Friday, April 25, 2014

What Might've Been: Enos (1980)

The success of Dukes of Hazzard was bound to result in a spin-off series, but when that happened, it didn't last long----probably because it happened too soon.

Simple, honest deputy Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer) captured some big-time bad guys in Hazzard County---with an assist from the Dukes, of course----and it merited him a gig in a much bigger place--Los Angeles.

Enos bowed in November 1980, and if memory serves, it was coupled with Dukes in CBS' Friday lineup. Unfortunately, the series lasted just 1 season. As I said, it may have been borne a wee bit too premature for viewers' liking. Enos would eventually return to Hazzard during season 5 of Dukes, but then relocated back to LA after the series ended, as explained in a pair of reunion TV movies between 1997-2000, during which time Enos finally married his childhood sweetheart, Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach).

Co-star Samuel E. Wright, meanwhile, became better known as the voice of Sebastian the crab in the Disney cartoon, "The Little Mermaid", and its subsequent TV spin-off.

Here's the open:



Rating: B.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I vaguely remember this show. I used to watch Dukes of Hazzard and I remember liking Enos as the only honest lawman in the county!

I do not remember him being the childhood sweetheart of Daisy Duke but I do remember the character being really worked up when Daisy paid a visit to L.A. in a crossover episode. I knew he was at least crazy about her!

hobbyfan said...

I think I had read somewhere in doing research on Dukes of Hazzard that Enos had been friends with the Dukes for years, and the fact that he'd been crushing on Daisy all along suggested that there might've been a relationship well before the series.

The hook to the show was that each episode started & ended, except maybe when Daisy came to LA, with Enos writing a letter to her. Now, can you blame the guy for having the hots for Daisy?