Photo: Facebook / John Schneider
General Lee replicas exist in a very small number and in various states of disrepair. That small number is now much smaller, since John Schneider’s has been destroyed by Hurricane Ida.
The actor, who famously played Beauregard “Bo” Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard iconic TV series, runs a production studio out of Louisiana. On August 31, while he and his wife were out helping flood victims, Hurricane Ida sent a tree crashing onto the store, and it took out the General Lee replica parked outside.
For the younger generations, General Lee is arguably one of the most famous and popular TV cars, at least in the United States. It was one of the main characters in the Dukes of Hazzard series, which originally ran between 1979 and 1985, and is still running in syndication. General Lee was an orange 1969 Dodge Charger, but the production saw over 300 replicas built (329, according to Schneider) and only a couple of dozens of them have survived intact.
This was one of them. It wasn’t a Charger, but a Ford Crown Victoria modified to look like one, and Schneider had continued to use it as a stunt car. The actor, filmmaker and musician launched an appeal with fans to get support him by buying his merchandise online, in the hope of being able to bring his brick-and-mortar business back.
With it, General Lee will also come back from the dead, the actor tells the Daily Mail in an interview. He doesn’t go into specifics, but he does say whatever restoration General Lee will undergo won’t hide the scars Ida and the tree left, because “people who have no scars shouldn’t be trusted.”
“That car is me,” the actor added. “I am going to straighten it out a little bit and leave it that way. [P]eople who have scars and hide them should be avoided at all costs. So I am going to be honest about the General's scars.”
Until that happens, this is General Lee with the wounds (the one seemingly up a tree is actually a plywood cutout).
For the younger generations, General Lee is arguably one of the most famous and popular TV cars, at least in the United States. It was one of the main characters in the Dukes of Hazzard series, which originally ran between 1979 and 1985, and is still running in syndication. General Lee was an orange 1969 Dodge Charger, but the production saw over 300 replicas built (329, according to Schneider) and only a couple of dozens of them have survived intact.
This was one of them. It wasn’t a Charger, but a Ford Crown Victoria modified to look like one, and Schneider had continued to use it as a stunt car. The actor, filmmaker and musician launched an appeal with fans to get support him by buying his merchandise online, in the hope of being able to bring his brick-and-mortar business back.
With it, General Lee will also come back from the dead, the actor tells the Daily Mail in an interview. He doesn’t go into specifics, but he does say whatever restoration General Lee will undergo won’t hide the scars Ida and the tree left, because “people who have no scars shouldn’t be trusted.”
“That car is me,” the actor added. “I am going to straighten it out a little bit and leave it that way. [P]eople who have scars and hide them should be avoided at all costs. So I am going to be honest about the General's scars.”
Until that happens, this is General Lee with the wounds (the one seemingly up a tree is actually a plywood cutout).
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