User reviews

First, I haven't seen any Hee Haw in years but I remember watching it every Saturday morning whether in color or black and white as a child in New Jersey. Not exactly, Hee Haw country is it. Well, I liked the show and watched it whenever it was on. Of course, the writing wasn't great but I loved watching Minnie Pearl and gained my first taste of country music. This was all before modern country music which sounds more like pop music of the 1980s. Anyway, Hee Haw appeared to have a family type show where the jokes were silly and stupid but there was always room for one more. The cast was always large and I even miss their stupid humor to this day. I remember Lulu and some of the stupid skits that even SNL would toss out. In real life, the cast and crew were like family and the show was like a reunion for all of them. Sadly, the show's cancellation was an end of an era in television history.

I NEVER liked country music.

But I COULDN'T miss this show.

Laugh-in was the 60's hippie version and Sha Na Na was the 50's greaser version. Now we have you goober/redneck version of sketch comedy. And they looked like the were having a blast.

Lots of music of course and stereotypes everywhere. But you could always see the wink at the fans.

Buck Owens (RIP) and Roy Clark were great hosts. Roy was not only a great "picker" but a swell guy as well. You had to like him.

Every country-boy scenario got a run through the joke factory. Laughs a plenty.

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.

I remember watching this show all through my childhood, my teens, and, into my twenties...and, loving it.

This was one of those 'ultimate' variety shows that had something for everyone - good music; funny skits; pretty women; a talented cast; top guest stars; and, a friendly atmosphere.

Although I haven't seen "Hee-Haw" in ages, I remember a lot that I saw and heard here as if it were only yesterday...such as Roy Clark's banjo playing along with Buck Owens and the entire cast having those wonderful sing-a-longs; the song "Where Oh Where Are You Tonight;" Grandpa Jones; Minnie Pearl; 'Junior;' Lulu; George Lindsey ("The Andy Griffith Show"); and, those country-lovelies Lisa Todd, Misty Rowe, Cathy Baker, Marianne Gordon, and, Barbi Benton.

I'll never understand why iconic shows like this aren't being shown on television nowadays so that younger generations can see that music and humor, entertainment in general, can be good without vulgarity and raunchy behavior. INSP, TV Land, and/or CMT should air this.

This is one of those family-friendly shows that everyone can enjoy, which is probably why it lasted twenty-eight years. I give it a solid 10...easily! :)

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!!

Whenever this show came on everyone that was over came to the living room to watch. If there were family, grandparents, the youngest, any neighbors all gathered around to watch when it was on. The total ridiculous nature of it was the charm. When I hear so many of the songs that I learned about on Hee Haw I get all kinds of memory spikes and I still laugh out loud when I see the re-runs playing on Circle Tv. I was five years old when it first started up. My grandparents owned a tavern in Wisconsin and my Uncle and Aunt owned a tavern too so often times I was watching it with a bunch of locals sittin' in the bar along with a bunch of my own family. I sure do like those ol' memories and yes I loved this show too. "That's all"

Remember growing up and on Saturday nights in the 80's watching reruns of this on my local "CBS" station at grandpa and grandma's house. "Hee Haw" was feel good fun as the jokes were funny with laughs and really corny and the skits were parodies of country life and rural living at it's good old best! Also the music guest were always top of the line which helped move the show along so well and the staples and main players were the now late greats Roy Clark, Buck Owens, Minnie Pearl, and Grandpa Jones! Always they put on good performances with their country talent! Overall this was syndication classic, in some areas even today from time to time you might catch reruns on digital cable TV.

I was forced to watch this as it was my old man's favorite. We were a rodeo family and although I love the old school country, such as Jones, Cash, Owens, and Haggard, this show made me sick. It was a show for people who had lost the will to live. If I wasn't such a masochist for pain, the show would've probably killed me! For recovery from the show, after its ending I head to my bedroom and put on the Richard Pryor or George Carlin. Records the old man didn't know I owned .

Yes, I gave it a 6 for all the guest greats that performed.

I have to admit, I really don't remember much of anything about this show - I was a kid when it was on; however, I remember even as a kid thinking it was just stupid and "hillbilly-ish". I only caught it because my one set of grandparents (admittedly less than Ivy League) apparently watched it.

That being said, I'm astonished it ever made it to air, and am more than a little embarrassed to admit anyone in my family tree watched and enjoyed this show. Thankfully my paternal genes are apparently dominant.

As a child, if we are at grandma and grandpas for supper on a Saturday night, they had HEE HAW on... as a youngster I can't say I loved it but as a 50 yr old now, I appreciate it so much more. Besides it gives me amazing memories of my family and the laughter , it is just a really funny show. I don't love or maybe like country music and the only singer I love who is country is Johnny cash but this show will tickle your funny bone for sure. Best part is any age can watch it... just sit back, enjoy the corn and just laugh. It's easy.

This is one of those shows that should be embarrassing in retrospect, but it's surprisingly...mostly not. The humor is self-aware and pokes fun at Southern stereotypes in the way people can only manage from within the social circle.

Hee Haw is the best footage of most of the Grand Ole Opry Nashville country stars from the Sixties and Seventies. Characters like Minnie Pearl are completely unforgettable and since my exposure to Hee Haw was as a small child, I have the same warm family memories that other people have from that era of variety shows.

