1980's Saturday Morning Historical Preservation Society

"SPEED BUGGY!??!" I can hear you yelling at your computer screen. "But Captain!" you protest, "Speed Buggy is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on CBS from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975 that followed the adventures of an anthropomorphic, fiberglass Dune Buggy and his teenage friends as they solved Scooby-Doo-esque mysteries! What's it doing under the heading of 1982?!?!?"

Blame Bo and Luke Duke.

The Dukes of Hazzard was an extremely popular and high-rated hour-long prime-time television show on CBS Friday nights. Having seen the success of prime-time-to-animation transition shows such as The Fonz, Laverne & Shirley (as well as historically successful cartoons of The Partridge Family, Gilligan's Island and Star Trek), CBS decided they wanted to diversify and bring them Duke Boys to Saturday Mornings. "Hey, Hanna-Barbera, can YOU make us a Dukes of Hazzard Cartoon?" they asked, and since Joe & Bill could never say no, they did all the work needed to get a cartoon done (model sheets, story boarding, voice casting, script writing, etc) and everything was ready to go! Bring in the celebrities in, record the dialogue, bring the actors in again for a final voice-over and...

In the spring of 1982, as filming was due to begin on the fifth season of the prime-time show, series stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider did not report to the set due to a contract dispute. Catherine Bach (their cousin "Daisy") also considered walking out due to similar contract concerns, but Wopat and Schneider convinced her to stay, insisting that settling the dispute was "man's work" (actual quote). Rather than cave in to the demands of the talent, CBS pulled the old "YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. YOU CAN BE REPLACED" move and hired two new actors, Byron Cherry as Coy Duke and Christopher Mayer as Vance Duke.

"Hey, uhm... Hanna-Barbera? You guys can change all the animation and voice-over and everything before September, right?"

Hanna-Barbera said no, we CAN'T do that are you CRAZY it's not that simple, but CBS (at this point crazy with Ceasar-esque power) said something akin to YOU WILL HAVE A CARTOON READY THAT FEATURES OUR NEW GUYS AND LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE OLD GUYS OR YOU'LL NEVER WORK IN TELEVISION AGAIN, and so H-B said well I guess we can try but we can't guarantee anything so maybe you shouldn't put it on the Fall Schedule...

...And CBS proceeded to promote that a Dukes Of Hazzard Cartoon would be the first cartoon in their 1982 Saturday Morning Line-up.

There are different accounts of what happened next, but the facts are these:

• The affiliates were told that they would have a Dukes Of Hazzard cartoon at 8:00 Saturday morning, September the 18th.
• The network and the affiliates sold advertising based on the projected number for a brand-new Dukes Of Hazzard cartoon.
• CBS received a shipment from Hanna-Barbera labeled "The Dukes Ep 01".
• The shipment contained re-run of the 1973 Speed Buggy cartoon.
• Advertisers and Affiliates were PISSED OFF.

The official story is that CBS was aware of the possible Speed Buggy substitution, having communicated with H-B and said something like "Well if you CAN'T get us a Dukes of Hazzard cartoon in time, just send us SOMETHING to do with cars and racing" and intended to compensate affiliates and advertisers only in the event that H-B could not get the Dukes cartoon completed in time.

Popular Theory (and my personal favorite) is that CBS remained stubborn and threatening, so H-B sent them a box labeled "The Dukes" as a decoy while they frantically wrapped production on the new version of The Dukes, with lots of "Gee I don't know how this happened, we finished production a week ago, it must have been my new intern, we're tracking it down right now, blah blah blah" excuse till the Spring of 1983.

Spring of 1983 saw only one new cartoon debut, "The Dukes". More about THAT when I get to 1983 :) Also, it all became a moot point because Coy & Vance only lasted one season before the contract disputes were settled and the proper Duke Boys were back, making the second season of The Dukes SO EASY for Hanna-Barbera to produce since they were 98% done and in the can :)