I was just telling my girlfriend one of my favorite episodes of Married With Children was, when Al took the car to the same car wash that (I think if memory serves me), Jefferson works at, and they "lose his car"!! They didn't really "lose it" but the car was so filthy when it went into the car wash it was brown, and when it came out of the other side it was Red again.......and Al forgot what color the car was, because he, Al, hadn't washed it in so long the color of the car had changed over the years!! I was literally howling at that episode!!!!
I had a 71 Duster, dog turd brown with‘houndstooth vinyl top and bench seats. Ugly as hell and wouldn’t start in the rain,or if I washed it because of the ceramic Balist resistor on the firewall getting wet. Had three different ones with quick connections to change them out so I could drive the damn thing. Paid $400 in 1982 for that ugly dog.
I thought they had traded in his car for something else, and the dealership said there was an issue with the paperwork because it was registered as brown, but when they washed it, it came back as red. Maybe both things happened, but at different times in the series.
Great choice, thanks for the upload! My favorite TV-series. Couldn't be done today anymore. Al Bundy: The man, the legend. Four touchdowns in one game! I remember the episode where he could have won a brandnew Dodge Viper. As usual he failed. He has a bottom-line stock engine, never noticed that. Well, fits his character. And for sure one of the exisiting cars is somewhere on the road, trying to get the 2nd million miles to finally win the Viper 😄
My favorite episode involving the 'Dodge' was when they drove out west and ended up at the old gold mining town. The characters in the town insinuated that it was a fancy car, lol. I recall a funny quote from that episode (it may have been a 2-part episode): "Dodge is a damn fine car. Ran over my wife with a Dodge."
It also came back on the Horizon based 3 door hatch in the 80's, it was the car featured in the now infamous "cocaine factory" Plymouth commercial from 1985.
In the first season, both Al and Peg had their own cars. In one episode, Al gifted Peg with a radio for her car, which he took from his own car. Al’s “Dodge” wasn’t regularly referred to until about the third season.
My neighbor had creamy yellow Dusters in the 1970’s. He would wreck one, push it down the driveway, and go out & buy another. He ended up with 3 of them.
What a great video! As a 35 year Duster owner, I really enjoyed it. I have the AMT model as well but mine is getting tubbed. The real car is in the garage with a 440 in it.
OMG! It sucks that I'm at work and can't watch this till later but wanted to shout out how much YOU ROCK! Al Bundy is The GOAT! The only thing I never got about the show is how Al could have such a hot wife and not be interested in her! 😆
I remember the car switched to red after Al took it to the car wash ( season 9 episode 16) the whole episode was about the car wash losing the car and all the confusion was caused by the car coming out of the wash a totally different color and Al saying "hey, come to think of it, I do remember buying a red dodge"
Remember Kelly was a bright, brainy little girl until Al slammed on the brakes, causing Kelly to hit her head on the front seat. "Shinny, shinny shoes."
My dad had a 1972 Plymouth Duster that looked a lot like the blue version when I was a little kid in the 80s. I think it had white stripes on the sides and white vinyl top. My siblings and I thought it was a funny coincidence since we also lived in the Chicagoland area when the show was first on.
Being a Mopar fanatic I can add a little more detail to what year or actually years Al's dodge is. The car body is a 70 to 72 that was used mostly, the blue one at 4:10 was a 73 up, you can tell the 70 to 72 by the slit taillights, 73 and up used a large rectangular one with chrome trim around it on each side. How to tell what year they used is in the details, when they introduced the duster it was actually called a valiant duster, Chrysler was worried people would think the duster wasn't an economy car so they tacked on the valiant name which was originally a economy car introduced in 1960. They put a small rectangular badge on the fenders that said valiant , you can see at 3:43 on the fender of the bronze with black roof, that badge was only on the 70 model. For the difference from 71 to 72 is the side marker lights. 70-71 had flush side marker lights as seen on the purple one at 5:36. For 72 Chrysler for cost cutting reason used a universal parts bin looking marker light that stuck out on all dodges and Plymouths regardless of model, you can see them on the red one at 5:25. Finally is the front grill and bumper, it is made up of a hodge podge of years, the center section is a 70 to 72 piece, the headlight bezels are 73 and up and the actually only dodge part is the bumper that has the point on it, it is a dart sport bumper from 73 and up, the dart sport is what they renamed the demon because of religious groups protested the name demon. The blue one I mentioned above is a completely stock 73 and up, the front grill and bumper give it away. As for the duster name, as a commenter mentioned above it was used on the sundance in the 90 to 94 years when they discontinued it for the neon, but they also put it on the last few years 79 to 80 of the Volare which replaced the duster after 76. Once again an excellent video full of details most people don't know and a few I didn't.
