We're The Good Ole Boys

It's ironic that of all shows, The Dukes of Hazzard is now become a First Amendment martyr.
As a kid, I watched The Dukes of Hazzard and even though I liked it, now, I look at it as almost an insult to southern people, rather than a representation. Even in the early 1980s, the look and feel of the show was almost buffoonish. Being a native of Georgia, I can tell you that we would make fun of people like the Duke brothers.
The show is not to be taken seriously. How many times would the General Lee, the Camaro the Duke brothers drove, crash and roll on all those long jumps? The show was an exaggeration. But now, 30 years later, that has been lost on its loyal fan base who obviously don't realize the show was rather mocking them.
The General Lee had the Confederate Flag painted on the top roof of the car. This was also done as a mockery of southern people, something the 2005 show picked up on and exploited.
Yes, there were Boss Hoggs in Georgia and there were sheriffs like Roscoe and Enos in the south. There's Boss Hoggs and Roscoes everywhere. They weren't positive representations of elected officials and law enforcement.
Every elected officials who work long hours for little to no pay and every law enforcement officer who has had to work holidays and woken up in the middle of the night when emergencies happen should be offended by The Dukes of Hazzard. But they're really not, because they understand the exaggeration.
TV Land this week has pulled reruns of the show from the schedule. Hazzard hasn't aired a new episode in over 30 years. And let's face it, who really knew it was on TV Land? Who can find TV Land on their dish guide?
Where was this outcry when ABC canceled Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher in 2002 following comments Maher said that ABC didn't like? Yes, it was said post 9/11 and Maher 's comment are protected by the First Amendment but not by ABC officials and their advertisers.
That may be why TV Land pulled The Dukes of Hazzard. The network may have been approached by advertisers wanting to pull revenue. In the media business, ad revenue is everything. Ad revenue pays the bills, mostly.
That's why NBC has told Donald Trump "You're fired" after his recent comments about Mexican immigrants.
People on the other side of the fence are always trying to pull movies and TV shows they don't find acceptable by their standards. Remember the efforts in 1984 to pull Silent Night, Deadly Night from theaters? Or in 2006, how Christian organizations tried to get The Golden Compass pulled from theaters while only two years earlier defending The Passion of the Christ because dialogue considered anti-Semitic was cut?
Phil Robertson can express his thoughts about gay people and people get mad when A&E puts Duck Dynasty on hiatus, but the same people who supported Robertson were the same pushing for All-American Muslim to be canceled.
I've always been a firm believer of the Remote Control Philosophy. Don't like what's on TV, then change the station. In the 30 years since The Dukes of Hazzard first aired, we've gone from maybe a dozen TV stations, including cable, to hundreds of TV stations available, and the people have to place them with something. There are some networks I don't watch and probably will never watch and there are shows I will never watch.
I don't agree with TV Land's decision. We can't do what Warner Bros. did and pull all Speedy Gonzalez cartoons. But when a company makes that decision, they do so for business reasons some of us won't understand.
In the business world, it's not about black or white, it's about the green to keep things in the black and out of the red.