Daisy Duke
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Daisy Duke | |
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Dukes of Hazzard character | |
First appearance | "One Armed Bandits", first episode of The Dukes of Hazzard |
Created by | Gy Waldron |
Portrayed by | Catherine Bach – 1979–1985, 1997, 2000 Jessica Simpson – 2005 April Scott – 2007 |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Female |
Occupation | Waitress |
Significant other | Deputy Enos Strate |
Relatives | Bo Duke (cousin) Luke Duke (cousin) Coy Duke (cousin) Vance Duke (cousin) Jesse Duke (uncle) Jud Duke (cousin) Dixie Duke (great-great grandmother) |
Nationality | American |
Daisy Duke is a fictional character, played by
Although never mentioned in the series itself, some press material for the show suggests that Daisy's parents, along with Bo and Luke's, were killed in a car accident; in the 1997 reunion movie, Daisy says her mother died when she was a baby. The series never explained how they all came to live with Uncle Jesse.
Daisy frequently becomes involved in the Dukes' car chases, originally in her Plymouth Road Runner or, from the mid-second season onwards and more famously, in her Jeep. Daisy also works as a waitress at the Boar's Nest, the local tavern owned by Boss Hogg that was the main meeting place in Hazzard. She also aspires to be both a singer-songwriter and a journalist.
Character
This section may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. (March 2016) |
"She drives like Richard Petty, shoots like Annie Oakley, and knows the words to all of Dolly Parton's songs."
— The Balladeer, "One Armed Bandits"
Daisy Duke is a well-meaning though quite naive, often scantily dressed rogue
As with her cousins, Daisy never finds a long-lasting beau of her own over the course of the series, though Deputy
In the 1997 reunion movie, she is said to have left Hazzard to get married at some point after the original series, but is subsequently divorced. After her marriage ended, she was pursuing a graduate degree at Duke University, and upon her return to Hazzard agrees to marry Enos Strate, who reveals he had been writing weekly love letters to Daisy for many years (tying into Enos's own spin-off series), but backs out at the last minute due to both the sudden reappearance of her ex-husband, and for fear of another debacle like her first marriage.
Vehicles
Daisy's first car in the series is a yellow 1974 Plymouth Road Runner with a black stripe along the sides and over the roof. Although the car was intended to be a Plymouth Road Runner, later appearances in the second season used a 1971 Plymouth Satellite with a matching "Road Runner" stripe running along the sides and over the roof. The car meets its demise when the accelerator sticks while Bo and Luke are driving it during a chase in the second-season episode "The Runaway," sending it over a cliff. Because the episodes were broadcast in a different order to that in which they were filmed, the Plymouth makes several reappearances after its supposed destruction (additionally, after the Plymouth has been destroyed on-screen, several models of the car appear in various episodes with different paint jobs, serving as other vehicles within the context of the stories) until The Dukes of Hazzard II: Daisy Dukes It Out.
After losing that car, at the end of "The Runaway" she receives her trademark white 1980
On a number of occasions Daisy also drives Uncle Jesse's pickup truck, and certain storylines occasionally call for her to drive the General Lee.
Appearance
Daisy Duke is both the main female protagonist and the
The network censors believed that Daisy's famous denim cut-off shorts alone would be too revealing. The shorts were so short that the only way the producers could get them on air was for Catherine Bach to wear flesh-colored pantyhose with them to ensure that the shorts revealed no more of her than intended. Bach herself had concerns about the shorts, saying she could not wear them in a restaurant scene in the show. The producers suggested that Bach go and see what the girls were wearing in the restaurant across the street; she found the waitresses there were wearing "little miniskirts that matched the tablecloths!"[2] Bach made many of Daisy's costumes herself, especially the early ones, including the red bikini in the first episode, which is seen during the show's opening credits.
At the suggestion of the show's producers, Bach posed as Daisy Duke for a poster, which sold 5 million copies.[3] The poster created unexpected admiration from Nancy Reagan and other staff after Bach visited, then sent a copy to one of her former schoolteachers employed in the White House.[4]
In film
2005 version
In the 2005 feature film The Dukes of Hazzard, Daisy Duke is portrayed by Jessica Simpson. Film critics commended Simpson on her performance, but claimed that her portrayal had little in common with the character Catherine Bach created, and that she was merely cast because of her celebrity status.[citation needed]
Daisy's costume was slightly modified for the film to make her more overtly sexual: her Daisy Dukes were shorter than they had been on the series, and her shirts showed much more
2007 film
In the 2007 film The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, Daisy starts out as an innocent Bible school girl and does not dress particularly attractively. She wears large flannel shirts, jeans, big glasses, and her hair in a bun. To get a job as a waitress at the Boar's Nest and to attract Hughie Hogg (Boss's nephew), she decides to change her look. She goes through several outfits before finally settling on her signature look. She is also a brunette in this movie. Daisy is played by April Scott.
References
- ^ "daisy dukes". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
- Beaver County Times. October 11, 1981. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Dan Kane (January 22, 2009). "Daisy Duke today: 10 things you probably didn't know about Catherine Bach". The Repository. Archived from the original on July 26, 2010. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
- ^ "Catherine Bach's Daisy poster causing quite a White House stir". Lakeland Ledger. October 12, 1981. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
- ^ "History of The Dukes of Hazzard". ShopDaisyDukes.com. October 12, 1981. Retrieved July 11, 2010.