No brakes! No brakes! One of the best lines.. I used it when I got a broken brake line in my jeep years ago. Also Larry storch and his dodge.. anybody wanna buy a dodge? 1 owner, 1 gear, one dollar..
Al almost replaced the Duster with a black 5.0 LX Mustang convertible one episode but Peg stole most of his down payment from the box he had buried in the yard. He goes through a succession of even worse used cars, a Pacer first then a Gremlin before ending up with the same Duster repainted gold.
@@CarStarz42 Ah, good, now I get it. Because that did not seem like something a shoe salesman who drove a clapped out Duster, in the 1980s when they were not even cool, would have! 😆
I once bought an orange VW Karman Ghia. I compounded it and it was actually fire engine red. I'd known the guy it was bought from for years and always thought it was orange. 😊
I had three Dusters over the years, two 72s and one 73. My senior project in high school was centered around my 72 Duster. They were very light cars, and we're easy to make quick. Though they have become collectible, if you pay $40k for one you paid $25-30k too much regardless of condition lol. They're still not worth as much as other mopars.
Back in the 80's I worked at a garage where we had a customer that was an old lady that would bring in an original low mileage Feather Duster, several of my drag racing buddies were after me to get her to sell it but it's like I told them I wasn't about to go bugging some old woman to sell a car that belonged to her dead husband originally, they'd have just taken out the original engine and chopped stuff up turning it into a drag car anyway and as nice as it was I wanted to see it stay original.
@@bostonrailfan2427 They only made those Feather Duster's for a year or two, they were a little late offering them and the 73 oil shortage from OPEC's embargo was fading into people's memories already so there weren't that many of them sold, 12 years later in the late 80's to be looking at a pristine example of something like that I didn't want to see it get chopped up when those guy's had their choice of thousands of regular Dusters and Darts that polluted the countryside back then and were ragged out which is something that's OK for doing something like that to, go pick on them why ruin something rare that's in pristine condition, it's not like they couldn't buy fiberglass hoods and trunklids which was what they made out of aluminum on those cars. Dodge had a similar model that was lightened up the same way but I can't remember the name of them at the moment, but like Feather Duster it was a catchy name, they were rare cars back in those days and are virtually non existent now.
@@CarStarz42 okay so after looking into it a bit the case would seem to be that it’s another Franken-car as some articles claim it’s a 1979 with a lift while others say it’s a 1977 Highboy. One thing is for sure there’s no shortage of movie cars. Even mundane ones that don’t do stunts or chases
The slant sixes horsepower figure may well have been quoted as just over 100 horsepower, but that would be net horsepower, not the pre 1973 gross horsepower rating which would be 145 HP ,which still doesn't sound like a lot ,but they made up for that by being good and torquey, good enough for even the largest Chrysler cars , tow trucks, and other heavy duty applications.
You mean the old "Slant Sick"? 😅 Actually car manufacturers use a method of rating horsepower that's deceiving. The method used fir electric or steam engines is more accurate. If an electric motor was calculated by the automotive method it would exactly double. So to be realistic whatever the car maker rates his engine at should be halfef to get the real world usable horses.😮
@@SquirminHermanthe1eyedGerman Yes, and these days most of the performance parts for them come from Australia it would seem, a manufacturer called Aussiespeed.
