Hee Haw
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Hee Haw was a long-running U.S. television variety show hosted by Buck Owens and Roy Clark and featuring country music and humor with rural "Kornfield Kounty" as a backdrop. It was taped at WLAC-TV (now WTVF) and Opryland USA in Nashville. The show's name was derived from the sound a donkey makes when it brays.
Created by Canadian comedy writers Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth, the show started on CBS as a summer 1969 replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Though the show had respectable ratings, it was dropped by CBS in 1971, along with fellow country shows The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, due to their feeling that its viewers reflected the wrong demographics (e.g. rural, somewhat older and less than affluent). It started airing new programming in syndication, and continued in basically the same format for 20 more years (though Owens departed in 1986). In many areas, it competed in syndication against The Lawrence Welk Show, which was also cancelled and resurrected in syndication in 1971.
The show was well known for its beautiful, voluptuous, scantily clad women in stereotypical Southern farmer's daughter outfits and its cornpone humor. Hee Haw was a quintessentially American show; and although its appeal was not only limited to a rural audience (depite the fact that it was seen in all large markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), it is virtually unknown outside of the United States. Despite being one of the most successful syndicated television shows in American history, many urbanites and those living in the suburbs of large cities were unfamiliar with the show, while virtually everyone living in rural America was familiar with Hee Haw.
By 1991, a continued decline in its audience led to a dramatic change in setting, to a more urban location combined with more pop-oriented music. The new format lasted a single season, during which the show alienated many of its traditional viewers. In its final 1992 season, the now renamed Hee Haw Silver featured Clark hosting a mixture of classic clips and new footage.
After the show's syndication run ended, reruns aired on The Nashville Network until 1997.
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Cast Members
Original cast member David "Stringbean" Akeman was murdered in 1973.
Two rural-style comedians, already well known in their native Canada, gained their first major U.S. exposure--Gordie Tapp and Don Harron (whose character, newscaster Charlie Farquharson, later appeared on The Red Green Show).
Other cast members over the years included: Barbi Benton, Cathy Baker, Archie Campbell, the Hager Twins (Jim and Jon), Gunilla Hutton (as Nurse Goodbody), Grandpa Jones, Susan Raye, George Lindsey (reprising his "Goober" character from The Andy Griffith Show), Minnie Pearl, Lulu Roman, Misty Rowe, Junior Samples, Rev. Grady Nutt, John Henry Faulk, Gailard Sartain, Roni Stoneman, and the team of Jimmy Riddle and Jackie Phelps, among many others.
Recurring skits and segments
- The old philosopher (portrayed by Gordie Tapp) getting hit on the head with a rubber chicken.
- Crossing 2 objects (Example: "I crossed an elephant with a gopher." Everybody in unison: "What'ja get?" "Some awfully big holes in the backyard.") The one giving the answer got smacked in their bottom by a huge fenceboard, and even the women were victims of the board.
- Campbell was featured in three regular sketches. He played a barber, usually sharing comic dialogue with customer Roy Clark; he was the doctor, who handled various 'ill/injured' cast members with the assistance of the lovely "Nurse Goodbody" (Hutton); and, he was "Justus O'Peace," the local judge, whacking away at the various accused parties (as in the legendary "Here Come De Judge" routine of Pigmeat Markham).
- "Where Oh Where Are You Tonight?", the nonsense duet with the chorus, "Where, oh where, are you tonight?/Why did you leave me here all alone?/I searched the world over, and thought I'd found true love;/You met another, and--pffft! you were gone!" The "pffft" would be done as a spitting "Bronx cheer", and occasionally, they would stop singing after the "pffft".
In early seasons, this was performed by Campbell and Tapp, in the vein of folk songs like "Oh! Susanna" and "Old Dan Tucker." In later seasons, Tapp would be replaced by that episode's guest singer, or other surprise celebrities. The guest/celebrity would stand with their back to the viewer while Campbell sang the verse solo, and then spin around to join him on the chorus. (Who got spat upon during the "pffft" would change each show.)
- "Hey Grandpa! What's for supper?" (Grandpa Jones is cleaning a window pane with no glass in it and recites a dinner menu in verse). Often, he would describe a delicious, country-style meal (chicken and biscuits smothered in rich gravy, and collard greens, and the audience would reply approvingly, "yum yum!"); although sometimes he would serve a less-than spectacular meal (thawed out TV dinners), to which the cast would reply, "yuck!"
- "Stringbean" would read a "letter from Mama" to his friends (similar in style to the routine of American comedian "Charley Weaver"). When asked about the latest letter, "Stringbean" would reach for it, stating that he carried it right next to "his Heart" (his upper overalls pocket). Not finding it there, he would proceed to quickly check all his other pockets, saying "Heart" on each check until he found the letter. The friends would chant "Heart" along with him.
- Minnie Pearl's schoolhouse. Minnie would try in vain to gain order in the classroom, while her students were in the mood for one-liners.
