Japan Booke

The Dukes of Hazzard was part of America's redneck fetish in the mid-to-late 1970s, otherwise evident in popular songs, movies, and television shows highlighting fast cars, truckers, citizens' band radio, moonshine, irreverent hicks, and clueless lawmen. Created by writer-producer Gy Waldron and inspired by his own 1975 bootlegging comedy, Moonrunners, Dukes milked seven seasons of material from the tale of a Deep South family of reformed whiskey-makers and their running feud with a greedy impresario and his chief lackey, a buffoonish, venal sheriff. This three-disc set includes all 13 initial episodes of Dukes from 1979, a period fans fondly recall because some of the programs were shot on location in Covington, Georgia, rather than a Burbank backlot. Also noteworthy is that a couple of key characters, particularly Hazzard County's corrupt lawman, Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best), hadn't gelled yet into permanent hayseed stereotypes and were arguably more interesting at the beginning. At the center of the action is Sheriff Coltrane's nemeses, cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), a couple of wild boys buzzing through the backwoods in the "General Lee," a souped-up Dodge Charger. Bo and Luke are good at heart but have to behave themselves while on indefinite probation, complicating but not halting their efforts to vex Roscoe and his patron, diminutive bigwig Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke). The enmity runs both ways: Roscoe and Boss Hogg, with the aid of witless Deputy Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer), dream up ways of eliminating the Dukes--including their wise old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle)--but their efforts always backfire. While every episode is a variation on the previous one, predictability is a virtue in Dukes. The series pilot, "One Armed Bandits," finds Luke and Bo, with help from their sexy cousin, Daisy (Catherine Bach), diverting slot machines (smuggled into Hazzard County by Roscoe and Boss Hogg) to sundry watering holes where they can raise money for Bo's girlfriend's charity. In "Money to Burn," Boss Hogg tries to frame Bo and Luke for robbing an armored truck, while in "Deputy Dukes," the unarmed guys are forced by Roscoe to escort a deadly prisoner from one town to another. The Dukes hit back in "Daisy's Song," investigating a scam that took Daisy for $50 and implicates, of course, Boss Hogg and Roscoe. Yes, it's a show about rubes, car stunts, and a legacy of moonshine, but there's something comforting about it, in a tongue-in-cheek way. --Tom Keogh

All 13 episodes from the series's debut season--including "One Armed Bandits," "Daisy's Song," "Repo Men," "Deputy Dukes," and "Double Sting"--are featured in a three-disc set. 10 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; documentary; featurette. **13 episodes on 3 discs. 10 1/2 hrs.**

Booka shade is Walter merziger and Arno kammermeier production masterminds behind the first 13 get physical releases. This is their second full-length release. In charge of their own Production Company and studio for the last 15 years, they have profoundly applied their wide range of talents to the realm of electronic music. Meanwhile, booka shade's own redefinition of dance music found its expression on their debut album, memento which drew on their back ground as pop producers and their ability to sculpt nocturnal yet melancholic music for the dance floor and beyond. When it was released at the tail end of 2004 memento hit with velvet coated sucker punches its prowling understated menace combined with Walter and Arno's knack of penning melodies and creating evocative mood mapping out a fresh alternative for electronic music. Get Physic. 2006

Season 3 finds The Dukes of Hazzard coasting on its popular 1980s formula. Cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) Duke are still tearing up the road in their '69 orange Dodge Charger, the General Lee, while Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) everlastingly tries to frame them for everything from the theft of his cutlery at the Boar's Nest ("The Hazzardville Horror") to the heist of Stonewall Jackson's sword ("Along Came a Duke"). Meanwhile, leggy cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) adds some dimension to her eye-candy character by becoming a reporter for the Hazzard Gazette ("By-Line, Daisy Duke") and a kidnap victim ("Enos Strate to the Top") whose innocuous photographs of Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) in Atlanta happen to capture a couple of bank robbers in action. The predictability of the show in its third year by no means makes the series, created by writer-producer Gy Waldron (Moonrunners), anything less than shameless, tongue-in-cheek fun. Booke's cartoonish villain remains an outlandish self-caricature, chortling over every (doomed) opportunity to nail the Dukes and/or take Uncle Jesse's farm through a crooked boxing match ("And in This Corner, Luke Duke"), a bank robbery set up (by Hogg) to appear that Bo and Luke pulled off the crime during the wedding of Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best, in "Mrs. Rosco P. Coltrane"), and even by pretending to be amnesia victim Bo's father ("My Son, Bo Hogg"). After some cast uncertainty in season 2 (boycotts, etc.), things have mostly settled down and Booke's popularity is obviously in ascendance at this point in the show. Special features here include a special welcome by Schneider, Wopat, and Bach, and on-camera commentary by the same trio. --Tom Keogh

