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Dukes Of Hazzard cast meetings

I've been fortunate enough to meet several members of the Dukes cast over they years. The first was John Schneider, a personal hero. I waited for two hours for him, and he was great. With a hearty hand shake and intense eye contact, he smiled and thanked me for waiting. He posed for pics and was great. The next year I met Sonny Shroyer and James Best. Rosco made a pretty bad impression on me. He wouldn't look up for pictures, let alone pose. He was abrupt and just very impersonal. It's easy to take personally, but he is in his eighties and didn't seem to want to be there. I think Enos (Sonny) felt bad for me after being rejected for a pic. He asked us our names and posed for a picture and was very polite and answered a few quick questions. As we were walking away he called to us and said thanks and goodbye. I met Ben (Cooter) Jones a year later and he was very nice. I had him sign a die-cast General Lee, and he refused to sign the flag. But he couldn't have been more gracious. Rick (Cletus) Hurst and Catherine Bach were obtained at Dukefest on 2004. Cletus was great. Besides there being no line, he was very nice and talkative. With Daisy, the wait was five hours, because she was posing for pics with everyone who asked (flipside to the Rosco coin). By the time I got up there she must have decided to speed things up because she wouldn't even acknowledge me. I got the signature (on the flag), but she never looked up or said a word. The stunt team was mostly nice, Cory Eubanks being the best. He jumped a General Lee that day and was very cool to talk with. I can understand celebs getting frustrated, I just think that if someone waits in line for hours (not to mention decades) to get a signature, and if you agree to do a meet and greet, you do owe it to people to be polite. Do they have to pose? No. Do they have to be polite? Under the circumstances, yeah, I think so. Still haven't obtained Tom Wopat's signature, but he comes around now and then. The Dukes is still a favorite show, but to be honest, with the bad impression James Best made on me I don't enjoy his character as much, and I'm not inclined to spend money or time on his creative endeavors. I still watch everything Schneider does, good and bad. The man has a very good sense of business ethics.

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Comment by Robert Babb on July 4, 2012 at 7:53am: I have met james best, catherine bach, and ben jones in person at different times. James Best signed for us real well but charged extra each item that he did not sell at his booth and did not sign pesonalizations. Catherine Bach signed alot for us but got inpatient but was along line. Ben jones has to be my favorite signer in person from the cast because he took extra time with each fan he met. He signed at least 4 or 5 extra items free that i dids not buy from his booth. Try getting tom wopat when he does an apprearance at a theatre location ttm or in person. I was lucky to get his autograph at a theatre location ttm and he is the only member the dukes cast that i ever got ttm free!

Comment by John Strickland on July 7, 2012 at 6:18pm: I went to the Dukefest in Nashville back in 2006 and it was insanely mobbed there, Ben Jones apologized because he said they did not anticipate that big of a turnout LOL, anyway we had a great time but took 4 hours of waiting to get John Schneider's autograph but after seeing how nice he was it was worth it.

My wife had lost her brother in 2003 in Iraq so we had an old photo of him on a dukes of hazzard trike that my wife wanted signed well when it was our turn up my wife could not handle being the one to hand it to John since she was still emotional losing him so I placed the photo in front of him and he said "who is this guy" and i told him that we lost him in Iraq in 2003 , John responded with "really " and he stared at the photo and teared up then he wrote a very nice long personalized inscription thanking him for his sacrifice, afterward he stood up and bear hugged me and then I got choked up...LOL

I told my wife afterward if you would have gave him the photo that would have been your hug and she could have copped a feel LOL, the guy was really solid for his age I must say but anyway I will always remember that and he is one of my favorite's because of that moment a truly big hearted man for sure.

As far as the rest of the cast I have met Cletus at Cooter's in gatlinburg and he is a very nice person and will take the time to talk to you, the line for Daisy was so long you could not see the end ! Needless to say John was the only autograph on that day at Dukefest.