Speaking of the year of the car, it's funny when he takes out an ad in the paper to sell his "Dodge" of indeterminate year, forced to sell by wife, also of indeterminate year, from the Viper episode
@@CarStarz42 yes, very funny, doesn't get the car, gets a car phone as a consolation prize, tries driving for another million miles, calls family with his new car phone from "Burnt Scrotum, New Mexico", classic! Cool fun facts video, thanks for sharing!
Great episode. I remember when the car jumped from dull to shining, Plus that odd episode when it was blue. Hotwheels do a 1/64 version but it's a bit of a hotrod/dragster.
this is very ironic, i have been watching this show going to bed for a long time now and i always wanted to look up more info about Al's Dodge and now this Video was just put up, pretty funny, great video thank you.
I had a soft spot in my heart for Al's Duster. My first car was a '71. 😎 And yes, it was a piece of junk... I had to rig a piece of wire coat hanger to keep the ignition switch on and hopenit didnt fall out while driving.
I had a 75 that had a "Three on the tree", the column part of the shifter screwed up so I pulled the carpet back at the tranny hump and poked two holes in the floor with a torch above where the left side of the tranny is and then custom bent each of the rods so they stuck up through the floor, it was a trick shifting it because one rod had to be pushed down for 1st gear, then when you went to shift to 2nd you had to get the first rod into neutral then grab the other one and get it into 2nd before you slowed down too much and had to start over again, I live in a hilly area and had to learn how to do it without even looking, people that'd ride in the car with me would be in hysterics watching me shift it. And of course the interior had that 70's Chrysler smell unique to those cars.
I'm half tempted to turn one of my Plymouth Duster Hot Wheels into Al's Dodge. I believe I have everything including a set of 1/64 scale wheels with hubcaps. I have a everything to make my own hood. If I can turn a Johnny Lightning Zinger Daytona Charger into a Joe Dirt Daytona, Al's Dodge should be a piece of cake ( though we all know Buck would eat it before anyone could get to it lol)
@@CarStarz42 I couldn't find a good Road House 65 Riviera so I turned a Hot Wheels art car version into a fairly decent version to go with the Mercedes Benz I picked up
The couple eggs that I still remember from the show back when I was young was Al getting the car washed it went into the car wash Brown and at the end of the episode when he picks the car up from the car wash the car is bright shiny red and he was confused whether or not it was his car. I still remember that. Another Charming gag was the bit where he traded the car in and later on got another Duster and one of the kids said but it's the same car and he's like no this one's blue and it doesn't have X number of mileage and when he closes the garage door the hood pops open on the car revealing it's Al's car that he previously traded in and somebody had rolled back the odometer and repainted it LOL I never knew it was a franker I just always assumed it was a cheap stock Factory Duster didn't know it was a parts been body swap mix and match. I miss the days of being able to do that. I at one point had a 1972 Jimmy that had Parts on it ranging from the early 1960s to 1989 GM. The engine was out of a 1960s GTO that somebody had obliterated beyond recognition in an accident, transmission was out of a 1980s Firebird pace car, gas tank was off of a 1989 Jimmy, tailgate was off of a 1988 Jimmy, front bumper was off of a 19 73 or 74 Chevy truck, door panels we got off of an 86 or 87 as well as Dash pad was off that one and I think we also used the gauge cluster out of that 86 or 87 I forget what year the steering column was out of that I put in it driver side seat I think was out of an 84 GM the rims were off of a 1980 Something GM van engine Bonnet was off of a 78 truck I forget what year the windshield came out of and the carburetor was ironically still in the box New Old Stock from the 1970s. Imagine doing that nowadays LOL most Vehicles they change everything every two or three years and pretty much nothing fits from one to another. GM used to be pretty much anything rear-wheel drive was interchangeable from the 1960s to like 1989 other than weird little quirkiness where they had a few outliers that not all the parts were interchangeable without modifying stuff a lot of I think it was Pontiac didn't directly fit GM without modifying they made a 301 and 307 big block that a lot of the parts didn't fit the GM small block without tweaking or changing stuff I know because I had an 81301 and an 87307 and weirdly enough the 307 was in a Caprice from the US normally the Caprices had a 305 Factory and this one somehow ended up with a big block 307 off the assembly line carburetor was different than the 305 and a few other weird little Oddities transmission fit the 350 small block just fine we use the transmission out of that later on on a 350 LOL. I remember one of my neighbors trying to use a 301 I think it was out of a Firebird or something like that and trying to put it in something else and a lot of stuff didn't bolt up right had to change motor mounts and a bunch of other stuff