All 22 episodes from the series's third season--including the two-part "Carnival of Thrills," "Mrs. Rosco P. Coltrane," "Along Came a Duke," "The Hack of Hazzard," and "The Canterbury Crock"--are featured in a four-disc set. 19 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; audio commentary on one episode; featurette. **22 episodes on 4 discs. 19 hrs.**

The Dukes of Hazzard settled into a comfortable run in season 2. The show, originally shot on location in Covington, Georgia, was now permanently produced on a backlot in Burbank, California. While a couple of cast members (Ben Jones, who plays mechanic Cooter Davenport, and James Best, who portrays Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane) briefly boycotted the series in its second year (ushering in a parade of brief replacements, including Mickey Jones of the New Christy Minstrels, Dick Sargent of Bewitched, and James Hampton of F Troop), the actors relaxed into their now thoroughly cartoonish characters. What else can one say: The General Lee, the souped-up '69, orange Dodge Charger that belongs to cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) Duke, has a full tank and is ready to ride. The Duke boys, scions of a proud--though reformed--moonshining family, are still on probation with the law but continue to root out the criminal schemes of diminutive villain Boss Hogg (Sorrell Brooke) and his Wile E. Coyote-like lackey, Sheriff Coltrane. Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) is still a fount of grizzled wisdom as well as Boss Hogg's old whiskey-running nemesis. Cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) still burns up the road with her short-shorts, and Coltrane's deputies Enos (Sonny Shroyer) and Cletus (Rick Hurst) remain idiots with an edge of sympathy. Season 2 highlights include a funny fan favorite called "The Ghost of General Lee" (also co-star Schneider's favorite episode), in which Bo and Luke are assumed to have drowned when their stolen car ends up at the bottom of a pond. Hearing that Boss Hogg plans to blame them anyway for a theft they didn't commit, the Duke boys haunt him and Coltrane with apparitions of the General Lee as a "ghost." NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough makes an appealing guest in a story about the development of a secret turbo charger and Hogg's effort to steal it, while Loretta Lynn turns up as herself in a damsel-in-distress tale, featuring the country superstar as a kidnapped hostage. "Witness for the Persecution" introduces a recurring theme on Dukes: Occasions in which the vile Hogg must be protected from his enemies by hiding out with (gasp) the Dukes. The best of The Complete Second Season, however, may be "Days of Shine and Roses," in which Hogg and Uncle Jesse, after watching a film of their old moonshine-delivery exploits with the Ridge Runners Association, get into an argument about who was best and decide to resolve the question with a grudge race. Special features include Wopat and Schneider's screen tests, and a documentary about the Dukes' 25th anniversary festival in Tennessee, featuring series stars and stunt drivers. --Tom Keogh

All 23 episodes from the series's second season--including "Days of Shine and Roses," "Road Pirates," "Find Loretta Lynn," "Return of the Ridge Raiders," and "Southern Comfurts"--are featured in a four-disc set. 19 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; documentary. **23 episodes on 4 discs. 19 hrs.**

Some of the world's most beautiful, intelligent and highly adapted mammals inhabit our seas and oceans, and have stirred the human imagination for many centuries. As our knowledge of marine mammals grows, the need exists for a reliable and complete reference to the ecology and biology of these fascinating creatures. The Handbook of Marine Mammals series was founded with this in mind and now reaches its conclusion with this sixth and final volume. Within the pages of this classic series, scientists, conservationists and informed layperson alike can find the definitive review of all the world's whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, and related species as well as sea otters and sea cows.Volume 6 covers the remaining dolphins and porpoises in a series of 17 chapters, each written by a specialist author with extensive personal research experience of the species. Each chapter provides a description of the species, and includes sections on the aspects of distribution and abundance, anatomy, physiology, behavior, reproduction, parasites and diseases and the impact of human activity on the animal's population and well-being. Numerous maps, photos and drawings illustrate the text. Key Features* Concludes this major definitive series* A standard reference work on all of the world's marine mammals, their anatomy, distribution, ecology, and behavior* The most up-to-date research in a concise reference form* Numerous photos of live and specimen animals, skulls, and anatomical details, plus distribution maps* Text specifically deals with conservation and management issues