68 and 69 quantities used in DOH

[Ghoste]

It was mentioned in another thread about DOH estimated as using more 68's than 69's for the series and it made me curious if there were exact numbers known?  Did WB track them that closely in the day or just sort of rush through?

[MaximRecoil]

Wayne Wooten has a VIN list given to him by Warner Bros. for, I think, 229 of them. If I remember right, it was Wayne that said that a little over half of them were '68s (but don't quote me on that).

By the way, I talked to Wayne on the phone last year for about an hour, and he doesn't believe the claim put forward by Ben Jones ("Cooter Davenport") and others that over 300 Chargers were destroyed on the show. He thinks that it was closer to 200. He said that he has argued with Ben Jones more than once about it.

[Ghoste]

That's interesting too, did he tell you why he felt that?

[Baldwinvette77]

well kinda makes sense, there were more made 

i also read somewhere that not EVERY car was immediately destroyed, if it still ran, they would jump it again for another shot

[MaximRecoil]

That's interesting too, did he tell you why he felt that?

Yes, but it is hard to summarize his reasoning because it was mostly statistics. He said something along the lines of:

"In the first (insert X number) of seasons they destroyed (insert X number) of Chargers, and in the last (insert X number) of seasons, they only destroyed (insert X number) of Chargers, which means they would have had to destroy (insert an outrageously high amount of Chargers in an outrageously small amount of episodes) in order to reach 309 Chargers, so I say to those guys, show me where those extra hundred Chargers were destroyed."

[Dino]

I say we all now how easy it is to 'up' the numbers a bit (estimated HP anyone?) so I can see where the 300 number might be a bit exaggerated. 

[Mike DC]

     
The Charger wreck numbers are probably way inflated.  The first car supplier in Cali was responsible for a great portion of the "official" total, and that supplier was caught giving WB back previously wrecked cars that were supposed to have been scrapped.

Forgetting how many GLs were built, forgetting how many were straightened & smashed multiple times - just counting the number of times in the footage when a Charger gets wiped out - I see about 100-120 dead cars.  



The Chargers weren't really even the majority of the cars the TV series killed.  The number of totaled cop cars & other vehicles all added together was several times the Charger number.

[JB400]

What about the Chargers destroyed by stunts gone wrong?  I'm sure they didn't get the stunts right the first time, every time.

[MaximRecoil]

What about the Chargers destroyed by stunts gone wrong?  I'm sure they didn't get the stunts right the first time, every time.

There's usable footage even from stunts gone wrong. There are various jumps that you can see are going to have a bad landing, some of them are about to land sideways on the door, fender, and quarter panel. In such cases they simply cut to an interior shot in the studio buck showing the actors faking a landing (similar to the "Shatner shuffle" that they did on Star Trek when the ship was under fire), or they cut to a good, soft landing from a different, smaller jump.

Also, when trying to determine how many Chargers got wrecked, you not only have to watch every episode (though you can pretty much skip season 7, because — with possibly 1 or 2 exceptions — every General Lee jump in that season is with a scale model or stock footage), but you need to have a good memory too, because they started reusing old footage of jumps as early as season 2, and they did it more frequently as time went on.

[darkside]

I  also saw a show were ben jones "cooter" said 309 cars were used.

[Baldwinvette77]

When i was a kid i thought they used 1 car, and just kept repairing it, and unless someone can show me the exact number, im sticking with that belief 

[Mike DC]

There's usable footage even from stunts gone wrong. There are various jumps that you can see are going to have a bad landing, some of them are about to land sideways on the door, fender, and quarter panel. In such cases they simply cut to an interior shot in the studio buck showing the actors faking a landing (similar to the "Shatner shuffle" that they did on Star Trek when the ship was under fire), or they cut to a good, soft landing from a different, smaller jump.

Also, when trying to determine how many Chargers got wrecked, you not only have to watch every episode (though you can pretty much skip season 7, because — with possibly 1 or 2 exceptions — every General Lee jump in that season is with a scale model or stock footage), but you need to have a good memory too, because they started reusing old footage of jumps as early as season 2, and they did it more frequently as time went on.

I once asked one of the stunt guys if there were a lot of jumps that didn't make it into the episodes, and he said it wasn't too many.  The vast majority got used even if they didn't look perfect.

When adding things up years ago, I came out thinking the jumps were re-used footage about half the time.  It's inconsistent in regards to which jumps though, some were used 3 or 4 times and others only once.

----------------------------------------------

When i was a kid i thought they used 1 car, and just kept repairing it, and unless someone can show me the exact number, im sticking with that belief  lol

Umm, I hate to break it to you, but . . . 

[Cooter]

So this means every time I hear some low info. Sheeple referring to how many Chargers were destroyed by DOH, and how they can't find one now because of this, they really deserve the ole  

[Mike DC]

 
Yeah it really is a crazy argument when you realize the number they wrecked wasn't quite so huge. 

The number of fan-made GL restos (not just paintjobs, but full-blown resurrections of basket case cars) has gotta be several times higher than the TV show ever wrecked.



I like to point out how may Chargers were wrecked in auto racing during the 1960s-70s.  It was wrecking cars just for the entertainment value, cheaply staged, to be quickly forgotten - sound familiar?

[tan top]

Wayne Wooten has a VIN list given to him by Warner Bros. for, I think, 229 of them. If I remember right, it was Wayne that said that a little over half of them were '68s (but don't quote me on that).

By the way, I talked to Wayne on the phone last year for about an hour, and he doesn't believe the claim put forward by Ben Jones ("Cooter Davenport") and others that over 300 Chargers were destroyed on the show. He thinks that it was closer to 200. He said that he has argued with Ben Jones more than once about it.

wondered if they had records of the WB GL chargers  that were destroyed 

[Dreamcar]

Even if only 69s had been used, the show only used something like 0.4%. (250/75000).  I sure the show was responsible for saving more chargers than it destroyed.