A blast from the past from Chad

Special thanks to our buddy Chad Fullerton of Georgia for sending along this photo that his dad Jim snapped several years ago in Covington, Georgia, when the restored Lee 1 car was unveiled on the Town Square in November 2006. That's this author, BRB, with John Schneider, aka Bo Duke, at the car's unveiling. It was such a fun time, as friends had driven from the North and tons of folks showed up for the event. Thanks so much, Chad and Jim!!!

History repeating itself with the General Lee's flag?

Wowzers, we sure have been embroiled in some controversy this week over that Confederate flag on the roof of the General Lee car that Bo and Luke Duke drove in "The Dukes of Hazzard." We've been seeing "Dukes" fans speak up about it all over the Internet. This author presented a case about the flag and its usage on the car (and how the Dukes didn't hate anybody) in the reference guide to the TV show, "Them Dukes! Them Dukes!" But the controversy continues. See this story from the other day, about the media's attempt to put down Ben ("Cooter Davenport") Jones and "The Dukes." We have to remind you of what happened a couple years back, when the WB made a move to remove the flag from "Dukes" merchandise. See our August 29, 2012 post for Ben Jones' words about it back then, then the follow-up from the WB on August 31.

To help put this into perspective, we offer the words of Will Rodgers, "The Voice of Hazzard" with his many wonderful voice impressions of "Dukes" characters. A co-author of the BRBTV Reports, Will posted his thoughts about the controversy on Facebook and allows them to be repeated here ...

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As a first-generation and lifelong fan of "The Dukes of Hazzard," I am a proud supporter of the cast and crew, the cars, the music and everything the shows stands for. I love family-friendliness, the humor and the wholesome morals and values of the show. And like everyone else, I am extremely appalled and disgusted at Warner Bros.' decision to stop selling "Dukes" merchandise with the Confederate flag on it. The General Lee without the flag is like Batman without his cape and cowl or Popeye without his spinach. Unthinkable!! I am a proud supporter of Congressman Ben "Cooter" Jones and everything he has spoken about on the news regarding the Confederate flag and what the "Dukes" are all about. I am known in the Hazzard community as the Voice of Hazzard because of my voice impressions of the "Dukes" characters. Well, let my voice be heard. I have NEVER EVER thought of hate or racism when it comes to the Confederate flag. And I have never seen that on "The Dukes of Hazzard." So if these powers that be insist on this nonsense against selling "Dukes" merchandise without the flag, then thank the Good Lord I have General Lees with flags as well as the entire series uncut on DVD in case some other moronic mogul decides against airing the "Dukes" on TV. To "Cooter" Ben Jones, I'm proud to call you friend I'm behind you 100 percent in this fight to protect the flag. So says the Voice of Hazzard.

Terrific TV Toys: "Star Trek" Andorian figure by Diamond Select / EMCE

In Episode 12 in the first season of the Terrific TV Toys series, Billie Rae Bates of BRBTV showed you some of her "Star Trek" Mego figures, both original and reproduction (just one repro, actually -- the cute little baby Klingon). Her collection is bigger than that, though, so for the 17th episode of Season 2, we bring you the first of a three-part series, rolling out more of the "Trek" figures. These three additional figures are all repros of Megos, and BRB will open them all on camera, for these "out of the box experiences." Part 1 is the adorable Andorian ...



Stay tuned, because next week's episode rolls out another alien, this time of some rather confusing vintage!!!

Terrific TV Toys: Archie cars from Burger King Kids Meal

Yea, the hot purple sports car sure looks good on Veronica Lodge. And Betty Cooper in a '57 Chevy? We're thinking that fits, too, for this industrious occasional car mechanic. Jughead Jones in a green Volkswagen Bug? Hmmm ... But of course, there's Archie Andrews in the all-too-familiar red jalopy.

You can see this full set of four Kids Meal toys from Burger King's Kids Club, circa 1991, in the latest installment of Terrific TV Toys series. Billie Rae Bates of BRBTV had to eat a few kid-sized hamburgers to get these beauties, and it was well worth it. This was before eBay allowed us to nab vintage Archie collectibles that we'd missed from years past, and it was also before ArchieComics.com ever offered us a bevy of sparkling new merchandise featuring those timeless characters. So, in short, it was hard to find Archie stuff!

Everything was awesome at Awesome Con for the "Fantastic Forum"!

Wow, what a wonderful time it was at Awesome Con in downtown Washington, D.C., last weekend. The event, in its third year, was just as big as ever and took up the whole convention center this time. Billie Rae Bates of BRBTV did some more work for the "Fantastic Forum" TV show produced by Ulysses Campbell. Four episodes were taped on Saturday and Sunday of the show, with the convention floor bustling behind. Super cool! Watch for those episodes to air on these stations on the East Coast:

• Manhattan Neighborhood Network, New York, NY; Time Warner Cable MNN Lifestyle channel 2
• PhillyCam,  Philadelphia, PA; Comcast channel 66/966; Verizon FiOS channel 29/30.
• MCM  Montgomery County, MD; Comcast channel 21; RCN channel 21; Verizon FiOS channel 21.
• Arlington Independent Media (AIM), Arlington County, VA; Comcast channel 69; Verizon FiOS channel 38.
• FPA-TV,  Fairfax County, VA; Cox channel 10.
• DCTV, Washington, DC; Comcast channel 95; RCN channel 10; Verizon FiOS channel 10.
• Prince George’s Community Television (CTV), Prince George’s County, MD; COMCAST channel 76; Verizon FiOS channel 42.
• Community Media of Baltimore City (CMBC), Baltimore, MD; Comcast channel 75.
• Herndon Community Television, Cox channel 23, Verizon FIOS channel 28.

 

Photos courtesy of Fantastic Forum; please do not copy without permission.

Awesome Con: Allison Mack talks "Smallville"

Hummana-hummana ... How often do you hear a young female TV star say that? Well, we heard it this past weekend at the amazing Awesome Con in downtown Washington, D.C. The young female TV star in question was the continually lovely Allison Mack of "Smallville." Can you guess the context? You can see if you're right in our clips from her panel discussion on Saturday of the show, presented here as the latest installment on the BRBTV YouTube channel ...

Photos by Billie Rae Bates / BRBTV

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