would the '69 charger be an icon if there was no DOH?

[cavemanno1]

would it be as populas and well know as it is today if they never made the DOH?i know i wouldn't know the car if it wasn't for the show!not an other dukes topic just wanna know what you think!would be more left around and cheaper to buy or people would leave them to rott!

[Brock Samson]

The message body was left empty

[PrisonHack]

  I don't think they would be near as popular. I probably wouldn't even know/care what a charger was if it wasn't for the DOH.

[cavemanno1]

nop,its not about the dukes,there are more than enough topics about that!

[bull]

Oh jeez. This guy's giving Richard Cranium a run for his money.

[stripedelete]

Not one reply to the attached thread said the equivalent to, "My attraction to the Charger was via DOH only and therefore I would have never have been a Mopar fan."  In other words, if DOH was such agreat influence, wouldn't there have been more answers along that line? 
So one could answer "yes" to your question and sight the thread as empirical data. (does that make sense or am I taking a leap in logic and should just have another beer?)

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,80138.0.html

I would say "yes", I considered it iconic before DOH. 

[resq302]

Actually for me, I fell in love with the car (general lee) by watching the TV show.  As I got older, I was drawn more to the body lines than actually what the general lee was.  Granted, it was an iconic "character" of the show and every general lee is a "1969" Dodge Charger, but not every 1969 Dodge charger is a general lee!

[jb666]

Oh here we go again.....

Where's Richard, I'll grab my ankles 

[greenpigs]

It is the search function go ahead and try it.

[Brock Lee]

I think it should be the other way around. The quality of that program was so atrocious, the Charger redeemed it (barely). Had they gone with anything else, I feel that show might have lasted 2 seasons and been long forgotten about.

[JT01]

Im a huge Dukes fan and Charger fan but I think it depends on the age group. Some of the older guys that was around when these 69s was new and seen them all the time will say no people around my age 38 when the show came on may say yes because I never seen a 69 till the show and only seen 2 69 Chargers in person until the mid 90s when I started going to mopar events. I think the Dukes helped some but if there was no Dukes the 69 is one of the alltime best looking muscle cars.

[freddyd02]

The 68 is an icon and has been used in many films.. So even if there was no DOH the 69 still would have been used in movies and tv shows and still be as popular as it is today.. its even drawn in the cartoon "Venture Bros" on cartoon network.. the badass body guard drives one.

[freddyd02]

And his name is "Brock Samson" too 

[Back N Black]

The Dukes did not do it for me, even at 12 years old the DOH was too cheesy for me.

[Tilar]

I wanted a 68 Charger before Bo and Luke ever went through puberty.

[terrible one]

I never watched the Dukes until AFTER I got my Charger. It was Bullitt that did it for me. Granted that was a '68, even better 

[Sabre]

Actually for me, I fell in love with the car (general lee) by watching the TV show.  As I got older, I was drawn more to the body lines than actually what the general lee was.  Granted, it was an iconic "character" of the show and every general lee is a "1969" Dodge Charger, but not every 1969 Dodge charger is a general lee!

Same for me, the show introduced me to the second generation Charger.  It was that show and that car that made me look for Charger (toys) when I was a kid, Chargers in other shows, and movies.  I wanted anything and everything about Chargers because of that show and the General Lee. 

[az69rtcharger]

I had my Charger before the DOH, for me it was seeing it in Bullet then again in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, so I bought my first 69 Charger in 1976, to me I always hated it when people would say Hey its a "Dukes of Hazard Car" I hated the DOH show when it came out, it stereotyped Chargers and Charger owners as being "Hicks" and "Red Necks"

[Ghoste]

Would it be?  It was already iconic BEFORE that show.

[HeavyFuel]

Probably more so.

It's like asking if Clint Eastwood would be an icon without "Any Which Way But Loose?"

[SFRT]

It would be for me. I dont think I have ever seen an episode of that stupid show. The Charger for me has always been the ultimate american musclecar design.

[Piston_Freddy]

I dont think I have ever seen an episode of that stupid show.

[Mike DC]

   
DOH's producers chose the Charger in 1978 because it was already iconic. 

[cavemanno1]

i was born in '79 and 10000 miles from you guys!i guess it comes down to an age group and country then!i didn't know it was already an icon and seeing all the general lee clones i thought that the show made it well known!either you like the show or not you can't deny its influense!like everything else its got a good and bad side as well!wrecking all those cars was a crime even more so they were already an iconic make!

[Kern Dog]

People that didnt like the Dukes show MUST have the sense of humor of a rock.  I hate dealing with people that are serious all of the time. Store clerks, waitstaff, DMV employees. These flatliners must have very little joy in their lives. If not the Dukes slapstick humor, what then? I find Monty Python type stuff annoying, but I dont insult it. Maybe the serious types have no control of what they find funny. That is very sad for them.

The original topic? No, the car certainly IS more popular because of the show. 147 episodes, 2 TV movies , one large scale Hollywood movie and maybe a couple more that went straight to video.... The car was and IS as popular as it is because of the show. It is a great car on its own merit, but the Dukes gave it worldwide exposure.