Tour of Hazzard County at Warner Bros. Studios

Well, Comic-Con is over.  David Hasselhoff went home.  There are no more lines for Hall H.  Sara and I sold the last Con exclusive FUBAR and all of the Teddy and the Yeti trading cards.  Jeff is no longer ditching us at the Wagon Wheel Comics booth while he schmoozes with editors, artists, and industry insiders.  Normally, that might be a sad thing.  But I had something to look forward to after the last book was sold.  The day after SDCC I headed to Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA and took a tour of Hazzard County.

I made some phone calls a few weeks ago about getting a VIP tour with a Dukes of Hazzard theme to it.  The folks at WB did not disappoint.  They give tours everyday, but when I brought this here blog to their attention, they rolled out the red, no, make that the orange carpet.

Our tour guide was Joshua and he was a fellow Dukes fan.  They gave him this particular gig because of his love and knowledge of the Dukes.  He did a great job. 

The first stop on the tour was Avenue A Building 41,  maybe my favorite building on any avenue in the world.  Inside was the only screen- used General Lee that WB still owns.  Needless to say I took quite a few pictures of it. 

Here is the display board in front of the General.  

The General is still sporting the movie uniform.  It has the different "G" in General Lee, the passenger side mirror, and the funky interior they used in the movie that included a CD player.  The flag is covered on this General.  People taking the tour who don't know the history of the show and the goodness it stands for might be offended. 

I took a picture with this same General Lee back in '05 at the movie premiere.

Also in Building 41 were the Mystery Machine, Weasley's flying car, a Keaton Batmobile (I sure saw a lot of Batmobiles this week) and a Nerd Herder from Chuck.  Speaking of Chuck, I met Zachery Levi at the Con.  More on that later.  

Any one know what this crazy motorcycle is from?

Here is one more picture of me touching the General.

As much as I didn't want to leave building 41, there were other sites to see.  The next stop was the prop house.  Because they knew I was coming, they pulled out a relic from the bowels of the prop collection.  

They had the stunt Flash stuffed dog ready for me.  This prop was used when they would jump or wreck a Rosco's patrol car.  How cool is it that they held on to it?
  

I had to touch it too.

Joshua also pointed out this huge chandelier that he was told hung in the Boars Nest.  I'll have to do a little research to see if that is correct. 

Next came Hazzard County itself.  It was so cool to be right in front of all the buildings (well, fake buildings) that made up the best fictional county in the world.

Here is the Hazzard Bank.

This is the Hazzard County Courthouse and Sheriff's Office.

Joshua pointed out the bars over the lower level window.  They are kept there as a nod to the Dukes.  How many times has Cooter ripped those off with his tow truck?

Hazzard square looks pretty much the same as it did 30 years ago.

The gazebo isn't currently in the middle of the square.  Right now it is behind the main row of houses.  

Boss Hogg's house is a few houses away from the square.

And who knew the Seaver's house from Growing Pains was right next door to JD and Lulu's house?

A few wooded areas are about 200 feet away from Hazzard square where a lot of General Lee scenes were filmed.  

This was a great trip.  I would recommend the WB tour to anyone, especially Dukes fans.  There were a million other things to see non-Dukes related too.  I have now been to all three Hazzard Counties.  I was in Covington, GA where the first five episodes were filmed.  I was in Baton Rouge, LA for the filming of the movie.  And now I have been to the most recognizable Hazzard of them all.  

I know I promised tons of pictures from the Comic-Con floor.  And I won't disappoint.  I am writing this blog from my returning flight home.  There's a DukesCollector first---a blog from a plane.  In the next few days I'll post all the crazy pictures and stories that came from SDCC 2012.