LEE 2 was also a 2nd unit car with a full rollcage and tan interior. It was used for the opening scene in One Armed Bandits. In this scene, Bo and Luke were chasing Rosco's police cruiser after Cooter had stolen it.
During this chase, LEE 2 is shown making a jump the second that Baxley performed. LEE 3 was the first unit close-up car and the second General Lee built by Warner Brothers, and can be seen in the first publicity photos for the series. This car had a tan interior and a removable roll bar that allowed installation of a camera for in-car shots. This car was painted Corvette Flame Red with a special basecoat. The basecoat was used after realizing that Lee1's paint appeared blotchy because it was applied direct over factory paint.
Eventually the first three General Lees started to show visible damage, so the crew had to start making more. The first General Lee built in Georgia was a Charger converted to look like a The taillight panel, front grille, and front seats were taken from LEE 1. Interiors not originally tan were sprayed with SEM brand "Saddle tan" vinyl dye. The first three Georgia Lees had a set of crossed flags a Confederate Flag and checkered flag on the panel between the rear window and trunk lid.
Although four sets were created, only three were used. They were discontinued due to difficulty with continuity of the General Lee's graphics, making it one less thing to be used.
The three surviving cars went back to California and had the crossed flags removed upon reconditioning. Viewers can also see two "Georgia" cars used often up into the early second season. LEE 3 and a specially caged car never appearing but built in Georgia were used heavily in early California episodes. The Veluzats were somewhat inconsistent in how they built the cars, so this is when the most variations from specification are found.
The paint was GM code 70, Flame Red, still orange, just the name of the color but there does appear to be some variance here: interiors were mostly dyed brown and occasionally SEM Saddle Tan. WB mechanics had to maintain the cars at company expense. The money generated by building General Lees financed the Veluzat family project of restoring Gene Autry's Melody Ranch; it had burned in the s. This ranch is where many classic Western films were shot as well as the television series Gunsmoke.
By , Warner Brothers turned total control of building General Lee s to a man named Ken Fritz because the Valuzets were caught selling wrecked cars that had received cosmetic repairs and forged VINs.
Fritz didn't have the job long before he too was fired and at this point Warner Brothers moved full production in-house. The General Lee was now the highlight of the series, and WB received enormous amounts of Lee -specific fan mail that nit-picked the inconsistencies of the cars. Because of General Lee's fame, WB had their staff mechanics build the cars to a specific appearance, even underneath. All graphics had to meet specifications, all side markers and rocker panel chrome trim were removed; and roll bars and push bars had to meet an exact specification.
However, some changes were made before the specifications were laid-out: the push bar became wider, the interior became a light beige color, and the roll bars were covered in a black foam padding. During this period, the only true way for fans to distinguish the conversions from the originals is by the shape of the dashpad.
As the WB era rolled on, finding the cars became an issue: Piper Cubs were hired to search for and Chargers amongst the populace; the jumped cars were now no longer scrapped after one jump if deemed salvageable, and were repaired and used until they could no longer function; and, as last resort, miniature radio-controlled models were also brought in toward the end of the series to replace most of the big jump stunts, thereby saving more cars - something that proved unpopular with many episode directors including Tom Wopat who felt that the models looked too fake.
By this time, there was also a rivalry for "TV's greatest car" with the Knight Rider series, leading to the models being used more and more for greater jumps to try and out-do that series. Taking full control also saved some money as now WB had the ability to buy cars, recondition them, and use them without paying daily rental fees. At the beginning of the movie, the General was a faded orange with a hand-painted "01" on the doors, black steel wheels, standard front bumper, and no Confederate flag.
Midway through the film, Cooter repairs the General after it's vandalized by Boss Hogg's hirelings. He repaints it a bright orange and adds the well-known trademarks American Racing "Vector" spoke "turbine" wheels, octagonal "01", black grille guard, Confederate flag on the roof, "Dixie" horn, and "General Lee" above the door window openings.
In an era of Political Correctness, the Confederate flag on the roof is made an object of conflict in the movie on two occasions. In the first occasion, the Dukes are stuck in an Atlanta traffic jam.
During this time passing drivers make remarks towards them that alternate between cheering the South and condemning them as practicing racism, leaving the Duke boys puzzled; the last to comment says, "Nice roof, redneck!..
