HossC

I've just looked at the scene you mentioned, and I think you're talking about the black shapes that I've arrowed in the picture below. I have seen them before, and as far as I know they are parts of a lens shade. They can generally be seen when the camera is mounted on a vehicle (like it is here), and are probably put there to prevent reflections from the vehicle causing lens flare, although they shouldn't be visible. I've borrowed the pictures below from the Bloopers thread. The first shows a similar issue when the camera mount is visible in 'Dukes Meet Cale Yarborough'. You also have to remember that the camera equipment was a lot bigger 30 years ago. Nowadays when you see vehicle-mounted cameras on shows like 'Top Gear' or 'Mythbusters' they are no bigger than a small torch. When Dukes was filmed they looked like this the one below, spotted in 'Double Sting' (you see another one on the General during the Styx River jump).

I'll have to find a way to return to our "back" theme at a later date, because I still had quite a few to go. In the meantime, I'll console myself with some rock and roll from 1959 :

Not only did the car run on moonshine, it also had its own still in the trunk. Just for the novelty value, here's a car jumping over an orange Charger. What a surprise - the Dodge doesn't make it to the end of the show. A second, massive explosion rips through the car as it comes to rest. It looks like the pyrotechnics guys had fun with this one. It's not all bad news for Charger fans - by the time Michael has run 50 yards from KITT, the Charger has become a black 4-door Fury or Monaco (and all the hay bales have disappeared). So there you have it - between two 'Knight Rider' episodes they manage to blow up a General Lee look-alike and burn down the Duke Farm.

I thought there were some screengrabs from this episode somewhere on HNet, but I couldn't find them when I looked yesterday. The episode was called 'Give Me Liberty... or Give Me Death' (S01E15), and concerned an alternative fuel race with a large cash prize. The reasons for the Dukes/General Lee comparisons are obvious when you see one of the race cars: An orange '69 Dodge Charger with Vector wheels does sound kinda familiar. Added to that, the car was driven by a couple of Southerners called Sonny and Lester Prince, who wore Confederate flags on their jackets. The car itself ran on moonshine (as did its drivers!). I love the way that the props department had to come up with a fake racing team name and ended up with "Racing Team". Here's the complete line-up of all six entrants. It's amazing that all six looked and sounded like regular petrol engines when they were introduced. Maybe we're more used to some of these alternative fuels being real-life realities nowadays. The orange car did differ from the General in one very noticeable way - the doors opened!

It looks like the guy behind the miniatures was Jack Sessums. Here's a picture I found on Jimmie's website: It's at the bottom of his page about the patrol cars. The caption reads: "MINIATURES: One Rosco car many overlook is the miniature. These were used late in the series and were all built by model-maker Mr. Jack Sessums who also built the miniature General Lees used in the series. Jack built miniature vehicles for almost all of the 80s action television shows including Knight Rider and Airwolf. He passed away in 2005 after a battle with cancer - but his work will be seen and enjoyed by many for years to come." If you do a Google image search you'll see him holding Airwolf, although most of the pictures seem to be from Knight Rider. I don't (yet ) know what happened to the Dukes models, but I did find out where KITT and the Knight Rider semi ended up: Miniature Semi and K.I.T.T.

I found an old MySpace page that has 18 behind-the-scenes pictures of the miniatures: The Dukes Of Hazzard Miniatures I wouldn't be surprised if the same crew did the miniature sequences in 'The Fall Guy' too. Here's one of the pictures:

The industrial plant at the end of 'Close Call For Daisy' is the San Fernando Valley Generating Station - see the last picture in this post (there's a Google Maps link too). I have now covered most of the filming locations in the Hazzard Square thread, and CDoherty has covered some more in the Valencia Oaks Movie Ranch thread. There are still a few places left to find, but we're knocking them off one by one .

There are quite a few scenes that were filmed at night, and it started in the very first episode. Take a listen to John and Cathy's commentary to 'One Armed Bandits' on the DVD. At the end of the chase around the Boar's Nest car park where Rosco's car (driven by Daisy) gets hit by a piano, John says: "Now this is night time. Look how dark the top of the car is. This means that we worked past sunset and now it's night time, 'cause those lights are really bright."

It's at the eastern end of Lake Sherwood, and still looks virtually the same today. I covered it in the 'Hazzard Square' thread before Christmas. Take a look at this post and you'll find a couple of screengrabs from the show, a couple of aerial views and a Google Maps link to the location.

Or "Matt Kenseth" days to go (he's driving Joey Logano's old number this year for Joe Gibbs Racing). I've looked at pictures of the 2013 Fords and Chevys, but I think this is the first time I've seen the 2013 Toyota:

Going back to the "back" songs: My parents had this 1961 song on an LP of hits of the '60s.

I'll be a little south of you . This Wayne Cochran cover was originally released on their 1980 'Made in America' album.

I've just read that 'Six Million Dollar Man' and 'Fall Guy' actor Lee Majors has been signed up for a two-episode guest spot on the second season. He's set to play an old flame of one of the regulars - if you want to see who, look here.

