The TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard, was inspired by the 1975 movie Moonrunner . The series and the movie were written by Gy Waldron about the life of Jerry Rushing. Jerry Rushing was an actual moonshiner who started delivering moonshine with his brother at the age of twelve. The TV series used some of the same character names and the same storyline as the movie. The show was narrated by Waylon Jennings, a famous country singer, and he also wrote and sang the show's theme song, "The Good Ole Boys." It was a series that started in 1979, and lasted until 1985. Millions of people watched this humorous show about two cousins that lived in the rural fictional county of Hazzard, Georgia and raced around in their 1969 Dodge Charger named the “General …show more content…
The “General Lee” got 35,000 fan letters each months asking for pictures of the car. The car received more fan letters than the stars John Schneider and Tom Wopat received. John Schneider lied about his age when he auditioned for the part on the show. He was only 18 years old and came dressed like a redneck for the audition. The famous “hood slide” was an accident. When Tom Wopat slid across the hood for the first time, he got caught on the antenna, and was injured. The first horn that played Dixie was heard by two directors as they were eating breakfast. They followed the car and bought the horn for $300.00. Between 255-360 different cars were used for the “General Lee” because they wrecked so many in the show (www.neatorama.com). The last Dukefest (a weekend of celebrating the Dukes of Hazzard) was held in 2008. Over 40,000 people attended the festival and over 23 million watched the weekend festival on CMT (www.thedukesofhazzard.nl/dukefest.htm). The last episode of the show aired on February 8, 1985. The show was on television for seven years but in the final year the show was not in the top 30 of all TV shows. By 1985, the popularity of the show decreased so much that the show was