The good ol’ boys were determined to protect Catherine Bach and her Daisy Dukes.
“The Dukes of Hazzard” stars John Schneider and Tom Wopat, as well as Bach, recently reunited to celebrate the show’s iconic vehicle, the General Lee, which is being honored at the “Iconic Rides” exhibit at the Hollywood Museum. The series, which chronicled “the adventures of the fast-drivin’, rubber-burnin’ Duke boys of Hazzard County,” aired from 1979 to 1985.
“It never occurred to us that we weren’t going to be friends for life,” Schneider, who played Bo Duke, told Fox News Digital.
“I’ve met other people from other shows, and particularly other bands… there’s a lot of bands that can’t stand one another,” said the actor and musician. “I couldn’t imagine a life without Tom Wopat being one of my best friends, without Catherine Bach being one of my best friends. It couldn’t possibly exist.”
When the sitcom first premiered, then-CBS programming chief B. Donald Grant found himself squaring off with a roomful of TV critics who hated it, The Hollywood Reporter shared. Still, the show won over millions of fans, drawing in as many as 20 million viewers per episode. According to the outlet, it had become the second-biggest show on TV by its third season.
“The Dukes of Hazzard” catapulted the trio to stardom, especially Bach, whose short shorts made her a sex symbol. Schneider said the cast became incredibly close, and while fans watched her million-dollar legs, he and Wopat watched her back.
WATCH: ‘DUKES OF HAZZARD’ STAR WAS PROTECTIVE OF SEX SYMBOL PAL CATHERINE BACH
“Tom and I were very protective of Catherine,” said the 65-year-old. “Hollywood in those days, Hollywood in any days, is a little odd, but particularly for a young woman in her 20s who had her legs insured for a million dollars.
“So, we would make sure whenever Catherine had a visitor on set, someone she might be dating, we’d come up to them like you would imagine Bo and Luke [Duke] would come up. ‘Hey, how are you? What are you doing? We work early tomorrow, so you got to have her in by 9 o’clock tonight.’”
“We were terrible to these people,” Schneider chuckled. “But Cathy would do the same thing. Catherine has done that to me my whole life. I still do it with her. But that’s what people who love each other and respect each other do — you protect one another.”
Bach previously told Fox News Digital that she was never romantically involved with her co-stars.
“Let me say this — as much as those guys were the most charming, sexiest friends and men on the planet and women all over just adored them — they were really like my brothers,” she said. “As much as I appreciate them, there’s no way I would be, as you say, hooking up with them. Just look at your brother or whoever is really close to you and go, ‘Can I do this?’ It’s a no.”
Schneider said he became fast friends with Wopat and Bach, a friendship that remains strong today.
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“My relationship with Tom and Catherine has been wonderful,” he said. “One of the things people have mentioned now for four and a half decades is how realistic the friendship is between Bo, Luke and Daisy, how believable it is that we all love, honor and protect one another.”
“Well, that started from the very beginning,” he shared. “I’m not sure why, but especially Tom and I… Tom and I both carried a guitar around. We were often seen playing songs we’d written or great songs from our era. I think that the music joined us together.”
“But also, the work, the five days a week, 12 hours a day, 10 months a year — it would be really bad to not get along with people you spend that much time with,” he added.
Schneider was 18 years old and fresh out of high school when he joined “The Dukes of Hazzard.” It was two years after Burt Reynolds and Sally Field starred in the box office hit, “Smokey and the Bandit.”
“Navigating fame at 18 years old was quite a trick,” Schneider admitted. “… If it weren’t for the amazing actor Denver Pyle, who played my Uncle Jesse, I think I probably would’ve crashed and burned early on. He had done multiple television shows, and he was my mentor, my role model, and I didn’t want to disappoint him.”
“I had a wonderful youth,” he clarified. “I’m not saying I [didn’t have] a great time, but I didn’t come off the rails. And I’m crediting Denver Pyle for that… Denver Pyle is absolutely the No. 1 reason why I’m still here.”
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, annual fan conventions have been known to draw over 100,000 spectators. But despite the show’s enduring popularity, it didn’t remain scandal-free.
In 2015, TV Land, the only network airing the series at the time, took it off the air amid controversy over portrayals of the Confederate flag, which is viewed by many as a slave-era hate symbol, the outlet reported.
Reuters also reported fans took to social media to express frustration over the network’s decision. A Change.org petition to bring the show back had over 1,800 supporters.
In 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter movement, there was renewed fervor over the use of the flag, which is painted on the roof of the boys’ ride, the General Lee. The fictional Duke family resides in Georgia.
“I think in 2020, there was a group of people that took offense to everything,” said Schneider. “… They were just looking to have a problem with something. I think everything is safe from cancel culture right now. I think we’ve entered into the time of common sense. ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ is a wonderful family show that never had a racist bone in its body, in its writing or its production.”
“I think what happened is, maybe some of the people who hadn’t done any research… took this nonsensical complaint at face value,” he continued. “I think now they’ve seen the show, and they’ve said, ‘Wait a minute, this is great. This is fun. This is a community. This is family. We want more of this, not less.’ I think that is evidenced by the Hollywood Museum right now by their beautiful exhibit. They wouldn’t have done it if that was still prevalent.”
Schneider said there’s a good reason why “The Dukes of Hazzard” has had a loyal following over the years.
“I think the legacy of ‘Dukes’ is that the most important thing that we have is community,” he shared. “That’s a lesson that Uncle Jesse would teach us… I’ve had so many parents and grandparents come to me and say this was the show that helped raise their children. I think that’s important.
“Some shows are fun, some shows are exciting. Some shows are like “Little House on the Prairie’ that teach wonderful lessons. But… very few shows were all of that. ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ was all of that, plus fast cars and jumping over the creek.”