popular thinking

PUT UP YOUR DUKES: Did you miss me? Yes, I missed a day during the week. It can happen when a blogger has an actual job that's in the world of journalism. No apologies when reporting holds up posting. Not now, anyhow. Maybe once I get a hold of my time-management issues, I'll be able to do several more things at once. But enough about that.

The big news this week revolves around the movie version of The Dukes of Hazzard.

Ben Jones, who played Cooter in the classic TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, urged Dukes fans last month to avoid the movie version, which debuts tomorrow.
"From all I have heard, the 'Dukes' movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the 'Dukes of Hazzard' for so long,'' Jones wrote on his site, Cooter's Place.
The show airs weeknights on CMT.
Chris Nelson, hired by CMT this spring as vice president of the cable network's "Dukes of Hazzard Institute,'' said Tuesday that he advises Hazzard fans to put the big-screen version in perspective.
"I think it's going to be a fun popcorn movie,'' Nelson said. "It's an action movie. It's not going to be like the series. Nothing can be like the series. Adaptations are always different.''
Nelson said if he were making the movie, he'd include a road race, a love interest for the Duke boys and some backstory to explain how the cousins and the General Lee got together. Cooter, according to his Web site, pines for the show's "positive values, great action, wonderful slapstick comedy, mighty fine country music, and a very gifted cast who had great chemistry.''
Alas, neither took part in the adapation.

Read my comparison here: Duke it out: Let's debate differences between 'Hazzards' (Boston Herald)

NOTE: See me on NECN at 4 p.m. Friday talking about the Dukes.