The Dukes of Hazzard is an American action comedy television series created by Gy Waldron that aired on CBS from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985, with a total of seven seasons consisting of 147 episodes. It was consistently among the top-rated television series in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The show is about two young male cousins, Bo and Luke Duke, who live in rural Georgia and are on probation for moonshine-running. Probation prevents the “Duke Boys” from owning guns, and they are armed with bows and arrows and clever plans to outwit a corrupt sheriff and greedy rich “city slickers.” Their cousin Daisy Duke and other family live in a secluded country home in the woods, where they plan various escapades to expose and evade county commissioner Boss Hogg and law officer Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. The “Duke Boys” drive a customized 1969 Dodge Charger nicknamed the General Lee, which became a symbol of the show.
The General Lee was based on a 1969 Dodge Charger owned by Bo and Luke. It was orange with a Confederate battle flag painted on the roof, the words “GENERAL LEE” over each door, and the number “01” on each door. In the original five Georgia-filmed episodes, a Confederate flag along with a checkered racing flag in a criss-cross pattern could be seen behind the rear window; this was removed because the extra decal was impossible to replicate over and over again. The name refers to the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Since it was built as a race car, the doors were welded shut. Through the history of the show, an estimated 309 Chargers were used; 17 are still known to exist in various states of repair.
The show also used 1968 Chargers (which shared the same sheet metal) by pop-riveting the “I” piece to the center of the 68’s grille, as well as cutting out the tail lights, pop-riveting the ’69 lenses in place, and removing the round side marker lights. These Chargers performed many record-breaking jumps throughout the show, almost all of them resulting in a completely destroyed car. No 1970 Chargers were used, as backdating them proved to be too time-consuming.
The Duke boys added a custom air horn to the General Lee that played the first 12 notes of the song “Dixie.” The Dixie horn was not originally planned, until a Georgia local hot rod racer drove by and sounded his car’s Dixie horn. The producers immediately rushed after him asking where he had bought the horn. Warner Bros. purchased several Chargers for stunts, as they generally destroyed at least one or two cars per episode. By the end of the show’s sixth season, the Chargers were becoming harder to find and more expensive. In addition, the television series Knight Rider began to rival the General Lee’s stunts. As such, the producers used 1:8 scale miniatures, filmed by Jack Sessums’ crew, or recycled stock jump footage—the latter being a practice that had been in place to an extent since the second season, and had increased as the seasons passed.
Some of the 01 and Confederate flag motifs were initially hand painted, but as production sped up, these were replaced with vinyl decals for quick application (and removal), as needed.
During the first five episodes of the show that were filmed in Georgia, the cars involved with filming were given to the crew at the H&H body shop near the filming location. At this shop, the men worked day and night to prepare the wrecked cars for the next day while still running their body shop during the day. Time was of the essence, and the men that worked at this shop worked hard hours to get the cars prepared for the show.
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