FITCHBURG — Actor Stephen Baldwin and Max Keiser of “The Keiser Report” stopped in Fitchburg on Tuesday during the last leg of a road trip across America.

They are co-hosts of an upcoming television show, “The GAP: Great American Pilgrimage,” which will chronicle the journey over 16 episodes.

Executive Producer John McGalliard said the show will premier in November on RT, an international English-language television network funded by the Russian government.

Between shoots at the Fitchburg Airport, Baldwin described the premise of the show.

“It was this mostly silly idea I had to want to go out and connect with everyday people in a way they can relate to,” he said.

“Jerry Seinfeld has a show where he’s driving around in one of his fancy cars, drinking fancy coffee, talking about his fancy friends and it’s funny. My show is Steve Baldwin hosting the Great American Pilgrimage, which is me and my three dogs in an RV driving across the country, but this time we’re meeting regular folks and we’re drinking regular coffee and it’s still funny.”

The crew’s first Fitchburg stop was the Moran Square Diner, where Baldwin, Keiser and At-Large City Council candidate Sam Squailia chatted about running for office, Fitchburg and America over coffee.

“To me, America is our freedom,” Squailia said during a later interview with the Sentinel & Enterprise.

She said a producer from the show reached out to her on Friday or Saturday about the interview.

“I said, yeah, sure let’s do it,” she said.

Next to the airport, where Mayor Stephen DiNatale stopped by to greet the visitors. By mid-afternoon the crew was filming the next segment, which would culminate in Keiser flying with racing pilot Scott Farnsworth in a highly modified L-39 Albatros, a jet developed in Czechoslovakia.

The flight and the show are sponsored by Dash, a type of cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoins.

McGalliard said the five-week trip took them from Los Angeles to Boston through the deserts of New Mexico and the site of Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

They asked people what it means to be American — top answer: freedom — but also about their communities, even good fishing spots, McGalliard and Keiser said.

“The mainstream media tells us there’s huge political infighting and it’s vicious, but when you get down into these medium size towns like this town … there’s a lot less contention,” Keiser said. “There’s a lot more feeling of kind of common cause as Americans.”

As for Fitchburg, Baldwin said, for a small town, it’s a big place.

“As usual, in places like this, the best part of it is the people,” he said.

Follow Elizabeth Dobbins on Twitter @DobbinsSentinel