Dynamite Magazine #89

Dynamite Dares to Ride With the Dukes!

Welcome to Hazzard!

I knew I was in the right place as soon as I saw the bright orange car with "General Lee" written on the roof parked by a clump of scraggly-looking bushes.  Seeing that car just sitting there waiting for (gulp!) me made my nervous excitement turn to NERVOUS EXCITEMENT!  Before I had a chance to do any more than just walk around the 1969 Dodge Charger once, I looked up and found myself staring right into the faces of John Schneider and Tom Wopat - alias Bo and Luke Duke!  In person they look exactly like they look on television, except taller - and I mean a lot taller!

Both guys were taking time out from filming an episode of Dukes of Hazzard so that they could make my Dynamite Dares dream a reality.  Now it was time for my Dare to begin.  From watching the show, I knew very well that the Duke boys had their own way of doing things - especially when it came to getting into their car!  Neither one makes use of the car's doors on The Dukes show, and I was ready, willing, and anxious to learn their way of entering the famous General Lee.

"Well, you've got to go in feet first," John told me.  "A lot of people would want to go in head first.  See, my side's harder to get in.  It's weird.  I can't get out of the passenger side very well and Tom can't get out of the driver's side because we're just not used to it."

I hesitated a moment, wondering exactly how I was going to get into the car when suddenly I felt myself being swooped up and practically thrown through the window!  When I caught my breath I turned to see it was Tom holding me up and laughing at my surprise!  "That's another way to get into the General Lee," he joked.

Very funny, guys, but what's the best way?  I wanted to know.  John answered.

"Oped the door!" He laughed.  "No, not really.  My favorite way is to jump into it.  But nobody else will do that.  That was an accident,"  John continued.  "I got excited one day and jumped through the window.  I've been doing it that way ever since!"

John was just about to demonstrate exactly how he jumps into the car when he and Tom were called on to the set to film a fight scene for an episode of Dukes of Hazzard.  While they were doing that I had a chance to talk with Tom Wopat's stunt man, Gary Baxley.  He gave me more of an idea about what I was letting myself in for with this Dynamite Dare.  One thing I knew for sure after talking with him - I would not be doing any jumps in the car!

"I wouldn't recommend anyone trying it," Gary explained.  "We go through special preparations and wear special harnesses for car jumps and it still hurts!  In fact, the two other stunt men and myself won't even do jumps anymore.  We just get in the cars and drive them now."  Then who does the stunts? I asked.

"Well," said Gary, "there are all kinds of younger stunt guys who still want to do jumps and we'll bring in one guy per day to do the big jumps."

When I realized that even the stunt men have stunt men, I made up my mind that just riding with the Dukes would be daring enough - no fancy stuff for me, thanks!

Just as I'd decided that, John and Tom came back from doing their fight scene.  They were joking about the show, and I took the opportunity to ask if there were any changes planned for the Dukes of Hazzard.

"Not a thing!" answered John.  "It works!  Matter of fact," he laughed, "we're doing the same script - for the next several years!"  He laughed again.  "That fight scene we just did?  We've done it before.  Matter of fact we've beaten up these same two bad guys before!"

John got more serious as he talked a little bit about the General Lee.  "This car is the most widely recognized car in America today according to its publicity," he told me.  "If the public only knew - there've been over a hundred of them!  This particular car is the only one we've kept for more than a week!"

"That's because this is the one that's all fancied up," added Tom>

"Last season there were 90 General Lees totaled!" continued John.  "If you wander around the backlot you'll see four or five of them sitting in Baggies.  Just the week before last, we wrecked five General Lees - gone, junk, garbage.  If there's anything left we can use, we just use it on another car.  A lot of people say, 'I bet you go through a lot of tires!'  Well, the truth is we put the same tires onto different cars.  We go through more cars than we go through tires!"  John  went on to say, "I think people should know about the car.  If people think that the General Lee does what it does and doesn't get hurt, they're liable to think they can go out and do that themselves.  I think they should know that for every jump they see and several times for every drive-up they see, with an old car like a '69 Dodge Charger, the whole suspension goes... Those jumps tear the car apart!"

All of a sudden I was beginning to wonder how I got stuck with this assignment.  Here I was about to climb into a car through a window, and then get taken for a ride that over 90 cars had not survived!

"Don't worry," Tom and John laughed.  "We'll show you everything you need to know."  With that, John made his famous jump through the window.  Even though he's well over six feet tall, John made it look easy.  But it took both John and Tom to help me climb in.  Getting out through the window was even harder!

"It used to be a lot harder," said John.  "When we first started the show in Georgia, we had full roll cages in the car.  That meant the roll bar was behind Tom and me and came down right next to the door.  There was hardly any room between the roll bar and the steering wheel, and I kept racking my knee up on that thing.  I was really in pain!"

Well, it may have been easier for them now, but I needed practice!  Once inside the car I had a big surprise.  The inside of this "fancied up" model of the General Lee wasn't fancy at all!  There wasn't even a radio or anything else on the dashboard of the car!  It didn't matter to me, though, once the three of us were in the front seat together.  I had no time to even think about a radio.  With Tom "Luke Duke" Wopat on one side of me and John "Bo Duke" Schneider on the other side I was all set to ride!  John turned the ignition key on and the bright and shiny engine of the General Lee started right up.  The three of us held on tight and VAARRROOOOM, we were off, leaving a cloud of dust behind us.  We headed right down the main drag of Hazzard County.  The only thing missing was the pickin' and strummin' of a banjo in the background - and the screams of big Boss Hogg hot on the trail of the Dukes of Hazzard and this Dynamite Daredevil!

-Linda Aber