Leta Powell Drake Interview with John Schneider and Tom Wopat

[@a32tl]

It’s September of 2024 and I am reliving my youth by watching the entire series of The Dukes. I’m 56 years old and I still love this show. I’m currently on season three.

[@tiddbob4166]

I hated watching the show as a kid without these two guys....John and Tom were real dukes.

[@flashy5150]

Oh well, Chris Meyer is gone now. I think they did a good job of filling in, but this really hurt the show.

[@JamesimusPrime2798]

They did what Charlie Sheen did when he got kicked off Two and a Half Men but I'm porpley thinking that John and Tom came back an apologised for their out burst.

[@kingalpha8389]

@@JamesimusPrime2798 Nope. The TV ratings began to drop and the network accepted the previous deal that these two guys had on the table. Learn to get your facts straight before posting ridiculous fabricated ideology. You're welcome.

[@KmT81]

Honnestly,I 've never seen the Movie ,I wasn't interested at the period,nor Starsky and Hutch but now ,I'll watch them anyway.

[@jorgedangelo3331]

❤❤❤👏🌎🇦🇷

[@musicman257]

Im 50 and still watch it have the box set one of my favorite all time tv show.This is when tv was tv!!!

[@CharlieBrn]

Agreed . Same age and it looks like I'll be buying bx liberal freaks pushed it off the air. Good lord they were the good guys. Don't worry about a paint job.

[@sailormann1]

richard abney i used to watch the Dukes on our black and white TV set!!

[@jerrymcavoy5542]

The Dukes of Hazzard is by far one of the best shows ever and it's just as good now as it was then. Thanks for inspiring me to build fast cars and to live a simple and honest life.

[@grantpurdy5042]

These two couldn’t be replaced, which was proven. They didn’t quit because of egos; they did it on principle which was beneficial to ALL THE CAST - including creative control and royalty equity. The rest of the cast benefited from their stance. Thankfully, those two had the balls to fight for fair treatment, because the rest of them didn’t...

[@Chicken_Wing91]

James best left for a while because of creative problems. That’s why Dick Sargent (bewitched) was sheriff for a while. And when James best came back he was able to direct some episodes like he wanted.

[@videox222ify]

when I was little I remember putting it on and seeing new Dukes and I was so upset

[@nunyabees5585]

I never wanted to watch it without you guys!!!! The Dukes aren't the Dukes without Bo and Luke!!

[@nemass26]

just wonderful talented men. it was nice to see tom wopat on smallville with john Schneider.

[@kingdom70x7ministries]

These two guys in Smallville with the Charger gave me chills reminded of my childhood gonna watch the Dukes of Hazzard DVDs again soon just the good old boys.

[@lovethesmellofracefuelinth7374]

John is an awesome guy and friend, as well as fellow charger enthusiast 👍🏼. My first car was a 68, so they definitely are special to me as well and owned 2 in total. The second was an RT with built 440 and added six pk + 4speed ❤️

[@MainEventMafia4Life]

LoL, John and Tom are so humble and modest here. They know in their hearts that the ratings went down because they left the show. But I always respected the fact they stood their ground and fought for what was right and what they believed should be theirs. They underestimated these good old boys and thought they were young and dumb and would eat their shit sandwiches like good boys. Sometimes it's easier to just try and be fair to someone. The real Dukes won!

[@mrchopsticks3]

I think they also didn't want to make the other two actors look bad. They had nothing against them and didn't want to hurt them on their way out.

[@heidihurn9828]

Love the Dukes Of Hazzard one of the best shows growing up John is beautiful x

[@CharlieBrn]

The grace with which they came back is rarely seen now.

[@michaelbiddleman4321]

I don't give a shit what people say about the Dukes Of Hazzard. I love this TV Show all was will. I am 25 year old & still watch the Dukes Of Hazzard.

[@NessaDotiktoknessahoangdooffic]

❤❤❤❤❤❤John

[@noname-xq6tp]

Great balance interview with both dudes.

[@NessaDotiktoknessahoangdooffic]

John ❤❤❤❤crush duke ❤

[@fifteenbyfive]

Ron Wopat's (Olympics/Decathlon) daughter Carly Wopat was on the US volleyball team (All-America First Team, 2012 & 2013) and won Bronze at the Pan American Cup in 2016. She's 6'2".

[@lynnmoore7029]

Oh my gosh! John is just soooooo good looking. That hair is just❤❤❤

[@patr70]

Both are great looking young men.

[@krisbaker2062]

I am 50 and I remember turning the tv on Friday night when John and Tom were swapped and I was like "what the #$&@" but when our guys came back I was soooo happy!

[@larrybrooks5341]

🤠❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@RomeKG471]

"Allllllllll right you Duke Boys!!!!!!!" "Gidgit.....I love it I love it!!!!!!"

[@JF32304]

🤣😂🤣😂

[@anjanean]

Do you follow JS on you tube?

[@gtu7075]

Lmao

[@gtu7075]

RIP ma boi Roscooo P Coltrane

[@RomeKG471]

@@anjanean Yep!

