1979: CBS Introduces the Action-Comedy 'The Dukes of Hazzard'
The Dukes of Hazzard, capitalizing at the time on the popularity of Smokey and the Bandit, led TV into a new action-comedy genre I once described, and dismissed, as "kinetic rednecks." If you extracted the slow-motion airborne autos from this series, you'd cut the running time in half, which would make it only half as wretched.
The Dukes of Hazzard — which premiered today in 1979 and ran through 1985 — is gone now, but, unfortunately, not quite forgotten. John Schneider and Tom Wopat, who starred as Bo and Luke Duke, went on to more respectable careers — but short of instant retirement or untimely death, how could they not? ... Yet in teleliteracy terms, what's remembered most about The Dukes of Hazzard is General Lee, which is poetic justice. General Lee is a car, not a character.
—Excerpted from Dictionary of Teleliteracy: Television's 500 Biggest Hits, Misses and Events