Being a Mopar fan with a serious weakness for the Dodge Charger, it should come as no surprise that the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard has long been one of my favorites. So, when I had the chance to visit Cooter’s Dukes of Hazzard Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, you can bet I jumped at the chance.
The show debuted in 1979 and immediately topped the charts as the second hottest show on television, second only to the very popular Dallas. Dukes remained in that slot for a number of years, and capitalizing on the popularity, the producers were quick to have a number of promotional products made for people to buy and enjoy such as lunch pails, action figures, toy replicas of the cars, posters, and a whole lot more. Cooter’s Museum seems to have everything on display, including some of the real cars from the show like Cooter’s tow truck, a General Lee, Dixie the Jeep, and Roscoe’s patrol car, among others.
I think the most interesting part for me was the amount of merchandise the producers made for that show – it was the most highly merchandised show ever. Second to that I think I really loved seeing all the pieces of Generals that had jumped and been destroyed. They have a roof section with the Confederate Flag, they have a front fender easing out of a wall, it’s cool how they incorporated those pieces into the building. Interesting bit about the Confederate Flag, they say the original Generals had a cross flag by the CB antenna in the early episodes, a detail they omitted later because it was just too difficult to keep reproducing for the show. That said, it was neat to learn too that the flags and details on the General were only painted on for a brief time, producers turning to large decals to stick on the cars later – much less expensive and much quicker turnaround times.
While the second-generation Charger needed little help in popularity, The Dukes of Hazzard absolutely cemented its place in pop culture, especially with car guys, and especially with Mopar fans. But, on the sad side, the show ruined 250-300 Chargers in the process of making the show. In fact, it’s said that every time a Charger left the ground to do a jump, it was destroyed. They only used 1968 and 1969 Chargers because they were easy to make look alike, while the 1970 had a unique grille-surround bumper, one-piece, high-back front seats, and other nuances to make them more difficult to convert into Generals. But, on a high note, the production set a number of records, not only for long jumps, but also safety standards that still stand in Hollywood today. Back in the day, the production company came to Denver and bought up a number of Chargers for the show. One I have was a candidate, the man I bought it from told me that when he learned the show was going to destroy it, he wouldn’t sell it to them.
Speaking of long jumps, there’s a famous jump over a riverbed, you’ve probably seen it in the opening credits of the show. A lot of dust and debris is trailing behind the car as it clears the riverbed – it’s sand. To balance the General’s front weight bias, they would fill the trunk with sand. It wasn’t long though, the production started using cars equipped mostly with 318 CI V-8s rather than big blocks so it’d be lighter in the nose.
These are just some of the things I learned at Cooter’s Museum. What a place. There are three locations, one in Nashville, right across from the Grand Ole Opry, one in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and a third in Luray, Virginia, and on occasion, some of the remaining original cast members will pay a visit. Admission is free, but support it where you can – visit their website on Cooter’s Place (cootersplace.com)
By Chris Ochs