@@CarStarz42 GM believe it or not with their rear wheel drive vehicles shared almost the entire drivetrain from 1960 something to 1989 and some of the vehicles continued drivetrain sharing till 2004. The Chevy Cargo Van as an example had the exact same drivetrain from 1960 something till the early 2000s the front clip doors windshield I think from I think was 1974 till 2002 for the cargo van or 2,000 something like that the wheels from the 1960s fit right up till the early 2000s the only thing they changed was the shape of the headlights and at one point it went from carburetor to fuel injected but you could literally yank the fuel injection system and put a carburetor on the engine and everything from that point down was still the same Chev half ton trucks were the same way I think it was 1960 or 1962 till somewhere is in the 1980s they continue the motor and drivetrain where everything was Universal only changes were to do with the grill till they completely switch to a new body style at some point in the late 80s. Caprice Classic the body parts from the 1970 or 1972 bolted up and fit right up into 1989 lol and all the drivetrain fit I think it was 1972 the first year they made that square body Caprice/caprese and a few other that were the exact same car Delta 88 I think was one of them or something like that you could take the doors front clip trunk lid and so on from one and put them on the other you can look up the old Chilson manuals and see just how much of the parts were Universal it's mind-blowing. It made working on the vehicle so much easier pretty much every GM full size rear wheel drive all had the same motor engine and drivetrain same thing with the mid size as long as they were rear wheel drive they were all parts sharing it was when you got into the front wheel drives that everything was a cluster nightmare every couple years everything changed. I miss GM being a reliable basic well built design when they stop doing rear-wheel drive in '89 for the cars their quality control dropped like a lead balloon. It started with the trucks and I think 88 and with the cars in 89 where the quality control just dropped and never came back last decent vehicle GM made was the cargo van 99 or 2002 it was kind of the last hold out of well-built GM vehicles
Darn it! My dad had a buy here,pay here lot in sw,fla in the mid 80s, we sold the hell out of the 70s dusters and darts, most where 500 down 50 a week for a total of 1500 for a nice one, now you can't find parts that cheap, if we only knew back then when they were practically giving old muscle cars away in the late 70s and 80s😮
yeah i remember a 73-74 Challenger was going for 300 dollars. the young man that had it was about 18 had to get rid of it. i think that he got too many tickets and could'nt afford the insurance anymore lol
I still drive my 1970 Plymouth Duster. Never been restored just replace parts as necessary to keep it operational. Although I have replaced the engine, rebuilt the front and rear suspension and the steering system. Also the braking system. Still on the original 904 torqueflight transmission. I do have the original wheel covers.
I sold my yellow 68 Fastback cuda in the mid 90s in North Carolina and along with it went the original hub caps and found the build sheet under the rear seat. Rescued it out of a field where it sat for 14 years with no engine. Its original color was a dark green metallic, but someone had repainted it. I miss that car.
When Al is putting on front plate, (at about 7:25) it's a 73 or early 74 bumper with those big bumper guards. Of course the car grill is of an older Duster.
Great overview! I always used to wonder about "The Dodge" when I watched Married with Children in the 80s and 90s. 🙂 By the way @CarStarz: any chance you might do an episode on the Dodge Charger that was used by Michael Weston's character in the TV Series Burn Notice? I believe it was a 1973 Charger, but as always, not sure if this was car was stock or if it might have been a mod of a different year.
I recall Al having a few different cars on the show not owned but were featured. I remember a 5.0 Covetable Mustang and even a viper on the show . Nice doing a car star that is not a big flashy dream car.
@@crossarmkid42 Thanks I have not watched the show in years I do have all the DVDs just need to get on and watch them.i remember them stuck in trafic in the Mustang messing with all the other people stuck .
