Editing The Dukes of Hazzard (section)

==Casting of Coy and Vance==
[[File:Coy and Vance Dukes 1982.jpg|thumb|Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer as Coy and Vance Duke, 1982]]
''The Dukes of Hazzard'' was consistently among the top-rated television series (at one point, ranking second only to ''[[Dallas (TV series)|Dallas]]'', which immediately followed the show on CBS' Friday night schedule). With that success came huge profits in merchandising, with a wide array of ''Dukes of Hazzard'' toys and products being licensed and becoming big sellers. However, over the course of the show's fourth season, series stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider—who had already previously voiced their concern and discontent about increasingly inferior scripts being written for episodes—became increasingly concerned about a contract dispute over their salaries and merchandising royalties owed to them from the high sales of ''Dukes'' products. They felt that neither of them was being paid what was owed to them<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schwartz |first1=Tony |title='Dukes' Stars Dropped |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/10/arts/tv-notebook-nbc-is-said-to-offer-best-prime-time-shows-for-fall.html |volume=131|work=The New York Times |issue=45370 |date=10 July 1982 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710135556/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/10/arts/tv-notebook-nbc-is-said-to-offer-best-prime-time-shows-for-fall.html |archive-date=10 July 2022}}</ref> and this became very frustrating to the duo. As a result, in the spring of 1982, as filming was due to begin on the fifth season, Wopat and Schneider did not report to the set in protest over the matter. Catherine Bach also considered walking out due to similar concerns, but Wopat and Schneider convinced her to stay, insisting that if she left, there might not be a show to come back to, and that settling the issue was up to them.<ref name=hofstede>{{cite book |last1=Hofstede |first1=David |title=The Dukes of Hazzard: The Unofficial Companion. |date=2005 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-35374-2 |oclc=1329185333 |language=English}}</ref>{{rp|96}}

Production was pushed back by a few weeks as fairly similar looking replacements were hastily hired: [[Byron Cherry]] as Coy Duke and [[Christopher Mayer (American actor)|Christopher Mayer]] as Vance Duke. Bo and Luke were said to have gone to race on the [[NASCAR]] circuit; how they did this considering the terms of their probation was never explained. Cherry and Mayer were originally contracted at just 10 episodes as stand-ins, still with hope that a settlement might be reached with Wopat and Schneider<ref name=hofstede/>{{rp|92}} (in total, they made 19 episodes including one with Bo and Luke). Some scripts for Coy and Vance were originally written for Bo and Luke but with their names crossed out and Coy and Vance penned in.<ref name=hofstede/>{{rp|96}}

The new Dukes—previously unmentioned nephews of Uncle Jesse, who were said to have left the farm in 1976 before the show had started—were unpopular with the great majority of viewers, and the ratings immediately sank. Much of the criticism was that Coy and Vance were nothing but direct clones of Bo and Luke, with Coy a direct "carbon copy" replacement for Bo and Vance for Luke, with little variation in character. This was something that even show creator Gy Waldron has said was wrong,<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=The Dukes Of Hazzard — The Complete Fourth Season (The Dukes Story: Building the Legend extra)| publisher = Warner Bros.}}</ref> and that he insisted, unsuccessfully, that audiences would not accept direct clones and the two replacements should be taken in a different direction character wise, but was overruled by the producers. Waldron also commented that if Bach too had walked, the show would probably have been canceled. It was reported that prior to filming, Cherry and Mayer were given Bo and Luke episodes to watch, to study and learn to emulate them, although Cherry has said in interviews that he does not recall this ever happening.

Hit hard by the significant drop in ratings, Warner Bros. renegotiated with Wopat and Schneider, and eventually a settlement was reached, and the original Duke boys returned to the series in early 1983, four episodes from the conclusion of the fifth season. Initially, part of the [[press release]] announcing Wopat and Schneider's return suggested that Cherry and Mayer would remain as part of the cast (though presumably in a reduced role),<ref name=hofstede/>{{rp|97}} but it was quickly realized that "four Duke boys" would not work within the context of the series, and due to the huge unpopularity associated with their time on the show, they were quickly written out of the same episode in which Bo and Luke returned.

===Return of Bo and Luke===
Although Coy and Vance were never popular, viewers were disappointed by their departure episode, "Welcome Back, Bo 'n' Luke", which was for the most part a standard episode, with the return of Bo and Luke and the departure of Coy and Vance tacked onto the beginning (Bo and Luke return from their NASCAR tour just as Coy and Vance leave Hazzard to tend to a sick relative). More than a few viewers commented that they were disappointed by this, and that they would have liked to see both pairs of Duke boys team up to tackle a particularly dastardly plot by Boss Hogg before Coy and Vance's departure, but as it turned out, Coy and Vance had little dialogue and were gone by the first commercial break, never to be seen, heard from or even mentioned again.<ref name=hofstede/>{{rp|249}}

While the return of Bo and Luke was welcomed by ardent and casual viewers alike, and as a result ratings recovered slightly, the show never completely regained its former popularity. One of Wopat and Schneider's disputes even before they left was what they considered to be increasingly weak and formulaic scripts and episode plots.<ref name=hofstede/>{{rp|86}} With Wopat and Schneider's return, the producers agreed to try a wider scope of storylines.<ref name=hofstede/>{{rp|100}} It continued for two more seasons. Many cast members, including Wopat, decried the miniature car effects newly incorporated to depict increasingly absurd ''General Lee'' and patrol car stunts (which had previously been performed with real cars by stunt drivers).<ref>Jake Rossen. [http://mentalfloss.com/article/65519/12-good-ol-facts-about-dukes-hazzard “12 Good Ol’ Facts About The Dukes of Hazzard”], ''[[Mental Floss]]''. January 26, 2019. ''(Retrieved 2020-11-22.)''</ref> The miniature car effects were intended as a budget saving measure (to save the cost of repairing or replacing damaged vehicles) and to help compete visually with [[KITT]] from the [[NBC]] series ''[[Knight Rider (1982 TV series)|Knight Rider]]''.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} By February 1985, ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' ended its run after seven seasons.