Bo meets Coy -- and we're just thrilled by it!!!!!

There've been rumblings in the "Dukes of Hazzard" world all year long about the possibility of Byron "Coy Duke" Cherry and Christopher "Vance Duke" Mayer finally, after all these years, being invited to the annual DukesFest. And from this "Dukes" watcher's perspective, two things have precipitated those rumblings.

The first is the fact that Byron Cherry has been making "Dukes"-related appearances for the past couple years, such as at the Hair Dare Dukes Days in Canada two years in a row and the Hillbilly Woodstick 2 Dukes of Hazzard Cruise just a few weeks ago (see the BRBTV News Blog's coverage of those events). Cherry has shown what kind of guy he is at these events (a good one, in other words), and it's as if "Dukes" fans have discovered a whole new way of looking at Coy, who along with Vance had the inenviable role of being a "replacement" Duke in the 1982-83 season of the show.

The other factor is that now John Schneider is running the show, so to speak. He and his wife Elly have taken over the fabbo DukesFest event. Cherry has spoken about how he and Schneider knew each other back in the day, and that Cherry actually auditioned for the role of Bo and the two joked with each other about who would get it. There are no hard feelings between these two guys.

Well now, the news has broken that there's been a meeting between the two. No etched-in-stone details are available right now, but there's some nice indications from it all ...

"I just want all of you awesome 'Dukes' fans to know," Cherry wrote in his Yahoo discussion group, "I met with John Schneider today while he was filming in Ventura. He was three miles from my house, called me and said, 'Come on down to the set and see me.' He looked better than 28 years ago. That guy does not age." (BRBTV surmises that Schneider was thinkin' the same thing about Cherry! See our photos of him in earlier posts!)

"He met my 6-year-old son Wesley and was cutting up with him. John and I hugged after 25-plus years and had a great time. ... I sure hope to see you all at DukesFest this year. It's about time. Love you. Oh, and one more thing ..................YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE---HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, Coy Duke lives, and thanks, Byron Cherry."

As one fan put it on the Confederate General Lee Fan Club Board, "I think the days of Byron and Chris as outcasts instead of castmembers are almost over!"