NYTimes: In 'Duster,' the Cars Are in the Driver's Seat

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/arts/television/duster-max.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HE8.FPAF.E1SQPxT_GqTJ&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Excerpt:

Ted Moser would love to say that no muscle cars were harmed in the making of “Duster,” a new series from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, premiering on Max on Thursday. But Moser, the picture car coordinator for the show, knows better.

A homage to 1970s series like ”The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Starsky and Hutch,” “Duster” cruises around with Jim, played by Josh Holloway, a driver for a Phoenix mob boss. The show is set in 1972, when the cars were wide, the engines were big and the seatbelts were mostly decorative.

Cars play a role in nearly any period piece set in the last century or so. But in “Duster,” which derives its name from a fastback Plymouth coupe with a logo inspired by the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, they are very much the stars. Four different vehicles play the title car and scores of other makes and models are sprinkled throughout the series. Moser and teams of mechanics and scenic artists source these cars, then restore, modify and in many cases wing, ding and faux-rust them until they are period appropriate. A few are subsequently crashed, even totaled.

“Yeah,” Moser said in a recent phone interview, “that always makes me sad.”

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