The Dukes of Hazzard stars have differing views on the General Lee's Confederate flag controversy

The Hollywood Reporter

A month ago, Amazon was reportedly considering pulling The Dukes of Hazzard from its IMDb TV streaming service amid the George Floyd police brutality protests and the taking down of Confederate monuments. The 1979-85 hit action comedy is still available for free on IMDb TV. "But a cloud hangs over Hazzard: What haunts the action comedy these days is the Confederate battle flag painted on the roof of the boys' ride, the General Lee, a fiery orange '69 Dodge Charger," says The Hollywood Reporter's Seth Abramovitch. He caught up with Bo Duke actor John Schneider, who thinks there really shouldn't be a controversy because the show has been a "unifying force." "I have never had an African-American come up to me and have any problem with it whatsoever," says the 60-year-old Schneider, adding that "the whole politically correct generation has gotten way out of hand." Last month, Schneider used his YouTube channel to see if others were offended by General Lee's Confederate flag. His co-star Tom Wopat, who played Bo's cousin Luke, strikes a more conciliatory tone. "The situation in the country has obviously changed in the last 40 years. I feel fortunate to be living in a time when we can address some of the injustices of the past," says the 68-year-old Wopat. "But the car is innocent." Dukes of Hazzard co-creator Gy Waldron, who's 87, says he "wholeheartedly support the Black Lives Matter movement and its quest to address racism around the world." But he adds that he grew up in Kentucky, where both the Confederate and American flags were flown proudly. "I had relatives fight on both sides of the Civil War and we honored both the American and Confederate flags," he says. "No one even connected the Confederate flag with slavery. It was simply a part of our Southern culture." Ben Jones, who played Cooter the mechanic before becoming a Democratic congressman representing Georgia, calls the controversy "a tragedy." "There are 80 million descendants of the Confederacy — one out of four people has that heritage," says Jones, who sells Dukes of Hazzard-related merchandise at his Cooter's Place online store. "Most of them have no problem with the flag at all," Jones asserts. "This was a family show. Black families watched it for generations. I know this. I had a (congressional) office right there in the Martin Luther King district. King's right-hand man Andy Young is a dear friend of mine. We couldn’t care less about rebel flags."