LOS ANGELES - Has Bo Duke grown up to be Uncle Jesse?

John Schneider is still a good ol’ boy at heart, but the former troublemaking off-road driver from "The Dukes of Hazzard" is now better known as young Superman’s responsible, tough-talking father from the WB network’s "Smallville."

He said both shows are about teaching values to the main characters.

"It’s a remarkable testimony to television’s ability to affect people’s families. And it’s a good feeling," Schneider told The Associated Press. "(On both shows) we have the good guys who are good not because they’re lily white, but they’re good because they make the right choices even when they don’t want to."

The first season of "The Dukes of Hazzard" debuted on DVD for the first time last week.

Schneider said those episodes from 1979 show the Duke cousins learning right from wrong, and when to trust authority and when to rebel, by getting lectures from wise, snowy-bearded Uncle Jesse - played by the late Denver Pyle.

As the adopted parents of super-kid Clark Kent on "Smallville," Schneider and co-star Annette O’Toole are doing the same thing for a younger generation.

"There’s a belief in the reality of Jonathan and Martha Kent and the reality of the family that they bring to young Clark - as Uncle Jesse did in a way."

He said the overly wholesome setting sets up an idealized world where fantasy seems more likely.

"Because we lived the way we lived (on the "Dukes") it was perfectly believable that cars could fly," he said of the car-jumping, yee-hawing series. "You can draw your own comparisons with ’Smallville’ in regard to that."

Although the "Dukes" was known for car crashes, disobeying the crooked local police, and featuring co-star Catherine Bach in ultra-short shorts that now bear her character’s name - Daisy Dukes - Schneider said the series was played with coy innocence.

"Even though we had Catherine as Daisy, running around in her shorts, she never gave the impression to anyone that she thought she was sexy," he said. "There was something very Annie Oakley about Daisy. She was as good a driver, as good a shot and as good in a bar room brawl as any of the guys."