General Lee Dodge Charger Ripped from TV Amidst Flag Debacle

After Warner Bros announced that they would stop selling any General Lee Dodge Charger toys due to the Confederate flag appearing on the roof, the final two channels airing reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard have both removed the show from their schedule in the ongoing effort to eradicate the flag from the American landscape.

Since the pitiful attack on the AME church in Charleston that claimed the lives of nine innocent people last month, the liberal crusaders have turned their attention to the Confederate flag, which was displayed in many of the shots of the psychopath who opened fire in the peaceful churchgoers. Many retailers including Walmart were quick to pull any items bearing the Confederate flag from their shelves, which was followed by Warner Bros announcing that they would no longer license the General Lee Dodge Charger. This meant that no more new General Lee toys would be built or sold, which created quite an uproar among collectors, Mopar folks and other good natured Americans who liked the General Lee because it was an awesome classic TV car – not because it was some sort of symbol of hatred.

Unfortunately, fans of the Duke Boys will be even more upset to learn that the only two channels still showing The Dukes of Hazzard have pulled the show from the air over the fuss being created by the Confederate Flag.

The Classic TV Show
The odds are good that if you are between the ages of 30 and 60 and you grew up in a household with a television, The Dukes of Hazzard was a familiar favorite back in the day. The stars of the show may have technically been Tom Wopat and Jon Schneider, who played Bo and Luke Duke, but anyone who watched the show knows that the real star was the bright orange Dodge Charger named the General Lee. The General Lee was a race car, initially built to run moonshine and due to the location of the Duke family in Hazzard County, Georgia, Bo and Luke were good ol’ Confederate boys so of course, they had a Confederate flag painted on the roof of their car.

The show didn’t offer racist undertones nor was there ever any implication that the Duke Boys had the flag on the roof of their Dodge Charger because they hated anyone. The show was really about a couple of very pretty country boys and their high performance, high flying Dodge Charger – all of which teamed up to fight the bad guys and protect the citizens of Hazzard County.

Unfortunately, since there is no easy way to remove the Confederate flag from the General Lee Dodge Charger, the networks running reruns have both removed the show from their lineup.

Viacom Pulls the Plug
The final two networks airing reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard were TV Land and Country Music Television, both of which are owned by cable giant Viacom. Due to the extensive appearance of the Confederate flag, most notably on the famous bright orange Dodge Charger, the show has been pulled from the air by both networks.

So, for those of you who, like me, tuned in each day in the early afternoon for the high-flying, good-natured antics of the Duke Boys, the campaign against the General Lee Dodge Charger has not only put an end to new toys – but it has also seemingly removed the show from TV for the foreseeable future.

I have to wonder if Country Music Television will stop showing anything with the Confederate flag, as that will certainly not sit well with their audience. It should be noted that Viacom also owns Comedy Central (which airs Jon Stewart’s Daily Show), the MTV networks, the Nickelodeon channels and BET. All of these channels are very clear with their political stance so when you break it down, this is just the people at the top of the company forcing their political views on their viewers.

With any luck, Fox will buy the rights to The Dukes of Hazzard and run it on their networks for those of us who watch TV and who aren’t offended by everything.