The General Lee

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The General Lee

Also called:	Dodge Charger
Manufacturer:	Chrysler Corporation
Production:	1969
Class:	Muscle car
Body style:	2-door coupe
Platform:	FR B-body
Transmission:	3-speed TorqueFlite automatic
Similar:	1968–1970

The General Lee is the car driven by the Duke cousins Bo and Luke in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard. It is known for the chases and stunts, especially high jumps, in almost every episode. The car's name is a reference to the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The idea for the General Lee was developed from Jerry Rushing's car, which was named for General Lee's favorite horse, Traveller. This was also the name of the car in Moonrunners, the 1975 movie precursor to The Dukes of Hazzard.

1 Description
2 History
3 Differing Eras of The General Lee
4 Engines
5 Exit and entry
6 Exhaust systems
7 "General" trivia and other references
8 Media
9 References

[edit] Description

Bo Duke, right and his cousin Luke Duke in their famous car, The General Lee

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). During the filming of the first season, the producer was riding in a car on a country road when another car, driving the other way, honked their horn at them as they passed them. That car had what was to become the famous "Dixie" horn. Upon hearing the horn, the producer ordered the driver to double back and chase the car down. Once they got the other car to stop, the producer offered the owner of the car upwards of $200 to rip the horn out right there and give it to them. The owner took the deal without hesitation, partially because afterwards the producers found out he could've easily bought the same horn brand-new from the JC Whitney auto parts catalog for about one tenth of what he offered them.

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.

[edit] 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. (Slowing down many of the jumps will reveal the car literally bending on impact.) All cars used in large jumps were immediately retired because of frame damage.

The General Lee takes flight.

From 1979 to 1985, Chargers of 1968 and 1969 vintage were sourced and converted to General Lee specifications. According to all builders involved over the years, as well as the VIN list supplied to Wayne Wooten of all Chargers used on the show, and despite popular belief, 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). Late in the show's run, when it got too hard and/or expensive to continue procuring more Chargers, the producers started using jump footage from previous episodes (something that had been done occasionally previously, but not to such an extent).

[edit] Differing Eras of The General Lee

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

[edit] 1. The Georgia era

Georgia episode cars consisted of 6 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 of the 6 Georgia Lee's had a set of crossed flags below the rear window on the filler panel, 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 3. The Warner Brothers era

By 1983, Warner Brothers turned total control of building General Lees to a man named Ken Fritz because the Valuzets 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.

[edit] The General Lee from The Dukes Of Hazzard 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 General Lees varied a little from the TV show style cars. The body paint was Big Bad Orange rather than Corvette 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 couldn't be fixed fast enough. The driver and passenger must slide in the window (as in NASCAR). For a running entry, Bo and Luke also slide over the hood rather than walk around the front of the car.

[edit] 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.

[edit] "General" trivia and other references

The General Lee's license plate was CNH 320.
The producers of the show originally had the idea for the confederate flag on The General Lee to be on the hood before it ended up on the roof instead.
The first General Lee ever built (Lee1), was salvaged out of a Georgia junkyard in August 2001. The car was auctioned off on eBay and has since been fully restored to its onscreen appearance. It was officially 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.
In the opening credits, during Luke's slide across the hood of the General Lee, he actually trips while sliding, catching his right foot on the fender. Also during the hood-slide, he actually catches himself on the aerial on the near-side of The General Lee. Such aerials were removed from later General Lees for such reasons.
Johnny Cash performed a song for the car on a Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack, called "The General Lee".
In the last couple of seasons, pushed to out-do previous stunts, and also with some rivalry with the array of stunts seen by new TV super-car K.I.T.T. in Knight Rider, model miniatures were employed, to allow the General Lee to supposedly perform even greater jumps and stunts. However, many did not like these fake-looking stunts, and when directing an episode, Tom Wopat (Luke) disliked them so much that he deliberately wrote them out of the script.
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 [3] 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.

1:18 Scale model of the 1969 Dodge Charger used in The Dukes of Hazzard

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.

General Lee at the 2006 SSCC

John Schneider has used his own General Lee to compete in the Silver State Classic race on numerous occasions with the 01 number allocated by the officials, minus original livery.
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.
In the Nintendo 64 game Blast Corps, there is a car slightly modeled off of the General Lee, and has the same horn.