general lee

Description

The General is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger with a Rebel flag painted on the roof, and the words "GENERAL LEE" over each door. Each door also has a large "01" in black. The upper left corner of the "1" in the "01" differs on occasion, causing continuity errors. When the car's horn is pressed, it plays the first 12 notes from the de facto Confederate States anthem "Dixie" (See Media section below for sample).

Though The General Lee is often used as a daily driver by Bo and Luke, the implied primary purpose of the car is dirt-track racing. The car has often been chased by the Hazzard police, being Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, Deputy Enos Strate, and Deputy Cletus Hogg. Most of the time, the car outran the police or the Dukes figured a way not to get a ticket after they were stopped by the cops. Its windows are left open because the doors are welded shut—explained on the show as a common trait of race cars, especially those used in NASCAR racing events. This leads to various entry techniques, depending on the age and flexibility of the subject. Uncle Jesse is often picked up by Bo and Luke and lifted in, feet first. When in a hurry, others enter head first. Luke sometimes jumps onto the roof from the driver's side and enters the passenger window from above, or "knee-slides" across the hood to get to the passenger side.

The doors were actually legitimate doors. In a 1995 promotion for a NASCAR Busch Series BellSouth/Opryland 320 at Nashville Speedway USA, Prime Time Country host Tom Wopat actually opened the door of a restored General Lee to let David and Jeff Green ride for a few laps around the track.

History

According to Ben Jones ("Cooter" in the show), as well as builders involved with the show, 309 General Lees were used to film the series. Approximately twenty-three still exist in various states of repair. Among survivors is the very first General Lee known as Lee1. This car is seen in the debut episode and is the car seen jumping at the end of the opening credits of every episode with John Schneider and Tom Wopat. On average, more than one General Lee was used up per show. When filming a jump, anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds of lead or concrete ballast was placed in the trunk to prevent the car from nosing over. Stunt drivers report enjoying the flights but hating the landings. Despite the ballast, the landing attitude of the car was somewhat unpredictable, resulting in moderate to extremely violent forces, depending on how it landed. All cars used in large jumps were immediately retired because of frame damage.

From 1979 to 1985, Chargers of 1968 and 1969 vintage were sourced and converted to General Lee specifications. Despite popular belief, all builders involved over the years, as well as the VIN list supplied to Wayne Wooten of all Chargers used on the show, no 1970 models were ever used. The cars required the entire front clip transplant from a 1968-69 car, which sustained the most damage in the jumps. Obtaining cars was not an issue until later years. By that time the car was the star of the show and Warner Brothers moved building of the cars in-house to keep the cars consistent in appearance. This is when side marker and rear backup lights are seen which were deleted on 1969 models as well as 1968 (seen from the start of the show).

Differing Eras of The General Lee

The three eras of TV show and movie style General Lees are:

1. The Georgia era

Georgia episode cars consisted of 7 Dodge Chargers. Lees 1, 2, and 3 were built in California and shipped to Georgia. The first Lee was the template. It was originally a 1969 Charger 383, AC equipped, gold Charger with tan interior, 3 speaker dash, and chrome rocker trim. Lee2 was the true stunt car with a full real stuntcage. Lee3 was the closeup car. This car is the one seen in early promos with the doors open and no numbers on the doors. This car was a real R/T 440 car with AC. This car had real tan interior and a removable roll bar that allowed installation of a camera for in-car shots. Lee4 was the first 1968 Charger converted to look like a 1969. The tail light panel and front seats were taken from the wreckage of Lee1 (after the famous jump over Rosco at the end of the opening credits). The paint on these cars was 1975 Corvette Flame red. Interiors not originally tan were sprayed with SEM brand "Saddle tan" vinyl dye. All but 1 of the 6 Georgia Lee's had a set of crossed flags below the rear window on the filler panel , (Lee 6 did not)- one Confederate flag, one finish checkered flag. The 3 surviving cars went back to California and had the crossed flags removed upon reconditioning. The rims were American Racing vectors throughout the show.

2. The Valuzet era

Andre and Renaud Valuzet built General Lees for Warner Brothers from the start of the 2nd season into the 4th season. Viewers can also see two Georgia cars used often up into the early second season. Lee3 and a specially caged car never appearing (but built) in Georgia were used heavily in early California episodes. The Valuzets were very inconsistent in how they built cars, so this is when the most variations are found. Color tends to be 1975 Corvette Flame Red, just like Georgia cars, but there does appear to be some variance here: interiors were rather consistently dyed a brown color and sometimes SEM Saddle Tan. It has been said the Valuzet's charged Warner Brothers $250 a week per car for rental and a lump sum of $2000-3000 upon destruction of the vehicles. This included police cars as well. Warner Brothers mechanics had to maintain the cars at company expense.

