bugs' nephew Clyde.

I checked the end credits for Ms Foray's name but....

...it's not there.  The child actor got his credit (and rightfully so) but June is nowhere to be found.  Such a pity.

Yes yes yes.  Several eagle eyed and knowledgeable readers here will note that the kid Danny Cooksey would just a short time later do the voice of Montana Max for the show Tiny Toon Adventures.  June Foray would of course reprise her role as Granny for this show, so these two actors would work together once again.  Showbiz trivia is fun.

In the spirit of this blog post, I drew some artwork of my own.  Here you go.

It is a depiction of that iconic moment from the first episode where Daisy Duke kicks Roscoe right square in the butt.  I really like how the show handled the Daisy character.  She was just as proactive, sometimes even as down and dirty, as her male counterparts Bo and Luke.  She even had her own vehicle that she could use for just as much crazy driving (and crazy crashing.... YAY...) as every other character.  Anyone who would scoff at such a thing saying "women can't do that stuff", well that thankfully doesn't apply here (or anywhere really).  For, you see, Daisy is a part of the Duke family and the Duke family can do anything.

I'm of course ending the post with this.  I know you've been humming this to yourself the entire time you've been reading all of this.  Well, here you go.  Just for you.  You're welcome.  Of course, if you want to hear that theme song for ever and ever in your own home, that DVD boxset I posted above would be a good gift for yourself or whomever.  Either way, enjoy!

 

YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAWWW!!!