By Elsa Maxey
John Schneider, best known for his portrayal of the 1980’s Dukes of Hazzard as Bo Duke, has been in Fort Bend County, more specifically Richmond. He’s become pals with Chance Kamp , who owns All Out Off Road on U.S. 90A, where Schneider has stayed in a 40 foot movie trailer for about 8 weeks “coming and going. “ So, one could say he “lived” in Richmond for a bit before heading back home to Los Angeles. He’s been wrapping up a cable TV series that will have nine shows aired this fall starting in October, “October 7th, Friday night, eight o’clock,” he said.
Trick my what? is the name of the program “at the moment,” said Schneider, and the show is not quite about “pimping” a ride, but somewhat along those lines as a more practical, fixer upper type thing. “You never know what kind of vehicle you’re going to get,” said Schneider.
Look for the CMT network series soon because you’ll catch glimpses of the roadster Richmond business with Schneider, who stars as a kind of host, but he’ll also be seen working on restoring vehicles and other machinery back to their glory. You’ll see him doing other work on location, too, like delivering feed, he said.
Schneider visited with the “Star” just the other day, when he shared the purpose of his visit to the county seat.
About the new show, “The common thread in all the episodes is that we find people that are working really hard and they have businesses, most of them family businesses.” He talked about visiting with a farmer in Alvin, the only family farm left in the community, according to Schneider. “He’s (the farmer) still there and part of the show is about finding out how he manages to survive,” using a 1974 tractor for his daily work. Schneider said the same is the case with Paul from Liberty, who has managed to keep up a business that’s been drying up and yet he has million dollar pieces of equipment in need of maintenance. How these people manage to hold on is the basis of the show. It’s about people that rely on equipment, sometimes functional and sometimes not. “I find that helping out with the equipment may just make their life a little better,” said Schneider.The machinery comes to Kemp’s shop where it is dismantled, like an asphalt roller, in hopes of making it better.
While “living” in Richmond, Schneider said he’s had Texas BBQ from a stand, Mexican food, and all kinds of good eats Fort Bend has to offer. Hot in Texas? Try 119 degrees while working with 275 degree hot asphalt! It was for one of his shoots.
So what does he think about Fort Bend County? “I love main street in Richmond,” he said referring to the road through the city from U.S. 90A “on the other side of the water,” he said referring to the Brazos River. He said it reminds him of the place he grew up. “People are very nice here,” Schneider said about the people in the area selected for the show because Kemp’s was “a place where we could do motor work, body work, painting, they can do some crazy things here” in the award winning shop.
About the personalities in the new series, he said, “I love people that work hard and these people represent the little spotlight, these are the people that continue to make this country strong, they should be rewarded for their perseverance because they could have given up a long time ago, but didn’t.”
The actor, director, producer, writer, and country music singer will be home bound and then off to Louisiana. He’ll have a little bit of Texas in his midst, again. Lyle Lovitt will be in the movie he’s directing.