‘Dancing With the Stars’ John Schneider Blasts ‘Dukes Of Hazzard’ Movie Ahead Of Most Memorable Year Dance

John Schneider already paid tribute to his Dukes Of Hazzard days this season on Dancing with the Stars, two weeks ahead of the show’s Most Memorable Year theme week. Still, there’s no doubt that the year 1979 remains one of his most memorable years. That’s the year the CBS action-adventure show made its debut, and to hear Schneider talk, there’s no way a reboot could ever measure up to the original.

Schneider, who is best known for playing Bo Duke on the iconic series — which aired from 1979 to 1985 on CBS — told Fox News the classic show cost a fortune to produce.

“We were in a three-network world [back then], so The Dukes of Hazzard, as fun and as backwoods as it seemed, we were still a [$1.3 million] an episode in 1978. So we were a very expensive television show. So it’s cost-prohibitive, actually, to do a show like that anymore.”

The actor and singer also added that he is happy the Dukes of Hazzard has been embraced by so many generations of fans, calling the car chasing series “the ultimate family-uniting television show of all time.”

“Everybody not only could watch but everybody wanted to,” Schneider said of The Dukes of Hazzard TV show. “Little kids and Grandpa and everybody in between — and there’s not a lot of television shows you can say that about [anymore].”

Still, Schneider does not have as many fond memories of the 2005 big screen movie, The Dukes of Hazzard. The film starred Seann William Scott in Schneider’s role of Bo Duke, Johnny Knoxville as his brother Luke, Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke, Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg, and Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse. Schneider slammed the movie spinoff to Fox.

“Warner Brothers proved they can’t make ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ anymore…. They destroyed the franchise with that one, godawful film — and shame on them for that. They portrayed Uncle Jesse as a pot-smoking old letch. It was a travesty, I thought.”

Schneider said the producers of the film didn’t understand what the Dukes of Hazzard meant to longtime fans of the original show—and the original cast.

“The only thing I got to say about that movie was ‘No.’ I read it and said ‘No.’ So did everybody else in the cast, by the way. I see what The Dukes of Hazzard means to people, especially in the South. And they just didn’t understand when they made the film. You don’t make an irreverent Dukes of Hazzard.”

John Schneider and pro dancer Emma Slater kicked off their DWTS competition with a foxtrot to “Theme from Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol’ Boys),” so he won’t be using that song for this weeks’ Most Memorable Year dance. Instead, the duo will perform a waltz to the song “Smile” by Ray Chew Live.

Check out John Schneider’s Dukes of Hazzard dance below.

Dancing with the Stars airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.