John Schneider Reflects on a Career That Began 40 Years Ago With ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’

The Road to Hazzard County

He was born John Richard Schneider on April 8, 1960 in Mount Kisco, New York, and found himself drawn to the idea of entertaining others by putting on magic shows at the age of 8. He was only 17 when he found himself cast in the role of Bo Duke — alongside with Tom Wopat and Catherine Bach — on the CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard, which ran from 1979 and 1985. Yet, despite the fact that the show’s last new episode aired nearly 35 years ago, Dukes remain very viable in the hearts of its fans.

“And it’s so totally and wonderfully gratifying,” says John. “In fact, this year at the extravaganza, I was in my car going from thing to thing, but a couple of times when there were just one or two people off walking somewhere, I’d stop and say, ‘Hi,’ and they’d go, ‘Oh, would you sign our General Lee for our 6-year old?’ I’d say, ‘Sure, where is it,’ and they’d say, ‘In the car.’ I had my security team with me — I was feeling all important — and I said, ‘Hop in and show me where you car is.’ So I rode over, her husband walked over there, got their General Lee for their 6-year-old and I signed it for them. It was so great to be a part of a stranger’s life like that, and now they’re not a stranger anymore.”

Why the ‘Dukes’ Endure

“I’ve heard people say why they love the show over and over,” reflects John. “The number one thing they say is, ‘I used to watch that show with my grandparents every Friday night,’ or, next generation, ‘I used to come home from school and I’d watch it with my brother and sister.’ There was a real sense of family for what they used to call appointment television. They ate off of a Dukes of Hazzard TV tray, drank out of a Dukes of Hazzard cup, bought their Dukes of Hazzard lunch boxes and thermoses to school — it was a unifying element of their family just watching the show, because everybody watched it at the same time. That’s something we’ve lost a lot of now, with people just watching whatever they want whenever they want, and, I think, usually alone. Which is kind of sad when you can’t turn to somebody and say, ‘Wasn’t that amazing?’”

A Sense of Community

For John, one of the appeals of The Dukes of Hazzard was the sense of community it embodied. “We had friendships and we knew we needed them,” he says. “We knew that we couldn’t get through the day or the episode without the help of our friends, and that they needed us, too. We felt like we belonged somewhere, and we did. We couldn’t save the orphanage if somebody didn’t stop the police car … like I said, we just needed everybody, and I think we’ve lost a lot of that now, too. We’re in a society now where people sit with their friends and they text other friends they’re going to ignore at the next meal. Honestly, we have everybody at our fingertips and we ignore everyone who’s within our real fingertips a lot of the time. Not all of the time, but if you think about it, it’s much more unusual to see a table of people in a restaurant speaking to one another than it is to see a table in a restaurant where everybody’s got their heads in their damn phone. Even the parents. Shame on them.”

From Hazzard County to ‘Smallville’

During his time on The Dukes of Hazzard, John began a career in country music, signing with the Scotti Brothers label and releasing his first album, Now or Never. In all, he would record 18 albums over the years. He also continued acting in many films, on the stage and on television. Series regular or recurring roles prior to 2001 include Grand Slam, Heaven Help Us, Second Chances, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Veronica’s Closet. Then, in 2001, he was signed for Smallville, playing Jonathan Kent, who, along with Annette O’Toole’s Martha Kent, find and raise young Clark Kent (Tom Welling), guiding him on to his ultimate path as Superman.

“There was more of that sense of family in Smallville,” he notes. “The family needed to stick together to get through the day, through the episode. The fact that I played a guy who had to milk cows or take care of the cows on the farm, was very important and actually helped in making the fact that our teenager could throw the tractor over the barn believable; that our unusual son was really a special needs child from another planet. And somehow it was perfectly believable.”

Providing a Moral Center

There is a tendency to forget that at the core of the Superman character is the moral upbringing that Jonathan and Martha instilled in him that made the difference between the Man of Steel taking over the world and doing what’s right simply because it’s the right thing to do.

“We gave him a conscience,” John muses, “or we fed the one he had, or things could have gone horrifically wrong. The other thing that was so wonderful about Smallville — and Annette, Tom and I really have to take credit for this — is we constantly reminded ourselves that there was no such thing as Superman, so we had no idea where this was going. We hadn’t read the book, we hadn’t seen the television show — Superman did not exist. This was our son, Clark, and in our minds we didn’t know the end from the beginning, because otherwise you take some of the import away from the moral dilemma.

“On the surface, and this is a silly one,” he adds, “but the reason I wouldn’t let him play football for so long is because it wasn’t fair. Not because he was Superman, but because he could kill somebody and he was also ridiculously impervious to pain. He would get unfair lessons about sportsmanship, and that would damage him later. As his powers would emerge, we would talk to one another on the set and say, ‘Okay, is this an ability or a disability? How are we going to treat X-ray vision or heat vision? We need to harness this, whatever it is, for good.’”

Moving On

After five seasons, John left Smallville as Jonathan Kent suffered a fatal heart attack (part of the character’s mythology from the comics), but the departure wasn’t the actor’s idea. “I didn’t want to go,” he admits, “but it was, perhaps, the best episode of the entire series. That was our 100^th episode and it aired during our fifth season. Very few shows get past the fifth season, so they felt they had to do something to really get people’s attention on the 100^th episode, and killing Jonathan was it. I understand that; there’s no animosity. Now, had they known they were going to go 10 years, I honestly don’t think they would have done that that soon, but you don’t know.”

