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THE DUKES OF HAZZARD

"Officer Daisy Duke"

Original air date Feb 1, 1980
Directed by Dick Moder
Written by Martin Roth

Regular Cast
Tom Wopat as Luke Duke
John Schneider as Bo Duke
Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke
Denver Pyle as Uncle Jesse
Dick Sargent as Sheriff Byrd
Sorrell Brooke as Boss Hogg
Sonny Shroyer as Enos Strate
Ben Jones as Cooter
and
Waylon Jennings
Balladeer & Narrator

Guest Cast
Peter Brown as Floyd Baker
Jenny Neumann as Molly

The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-85) had a great theme song, good looking stars, goofy villains and, of course, lots of car stunts. In this episode, the boys annoy Boss Hogg by demanding he give Daisy a raise in her waitressing job at his bar. He fires her. However, Sheriff Byrd has received an equal opportunity edict and must hire a female deputy.

In the meantime, the intrepid Deputy Enos spots the pair of good looking armed robbers, Floyd Baker and Molly Harmon, driving out of town and alerts his new boss, Sheriff Byrd. When Floyd sees the Sheriff following, he shoots at the patrol car putting a bullet in the windshield. That makes the sheriff so mad, he runs them off the road. He improbably puts them under arrest and gets them to jail without having them get away.

Soon thereafter, despite the Sheriff's efforts at sabotage, Daisy passes the test with higher scores than anyone else. She aces the written test, takes down a man twice her size and looks like she hit the target in the shooting test only once until Bo shows that all five bullets hit the small hole. Daisy is sworn in, but her cousins are worried that the job will be too much for her.

Enos lets Floyd make an unmonitored phone call. Floyd calls a henchman with a plane and using a county map conveniently posted near the phone, directs him to be waiting his call after they escape from jail. Enos is just happy to be helpful.

When Daisy brings the prisoners their supper, they catch her off-guard with the sick prisoner routine. Molly knocks her unconscious and the two make good their escape. They take off in a patrol car and soon realize they'll be easily spotted.

Molly hikes her skirt and sticks out her thumb. A gullible young man stops to pick her up and his thrilled at his luck until Floyd appears at the driver's door and insists he get out of the car. While Bo and Luke revive Daisy, Floyd and Molly get to a phone and send for the plane.

Daisy insists it's her job to apprehend the escapees on her own, but Bo and Luke try to help without her knowing. The owner of the car-jacked vehicle, apparently left in his underwear, lets the Dukes know that the couple fled south. Using a disguised voice on their CB, they pretend to be highway patrolmen broadcasting information about the escaped prisoners. Floyd and Molly get to the road near the airfield and take off walking to meet the plane. Daisy gets there too, but Floyd catches her from behind and disbelieves her story of a posse having them surrounded. But just in case, he decides to take her as a hostage.

Floyd shouts out to whoever might be listening that they'd better stay back or Daisy will be killed. They spot the plane and rush out to meet it. Floyd forces Daisy on board.

However, the Bo and Luke manage to cut off the plan with some kind of explosives shot into the ground with arrows. They grab Floyd and Molly (what about the pilot?) just as the sheriff and Boss Hogg roll up and try to take credit for the arrest. Daisy gets the $10,000 reward for the capture of the robbers despite the fact that the sheriff actually captured them and it was her fault they got away. But as the money goes to an orphanage, we can't fault the sentiment.

NiteOwl Review: Nothing special here. Peter was probably cast because the script called for an good looking couple of armed robbers and Peter fit the bill. Not hard to find in reruns, ours came from TNN, obviously. There really wasn't much for Peter to do that stretched his acting skills.

Cast Question: If the script is to be believed, this is the first episode in which Dick Sargent played Sheriff Byrd, having been hand-picked by Boss Hogg. The credits books we have list James Best as having played Sheriff Coltrane through-out the run of the series. Anyone know the story behind Dick Sargent's appearance? He wasn't a guest star, but is shown in the front credits as a regular cast
member.

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