The Duke Boys have been in trouble with the law since the day they was born, but now they’re now feeling the wrath of Confederate flag protesters.
TheWrap has confirmed that TV Land has pulled the 1980s-era comedy Dukes of Hazzard from its lineup because it featured a car — called The General Lee — that prominently displayed the flag on the roof.
Warner Bros, which produced the show, recently announced they would cease production of all merchandise bearing the flag, including reproductions of The General Lee.
Now the show itself, which ran for seven seasons, from 1979 to 1985, is being yanked.
The move comes amid renewed debate surrounding the divisive flag. Protesters around the country have called for states like South Carolina and Mississippi to remove it from public grounds in light of the racially-motivated mass shooting at a black church in Charleston last month.
Ben Jones, who played mechanic Cooter on the show, recently came to the defense of the flag in a Facebook post, and in a USA TODAY opinion piece.
“Our beloved symbol is now being attacked in a wave of political correctness that is unprecedented in our nation of free speech and free expression,” wrote Jones, who also served as a congressman from Georgia and now is a national spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Jones currently operates a chain of Dukes of Hazzard stores and museums called Cooter’s Place. He said that despite the move by Warner Bros, he will continue to sell Confederate flag products.
“Cooter’s is going to continue to sell our Southern symbols as long as there is a Cooter’s,” Jones wrote. “I will fight these people until hell freezes over, and then I will fight them on the ice.”
After the Charleston church shootings, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for the flag’s removal from the state’s capitol grounds, and the state’s legislature has voted to debate the motion for removal. A flurry of similar moves elsewhere in the south soon followed.
I’ve been pretty quiet about this whole flag thing, because really it annoyed me, but not enough for me to say anything. This move just seems over the top though. You’ve been airing this show for how many years and now suddenly there’s a problem?
Country of pussies we are becoming. WTF happened to us? I’m so fucking sick of who is offended by what everyone says, does, writes, wears, smokes, drinks, eats, watches, attends, acts, supports, carries, displays, owns, builds, drives, buys, visits…pretty much everything. Fuck em all. This country used to walk around with its pants off displaying iron balls and crushing the skull of anything in its way. Now we’re a nation of panzy asses controlled by bleeding hearts and drooling personal injury attorneys who have to send everyone an apology for emitting odorous flatulence. But…I digress.
If TV Land stops running a show nothing was banned. Some people just want to act like Homeland security on the orders of the FCC raided TV land and seized the tapes.
