this popped up on my facebook news feed.
the Dukes of Hazzard had their last episode 37 years ago today.

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37 years ago today, February 8, 1985, the final episode of The Dukes of Hazzard aired. It is an American action-comedy television series that was aired on CBS from January 26, 1979 to February 8, 1985. The show aired for 147 episodes spanning seven seasons. It was consistently among the top-rated television series in the late 1970s (at one point, ranking second only to Dallas, which immediately followed the show on CBS's Friday night schedule). The show is about two young male cousins, Bo and Luke Duke, who live in rural Georgia and are on probation for moonshine-running. The young men and their friends and their female cousin Daisy Duke, and other family (such as patriarch Uncle Jesse), have various escapades as they evade the corrupt law officers Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. The young men drive a customized 1969 Dodge Charger nicknamed the General Lee, which became a symbol of the show.

The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, about a bootlegger family which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts. The show was the basis for a film of the same title in 2005.

Moonrunners is a great little film and surely deserves a modern release! Though it could have used a little tightening up in the editing department, it's still a well done, low-budget '70s film.
The only two characters to come straight across from movie to TV show were 'Uncle' Jesse Hagg, Sheriff Rosco Coltrane and "Cooter". Though, Cooter was not the neighborhood mechanic.
"Jake Rainey" was the Boss Hogg character.
Bobby Lee and Grady were the Hagg cousins,
"Zeebo" was a turncoat character never to be seen again.

Jerry Rushing himself had a role as one of Jake Rainey's bodyguards in the film, though it was a non-speaking role.

Could just be the timing of the picture being taken but Tom Wopat and John Schneider look........uneasy?

I would guess this was right after their contract dispute?

I agree.

With the actors Byron Cherry (Coy Duke) and Christopher Mayer (Vance Duke) in the picture, this picture was probably taken right after Tom and John resolved their contract disputes and returned to the show. To say they would have been uneasy would be my guess too.

As far as having the entire cast for a picture, I vaguely recall that the show was to continue on with all four actors (Tom, John, Coy and Vance) in their roles. Obviously, that didn't happen since the episode with the return of Tom and John, had Coy and Vance leave before the first commercial break.

CBS managed to take a top 10 show and ruin it by not following the contracts involving merchandising royalties and sharing the profits made from toys, plastic models, etc.

How much longer could the show have gone beyond seven seasons? Probably not much longer, maybe one or two seasons.

I enjoyed it since I was an early teenager at the time. It's a little sad to look at that picture and that four of those people have passed away, but it has been 43 years since the show started.

Mike.

The movie was on last night, And i did watch the TV show when it was on. But today i cringe when i see the car jumps and imagine how many cars where destroyed while filming.

The estimate is approx 300 we’re destroyed, and about 20 survived. I am familiar with one survivor in the Seattle area. Jim bought the car when Warner Brothers liquidated the fleet. He still owns it as far as I know.

It debuted on my 1st birthday. I remember watching religiously growing up. It's probably the reason I'm into cars today. I also remember that Dallas came on right after it. Obviously my parents wouldn't let a little kid watch that show but I loved the opening theme song. I was allowed to listen to that and then the chanel had to be changed.

Yeah, I’ve read anywhere from 295-340 or so destroyed. The last season the went to models for the jumps instead of using real cars. Heard at least one J Code car was killed, it was supposed to be rough even before it was used though. Not sure if it was ever verified.

I read/heard they looked at two Daytonas in LA to use when it was getting harder to find cars, same guy owned both and offered them pretty cheap, but they said it was too expensive to cnvert and not worth the effort.

Wholesome, family entertainment. I was in my adolescence when that show came out and was already looking for my first Mopar. To tell the truth, I didn’t like chargers all that much and was more into road runners and E bodies. Was also into Daisy Duke’s body, but what teenage boy wasn’t?

In the first season, Daisy looked great. I don't know what happened when they moved to California....She just didn't look as good to me from season 2 to the end.

My son was born in 82. He grew up watching the show. At the time we lived in a ranch style house with one room in the basement pretty fixed up. That fixed up room was the play area for him and his 3 1/2 year older sister through the winter months.

