TV Land yanks 'Dukes of Hazzard' amid Confederate flag backlash

By Variety:

Reruns of "The Dukes of Hazzard" have been quietly pulled from TV Land's daytime schedule at a moment of heightened sensitivity to Confederate flag imagery.

The Warner Bros.-produced series that aired on CBS from 1979-85 revolves around two Southern cousins who race around their small town in a souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger, dubbed the General Lee, with the Confederate flag emblazoned on the hood. TV Land pulled the show on Monday, a rep confirmed.

TV Land declined to elaborate on the decision but it is clearly a response to the broader movement to withdraw the flag from official settings and in pop culture, given its historic connection to slavery and the Civil War. The push to remove Confederate flags and Stars and Bars icons came last month in the wake of the slayings of nine African-Americans in a Charleston church, by a suspected 21-year-old white supremacist.

After the governor of South Carolina called for the flag's removal from the state's capital last month, numerous entities pledged to stop manufacturing or distributing items with Confederate flag imagery. Warner Bros. was among them as it still maintains a line of "Dukes of Hazzard" merchandise.

See photos of the protests against the flag:

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