GOOD OLE MEMORIES
JOHN SCHNEIDER AND TOM WOPAT ON CHASING CARS, HANGING WITH COUNTRY STARS AND DATING THEIR TV COUSIN DAISY (OR DID THEY?)
Fans of The Dukes of Hazzard often ask stars John Schneider and Tom Wopat two questions: How many cars did they wreck, and did they ever date Catherine Bach, who played their short-shorts-wearing cousin, Daisy? “As for me, the answer is 329 and no,” John tells Closer. “As for Tom, the answer is a lot of cars and no comment.” Protests Tom with a laugh, “Hey, don’t imply anything!”
It was this kind of knockabout chemistry that kept Dukes on the air for seven seasons starting in 1979. As the rascally Duke brothers, Bo and Luke — who were constantly evading the grasp of the evil pol Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) — John and Tom became superstars and best friends. “My favorite memories were sitting in the car with John,” says Tom. We would sing and carry on, and we had a blast.” Agrees John, “Telling jokes and lamenting our current relationships was really quite wonderful.”
Fans felt the same way, gathering around their TVs every Friday night to watch the CBS smash. “It was transgenerational,” says Tom. “Everybody could watch it and enthat.” joy it, and there are few shows like Adds John, “Grandparents, parents and children ate popcorn and hamburgers off their Dukes of Hazzard TV trays — it was really a unifying part of their history.”
Those traditions continue to this day. “I still see it now,” says John. “People sit and watch it on Amazon Prime or DVDs with their little 4-year-olds in 2019. It’s not one of those shows like Barney where you shove your kids away.”
John and Tom have remained close. They’ll kick off the Good Ole Boys Tour, a car show and concert, on April 13 in Bakersfield, Calif. And they’ve kept in touch with their surviving co-stars as well. “We talk to Catherine quite a bit,” says John, who adds that he’s also in contact with Ben Jones (Cooter), Sonny Shroyer (Enos) and Rick Hurst (Cletus). He’s even friendly with Byron Cherry, who along with Christopher Mayer stepped in for John and Tom for 19 episodes while they were in a contract dispute starting in 1982.
“That was self-inflicted damage,” says Tom of the squabble, which involved profits from Dukes-related merchandise. As John remembers, “It was a dispute over math. All we wanted was accurate accounting.”
PUT UP YOUR DUKES
When the show had finally run its course after 147 episodes in 1985, “I don’t know if I really believed it was the end,” says John, who directed the finale. “It had been such a part of my life from when I was 18 to 25.”
As it turned out, that wasn’t really the end. John and Tom have come back together for Dukes TV movies, reunion shows and events like their upcoming tour. “We both moved on, and we both stayed together at the same time,” says Tom.
While their good-ole-boy images from the show may have typecast them at times, the stars have no regrets. “It built up huge walls, but it also made it so we could afford a ladder and a nice pair of climbing shoes,” says John. “We both have continued to embrace the show.”
After all, as Tom says, “It gave me one of my best friends. That means a lot to me.”
“It was a lot of fun. We made 12-hour days seem 12 minutes
long.”
— John, to Closer