Dukes of Hazzard

[garethj]

Ah, Saturday afternoon TV in the 80s, before the early evening tedium of game shows there was unspeakably exotic scenes of America and cars going very sideways.

The Dukes of Hazzard was made for 7 seasons (series, as we call them) but when it ended, Warner Brothers sold 17 of their remaining General Lees and kept 2. But what happened to Daisy's cars and jeeps and Boss Hogg's Cadillacs? What happened to all the Jesse and Cooter trucks? Let’s explore.

Daisy's 1974 Road Runner. There was only 1 of these cars used on the show. It last appeared in the season 1 episode LIMO ONE IS MISSING. We never saw it get damaged or jumped. They just stopped using it. Fate - UNKNOWN.

 

Then there was Daisy's 1971 Satellite. The show had 2 of these cars. This was the first one.

 

This is the one that went over the cliff in The Runaway episode.  It was replaced by a white jeep.

 

The second unit also had a Satellite, it was used for a few small jumps.

 

 

Daisy had 2 Dixie jeeps, a manual and an automatic. These jeeps were loaned to the show by AMC.  Manufacturers had seen what happened with the demand for black Trans-Ams after Smokey and The Bandit and wanted some of the same cachet.

You can see the graphics are different on the side of the bonnet, these were replaced over the years as they got scuffed up.

 

The manual jeep was totaled during the filming of season 7. The automatic jeep made it to the end of the series. When the series was over, a rep from AMC took the jeeps to a scrap yard in Long Beach and crushed them. Fate of both jeeps - DESTROYED.

 

 

[garethj]

There were 3 different Boss Hogg Cadillacs on the show, all 1970 models.

In his book, Tom Sarmento said he believes the Cadillacs were scrapped. All we know for sure is that at least 1 Cadillac was still on the WB backlot in 1991. Fate of the 3 Cadillacs - UNKNOWN.
 

The show had 6 different Cooter tow trucks. The first one only appeared in season 1 and was never seen again. Fate - UNKNOWN.

The 2nd tow truck was last seen at the end of season 4. Fate - UNKNOWN.

You might think continuity was poor with these two, but… the 3rd tow truck made it all the way to season 7. This was a fairly new truck. It was only about 6 years old when Dukes ended. Hard to believe they would scrap it, but who knows. Fate - UNKNOWN.

The 4th tow truck was only seen in a few season 4 episodes. Both doors from this truck were donated to one of Cooter's GMC tow trucks. Does that mean this truck was wrecked and parted out? I don't know. Fate - UNKNOWN.

 

The 5th tow truck was 1 of 2 GMCs used. The doors on this truck came from the Chevy tow truck.

This GMC truck survived until 1998 and was blown up in an X-Files episode. Fate - DESTROYED.

The last tow truck was another GMC. It was mostly used in 2nd unit shots.

 

This GMC was probably scrapped, but nobody can be sure. Fate - UNKNOWN.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Great topic choice. I can see where the thread's going - something to do with Lee1? 😉

The Dukes of Hazzard and The A Team were a huge part of my childhood and I hold them fully responsible for my car obsession. 

[garethj]

There were 8 different Uncle Jesse trucks, 3 were F100s. The rest were F250s.

The first one was only used in Georgia. It is said to have been crushed in 1998. Fate - DESTROYED.

The 2nd Jesse truck was the close up truck for the first couple of seasons.

It was heavily damaged in a collision with a General Lee. They scrapped the body and used the chassis of this truck to build the Mean Green Machine. The Mean Green Machine was later blown up in a Fall Guy episode. Fate - DESTROYED.

The 3rd Jesse truck first appeared in season 1 and made it all the way to the final episode.

It was painted brown in the final episode and used as a bad guy truck. This truck is still around today and still has the brown paint job. Fate - SURVIVED.

The 4th Jesse truck was used in season 2 and early season 3. You can spot it by it's yellow interior.

This was the truck that rolled over in ENOS STRATE TO THE TOP. Fate - DESTROYED.

The 5th Jesse truck was the close up truck for seasons 3-7. It was also painted brown in the Dukes last episode.

This truck existed at least up until 1987. It was last seen in an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. It has the same dents, same twisted front bumper and the interior is kept white.  Fate - UNKNOWN.

 

The 6th Jesse truck was used in seasons 4-7. It was also painted brown in the last episode.

This truck was last seen near the end of the final episode. Fate - UNKNOWN.

The 7th Jesse truck appears in seasons 4-6. After the first few episodes of season 6, it is never seen again. Fate - UNKNOWN.