With his run as Jonathan Kent behind him (not counting guest appearances), he continued acting on the small and big screen and recording music. Beginning in 2013 he took on one of the main roles — Jim Cryer — on the OWN series The Haves and the Have Nots, which remains in production to this day. He also, as noted, was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, and launched, in Holden, Louisiana, John Schneider Studios, which he uses to produce independent films and offering the tools for others to make their own films in one location. Now, of course, there are the festivals, which he has grand plans for.

Fiscal Challenges

John earlier admitted that he feels that, career-wise, he’s reached the third of what he believes is a five-tier goal he’s set for himself — and this despite everything he’s accomplished. “There are still financial issues,” he says regarding the challenges of being an independent creative. “Still making enough money to keep going, but not really making enough to get over the bumps where I can take a deep breath and say, ‘OK!’ I mean, I’m not a druggie, I don’t have any expensive habits except I make movies and music — I guess that is a habit, but I don’t have any damaging, expensive habits. I do have a financially-damaging divorce that won’t go away but, other than that, the whole time I always bet on that this one thing — whatever this thing is — is going to be the one that will catapult me into spending $10 and making $15. So, when I said I was treading water, the last five or six years have been great, but what’s been happening is I’ve been spending $10 and making $10, so it’s been like head just above water. Prior to that, I would spend $10 and make $6. There’s also the fact that in 2016 we had our two floods, so there are things beyond my control, but there are things beyond everybody’s control.”

“I don’t look outside and go, ‘There’s something wrong out there; something out there has to change.’ No, I look at what I’m doing. Alicia and I plan and we say, ‘OK, we have to push this boulder … we can see the top of the hill and I think now we’re on the top of the hill, and now we’re going to give it the old heave-ho and push it down the other side so that we can coast a little bit before we get to the next hill.’ Everybody has that same issue, although a lot of people, granted, don’t want to be self-sufficient. They want to make enough to survive so that they can live for the weekend, and God bless them. I’ve just never been that guy.”

Bo’s Extravaganza

All of which has led them to create various “Bo” events, with last month’s Bo Extravaganza, which is officially described as follows: “This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Dukes of Hazzard and John ‘Bo Duke’ Schneider’s birthday! The three-day event will feature live music on three stages, a carnival, car stunt and explosions, vendors and a food court, Hazzard County car show and parade, celebrities, bonfires, and a Dukes of Hazzard look-a-like contest! This will be the largest car parade in the south featuring cars from the Dukes of Hazzard. Performances will include John Schneider and the Hazzard Nation Band, Whey Jennings, Bo Bice, Keith Burns of Trick Pony, Thom Bresh, Jo-el Sonnier, Beau Young, Christian Davis, Elvis Presley Tribute band, Chris LeBlanc Band, Sarah Collins and more!” And this will be followed by a “Bo-B-Q” in July, and the “Bo-zaar” at Christmas.

“It’s an outdoor festival,” he says, “and our intent, and we really did this with Bo’s Extravaganza, is for not only the crowd to come and meet new friends that they will continue to communicate with from here on out, which happened, but also our artists, same thing: meet another guitar player, meet another drummer, meet another person that goes out and tours on a bus to parts unknown most of the year that you didn’t know yesterday. Meet another TV star; it was a thrill for me to have Butch Patrick here, because I actually grew up watching The Munsters. We had the 18-wheeler from Smokey and the Bandit, and a Trans Am, and Smokey and the Bandit tribute artists, so we had someone walking around as Jackie Gleason’s Buford T. Justice and as Burt Reynolds. It was wonderful. This was really car-based. Our Bo Extravaganza is heavily Dukes and heavily cars … I even jumped the General Lee and did not break my leg or my neck or my head or my sternum.”

Living His Dream

John is obviously living his dream these days, but is always being faced with the challenges of doing so. To the outside world it would seem that there should be no problem, given the shows he’s been associated with, but what few people tend to realize is that he may be on a show for several seasons, in one decade. Another show for several seasons in another decade, but there isn’t necessarily consistency.

“Now for a few years I’ve been doing The Haves and Have Nots,” he says, “and there was work in between and music, but what people can’t understand is that I have a shelf life. I’m not a Twinkie; a Twinkie will outlast all of us. What I do is more like a fresh blueberry muffin. It’s got about three days in muffin years. A television show is going to last a year, maybe five. In Dukes’ case, seven. In Smallville’s, 10. But it is going to stop. And when you do a television show, you get paid a nice amount of money, which if you’re stupid like I’ve been — but not anymore; I’ve turned that corner — you realize banks will loan you money, because you don’t need it. They will not really loan you money if you actually need it. As a result, if you’re making six figures a year income, you probably have seven figures in debt. That’s the bad stuff that’s easy to fall into. And when the show is over, you may be able to make money, but not what you made when you were doing the show. It’s a really hard thing, but I’m not crying in my beer. Don’t let anybody think I’m crying in my beer.”

But if you want to know what he is doing, you could aways download his free app. “But,” he cautions, “don’t use it at dinner in a public place.”