“The Duck Commander is back, Jack.” A&E’s overnight sensation “Duck Dynasty” is gearing up a for second season, set to air early October. This reality TV show centers on the Robertsons, a Louisiana bayou family who runs the multi-million dollar duck call corporation “Duck Commander.” However, Duck Commander is not your regular corporation; the Robertsons throw away the suit and tie, clean shaven and highly sophisticated stereotype associated with business owners. This family is “camo” laden, heavily bearded and 100% redneck to the bone.
The “Duck Commander” himself, Phil Robertson, began the company back in the 1970s, and since then the company has skyrocketed into a successful corporation. After 25 years of crafting calls and running the business, Phil passed the reigns of the corporation down to his son Willie Robertson, who attended Harding for a time. Working with Willie at the Duck Commander Headquarters in West Monroe, La., are Willie’s brother Jase, Phil’s brother and Willie’s Uncle Si, as well as Justin Martin and John Godwin, neither of whom are related to the Robertsons.
Though the Robertsons gained their popularity and prowess through their duck calls, the show itself focuses more on their rambunctious and downright redneck lifestyle. Highlights of the first season of the show were Willie using dynamite to remove a beaver dam, the construction of a flag-football field for an annual family rivalry game, a nighttime raid of the local golf course to bag frogs to fry, a facial-hair-filled-tea party and a multitude of attempts to extract honey from an active beehive.
Perhaps the most fulfilling part of the show is the family’s deep religious roots. The Robertsons are members of and very active with the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ, where Duck Commander Phil is an elder. Each episode of the series is concluded with all of the Robertsons together praying around their dinner table and a closing monologue from Willie talking about the importance of family and togetherness.
Season 2 of Duck Dynasty is slated to return to A&E on Oct. 10, but you don’t have to wait until then if you have never seen it. Both A&E and the History Channel often air re-runs and sometimes even marathons of our bearded friends. An episode only runs half an hour, the perfect amount of time for a break from homework, and it will leave you, as Phil Robertson so often says, “Happy, happy, happy.”