The 8th and final Jesse truck was only used as a Jesse truck in 1 episode, COMRADE DUKE. It’s thought WB only rented this truck because other studios used it as well.

 

Thanks to General Lee Junkyard on Facebook for all this, his geek-levels on this are far beyond my own.

[garethj]

Boss’ nephew, Hughie Hogg, owned what appears to be a 1971 Super Beetle (1302 in Europe). It was obviously styled after his uncle's white Cadillac convertible, complete with steer horn hood ornament. In reality, this Beetle was not a Karmann convertible, they just took a hard top car and cut the roof off. How many Beetles were used on the show as Hughie's car and what happened to them?

 

 

It made its first appearance in UNCLE BOSS and was a standard model with torsion bar front suspension, you can tell by the different shaped front.

 

It was used on the sound stage shots.

 

And was used for the second unit driving scenes.

 

The standard Beetle only appeared in one other episode, THE RETURN OF HUGHIE HOGG in season 3. What happened to it after that is unknown.

The Super Beetle also made it's 1st appearance in UNCLE BOSS.

It was mainly used in the junkyard scenes.

 

Like all Hollywood “magnets”, you can see the car was actually being held by a cable that ran through a hole in the bonnet.

 

The Super Beetle returns briefly at the beginning of ARREST JESSE DUKE.

The Super Beetle last appeared in the season 5 episode THE REVENGE OF HUGHIE HOGG.

[garethj]

This General Lee was labelled as WGL 01. It was one of the longest lasting cars on the show. It went through several different changes and makeovers during the series. After the show was over, this car was sold along with the other remaining Generals.

 

 

It was used for 1st unit and soundstage shots in season 3.

 

All the early cars had some shade of brown or tan interior then when WB took over building them they went to the light tan.

There's a few things to look for to identify this car. The end of the bumper on the driver side is turned downwards. If you look closely, you can see the chromed tray under the hood. And from the end of season 5 until the end of the series, this was the only car with a moved up side mirror and fat 01s on the driver side door.

This car was used in the first 16 episodes filmed for season 3. It was not used in the last 6 episodes filmed for the season. It would appear again at the beginning of season 4, but the car had gone through some changes.
 

Looks like it was repainted, as the decals were now in slightly different positions. The roof text was now lower and closer to the windshield. Roll bar padding was changed.

 

The 01 decals were now a little lower than before.

This car had the dressed up engine bay for under the hood shots. We get a few good looks during season 4.  It’s a 383 engine.

This car was only used in the first 10 episodes filmed for season 4. We wouldn't see this car again until the beginning of season 5, at which point it went through more changes. Wheel well trim was removed, interior was dyed light tan, roll bar padding changed again, and the General Lee letters on the roof were more spaced out.

In the season 5 episode COMRADE DUKE, this car went through more changes. The fat style of 01 decals were put on and this was one of 4 cars that they moved the side mirror up on.

It appeared in about half of the season 7 episodes.

 

[garethj]

One of the best known scenes, the train jump.

Here’s the car that did it.

This car first appeared in the episode GHOST OF GENERAL LEE and that this photo was taken during the filming of that episode. During the scenes where Rosco is chasing the ghost General around the town square, you can see this car with the same missing side marker lens. Only a few episodes later, this car was wrecked in train jump.

One way to recognize this car is this bent trim. Something happened to this car off screen that damaged the driver side. A piece of trim is now missing. It is never replaced.

 

They have also done a mirror swap on the door. You can tell only the mirror was swapped and not the whole door because you can still see a small nick in the 1 decal.

They never replaced the side marker lens, they just painted over the white. You get a nice close up during the jump.

As the car approaches the ramp and during the jump itself, you see the same missing trim.

Zoom in as the car goes up the ramp and you can see the same replacement side mirror.

 

 

 

[DSdriver]

I came here for pictures of Daisy 😀

[garethj]

2 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Great topic choice. I can see where the thread's going - something to do with Lee1? 😉

No, that seems to be a place where weird fans exist only to argue.

For all the normal people, Lee 1 was the first car built and the one that did the jump that was used in the titles.

 

 

That jump was made by stuntman Craig Baxley in front of Seany Hall on the campus of Oxford College, in Oxford, Georgia, on Saturday, November 11, 1978. The car’s first and only flight was 16 feet up-and-over the police cruiser, landing 82 feet from the ramp. After filming, the damaged car was taken back to the body shop and was never used as a General Lee again. It became a parts car for the body shop to build other General Lees; loaning doors, bumpers, the rear valance, tail lights, grille and other pieces to other Generals as needed. After the body shop took a lot of useable parts from Lee 1, the car was put into storage and left.

