A week after Warner Bros. announced it would halt the production of all merchandise featuring the Confederate flag on General Lee, the iconic car from The Dukes of Hazzard, the show has inexplicably disappeared from TV Land’s lineup.
WB announced the move as major retailers Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and Sears all introduced bans on the sale of Confederate flag merchandise in the wake of Dylann Roof’s Charleston, SC shooting rampage at a black church.
“Warner Bros. Consumer Products has one licensee producing die-cast replicas and vehicle model kits featuring the General Lee with the confederate flag on its roof — as it was seen in the TV series,” a company spokesperson said June 24. “We have elected to cease the licensing of these product categories.”
It now appears the controversy may have driven both the show and General Lee, a 1969 Dodge Charger, completely off the air.
Despite the ban on merchandise, General Lee could still be seen in all its glory twice a day on TV Land, until Tuesday.
A spokesperson confirmed to Entertainment Weekly Wednesday the network has pulled all reruns of the series from its schedule, but gave no explanation as to why.
The Dukes of Hazzard originally aired on CBS from 1979-1985.
Ben Jones, the actor who appeared as “Cooter” for all of its seven seasons, defended the show’s use of the flag last week, and said it was a symbol for the “indomitable spirit of independence.”
“Activists and politicians are vilifying southern culture and our heritage as being bigoted and racist,” Jones said. “We know that this is not the case. And we know that in Hazzard county there was never any racism.”
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