Both Hee Haw and Solid Gold passed away as the 1980s became the 1990s and that was it for the classic 20th century "variety show." Attempts to revive the genre are usually contrived, as 21st century audiences are too cynical and sophisticated, with the exception of dance competitions. It's also probably something of a lost art since theater was beloved by generations born way back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and since everyone is obsessed with their screens now, Vaudeville acts just don't click with modern audiences.

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.

Yes the jokes are extremely corny and the acting in spots is bad, but it is the music that is the gem. Hee Haw introduced many to great country music and that is it's strength. Just re- watching Roy Clark sing "Peace in the Valley" is very emotional.

"Hew Haw" was a mixture of country music (which was becoming popular in larger swaths of the country at the time) and silly skits by Grand Old Opry acts.

The musical talent on "Hee Haw" was legendary. From week to week you might be able to see and hear Dolly Parton, Ray Stevens, Reba McEntire, Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker, Mickey Gilley or a host of others. And that doesn't include house talent like Roy Clark, one of the best guitar/banjo pickers I've heard.

I was brought up not even small town. I was country. And while "Hee Haw" invariably showed country folk with city slickers' prejudices (we were shiftless, lazy, ignorant, moonshining reprobates) we always loved shows that showed country folk in a bad light (not only "Hee Haw" but "Green Acres" and "Newhart").

Yet it had a similar Vaudeville-type aura as "The Muppet Show" with jokes that were never political nor hurtful (except to each other, viz: Doctor: "According to these X-Rays I'm afraid Junior will never be able to work again." Nurse: "I'll run out to the waiting room and tell him the good news!")

And for an adolescent and teen as I was, the lovely females were a big selling point. I lived in the deep south in the country all my life and never saw a Daisy Mae, except on TV and in comic strips. I enjoyed that aspect of the show, but it was never lewd and rarely showed what you can see on a public beach. Or these days, downtown in cities.

It was a sweet, inoffensive showcase of great music with goofy comedy in between the real performers, with a very likeable regular cast. What's wrong with that? Must everything be politically hateful by performers who should shut up and sing?

i remember watching this show with my grandparents. I remember laughing at the comedy and enjoyed the music i would really like to see it in reruns!

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 show lasted nearly a quarter century, but even that hardly seems enough. I'm not that big a fan of the stuff that currently passes for country music, but I love the older stuff. Many of country music's biggest legends guest starred on this show, and several others were regulars at one point or another. This was the last of the successful variety shows on tv and by far the most successful country music show on television. It's doubtful that we'll ever see anything like it again. It's a shame that this show is currently off the air- I don't think you can even catch reruns nowadays. Hopefully, Hee Haw (or at least the early seasons) will eventually become available on DVD. I certainly hope so.

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.

This show was awesome, a lot of things try to be serious comedy or even worse try to be serious and end up being corny. But Hee Haw was a show that not only was it corny, it tired to be corny and it realised in the fact about getting as Corny as you could get. Also, it's seemingly G-rated persona was filled with sexual inuendo. Check out the Hee Haw Honies sweaten it out over the laundry and you'll see what I mean. Not even to mention the Country Music of the day, just where was Conway Twitty, rub in it in, rub it in. This show is a total classic hoot, check it out.

Anyone remember the blond girl on Hee Haw, the one who started out apple cheeked, decked out in bib-front overalls, cute as hell? She wasn't a lead player but started out young, in what seemed to be her early twenties. Then after time she put on weight. It was torment. With which I fully empathized. Anybody know who this is in real life? I've often wondered what was going on with her during those years.

There was another young woman on the show who was always quite overweight and probably better remembered, with a post-show career. She isn't the one I'm thinking of. Instead, this was a somewhat marginal player - she was on-stage but not featured with her own shot in some of the Youtube footage I've see of the cast.

I can't ever forget Roy Clark's supposed Peak Guitar Moment. He carried himself magnificently well most of the time, an all-star performer, clearly. He comes up with this blistering, virtuoso performance of Malaguena or something similarly flamenco. He does a world-class job but while he played, the camera panned bank and forth from his hands to his face. So, a shot of flashy fingering followed by Roy's face looming big as a pumpkin with his chin jammed down to his chest, huffing and puffing with his eyes bugged out. He didn't make it look easy. And, absolutely, it was a notoriously difficult tune to play. I've seen musicians performing with their eyebrows arched or looking off in the distance in some dream-state like they're possessed by some Art Spirit but here's brother Roy, working hard, no pretending.

Back in the seventies I used to watch Hee Haw every Saturday afternoon before Lawrence Welk on CHCH which was station in Hamilton that syndicated both shows. I didn't care much about the comedy but the music was the only thing that made that show great. It's unfortunate you don't see shows of this magnitude unless you have the right people that can make a good show successful. Hee Haw was on for a very longtime which it's run ended in the early nineties which marked an end of an era that lasted over 20 years. It's great the got some DVD's that are now re-leasing the Hee Haw shows from the late 60's to the early seventies. A show like Hee Haw can revive itself by hiring some WWE Diva wannabe's that like to show their assets for television.