<p>Yee-haw! Put on your Daisy Dukes, slide across the car hood and climb into the General Lee _ the good 'ol boys are back.</p><p>Hundreds of "The Dukes of Hazzard" fans gathered Saturday for the two-day DukesFest 2004 to meet some of the cast, look at nearly 50 General Lees, watch stuntmen jump cars and listen to country music.</p><p>The festival, which concludes Sunday, marked the 25th anniversary of the first season of the popular TV show, and drew people from as far away as Ireland, France and Australia.</p><p>Ben Jones, who played Cooter the mechanic, organized the first DukesFest in 2001 in Sperryville, Va., but the celebration outgrew the site and moved to the grounds of the Bristol Motor Speedway this year.</p><p>"We love our fans as much as they love us," said Catherine Bach, who played the voluptuous Daisy Duke.</p><p>Bach, now 50 but still with long brown hair, was wearing a low-cut pink sun dress _ not her famous short shorts.</p><p>Fans lined up for more than two hours to have Bach sign posters, T-shirts and other Dukes paraphernalia and have their pictures taken with her.</p><p>John Schneider and Tom Wopat, who played Bo and Luke Duke, were not able to attend because they were performing elsewhere.</p><p>The show first aired from 1979 to 1985 on CBS, ranking No. 1 for its time slot during six seasons.</p><p>While critics weren't thrilled with the show, fans loved to watch Bo and Luke outrun Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane and his deputies by jumping their orange 1969 Dodge Charger across creeks and off dirt ramps. They were the good guys, outwitting the corrupt Boss Hogg.</p><p>Warner Brothers released a DVD of the first season earlier this year, providing a younger generation a chance to see the show for the first time.</p><p>Camera crews from Warner Brothers were filming footage for the second season DVD and the upcoming movie remake of the show that's still in the preproduction stage.</p><p>"The show continues to be beloved. It's a positive part of Americana," said Jones, a former Georgia congressman. "Our show doesn't age. Each generation seems to discover it."</p><p>Aside from Bach and Jones, the other characters in attendance were Rosco (James Best), deputy Cletus (Rick Hurst) and deputy Enos (Sonny Stroyer). Sorrell Booke, who played Boss Hogg, and Denver Pyle, who played Uncle Jesse, are deceased.</p><p>Some of the stuntmen attended, including Corey Eubanks, who recently did driving stunts for "2 Fast, 2 Furious" and "Starsky and Hutch." Eubanks was planning to attempt a world-record jump in a General Lee at the festival.</p><p>Country singer Waylon Jennings also was an integral part of the show as the balladeer. He sang the theme "Good 'Ol Boys" and narrated, often telling the audience to not leave before commercial breaks.</p><p>The show's other star was the General Lee, considered the No. 1 car in television and movies by Hagerty Insurance, which specializes in collector car insurance. The show used a total of 317 General Lees for stunts.</p><p>Elaine Fallon and Leslie Harvey of Ireland were attending their second DukesFest and believe they will have the only General Lee in their country. They bought a Charger in Los Angeles and were having it shipped home.</p><p>"The car, the people, everything," Harvey, 29, said when asked why he liked the show.</p><p>Nearly 50 replicas and a few of the original General Lees were lined up across from the NASCAR track, and many had horns that played "Dixie" just like the Dukes' car.</p><p>Rick and Paula Jablonski of Masury, Ohio, displayed one of the 17 original General Lees left from the show.</p><p>"We always liked watching the show and my brother always wanted to build one," said Rick Jablonski, who co-owns the car with his brother.</p><p>Even though Schneider didn't attend, many fans did a double-take when they saw Jon Holland standing beside his General Lee. Holland, 25, looked almost exactly like Bo Duke _ with bleached blonde curly hair and was wearing '70s-vintage blue jeans and a yellow shirt.</p><p>"It's just the South. I just love the show," said 36-year-old Lisa Roberts of Bristol, who was standing in the long line to meet Bach. "It was clean fun _ something we could watch and our parents not click it off."</p>