Mystified, Bo and Luke slide out of the windows so they could sit on the windowsill to look at the roof and, to their horror, discover the flag.
In the second incident, the Dukes wind up with coaldust on their faces, giving them the appearance of driving around in blackface; they stop at a traffic light and some African American youths notice this and the Confederate flag on the General. The youths come to the conclusion that the Dukes are making a racist statement and are about to give them a physical opinion of their roof graphic and facial appearance.
Just as the youths were about to assault Bo and Luke, two black police officers show up and throw the Dukes in jail. The movie General not only flies and makes controlled landings, but also drifts with the aid of professional drifter Rhys Millen. During jump scenes, some stunt cars were jumped under their own power by stunt drivers; others had their engines and transmissions removed.
The engineless Chargers were then launched without drivers by a gas-driven catapult similar in principle to those used on aircraft carriers. Approximately twenty-four to Chargers were used in the film. Sure it is a little politically incorrect now, but back then it was the real deal. It was a Dodge Charger, and the show went through about of them over the course of production and filming.
It got so bad they started having a hard time finding Chargers to wreck so the staff of the show started leaving notes on windshields of Chargers they saw in parking lots offering to buy them.
Warner Brothers only had one General Lee left and it was all beat up and was covered with bird droppings after spending years not being used. The show used that to their advantage and showed the General Lee being taken out of retirement by Bo and Luke.
It really is amazing that they used of them over time and there was only one left that was still kicking around. Some of the jumps they did on the show were absolutely crazy. It really is hard to believe they used to put this stuff on television, as they never would these days. Although these days there is no real need to do actual jumps with all of the special effects they have.
When they did jumps, the cars were weighted down in the back to counterbalance the weight of the engine in the front. At one point there was a moonshiner in North Carolina who drove a modified Chrysler D to deliver his illegal goods. The car was named after the horse of the real-life General Lee, named Traveller. When he was chased by the police his car was made to dump oil on the road to slow down the police on his tail. A movie called Moonrunners was based on his story and in turn, The Dukes of Hazzard was based on that.
Luke Duke had his own ride, but he usually rode shotgun in the General Lee, letting Bo do most of the driving. The actor that played Luke admitted that one time he tried to jump over the hood but his foot was caught, so he ended up sliding across the car. Even this was a complete screw up it looked so cool that the director left it in and Luke ended up doing this almost every time he had to get in the car in a hurry. It was his patented move! To get the role of Bo Duke, actor John Schneider told a little white lie to the producers.
Well, he actually told a few of them. Schneider is from New York, but he pretended to be a real southerner from Georgia. In fact, he also said he was an excellent driver and to prove that he said that he went to the Georgia School of High-Performance Driving. The only problem is there is no such school. He got the part anyway, which goes to show that lying really does pay off in certain situations.
Back in the day Catherine Bach, who played Daisy Duke, was thought of as one of the hottest celebrities around, everyone knew her name and who she was. One of the reasons was because of the incredibly short jean shorts that she wore. In fact, even today if a woman wears really short jean shorts they are often called "Daisy Dukes".
She came up with the shorts herself. At one point she posed for a calendar that sold around 5 million copies. Tom Wopat has had a long career both as an actor and as a country singer. At one point when the show was canceled, he was at number one on the Billboard country charts and has put out a lot of albums over the years. While Bo Duke, played by John Schneider, was probably the bigger star on the show, Wopat and his character had a lot of fans as well.
Interestingly enough John Schneider has also had a long and successful career as a country singer. Country music fans didn't use to get a whole lot of respect from the mainstream. Producer Guy Waldron noticed that country music was incredibly popular, but there weren't any shows that were marketed towards country fans. He put an end to that when he produced The Dukes of Hazzard saying of his show "when you get through watching an episode, replay it in Nashville, and somebody should be able to write a pretty good country song about it".
Back in the day if you had a popular show on television, it wouldn't be long before someone made a cartoon of it.
This was before the Internet and options were limited, so networks often would try to put out a cartoon that already had an audience.
Said to have had all ten commandments under his long johns according to the balladeer and his word was law. Often seen wearing faded denim overalls, a beige shirt, and red hunting cap.
The entire issue was over a contract dispute between the actors and the producers, but nonetheless the storyline continued. The character proved to be unpopular with fans and was written out of the show after 18 episodes. Get In Touch. His CB handle: Shepherd.
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