Like if you tried to get in your car through the window like those good ol boys! On this day in history... On this day in 1978, a stuntman on the Georgia set of The Dukes of Hazzard launches the shows iconic automobile, a 1969 Dodge Charger named the General Lee, off a makeshift dirt ramp and over a police car. That jump, 16 feet high and 82 feet long (its landing totaled the car), made TV history. Although more than 300 different General Lees appeared in the series, which ran on CBS from 1979 until 1985, this first one was the only one to play a part in every episode: That jump over the squad car ran every week at the end of the shows opening credits. The General Lee was a neon-orange Charger with 01 painted on the doors, a Confederate flag on the roof, and a horn that played the first 12 notes of the song Dixie. It belonged to the Dukes of Hazzard themselves, the cousins Bo (played by actor John Schneider) and Luke Duke (actor Tom Wopat), who used it to get out of dangerous scrapes and away from the corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg. Scenes featuring the General Lee are some of the shows most memorable: Luke Duke sliding sideways across the cars hood; the boys hopping feet-first through the windows (the Chargers doors were welded shut, so the windows were the only way to get in and out); the General flying over ditches, half-open drawbridges and police cruisers. Because practically every one of the General Lees stunts ended up wrecking the car, the shows prop masters bought every 1969 Dodge Charger they could find (and there were plenty: the Chrysler Corporation sold about 85,000 in all). Then they outfitted each one for action, adding a roll cage to the inside, a protective push bar to the nose and heavy-duty shock absorbers and springs to the suspension. The prop masters also tampered with the brakes to make it easier to do the 180-degree Bootleggers Turn that so often helped the Duke boys evade Boss Hogg. Cars used for jumps also got trunks full of concrete or lead ballast to keep them from flipping over in midair. While The Dukes of Hazzard was on the air, the General Lee got about 35,000 fan letters each month. Fans bought millions of remote-controlled and toy versions of the car, and some even modified their real cars to look like the Dukes Charger. Indianapolis DJ Travis Bell restored the original General Lee in 2006.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015