[@moteleyes2]

John was one of my favorite childhood crushes!!!!! I loved him and still do. ❤😀❤😀❤😀

[@lynnmoore7029]

My teenage crush to. John was soooooo good looking. Got to see him in person.

[@brierichardson8462]

I find both attractive

[@DUNEATV]

Love the Dukes!

[@ladyyankeerebel3067]

Cuffed and stuffed.....one of my favorite sayings, by Roscoe P. Coltrane...cu, cu ,cu.....I love it, I love it!!!!!

[@TheMooseracer96]

It wouldn't be the Dukes of Hazzard if John Schneider and Tom Wopat wasn't on it as Bo and Luke Duke .

[@gracemarion499]

i agree.

[@SurviventheOnslaught]

bo is the main character, cant have the dukes without him

[@Tiffany.1970]

I agree a yee haa from me lol 👍✌😀

[@bobsmithers]

I was pissed as a young child when that took place!!

[@irishlibsfan08]

lool....ohhh how i wish coulda been around when those two were younger lol. i love how john just stares with this goofy mesmerized look right at Tom whenever he speaks in this interview. so cute. hope those two stick around for a loooong time.

[@kingalpha8389]

It's called undivided attention. You should try it sometime.

[@SonnyGTA]

King Alpha why don’t you try and figure out how to make a profile pic you simpleton, before you try and ‘school’ people. Dipshit.

[@ImTheDaveman]

When John and Tom left the show - that's when I quit watching. I gave the new guys like maybe 3 episodes to show me they could carry the show (to be fair to them) but it just wasn't working for me. I never ever returned to watching it and had no clue Tom and John had returned eventually. So I missed out on the rest of what Dukes of Hazzard had to offer. I gotta find out of its streaming anywhere and catch up.

[@kendallrivers1119]

Buy the dvds. Much better because you get great extras including a cast reunion barbecue. Also streaming is to unreliable they drop shows in a drop of a hat. DVDs are permenantly so you got the Dukes for as long as you wish :)

[@ImTheDaveman]

@@kendallrivers1119 what seasons were the new guys on so I can avoid them. Yeah - to me - the new guys were that bad. LoL. But that's just my opinion. I don't expect everyone to have my tastes. :-)

[@kendallrivers1119]

@@ImTheDaveman most would agree with you. It was around the 1983 season but John and Tom came back later like the last few seasons.

[@JasonLewis42]

@@ImTheDaveman season 5 is the year that has Bo and Luke missing all except the very end when they come back I think. That’s the season that only has Daisy on the cover of that season’s DVD set and no one else.

[@jameskirk5906]

God bless the Dukes and the CSA!!!

[@kathyjarvis8191]

Tom wopat didn't seem Impressed with the woman interviewing them.

[@marktangney9467]

Love the dukes

[@camillamartz8179]

Sometimes things go a certain way for it to turn out better and appreciate it more knowing what you lost. Love the dukes and always will. They did what they had to do.

[@crush41gb]

Proud of them for risking everything for the quality of the show and for the respect of the fans. Her questions seem rude at times and season 5 was the last dvd set of the entire run that I bought and that was for the 4 episodes Bo and Luke appeared in lol! ;)

[@chadchesney3858]

That was their PC answer. Their HUMBLE answer. The show dived almost entirely because they left. When they came back so did the ratings. 👍

[@brianhoule3219]

Biggest mistake warner bros ever made ! Should have gave them their due when the time was right !!!

[@ErichH68]

Exactly right. As a kid I remember all of this. The ratings did go down because Tom and John left. I just couldn’t get into watching “Coy” and “vance”. Each Friday after they left I became less and less interested in the show. To the point I stopped watching. Then when they did return I was happy but by then I had gotten so used to not watching it because of Coy and Vance that the show just wasn’t the same anymore and I was used to doing other things with my life. When John and Tom left it was the beginning of a slow death for Dukes. Just my opinion.

[@petesmitt]

RIP Leta..(March 10, 1938 - September 15, 2021).

[@sailormann1]

Schneider growing some lamb chops !!!

[@neekapatel2053]

john was such a cutie!! he still looks great but wow

[@Dan-uv5lw]

I wonder how Bo and Luke would have handled "The Mean Green Machine" in the two episodes in Season five? They were not there because of the dispute they are discussing.

[@rumarspencer3913]

I always wondered that myself, would've been interesting.

[@ertfgghhhh]

They would had handled it the same way the other two did. All the other two did was replace tom and john. They said the same lines john and tom would had said

[@alexfernandohuenten1374]

schneider good actor.

[@Thediscodude79]

To be honest I liked Bo & Luke and Coy & Vance!

[@jdmcd3873]

Always thought Luke Duke was the coolest dude ever .

[@rumarspencer7302]

The mature Duke of the two.

[@the_only_gen-z_duke_fan]

eh

[@eddieskilnick5561]

The clip of the guy walking across the hood of the General Lee was sacrilege. A real Duke would never do that!

[@tinarash7772]

It seems like that interviewer cared more about John more than Tom!

[@hughman55]

Is she drunk?

