Steven was pleased to find that his sons enjoy the same entertainment he did when he was a wee boy. The male Thomsons have been glued to series 3 of the Dukes of Hazzard since the brown Amazon pack fell through the letterbox last week.
There have been chortles and belly-laughs emanating from Thomson Towers most evenings since, and the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. Cries of “I’ll be Bo and you can be Luke” gladdened Steven’s soul, although “…and Daddy is Roscoe P. Coltrane” kind of took the shine off it!
Steven assures us that “The Dukes” is a fine example of slapstick, family-friendly TV, but we’re not so sure we can forgive the undertones of casual racism. Even in the 1970s, painting a Confederate flag on the roof of your car and calling it the “General Lee” was in poor taste… and then to install a horn that plays the first 12 notes of the infamous minstrel song “Dixie”! It beggars belief, that this was allowed, far less considered a light-hearted “joke”.
But, as Steven has pointed out, when he was six years old, he had no idea what any of this meant and just loved the silly characters and most of all, the stunts and jumps.
We do agree it’s a shame they no longer make TV programmes with fast driving, crazy stunts and slap-stick comedy, and we can understand why Steven wanted to share this with his children, but we can’t condone the flag, we just can’t!
How about this instead? A man in tight jeans and leather, having a bromance with his effeminate, talking car. That’s a bit more modern, more… open-minded. Fetch me the iPad, I’m in “Hot pursuit” of some Night Rider DVDs… hue-hue-hue!
This week Steven recommends the Dukes of Hazzard – Series 3, DVDs. Don’t be a dip-stick, order your set now!
