HOLLYWOOD -- Actors Tom Wopat and John Schneider have dropped their lawsuit against Warner Bros. and will return next month to 'The Dukes of Hazzard' television show, a studio spokesman announced Wednesday.
Wopat and Schneider, who portray cousins Bo and Luke Duke on the popular series, quit the show last May and filed a $25 million suit against the studio. The pair charged they had been cheated out of millions of dollars in the merchandizing of such items as the 'General Lee' model cars.
Warner Bros. countersued the actors for $92 million, alleging libel and breach of contract, then hired two other tough-guy actors to fill their britches on what was then the nation's No. 7-rated show. Last week the show was No. 33.
'Tom Wopat, John Schneider and Warner Bros. Television have jointly announced they have dropped respective lawsuits and countersuits against each other,' a studio spokesman said, adding the actors 'are returning to their starring roles in the 'Dukes of Hazzard' before the end of the season.
Byron Cherry, a 25-year-old Schneider lookalike, and Christopher Mayer, a 28-year-old Wopat clone, joined the show as Duke cousins Coy and Vance. They were expected to stay with the series.
Despite a story in the current issue of TV Guide quoting Schneider as saying, 'I wouldn't go back to the Dukes if they paid me a million dollars a week,' the actors said they were not bitter.
'We are especially happy to be returning to our family on the show, whom we have missed very much,' they said in a statement. 'We have good feelings about our return and welcome the opportunity to put the past misunderstandings behind us.'
Alan Shayne, president of Warner Bros. Television, said Wopat and Schneider have been mised.
'We have missed Tom and John and are extremely pleased to welcome them back to the 'Dukes of Hazzard,'' he said. 'Everyone is anxious for the creative team to finish preparing the scripts which will write them back into the show.'