- "The Culhanes of Kornfield County (Gordie Tapp, Grandpa Jones, Junior Samples, and Lulu Roman)." A soap-opera satire, the foursome was seated side by side on a couch, resembling an old-time family portrait. With help from an off-screen announcer, they would discuss some family crisis while maintaining a dead-pan monotone look and not moving.
- The "Empty Arms Hotel," in which Roy Clark would pop up from behind the front desk to deal with its clients' complaints.
- "Lulu's (Lulu Roman) Truck Stop," which featured some tough-to-eat items.
- "Archie's Angels," a parody on "Charlie's Angels," but unlike the unseen Charlie, Campbell was seen with his three lovely beauties in their detective agency office.
- "Junior's (Junior Samples) Used Car Sales," in which Samples would try to palm off a major 'clunker' and then hold up a sign to remind viewers that his phone number was "BR 549.") (Hee Haw tapes were later sold using the "800" number 1-800-BR54949; also, the future country music group BR5-49 adopted this as their name.)
- The "Gloom/Despair song (with the chorus "Gloom, despair and agony on me!/Deep dark depression, excessive misery!/If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!/Gloom, despair and agony on me!)" Performed by a variable quartet who sat around looking sad, each of the quartet would sing one line of the verse (a new one for each performance). They would join on the chorus, with each one alternating lip-synching a mournful howl between each phrase in it.
- "The Cornfield," a version of the Laugh-In "Joke Wall," with cast members and guest stars 'popping up' to tell jokes and one-liners.
Until his death, "Stringbean" played the field's 'scarecrow,' delivering one-liners before being shouted down by the 'crow' on his shoulder; after his murder, he was not replaced, and the 'scarecrow' simply was seen in the field as a memorial.
- The "Hee Haw Salutes" feature, in which that night's guest, or other celebrities and cast members, would mention their hometown and its population; the entire cast would then 'pop up' from the cornfield, shouting "SAA-LUTE!!"
- "Pickin' and Grinnin'" with Owens and Clark (Owens: "I'm a-Pickin!" Clark: "And I'm a-Grinnin'!"), with the duo and the cast 'dueling' by playing guitar and banjo, telling jokes and reciting one-liners.
- Riddle and Phelps, long-time members of Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys, would perform a comic poem, and then break into their eefing rhythm routine. Riddle would eeph while Phelps would slap his hand against his leg in a percussion pattern called "Hamboning." Occasionally, the duo would break into their routine while joking with another cast member, and then get chased away.
- Various male cast members would be seen sitting around and listening to comic stories by either Baptist pastor/humorist Rev. Grady Nutt, or former American radio commentator John Henry Faulk. Nutt, who had successful LP comedy album releases on Word Records, had his promising career on Hee Haw cut short by his death in an airplane crash in November 1982.
- KORN-AM radio, featuring humorous news reports by "Charlie Farquarson" (Don Harron).
- Grandpa and Minnie's Kitchen ("How-dee! Welcome to Grandpa and Minnie's Kitchen!")
- The Hee Haw Gospel Quartet, always the last segment of many of the shows, and featuring Clark, Owens, Grandpa Jones and Kenny Price singing a gospel song. This was one of the few serious segments of the show. Several of their performances were released on CD's.
- Various female members of the cast surrounding a clothesline singing "We're not ones to go 'round spreadin' rumors/Well, really we're just not the gossipy kind;/No, you'll never hear one of us repeatin' gossip,/So you better be sure and listen close the first time!", featuring a new verse every episode.
- Gordie Tapp and Roni Stoneman as "The Naggers," a bickering couple, similar in style to the radio classic The Bickersons.
- During the American Bicentennial year (1976), CBS News did a daily television historical feature called "The Bicentenial Minute." Hee Haw's take on that was Grandpa Jones' "200 And Some Odd Years Ago" sketches, with Grandpa delivering 'facts' such as, "My great-great-great grandmother attended the 'Boston Tea Party.' She was the first old bag thrown overboard."
- Hee Haw's All-Jugs Band, featuring a humorous song performed by all the female members of the cast, who blew air across the open mouths of various-sized 'moonshine' jugs to sound different notes. (The title of the routine was a play on both the jugs used to sound the notes, and the vulgar slang for the female breast.) Minnie Pearl announced the segment, stating "We're gonna play now;" at the conclusion, she proclaimed, "We're through playin' now."
Musical legacy
The show's additional legacy is the hundreds of performances of country music, bluegrass, gospel music, and other traditional styles, that were featured on it during its run. In addition to the regular performances by the hosts and cast members, guest artists performing on the show include -- but are hardly limited to -- Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Jessi Colter, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson, Sonny James, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Ray Price, Charley Pride, Charlie Rich, Riders in the Sky, Kenny Rogers, Roy Rogers, George Strait, Ernest Tubb, Conway Twitty, Tammy Wynette, Hank Williams Jr., and Faron Young, among others.
Trivia
From 1969 until the late-1980s, Hee Haw was produced by Yongestreet Productions, named after Yonge Street, the major thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario. The production company's name was a testament to Hee Haw's Canadian roots.