The Distinguished Mr. Jones Is Back in Hollywood : Television: The former ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ actor has a sitcom proposal about a place he knows well--the House of Representatives.

Rep. Ben Jones (D-Ga.) left Congress last week, but he isn’t quite finished with Capitol Hill.

The actor-turned-politician currently is looking for a home on television for his proposal for “Distinguished Colleagues,” a half-hour sitcom based on the goings-on of the House of Representatives.

Jones served two terms in office, then was defeated in a primary election last summer. On and off Capitol Hill, his face has been familiar to many as the actor who played the mechanic Cooter on the TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

TV series dealing with Washington aren’t a new idea; CBS served up “Hearts Afire” just this season. But after his four years of first-hand knowledge of the workings of the House of Representatives, Jones is convinced that no one has accurately depicted life on Capitol Hill and the pressures of functioning in Washington’s fast lane.

“I haven’t seen a show that depicts the Congress that I served in,” Jones says. “Nobody has ever done the inside of a congressional office well.

“There is more stuff that goes on by 10 o’clock in the morning than you see in any of these shows,” he says, referring to the steady stream of people coming in and out of the office, the extended family of a congressional office, the camaraderie and fellowship of members on both sides of the aisle, the tough decisions that have to be made, and the amount of work that has to be done.

“It is dramatic, interesting and often very funny,” he says.

Applying what he knows best, it is the office drama that becomes the fodder for his sitcom “Distinguished Colleagues.”

The sitcom plot focuses on a character named Buster Stephens, whom Jones likes to describe as a “laid back, smart, funny and hip character from Tar City, N.C.”

“He is a 47-year-old country-Western singer who had one big hit in 1968, has traveled a million miles playing one-night stands, is twice divorced and beaten by booze.”

In his plot, a friend named the Rev. J.J. (Bubba) Swiner seeks Buster’s help in his bid to challenge an incumbent member of the House of Representatives. Buster owes Bubba a favor because Swiner got him gigs at local fish fries. But after he is videotaped laundering drug money through his religious organization, Swiner goes to the slammer instead of Capitol Hill. And in a twist of fate, Stephens ends up filling the seat in Congress.

Stephens is assigned an office next to another freshman lawmaker, a smart, sophisticated, 41-year-old widow with a blue-blood background. They become good friends, occasional archenemies on some issues, and eventually lovers.

Bubba re-emerges as Stephen’s administrative assistant, joined by a black couple who do legislative work, a mail clerk who happens to be Fidel Castro’s second cousin, and a receptionist just out of college.

Jones has more in mind that just selling the idea: “I would play the Southern good old boy congressman,” he says, adding that the role would make him the first lawmaker to actually play one on television.

Jones also says that the sitcom premise is “loosely” based on some of the chapters of his own life. “I’ve had a pretty wild life, and there are a lot of parallels,” he says.

Jones, who grew up in Georgia and North Carolina, admits to being a recovering alcoholic who has been sober since 1977. “I had a stormy life until I got sober,” he says.

He has spent more than two decades involved in acting, and has written plays, fiction and poetry. “Writing is something that I’ve always enjoyed,” Jones says. “I’m a creative person and my instinct is to create.”

After four years in Congress, many people have expressed curiosity that he would consider returning to his previous profession. “A lot of people are surprised that I would be interested in going back to it. But they don’t ask that of lawyers or business people.”

“It’s a great career,” Jones says of acting. “There is nothing more creatively rewarding or fun to do.”

Nor does he see his two careers at odds with each other.

“I think there are a lot of similarities between politics and entertainment, even more so with the advent of television,” he says. “It’s all about communication.”

With Jones out of Congress and heading back to a cabin 40 miles east of Atlanta, Rep. Fred Grandy (R-Iowa), who formerly played “Gopher” on “The Love Boat,” remains the only actor from a TV series in Congress.

Jones knows that the TV pilot season has come and gone, and that programs like CBS’ “Hearts Afire,” already focus on the political scene. But he still intends to shop the idea for his sitcom around L.A.

In his back pocket, Jones also has a proposal for a TV series based on a hard-boiled detective from Atlanta, in which he’d also like a starring role. It’s an idea he was working on before he was elected to Congress in 1988.

Now that he’s officially out of a job on Capitol Hill, Jones is keeping his eyes on a few slots in the new Clinton Adminstration that would keep him in Washington.

But these days, he’s spending a good bit of time unwinding at his log cabin 40 miles east of Atlanta. “If anyone in Hollywood is looking for Ben Jones, I’m in the phone book in Covington, Georgia,” he says.

“I’ll be sitting on my porch waiting for the phone to ring.”