Hee Haw

When Hee Haw first came on the air, it was about the same time that All In The Family came on the air. These were two different shows with different messages. However, they both were incredibly popular despite the fact that the critics didn't like them at first. Who would have ever believed that Hee Haw would have had a longer run then Gunsmoke and still be beloved after so many years? It was a good clean family oriented show that you could let your kids watch without embarassment. Yes, I agree that it was hokey and corny but what of it if it made you laugh and feel good? It showcased some of the most amazing performers of the country and western music world. Sam Louvello the producer said that it was like the tv version of Nashville's legendary Grand Old Opry. You saw all the giants on this show like Buck Owens, Roy Clark, Lulu Roman, Grandpa Jones and Little Jimmy Dickens. Hee Haw was more then just a tv show, it was a cultural phenomenon and an icon. We all remember Grandpa Jones "Hey Grandpa whats for supper?" He always made my mouth water with those recipes he described and we all remember Junior Samples at BR5149. We need more family oriented programming like this for our kids today. They need to have positive reinforcement from this other trash that is poured into their minds. Roy Clark talked in his autobiography about how the cast and crew of Hee Haw were like a family. He talked of how they could not wait to get back to see each other and see how much weight each other had gained and to learn all the baby's names. They had a ball working together and it comes thru on every episode. Thank God for Hee Haw and I wish they would put it back into syndication so a whole new generation could be introduced to this American classic.

This show proved you should never underestimate cornball. Sure, a lot of hicks watched the show (I come from a long line of ridge-runners myself), but they alone didn't keep "Hee-Haw" on the air for all those years. Many people with otherwise sophisticated tastes have low-brow senses of humor. This is why people are still watching "The Three Stooges" and "Benny Hill" after all these years. "Hee-Haw" was ALL cornball, slapstick, T-and-A and great country music, and people ate it up. Much of the show's appeal also came from its fair amount of satire (remember Charlie's radio show on KORN?) and the cast members' unerring ability to laugh at themselves, though viewers never got the impression that anyone felt demeaned by it all. Which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for TV these days.

APPEARING as a guest on the TONIGHT SHOW about 30 or so years ago was then Critic of TV GUIDE, the late Cleveland Emory. Sitting in as substitute was guest host and former (and original) Emcee, Steve Allen. Other than the expected business of asking the very outspoken Mr. Amory about his likes and dislikes of the current video medium offerings, the discussion turned toward creativity. Without hesitation, Cleveland Amory named his three top creative men in television; one being the multi-faceted talent of Steve, with the second being Dave Garroway. The trio was rounded out by the fast living, cigar chomping former Disc Jockey and manic comedy producer, Mr. Ernie Kovacs.

ASSEMBLING one's honor roll consisting of these three should come as no surprise; as they surely rose above the crowd in those early TV days, having few near competitors to enumerate. (Although, excuse me, 'Cleve'; but I would add Soupy Sales to the roster. Honest, Schultz!) All had some peculiarity of their own; placing their own inimitable brands on the volumes of works left behind. Each has also left his own indelible print on their own genres and hence has been inspiration and true role models to those who followed.

MR. GARROWAY brought sincerity and a natural, one to one conversational style to his Emcee & Starring positions on GARROWAY AT LARGE as well as his long run as the first host of NBC's TODAY SHOW. Steve Allen's energy and off-the-wall, usually non-sequitor comic style has been an obvious inspiration to many an upstart funny man; with David Letterman's great following and longevity coming immediately to mind.

THE third member of this artistic triumvirate, Ernie Kovacs, with the shortest life of all and the often most outlandish and truly "deep", meaningful routines, perhaps had the most long-lasting affect on posterity.

SIMPLY stated as the reason we go through this rather intricate opening simply because of Mr. Ernie Kovacs. He was the first one to make use of video tape (circa 1958) in much the same way that Mack Sennett, Hal Roach and other silent film producers used film. Any examination of Kovacs' the sketches in his specials or the 'clues' in his Comedy-Game Show, TAKE A GOOD LOOK, will render this point very obvious.

LONG about 1968, following closely on the success of THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR (CBS), NBC brought us ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN; which combined a lot of contemporary music, quick one liners, non-sequitor sketches with the OP-Art/Pop-Art sets, Carnaby Street Fashion and full-blooded, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass-type music.

EARLY on, both Dan Rowan & (the lovely) Dick Martin admitted their debt to Ernie and even reprised the famous sight-gag sketch that combines the girl taking the bubble bath with the old multitude of Circus Clown emerging from the little car gag.

IMITATION being the sincerest form of flattery, an old adage which holds up even more so in Hollywood and in Show Business generally, the idea came along to writer Frank Peppiatt to do a sort of LAUGH-IN knock off; albeit one with a decidedly rural, Southern, "Good-Old-Boy " setting, Veteran performers from the Country & Western Circuits would be culled and pressed into service to amuse and entertain a TV audience composed of many a new found fan; to whom the "Hillbilly Music" and Kountry Korn humor was new.

