Okay, I'm a child of the 70's. I grew up watching the Dukes of Hazzard of Friday nights and thought it was the greatest show on earth. Okay, flash forward to 2005. Last week I was watching a few reruns of the Dukes on CMT and I got to admit that it had to be the dumbest and campiest show on TV. But campy and polyester is what made the 70's fun.

I don't have any real desire to see the new Dukes of Hazzard movie, mainly because remakes of old seventies shows like Charlies Angels and The Mod Squad are made for a much younger crowd then me.

So I don't really understand why a low level supporting actor of the original Dukes is railing against the movie. Ben Jones, who played mechanic Cooter on the TV series Dukes of Hazzard says this on his personal blog:

Like our fans, those of us who worked on the show have a special affection for it. For over 25 years we have cared about it, nourished it, and fought for it. And it seems to me that it is time for us to have our voices heard again. From all I have seen and heard, the "Dukes" movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the "Dukes of Hazzard" for so long.

You probably know that the creators of this film wanted absolutely nothing to do with the original members of the cast. Doesn't that seem strange to you, given how popular our show is right now, and how popular our cast still is? After all, our huge success for so many years is the reason they are making the film, and the film, after all, is about us.

In the last few years I reckon I've done many hundreds of interviews around the country on radio and television and for dozens of newspapers. I always tell them that ours is a classic family show with positive values, great action, wonderful slapstick comedy, mighty fine country music, and a very gifted cast who had great chemistry. America could tell that we were clearly enjoying what we were doing and for that hour folks could forget their troubles and just have fun along with us. It is exactly the kind of entertainment that families crave right now.

Positve Values? From the show that dealt with breaking the law, moonshinin' and good ole' Daisy Dukes (the shorts that grew up many a young boys). Ben Jones hasn't even seen the movie (which will probably be as campy and sucky as the orignal) but he doesn't want you to see it. If you read between the lines of his entire post (on his site that is geared towards making money off of the TV series), he's pissed because he's not in it and he's not going to make a penny off of the movie. Give it up Cooter! The movie will probably generate more interest in the original show and help you sell more crap from Cooter's store and generate more bookings for Cooter's Garage Band.

Read The Dukes Movie: Don't Go Unless They Clean It Up! at Cooter's Place