• Trivia: The money generated by building General Lees financed the Valuzet family project of restoring Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. This ranch is where many classic Westerns were shot as well as Gunsmoke. It burned down in the 1960s. Today, it is a fully-functional movie ranch where shows like HBO's Deadwood are filmed.

3. The Warner Brothers era

By 1983, Warner Brothers turned total control of building General Lees to a man named Ken Fritz because the Valuzet's were caught selling back wrecked cars that had been somewhat fixed-up and tagged with forged VINs. Fritz didn't have the job long before he too was fired and at this point Warner Brothers moved full production inhouse. The General Lee was now the highlight of the series. Warner Brothers was receiving an enormous amount of fan mail that nit-picked the inconsistencies of the cars. Because the General Lee was now so famous, WB had their staff mechanics build the cars to a strict appearance, even on the underside. All graphics had to meet specifications, all side markers and undercarriage chrome was to be removed, and all roll bars and push bars had to match. However, some changes were made before the specifications were laid-out: the pushbar 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 1968 conversions from the 1969 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 out 1968 and 1969 Chargers amongst the populace; the jumped cars were now no longer scrapped after one jump if deemed salvageable, and were patched up and used until they could no longer function; and, as part of a last resort, miniature models were also brought in toward the end of the series, replacing most of the big stunts, thereby saving more cars. 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. Considering that there were often a dozen General Lee's on the premises, this was far more economical than renting.

4. The Movie

In an era of Political Correctness, the Confederate flag on the roof is made an object of conflict in the movie plot on two occasions when drivers passing by make remarks alternating between cheering the south and condemning racist rednecks, and when local African American youth are about to give them a physical opinion of their roof graphics and driving in blackface. The movie General Lee not only flies and makes controlled landings, but in the age of the The Fast and the Furious, also drifts with the aid of a professional drifting driver, a style of driving first popularized in Japan in small import scene cars. The cars were lauched with a gas-driven catapault similar in principle to those used on aircraft carriers. A couple dozen Chargers from 1968 to 1970 were used in the effort.

Unlike the TV show eras Lees, the movie cars used aftermarket graphic kits. Originally, diehard fans shunned these decal kits for their inaccuracy. The movie gave them new credibility and are no longer considered to be an inaccurate choice. Otherwise, the movie Lee's varied a little from the TV show style cars. The body paint was Big Bad Orange rather than Flame Red, the interior ceiling was blacked out rather than the tan headliner, a different style rollbar was used, and the interiors were a custom color vinyl fabric made to look like the dye/paint used in the later eras of the TV show. One still can differentiate the '68 Chargers by looking at the dash pad, but now 1970 Chargers were thrown in the mix. Overall the cars resembled an average General Lee clone car from the late 90's to early 2000's, but the heart of the General lee is still obvious.

Engines

Engines in General Lees were all sorts: 318, 383, and 440 were all used. The special purpose built "Ski Car" (the car that drives on the two-side wheels) had a 318, as it was lighter weight. Most of the workhorse stunt cars had 383's. The stunt drivers tended to prefer 440's for jumps, which were often saved for the higher and longer jumps (440 engines were often transplanted into other cars for this purpose, too). And, though sound effects lead many people to believe otherwise, only a very small handful of Chargers on the show were actually manual transmission cars.

Exit and entry

The General Lee, except for the opening of the movie, does not have opening doors. In the TV series, it is explained that racing cars have their doors welded shut. In the movie, the car has been repaired after being trashed, but the doors were not fixed. The driver and passenger must slide in the window (as in NASCAR). For a running entry, Luke also slides over the hood rather than walk around the front of the car.

Exhaust systems

Exhaust systems were basic: some had glasspacks, but most had standard exhausts with the pipe cut just before the rear end. The sounds that can be heard in most of the California-era Lees is a glasspack/cherry bomb sound, but the sounds were dubbed in after the scene was filmed.

Myths

All Legends have some Urban Legends behind them. These are the more popular ones:

• 1970 Dodge Chargers were used on the TV show. 1970 Chargers were never used except maybe as parts cars.

• There was only 3 or 4 General Lees. There were atleast 309, some sources say 329.

• The General Lee did not have door handles. Every General Lee had door handles. Infact, they would often make it a point in the show to have the bad guys try to open the door, but it would be welded shut.

• Sometimes they used other B body Mopars for jumps. They never did this. In the early days the cars were plentiful and cheap. By the end WB knew the audience was looking closely at the cars, so using a non-Charger would not work. Thus the miniature era came to be.

• There was a Daytona made into a General Lee. This is not true, but it came close. The scouts were offered a Daytona in a package deal, but the price was too high, so they passed. Some Mopar nuts like to use this rumor to disgust people even more with the shows destruction of cars.

• The General Lee had a Hemi. Not in the show, but yes in the movie. There was an actual Hemi Charger that was sold to WB and turned into a GL, however the engine was gone before they bought it. Had it came in with one, it is a safe bet it would have been taken care of as the mechanics were Mopar fans.