I had a Johnny lightning Duster that was supposed to look like a project car. It was bronze with a vinyl top that had tears in the material. I bought it because it looked like Al’s duster.
these dusters would be one of the coolest finds ever, just because theres so little chance of them actually still being out there lol, atleast i personally would go apeshit if i found one or if i even saw one be found, theres just something about a car that isnt supposed to be found being found that gets me very excited, kind of like some hero cars that just got "lost in the crowd" at a junkyard some place
theres that one episode where the bundys go on a trip for labor day and get stuck on the freeway in a traffic jam only the front of the car is seen in that episode it wasnt the duster at all it was a red car not sure what exactly it was but it was something from the bubble look era
Yeah, that was the Ford Mustang that they had for awhile; the one they won in the game show. Remember when Al and Steve were put in the electric chairs?😉
@@GeorgiaRidgerunner Ah, it was one of the most hilarious ones in the series, Season 2 episode 20 if you want to check it out. Guaranteed major laughs! 😉👍
@@CarStarz42 ill see if i can find it i cant believe i dont recall seeing that one as a kid i watched married with children religiously thought id seen all the episodes guess not though right now im rewatching old episodes of unsolved mysteries oh yeah did you ever notice in the dukes tv series cooter tow truck changed at least twice and possibly a third time also did you notice roscos police car wasnt always a dodge monaco EDIT holy crap i did miss that episode peggy really wanted that car
@@GeorgiaRidgerunner Cool. Indeed, that show ran for quite awhile too, so there are a number of changes like that. Lots of vehicles I'd like to cover in that series beyond the Charger😉👍
O'neill does have a private car collection and does own the Plymouth-Dodge. Fir his 8th season Married with Children he recived a Porsche Carrera 4. He also owns Range Rovers, Land Rovers and supposedly collects German cars. Unlike Leno, he doesnt discuss or share his collection with the public. But his garage and collection is supposedly pretty extensive.
Being the MWC nut that I am; I actually sped watched the entire series to get everything I needed for this video to make sure I didn't miss anything 😉👍
Also in one of the episodes when Al was in the garage you can see in the back ground hanging on the wall is a hard to find a Dukes of hazzard bicyle that almost looks like a small dirt bike
Cool, I remember seeing those in catalogs back in the early 90s, they were always sold out wherever you'd try to find them though, so yeah, must have been a quite limited release indeed.
The Dodge Dart, Plymouth Duster, Plymouth Scamp, and Dodge Demon were pretty much all the same, as well as very similar to the Dodge Coronet and Super Bee. I had a Dodge Dart Swinger and a Plymouth Scamp that had the same grill as Al's car, my Swinger had that slant 6 engine, and it had the same hood as the Scamp... but the back was different. Both mine had the concave back window instead of a fastback like Al's.
not just a 1971 but as a Moparian and Duster knownages a 1970 - 76 Plymouth Duster and the long lens tail lamp is a 1972 the brown one got a 1970 year only driver fender that got a Valiant badge on the it. the Duster were a cartoon body shape style for the Mopar A-Bodies.
I believe in one episode Al put the Dodge up for sale. An Asian gentleman came to see it and jokingly said "Dodge! Great American automobile!". Al slammed the front door on him.
Dodge discontinued the Dart back in 2016. They really didn't make that much money from it. Which is probably the primary reason of it's discontinuation.
How about, the Pontiac TransAm in the John Wayne movie" McQ" ,or the 69 Plymouth Belvedere he also drove in it. And maybe Broderick Crawfords Buick in "Highway Patrol".
Dodges version of the Duster a Dart Sport a Dart 2 door was a Swinger a Dart 4 door sedan were also available. The Dart Sport had a pointed steel header panel in front of the hood.😊
The Gremlin starred in three films: Bottle Shock, Looney Tunes-Back In Action, and of course...Gremlins! Watch carefully- it only has very little screen time.
@@CarStarz42 drove millions of miles looking at that iconic dash speedo, gages, never got tired of the speedo with the little tic marking the speed, loved Chryslers dashes miss them