 

During filming episode called “Repo Men,” Warner Brothers had already gone over budget for the show and had no choice but to recycle cars for various requirements so Lee #1 was called into use again. The car was not used as a General Lee but as the wrecked Richard Petty race car the Dukes boys buy in the episode. In order to get the car ready, it was repainted greenish-blue and then scuffed up with cinder blocks to give it a “banged up” look for the episode.

Around the time the show left Georgia and moved back to California for further filming, around fifty or so cars including Lee #1 and a small handful of other General Lees were sent to a junkyard in the general Atlanta area.

 

In 2000, after receiving a tip, some “Dukes of Hazzard” fans found Lee #1 in the junkyard along with the first two police cars made for the show (labelled Police 1 and Police 2), a parts ’68 Charger and the blue Fury that was blown up in the episode “Mary Kaye’s Baby.” While most of the cars from the show were scrapped between 1986 and 1987, it’s a miracle these few survived. Many say what saved Lee #1 was the concrete in the trunk from the jump as concrete couldn’t be put into the crusher.
 

Not getting into the drama that took place during that restoration, but unfortunately, not much of the car remains original. A lot of the original parts were taken off and sold for profit. After the “restoration” was finished, it was used for a few promotional events before being sold at Barrett Jackson for $110,000 USD to professional golfer Bubba Watson.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

16 minutes ago, garethj said:

No, that seems to be a place where weird fans exist only to argue.

For all the normal people, Lee 1 was the first car built and the one that did the jump that was used in the titles.

After the body shop took a lot of useable parts from Lee n order to get the car ready, it was repainted greenish-blue and then scuffed up with cinder blocks to give it a “banged up” loook

Around the time the show left Georgia and moved back to California for further filming

Not a clue what the weird fans business you're referring to is, but good to see you sharing the photos of Lee1 as found in 2000, which was what I was referring to. As you say, shame about the 'resto'. 

[garethj]

Police cars!  We'll start with season 1. This had the largest variation, with different cars being used throughout the season, and the continuity was appalling - often a patrol car changes make and model several times mid-chase. Some of these early cars even pop up in later seasons when footage is re-used. You can see why they standardised the cars (and most of the cast's costumes) in later seasons.

The first is from 'One Armed Bandits'. It's a 1970 Dodge Polara. This car appears in the opening credits; first when the show's title appears, and then pulling up in front of the pile of dirt for the Lee 1 jump.

 

The other patrol car in 'One Armed Bandits' is a 1975 Dodge Monaco (very similar to the 1974 Dodge Monaco that appears in The Blues Brothers). In case you thought that it was a mistake about the patrol car used in the Lee 1 jump, the car that pulls up is the Polara (see above), but the patrol car that gets jumped was this Monaco - just one example of the bad continuity mentioned at the start of this post.

 

By 'Mary Kaye's Baby' another Hazzard Patrol car appears - a 1975 Plymouth Gran Fury missing the 'T' from the hood letters - unusual because later vehicles had their branding removed or covered with tape.

'High Octane' sees the only appearance of a 1973 Plymouth Fury I. This is Enos's patrol car that Bo and Luke 'borrow'.

 

When the filming moves to California, the patrol cars change. Here is Enos driving a 1974 Plymouth Satellite in 'Swamp Molly'.

Also in 'Swamp Molly', the more familiar 1975/76 Plymouth Furys appear in Hazzard livery for the first time.

 

By 'Deputy Dukes' the patrol cars have all become 1974 AMC Matadors. These were used until the end of the season. It's an AMC Matador that's seen chasing the General in the closing credits.

[inconsistant]

Ha! imagine if someone had done a 1.32 scale Scalextric re-enactment of that world record jump with their Scalextric General Lee. 
And videoed it.

And put it up on Youtube!

Imagine!

I’d probably search for something like ‘General Lee Scalextric Jumps’ if I was interested in that sort of thing. 

[garethj]

The definitive Sheriff’s car for me is the 1977 Dodge Monaco.  They were used as other county’s patrol cars for a while then Hazzard County gets its own 1977/78 Dodge Monacos in season 2, first appearing in 'Days of Shine and Roses'

Hatchapee patrol cars, the same type of Dodge Monaco

 

Finchburg police too

State police car, with a strong TJ Hooker vibe😀

Camouflage police car but with light bar.  In the same way as people wear camo trousers and a high-viz vest.  Obviously a Monaco again.