I've just looked that one up, and it's pretty bad (although I'm available if they're making a sequel ).

We're getting a good mix of "back" songs. I heard this song on the radio last week for the first time in ages: The song reached #8 in the UK in 1975 and #2 in the Billboard 100 in 1976.

The Super Bowl was broadcast here on the BBC, so we didn't get any commercials with it, let alone the big money ones that traditionally accompany it in the US. I had a look around the internet this morning, and it seems like you picked out two of the best. It may tell you something about the way my mind works, but the Budweiser commercial reminded me of an old (1996) award-winning commercial that also features an animal with a long memory: OK, it's not as heart-warming, but it is funny.

I know how lucky Fred is : 1950s car obviously had larger back seats .

Can you tell him to leave the HNet servers alone?

That was my first thought too. I guess it's not a widely used term.

I've just remembered one scene I liked in the movie. When Jesse suggests they go to try and call a truce with Boss, he finds a couple of old suits for the boys. The suits appear to be a homage to Tom and John's suits in 'High Octane': While the questionable geography in the chase around Piru reminded me of the race in 'Luke's Love Story', I'm sure it was unintentional.

It's seen in 'Luke's Love Story' and 'Officer Daisy Duke'. I mention 'Officer Daisy Duke' back in post #273, and the second picture shows the same store. I'd probably have to agree with you about Lulu being the least like here original character, although most of the ages/age differences are completely screwed up. I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression and think that I found any aspect of the movie "good", but at one point I thought April Scott actually sounded quite like Cathy when she used the CB.

This bridge is nearly at the end of Center Street. In the movie it plays the part of the Hazzard/Chickasaw county line. As far as I can see, only the sign and the painted white line were added for filming. Toward the end of the movie, Boss Hogg tries to give a speech near Piru Station. As previously mentioned (in post #274), the station wasn't there when 'Luke's Love Story' was filmed. The slalom through the trees, and Enos's car flip from that episode were filmed roughly where the poster and balloons can be seen on the left of this shot. This scene, with the old bank just out of shot on the left, featured more than once in the TV series. Most of these stores are now closed, and I suspect a lot of them were dressed for the movie. I'll conclude my pictures from 'The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning' with this shot of Cooter's new garage. You'll find it on Center Street, just across the railroad tracks from the previous picture. Apart from the sign over the door, it looks the same today, as you can see here. Let me know if there are any more shared locations - just don't make me watch the movie again! They somehow managed to make a CGI car jump look less realistic than the models in season 7 of the TV show.

I don't know why they didn't use the Warner Brother's backlot for this movie, maybe it was being used for something else. Instead, they used another familiar location, the town of Piru. Piru featured a few times in the TV series, including a very prominent role during the race in 'Luke's Love Story'. For comparison, and a map, check out posts 272 to 274 of this thread. I'll go through these roughly in the order they appear in the movie. The first shows Rosco, Flash, Bo, Luke and Uncle Jesse outside the large house used by the race observer in 'Luke's Love Story'. Just off to the right there's a sign saying "HAZZARD COUNTY INN". This is Piru's Post Office, diagonally across the road from the house above. The guy with his hand in the air is Old Man Abernathy, Boss's opponent in the upcoming election. This is the church where we first get to meet Enos and Daisy. In reality, it's Piru United Methodist Church on Center Street. This location wasn't used in the TV series, but it's just past the church on Center Street. As you can see from the signs in this picture and the previous one, Piru Elementary School is between the two. On the right is the La Verne Nursery, although the camera angle never really shows it. In real life, Boss Hogg's ice cream truck would be heading for a dead end as Center Street only continues for a couple of hundred yards past this point.

Today's posts take me somewhere I hadn't planned to go: 'The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning'. I've only seen it once before, and that was when it was first shown on TV. I'd assumed that it had nothing to do with the TV show except for getting the car right, but then I saw the trailer on the 'Reunion' DVD and realized that it shared a couple of filming locations. I apologize for the more-blurry-than-normal images - they're taken from a TV recording rather than the usual DVDs. I'll start with a location about 30 yards from where the TV series was filmed. This is the entrance to Boss Hogg's mansion, although the mansion itself was filmed elsewhere. The road on the other side of the gate is West Potrero Road, which did appear on the TV show. Here's a better view of the gate, which I'm pretty sure was fitted for the movie (there's a different one there now, anyway). This house is actually next door to the one I featured recently in the Valencia Oaks Movie Ranch thread (see 2nd, 3rd and 4th pictures - it was in the 'Knight Rider' episode that also featured the TV Duke Farm and Boar's Nest). Coincidentally, that house also appeared in last night's 'Murder She Wrote', a 1986 episode that featured Hughie Hogg's genie, Katherine Moffat. Unsurprisingly, West Potrero Road hasn't changed much since the movie, as you can see here (spin to the left to see the current gates). According to the dialog, the General got onto two wheels by Bo and Luke leaning over - need I say more about the script?! I'll finish my West Potrero Road pictures with this shot which shows the familiar white fencing that featured in many episodes of the TV series.

darkening