Editing The Dukes of Hazzard (section)

===The ''General Lee'' (Dodge Charger)===
{{main|General Lee (car)}}
[[File:Charg.jpg|thumb|right|The ''General Lee'' (Dodge Charger)]]
[[File:General lee.jpg|thumb|right|The ''General Lee'' on public display]]

The ''[[General Lee (car)|General Lee]]'' was based on a 1969 [[Dodge Charger]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Dodge Charger roars to America's most-searched classic car |url=https://journal.classiccars.com/2018/07/10/dodge-charger-roars-out-to-be-americas-most-searched-classic-car/ |website=The ClassicCars.com Journal |date=July 11, 2018 |access-date=7 November 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181108030017/https://journal.classiccars.com/2018/07/10/dodge-charger-roars-out-to-be-americas-most-searched-classic-car/ |archive-date=November 8, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> owned by Bo and Luke. It was orange with a [[Flags of the Confederate States of America#The "Confederate flag"|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 States of America|Confederate]] General [[Robert E. Lee]]. The television show was based on the movie ''[[Moonrunners]]'', in turn based on actual moonshine runners who used a 1958 Chrysler named ''Traveler'', after [[Traveller (horse)|General Lee's horse]] (with a slight spelling change). ''Traveler'' was originally intended to be the name of the Duke boys' stock car too, until producers agreed that ''General Lee'' had more punch to it.

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. A replica was owned by John Schneider, known as "Bo's General Lee". In 2008, Schneider sold "Bo's General Lee" at the [[Barrett-Jackson]] automobile auction for $230,000. An eBay auction which garnered a bid of $9,900,500 for the car was never finalized, with the purported bidder claiming his account had been hacked.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2007/05/11/autos/general_lee_back_on/ |title='General Lee' auction?back on again - May. 11, 2007|access-date=June 18, 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140419205444/http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/11/autos/general_lee_back_on/|archive-date=April 19, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> The underside of the hood has the signatures of the cast from the 1997 TV movie. Schneider has also restored over 20 other ''General Lee''{{Hair space}}s to date. In 2008, a replica of the ''General Lee'' fetched a high bid of $450,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction. In 2012, the ''General Lee 1'', the first car used in filming the series, was purchased at auction by golfer [[Bubba Watson]] for $110,000. The car had been scrapped after being wrecked during the famous opening jump shoot, and was later discovered in a junkyard by the president of the North American General Lee fan club.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/auto/first-general-lee-sells-for-110000 |title=First 'General Lee' sells for $110,000|work=Fox News|access-date=May 12, 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150725105840/http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/01/23/first-general-lee-sells-for-110000/ |archive-date=July 25, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2015, following a wave of sentiment against Confederate symbolism in the wake of [[Charleston church shooting|shootings in Charleston, SC]] (relating to photos where the attacker had posed with the Confederate flag), Bubba Watson announced that he would remove the Confederate flag from the roof of the ''General Lee 1'' and repaint it with the [[Flag of the United States|U.S. national flag]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33393860 |title=Confederate flag: Bubba Watson to paint over Dukes of Hazzard car|publisher=BBC News|date=July 4, 2015 |access-date=June 21, 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181006210316/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33393860 |archive-date=October 6, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 (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 (1982 TV 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.

The third episode "Mary Kaye's Baby" is the only one in which the ''General Lee'' does not appear. Instead, the Dukes drove around in a blue 1975 [[Plymouth Fury]] borrowed from Cooter that Luke later destroyed by shooting a flaming arrow at the car, whose trunk had been leaking due to the moonshine stowed in the back.

The Duke boys' CB handle was (jointly) "Lost Sheep". Originally when the show was conceived, their handle was to be "General Lee" to match their vehicle, but this was only ever used on-screen on one occasion, in the second episode, "Daisy's Song", when Cooter calls Bo and Luke over the CB by this handle, although they were actually driving Daisy's Plymouth Road Runner (see below) at the time. As it became obvious that the "General Lee" handle would be out of place when the Duke boys were in another vehicle, the "Lost Sheep" handle was devised (with Uncle Jesse being "Shepherd" and Daisy being "Bo Peep").