Interview: James Best Reflects On The Dukes of Hazzard

Interview by Craig Byrne

If you were born before 1980, chances are you spent your Friday nights watching the hit series The Dukes of Hazzard which led off CBS Friday nights and was a leading show for seven successful seasons. A major ingredient to that success was the character of Hazzard’s sneaky, bumbling Sheriff, Rosco P. Coltrane, as played by James Best.

Often sharing screen time with his nefarious but lovable “little fat buddy,” County Commissioner J.D. “Boss” Hogg, Rosco’s brand of “hot pursuit” alongside his basset hound Flash gave the show a villain that, although he was doing bad things, you couldn’t help but love him. In some ways, Rosco was to The Dukes what Sue Sylvester has been to Glee – a character who always puts a wrench in things that happens to be played by a very talented actor. On screen, the Boss and Rosco duo was hard to beat when it came to comedic chemistry.

To promote the Warner Archive’s release of the complete animated series of The Dukes (now available exclusively at WarnerArchive.com), James Best did the interview rounds, including with KSiteTV. Below, you’ll find the interview. Questions to Mr. Best are bold; his answers are not.

KSITETV: On the live action series you and Sorrell Booke used to ad lib a lot. With an animated series, were you still able to do that, or did you have to stick to the script?

JAMES BEST: You know, it’s funny, because they actually encouraged us to do the characters that we did on the live TV. We stuck basically to the script, but we put in little silly things now and then like we did on the show, and they accepted that, so that was really fun to do, to be very honest with you. I really enjoyed it. It was very comfortable to be sitting in an air-conditioned studio!

What did you think of seeing yourself as an animated character?

[Laughs] I can’t really tell you. I’ve never really had a response to it. It was different. It was absolutely different. I was always a very serious actor, and it was a shock. Not an unpleasant shock, but it was a shock.

Is it true a lot of your mannerisms as Rosco were originally created as a way to amuse your children?

Yes. On the first couple episodes of Dukes, they had me play a very serious sheriff. I shot one guy in the leg. And I went to the producers and I said “I have too much respect for the law enforcement people that protect us in this country and have their lives on the line,” and I said “I do not want to play a mean sheriff.” So I said “Why don’t we soften that down so the children aren’t afraid of the policemen when they walk up?” I was going to play him like a twelve-year-old who liked hot pursuit! They said “well, what do you suggest?” I said “I’m going to do what I did with my girls when they were little.” I’d go kee-kee! And they fell off their chairs laughing. I said “That’s the way I’m going to play Rosco. I’m going to play him as a twelve-year-old.” It actually worked. At one point, they came to me and they said, “I think you’re going too far with that character,” and I said “No. I disagree with you. I’m not going to change it.” And I’ve been blessed, because for 25 years, I’ve had thousands and thousands of fans who write me and tell me that they loved that silly character.

When recording audio for the series, did you all do multiple episodes at a time?

You know, I don’t really know. We were recording whatever they gave us. Now, in what sequence they were putting it in, I don’t know. I don’t even know if we were doing the voices before they actually did the animation. That must have been so, because when we ad-libbed, they’d put the ad-libs in animation form.

You’ve written a book titled Best in Hollywood, where you talk about about your career, including the Dukes. Can you talk about that?

It was a three-year labor of love. I’ve encouraged a lot of fans to go to my web page, JamesBest.com, and get the book, either for themselves or for a loved one, because I really was blessed – the good Lord worked overtime for me – to have such a wonderful career, and to have worked with such wonderful and talented people that I had during the golden years of Hollywood, when she was really a queen of talent. So my book – it’s not an ego book, it’s the story of the blessing of my being able to work with the all-time greats. Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Burt Reynolds, and Paul Newman… all of these wonderful people. And that’s why I was excited about how the book came out. We put a lot of pictures in there that have not been seen.

I understand you are also quite a painter. What are your favorite things to paint?

I do mostly Southern landscapes. I do beautiful old barns that are falling down, and beautiful trees reflecting in the water. My lovely wife Dorothy and I travel quite a bit, so I take pictures of different things that inspire me to come home, when I come home here in North Carolina, into my art studio and paint these things. I put them on my web page and I’m proud to say that I’m selling paintings all over the world now. Some of them are commissioned. But I try to price my paintings in such a way that the average person can afford them. They make good Christmas gifts. It’s a wonderful pastime for me, and it’s been very profitable.

Why do you think people still love The Dukes 30 years later?

I don’t think it changes. People that grew up with it, it’s deja vu of their youth. They grew up with it. And now, they’re introducing it to their younger ones.

I go on personal appearances where two and three year olds come up and go “Kee-kee! I love it, I love it!” It just tickles me to death, because they’re the third generation. And I think it’s because it was a clean, good, family show. It’s like the Andy Griffith Show, or some of those wonderful shows that relied on talent and good writing and good directing and good producing, and I wish Hollywood would get back a little more to that. We need more Andy Griffiths and Dukes of Hazzard type of shows.

Did you have a particular favorite episode of the Dukes of Hazzard series?

What I really enjoyed was the episode where Rosco thinks he inherits a million dollars, and makes Boss Hogg his deputy. That was a fun, fun show. And then the other show that I enjoyed, I got to play a dual role, where I play a guy who actually has his face built like Rosco, and he’s trying to imitate Rosco. So I actually play Rosco two different ways. That one was fun. But I’ll be very honest with you. Almost every show that I worked, it was a blessing. I worked, of course, mostly with Boss Hogg. Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg) spoke five languages. He was a brilliant actor, and he let me ad lib all over the place, and he would go along with it.

We were all a family. The whole cast. In the future, John Schneider and I are going to make a movie together, probably the first of next year; and probably with Rick Hurst, one of my deputies, so it’s going to be fun. Even after all these years, when we see each other, it’s just like old home week. We’re back into the Dukes again.

Is there any chance of another Dukes of Hazzard reunion movie?

No, I don’t think so. We lost Uncle Jesse. We lost Boss Hogg. I don’t really want to do one, to be very honest with you. I think it’s very interesting to get out when you’re ahead, because when we went off the air, we were still in the top ten. Let’s face it – they tried to make a couple of movies without the cast and they died, and justifiably so, because all they did was put naughty words in there. That hurt all our feelings. We spent seven years doing a wonderful clean family type of show, and then they come out with a couple of junkers. But that’s the way the business is, and I have nothing to do with it anymore. We formed our own movie company and we’ll do our own thing. I hope the public likes it.