• My dad had a real General Lee. I hate to break your heart, but most likely did not. These cars were valuable to WB. After a jump the cars were dismantled of all parts and the roof skin was cut off before being taken to the scrap yard. WB insisted this be done so nobody would attempt to rebuild these cars. The ones that did make it out were some gifts (like Waylon's car), and the cars leftover after the show wrapped up.

• A stuntman died jumping the General Lee. No stuntmen ever died making the Dukes of hazzard. The only death while filming happened when a camera truck doing 35 miles an hour overturned and killed a cameraman named Rodney Mitchell.

• There are General Lee's at the bottom of a pond in California. This stems from the couple times we see them jump Lee's into ponds. It is not true. These ponds were artificial and have since been filled in or have dried up.

"General" trivia and other references

• Lee1, the first General Lee ever built, was salvaged out of a Georgia junkyard in August 2001. The car has since been fully restored to its onscreen appearance and will be unveiled to the public November 11, 2006 with John Schneider behind the wheel. [1]

• Though they did not perform any of the jumps for which the car is famous, actors John Schneider and Tom Wopat (Bo and Luke Duke) routinely drove The General quite aggressively on camera.

• Johnny Cash performed a song for the car on a Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack, called "The General Lee".

• John Schneider and Tom Wopat drive a WB Dukes movie promo General Lee in an episode of Smallville, Season 5 Episode 6, "Exodus". [2]

• After a long hiatus, The General Lee reappeared on American television in 2005 in the TLC Network car television series Rides as "Xtreme Lee": a modified General Lee owned by performer Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The vehicle was originally unveiled at a 2004 SEMA show. It was upgraded to a 550hp V-8 engine with six speed automatic transmission. The paint job kept most of the original elements intact, but with slight changes, including a stylized Confederate flag with apparent wind movement and minor battle damage.

• General Carbuncle by James R Ford is a sculpture using thousands of toy cars to create a British version of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show.

• In an episode of Family Guy ("To Live and Die in Dixie"), Peter Griffin modified his car to look like The General Lee, and at one point crashed the station wagon General into the cabin where the Griffins were taking refuge. He and his dog Brian then rode it along a back road in the style of The Dukes of Hazzard, complete with voiceover commentary by Waylon Jennings. This is referenced in a later episode ("The Fat Guy Strangler") when Brian throws a stone at Peter claiming "That's for rolling up the window when I tried to jump in The General Lee."

• In the Drawn Together episode, "Alzheimer's That Ends Well", the housemates drive Foxxy Love's van through the wall of a nursing home in order to rescue Toot Braunstein. When it breaks through the wall into the pool area, the van is shown flying through the air while the first few notes of "Dixie" play. The van ends up landing in the pool, where it is shown to have a Confederate flag on top.

• The music video for "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies features a car chase segment with some band members driving in the General Lee while others drive in the car from Starsky and Hutch.

• The General Lee is also featured in The Simpsons episode "Beyond Blunderdome". The front grill of the car is in the line-up at the car museum before Homer and Mel steal the road warrior car.

• In a Daily Show correspondent piece on the feature film, Stephen Colbert drives The General Grant, a parody of The General Lee, a black car with the New York Yankees logo figured prominently, with a horn that plays "Hava Nagila".

• A running gag in the webcomic PvP features Cole Richards and Brent Sienna jumping a hill in the General Lee.

• Three Wishes: In the episode taped in Covington, Georgia, Amy Grant opened the show driving The General Lee.

• The General Lee appears in the carport in the music video for "You Never Met a Motherfucker Quite Like Me" by Kid Rock.

• In the movie Eurotrip, old Skoda Favorit (station wagon version) painted as The General Lee appears.

• ERTL produced a 1/64 series Hot Wheels-sized replicas of the General Lee and other cars such as police cruisers and Boss Hog's Caddilac. There were also various other toys, such as wrist launched plastic car.

• A 1:25 scale plastic kitset model has been a staple of AMT's model line for years, and its boxart has frequently tied in with the various Dukes of Hazzard productions. However, the model itself has been a bugbear to experienced modellers, particularly as the bodyshell is that of a Charger 500 (rear window flush with the bodywork) rather than the regular Chargers of the TV show.

• Worldwide, people build replicas of the General Lee, often as send-ups of the car. Examples painted in the General lee include early Toyota Corolla coupes, Chevettes, Morris Marinas and Hillman Hunters.

• A Die-Cast toy of the General Lee has appeared twice in Adult Swim's show, Robot Chicken. However, the car has much larger wheels than usual.

Media

Dixie Horn

References

• TV Guide article (1982) by David Barry
• The 20th Anniversary Hazzard County Barbecue
• General Lee specifications
• Wolo Manufacturing