USING the name recognition and talents of the great C & W Singer, Buck Owens as Master of Ceremonies, HEE HAW stocked its Orchestra with local, "home grown" veteran Nashville Musicians from Grand Ole Opry service. Added to this we had generous servings of Country Humor; as provided by many a master Country stage comedian.

HEE-HAW's role of honor read like a Who's Who of Nashville, and all long before we heard of any CMA (That's Country Music Association and its CMA Awards. Got it, Schultz?) Either as regular cast members or as guest Stars, the Show boasted of names like: Emcee Buck Owens, Junior Samples, Minnie Pearl, Loretta Lynn, Roy Clark, David 'Stringbean'Akeman, Jeannie C. Riley, Tammy Wynette, Grandpa Jones, Dennis Weaver, Roy Acuff, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Larry Gatlin, Barbara Mandrell, Reba McIntire, George Jones, Charley Pride, George "Goober" Lindsey, Waylon Jennings, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sheb Wooley, Dolly Parton, Patti Page, the Sons of the Pioneers, the Oak Ridge Boys, etc., etc. Well, you get the picture.

FREE WHEELING fun was the order of the day for a typical HEE HAW. There was great music served up by the Original Artists. Always there was a plentiful supply of quick, rapid fire, one liners. And, although there was a lot of innuendo and sexual titillation involved with a lot of well endowed ladies decked out in wardrobe like Lil Abner's girlfriend, Daisy May, they always managed to balance things out in the end.

YOU see, they would always have a Gospel Song or an American Standard Spiritual included; being presented in a most serious and solemn a moment, a real departure from the rest of the proceedings. This was their way of providing content containing the "Sociably redeeming content".

WELL, overalls, hay bales, corn fields and barnyards not withstanding; they sure must have been doing something right! After all, this weekly dose of hour-long Kountry Korn far out-lasted most any and all series on TV; being on the tube, network and in syndication, from 1969-93! POODLE SCHNITZ!!

Even though I'm not a big fan of country (the closest I will get to liking country is by listening to The Eagles or the Byrds), I have to hand it to this show. It managed to survive the infamous Rural Purge of 1971 and became a television institution. This show had to be one of the corniest (no pun intended) in the history of television and it in many ways it was a countryfied version of Laugh In. However, this show had a loyal following and it managed to show that Country music was still popular no matter how old Fred felt.

This was the most corniest of all the variety shows of its day and it still holds that title. First off,the series premiered on CBS-TV in the fall of 1969,became the onslaught of the network's all out crusade of eliminating its rural programming in 1971(and this show caught the full frontal blow of cancellation),and then all of a sudden the show was saved from certain ruins,and found a new home---in syndication where it remained for an astounding 22 years before called it quits for good in the spring of 1993. The reruns of this series was showed recently on the TNN(The Nashville Network)before the logo changed two years after it was cancelled.

But was makes "Hee Haw" a classic in the history of television? Well,first off, I remember this show being on every Saturday night at 7:00 since during that time you had a choice between either this show or a combination of other shows in that same time slot back in the day; 1.) You had Lawrence Welk for the older crowd and those folks who were on Geritol; 2.) Dionne Warwick or Marilyn McCoo for Solid Gold; 3.)Charles Nelson Reilly or Danny Terrio for Dance Fever; 4.)Ed McMahon on Star Search.

Secondly,this show had some country humor,and I do mean country humor that was so corny you can tell that is was just that--straight up the chaser hillbilly dialogue of Southern culture. Also,it's cast was corny too including hosts Buck Owens and Roy Clark and regulars Archie Campbell,George Lindsey(could you believe the producers cast him as Goober here),Minnie Pearl,Grandpa Jones,and that dingy blonde girl who comes up at the end of the segments(She reminds of Chrissy Snow on the farm)and not to mention the Hee Haw Honeys(which was a spin off of this series which sucked badly after 7 episodes in which one of the stars was a unknown Kathie Lee Gifford?). Third,some of it was funny,and some of it was horribly awful,and you can tell that whoever wrote the scripts were straight up hillbillies who had no clue to what a variety show goes through.

The music I say was very good and it set the standard to what country music supposed to be including some that made regular appearances on the show including Conway Twitty,George Jones,Waylon Jennings,Merle Haggard,Dolly Parton,Eddie Rabbitt,Tanya Tucker,Loretta Lynn,and so much more. It was also not only to include country artists,buy also the first country series to featured acts done by other minorities like The Pointer Sisters,and sometimes others like Charlie Pride,and Neal McCoy(the first Native American to perform on the show),not to mention musical works by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos,Roy Clark,and Grandpa Jones. You have some very well known guest stars that appear on the show as well including one Christmas episode where Gunsmoke's Amanda Blake lends her voice to some Christmas tunes as well as Beverly Hillbillies' own Donna Douglas and Gomer Pyle's Jim Nabors. In all a great variety series that had country music at its very best.