My 30 year old self had a very large box of model cars I built in my early teen years that were mostly Mopar models, and 1:25 scale truck models (remember that Ford ramp truck model?). Somehow my son found that box of models and used them to play "Dukes of Hazzard", the ramp truck body, once removed from the truck, with the tire rack broken off made a perfect ramp to launch the model cars from. By the time the destruction was discovered, it was pretty obvious he had been enjoying playing "Dukes of Hazzard" for some time. The broken remains were boxed back up and placed in a more secure location. At a later date, the remains were sorted into what could be salvaged and what was parts and most of it was sold at a model car show. What didn't sell are still in a box, someplace in the basement at our current home.

Every time the Dukes is brought back up, he remembers the fun time, and the trouble he got in, and I remember how lucky he is to have survived. The event was a learning event for both of us. For me the fact that those models that were so precious back then, have not ever been displayed since, makes me wonder why I was so mad at the time. It allows me to be content that they brought him such joy at that time. He had as much fun killing them as I had building them, kind of balances things out. My son turns 40 in 2 days! Gene

I am completely UNapologetic about being a fan of the show.
Some people dismissed the show as being too silly or unrefined but I didn't care. I loved the music, the cars, the Boss and Rosco comedy scenes and the way that the good guys always won.

Might've been a J-code car, but it certainly wasn't packing it's Hemi anymore. John Schneider has been dispelling rumors on his Youtubes and though he's maybe an armchair mopar guy at best; he can verify that for 1st Unit filming, meaning filming with the Primary cast, not a single car was a Hemi car. The "Hero" car was generally (haha, Pun!) a Big Block car, but could be 383 or 440.

More often than not, the stunt cars were 318 cars. They required less ballast in the trunk to keep the car flying level through a jump. Less weight in the trunk kept the car from "folding" upon landing as well. That fact there leads me to believe there were no Hemi cars used. That big Hemi would make a Charger nose over big time and the amount of weight in the trunk necessary to level it out would be excessive probably negating any performance the Hemi may have had.

Agree, definitely not a Hemi still in it, I believe it had a 383 or maybe even a 318 in it. I also read almost all the stunt cars were 318 cars. Only a few R/T cars were used, the main hero car was a 383 car I believe and was used for the good shots.

It was pure entertainment. It didn't push an ideology, it didn't have a 'message', it wasn't a 'comment' on the times, it was just pure entertainment where you could look at fast cars, attractive women, and got a happy ending every episode. Just doesn't exist any more.

^^^^^^ Well said fellas! It was a really good fun show to watch!

i never had a problem with the entertainment part of the show, I probably didn't miss a show, but that would mean my son didn't miss many either.

Another note, after he got his license, I put him in a 318 powered 85 Chrysler 5th Ave (it was a cheap car). If the old 5th Ave would have been white, it could have been Rosco's ride. I put a new single exhaust system on the 5th Ave, complete with all new exhaust hangers. About a week later he came by my shop telling me there was strange noises coming from under the car. One quick look found that all those new exhaust hangers were broken. When I climbed under the car, there were piles of gravel on top of a lot of things that shouldn't have had gravel on top of it. It seemed a local gravel pit had a few places where if you got going fast enough, you could get the car off the ground. My son was pretty efficient at getting the old 5th Ave off the ground with all his buddies in the car. (Dads have a way of knowing these things before the broken car shows up). After wiring the exhaust back up that day, with a stern look on my face, I sent him home with the warning about "Knock that car jumping crap off!" It worked for a while. He couldn't figure out how I knew, and I didn't tell him for a couple years. Darned kids! He breaks his own stuff now. Gene

I watched reruns of the dukes in high school, had them all on tape and have the DVDs. I always like oddball cars so I liked Roscoe's car and Boss Hogg's Caddy as much as the General.
I always feel so-so about how many chargers they went through. Yeah they destroyed a large number but they also made a ton of car and charger fans out of it in the process and they were that age that most would have been driven into the ground and junked anyway if they weren't bought and turned orange by the show.
Im so used to the characters on that show that it's strange when you watch something else and see Boss Hogg or Roscoe on it. Especially newer shows.