[garethj]

20 minutes ago, inconsistant said:

Ha! imagine if someone had done a 1.32 scale Scalextric re-enactment of that world record jump with their Scalextric General Lee. 
And videoed it.

And put it up on Youtube!

Imagine!

I’d probably search for something like ‘General Lee Scalextric Jumps’ if I was interested in that sort of thing. 

Sounds like the work of a lunatic to me😳

 

[inconsistant]

Hmmm. There certainly are some strange folk out there. 
 

 

 

 

 

YEEEE-HAW!!!!

[bunglebus]

Yeah that Lee 1 "resto" was a travesty, should have preserved it as found.

I wonder how much ERTL made producing 1:64 models of them?

I well remember jumping my General Lee from one school desk too another, snapping one of the wheels in the process. YEEE-HAW!

Most of mine look like they've been used in an episode or two

I do have a few nice ones though

I also have Cooter's truck

Various Pontiac Bonneville police cars

And the Boss's Caddy - two different interiors are fitted for some reason

I think they made Daisy's Jeep too but not tracked that down

[jonny69]

This is one of the gr9test threads on here m7. Love threads like this 👍

[Split_Pin]

I loved this show together with the A Team and Knight Rider. I would have been between about 4 and 6 when the shows were aired. I remember pretending to be one of the Duke Boys or sometimes Rossco on my wee Bullet bike 😂

My own 1:25 General Lee took a jump too many in my back garden and fell to bits. Thankfully my dad glued all the pieces back together and about 20 years ago I gave it a full restoration. That was in the days before ebay so I made my own decals in Paint on Windows 95!

[mk2_craig]

Great thread @garethj, I love reading what folks have researched on topics like this. Another big fan of the show as a kid in the eighties,  none of the plot lines made any lasting impression (there was only really the one plot wasn't there?) but when Warner Bros began re releasing the series on DVD in the early 2000s I bought them all to watch again, seemed to be a bit less colourful than I remember it though. 

I have nothing to add other than I fitted Dixie horns to one of my Fiestas and came across the box with them in while looking for something else this afternoon (I might have a go at bolting them to the Renner 19).  Also I was once  transported to a friends wedding in a very nicely presented Genral Lee replica, not around some Southern dirt roads unfortunately, this was blandest rural Oxfordshire. 

[Aston Martin]

I've seen the movie, starring a thin Jessica Simpson. She looks like Boss Hogg these days.

[Shep Shepherd]

The Dukes of Hazzard was a big draw for me in the early to mid 1980s, due to the cars which featured in the series, which at the time I referred to as 'Yankie Jobs'.  Also, I loved the characters, especially Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane and his dog Flash 

[stuboy]

32 minutes ago, Aston Martin said:

I've seen the movie, starring a thin Jessica Simpson. She looks like Boss Hogg these days.

 

2023... i wont say no

[sheffcortinacentre]

One of the  fleetside pickups  ended up with a fan in Australia.

If you want the proper story of lee1 get hold of a copy of "Lee 1 all the others are replicas" by Travis bell  who rescued it from the Georgia scrapyard & had a major part in its return to the road.

He also has  a further 3-4 dvds chronicling the show,locations history etc, another person in the know re the chargers is Chris birdsong  #junkerup.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Back in 2017, I drove one of the Chargers used in the revamp film, around Perranporth airfield. It's owned by Car Chase Heroes who have a few interesting motors in their collection. Funny thing was, I was booked to drive it a couple of months earlier, but it had engine problems on the day so I drove a replica GT40 as a compromise. It was ok, but second best.

When I did finally drive the Charger, it was quite the experience - slow, loud, tired, rattly and with terrible brakes. I absolutely LOVED it. Never meet your heroes, they say. Bollocks to that...

[D.E]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I loved this show together with the A Team and Knight Rider. 

There's a Knight Rider episode in which a Dukes of Hazzard Charger is used!

[sheffcortinacentre]

&  the s&h Torino appears in a dukes episode.

In the first series the town is the same one that appears in the scene where JJ McClure lands the plane in  the street in the cannonball run.

 

John Schneider owns one of the original general lees.

[junkyarddog]

🎶Straightening the curves,Flattening the hills🎶

Really don't understand why anyone would want to watch that old rubbish.

😉

[garethj]

43 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

John Schneider owns one of the original general lees.

I think it’s the one that was built to be a 4x4.  The arches were cut away to clear the wheels and it’s quite distinctive.

[warren t claim]

I remember seeing allegedly the General Lee and Dixie Jeep at the 1981 Hot Rod and Custom Show at Belle Vue in Manchester.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Yep pics in street machine magazine.