[@wesdionne278]

I just reviewed Tom Wopat's wikipedia account and was completedly stunned that he acknowledged he has been using cocaine for a number of years prior to 2017. Buys alot and uses it in small patches at a time. Now, I don't know if I should believe it or not since a reporter reported it but I don't see him arguing for his good defense.

[@BamaBoy_Davis]

Those new guys were their cousins on the show I remember

[@geraldineekhator5428]

She needs glasses 👓 if she thinks Coy and Vance look 👀 just like Tom and John! I thought the scripts were getting bad about the time they took time to do what they needed too. The scripts were not great with Coy and Vance . To me Daisy, Cooter and the rest of the cast held things together the best they could until they returned. These guys stood up for the whole show when they did what they did.

[@commonman317]

With this pandemic, I went back over the months and watched all of the seasons. The Coy and Vance episodes are not as bad as I remembered them as a kid. Sure, they are not Bo and Luke, but Christopher and Byron were really put in an impossible situation. They did their best to at least keep the show going. Honestly, I might even prefer the Coy and Vance episodes to Season 7, with the miniature models being used. Most of Season 7's episodes were almost unwatchable.

[@SupermanKalL]

It started with season 6 when they started using miniature toy cars and model playsets for the car jumping stunts to save money. It was terrible with no more real car stunts. The show's ratings had improved upon Tom and John coming back from their walkout for merchandise royalties, but it was never the same again, and folks even went on to watch other shows on other networks during that time. Both Bryon Cherry and Christopher Mayer were put in an impossible situation being cast to replace Tom and John as generic clones of Luke and Bo Duke with their Coy and Vance Duke characters. It was both the network CBS execs and studio Warner Brothers execs who thought that the car the General Lee was the main star of the show (it received the most fan mail) and it did not matter who was driving the car, but they were wrong.

[@jamesfrancistamburojr8180]

Yeah John and Tom

[@mrchopsticks3]

John is from Westchester, NY, Tom is from Lodi, Wisconsin, and yet they were supposed to be from Georgia.

[@u2buserusingu2b95]

I don't know about Tom, but John's a southerner, now. He lives in Louisiana.

[@mrchopsticks3]

@@u2buserusingu2b95 He is now, but noy by birth. I live in the South, but I will always be an Alaskan.

[@maryrudelich9000]

Still love The Dukes Of Hazard. Please tell me it’s East KY, and not GA.

[@alexkx8599]

This is hardly watchable with the sound being almost non existent. Anyone got a better link?

[@rmartin7558]

I don't remember the scripts improving.

[@tinarash7772]

Coy and Vance were most of Season 5

[@candacehandyside8638]

The show was not the same without the real Bo and Luke

[@robertdawson456]

ratings dropped..."well you can't say that is was just because of us". Wrong, it was just because of them. They left and nobody liked Coy and Vance.

[@sketchtheparadigmyork1217]

John is so handsome. Rivals Henry Cavills good looks

[@mattwedemeyer9269]

Bring back the General Lee

[@TheVCRTimeMachine]

I actually didn't watch it much after the Coy and Vance season. The show's writing was progressively worse during and after this season

[@evdallas123]

That lady is a dope

[@fuanasantuary1277]

did i clicked on this?

[@wesdionne278]

I'm 51 and loved the Dukes of Hazzard growing up. I hate it when they ask Tom Wopat a question and John Schneider pops in with an answer and they just continue asking John the questions. Whenever John first answers, Tom first glances to him and just smiles but when it keeps going on....Tom just looks at the reporter with a mean look...as in why am I here, why doesn't John just give me the time for me to answer the reporter. I think that's what has hurt their relationship, as in their BBQ video, Tom isn't there and I don't think it's a matter of him not being able to get off of Broadway acting or singing.

[@flowergirl5045]

I've noticed that too, that was so rude, poor Luke!

[@u2buserusingu2b95]

Nah, watch it again. It was pretty balanced. It seemed to me that Tom spoke a little longer than John. It was all very cordial. The interviewer was alright. Of course, the only way in which the new actors looked like the original actors was their hair coloring and athletic builds.

[@wesdionne278]

I just reviewed TomWopat's wikipedia account and was completedly stunned that he acknowledged he has been using cocaine for a number of years prior to 2017. Buys alot and uses it in small patches at a time. Now, I don't know if I should believe it or not since a reporter reported it but I don't see him arguing for his good defense.

[@mikenice53]

Van dukes pass away coy dukes still alive

[@CountryboyRew]

These interviewers back then were terrible

[@mountain_dweller]

She irritates the hell out of me.

[@SonnyGTA]

ॐ THATS MY MOTHER!!!!!

[@skippylongbottom7978]

🤣

[@johnwilburn]

Yeah, the interview wasn't the greatest, but I'm glad to see it. Nice find.

[@lynnmoore7029]

Sorry, the blonde that replace John reminded me of a sissy boy. He looked and acted nothing like the real deal. I'm sure he is a nice guy, but no comparison. And I never watched the show for Tom ( Luke) so no opinion there.

[@DanniiStark]

Geez, I bet they were impressed with her - NOT! How rude!