I am from Memphis, Tennessee. Every Saturday night from the early 1970s until probably the late 1980s we got a show called Hee-Haw starring Buck Owens and Roy Clark. There were many Opry Stars and legends like Grandpa Jones and Minnie pearl on this wonderful program. This was a show that fundies and southern liberals enjoyed together. It had some innocent sex humor, (hee-Haw honeys, like Hootler girls) but it was also somewhat conservative, with the country theme. many times they would even have a gospel number. they also did crap like "Hee Haw salutes my hometown Yeehaw, South Carolina, population 1,312. Saaa-loote! The cartoon mascot was a mule, the show even had a bloodhound.
If you are 30 and above and from the south and the mid-west, you know Hee-Haw. Hee-Haw was like a redneck laugh-in. I know Bill Clinton has seen it before, but I wonder if Howard Dean ever had? Thus is my query…
My question, did stations in places like New York, Boston, San Francisco or Los Angeles carry this program? Were there Hee Haw fans in Manhattan, Harvard square, Castro Street, or the hood who liked this program? Was this show shown in Canada or elsewhere?
If you liked Hee Haw outside of redneckville, admit it!
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…
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 Pbbbt, you was gone…
I’m from Mich, which isn’t listed in your OP, but we used to get it. I watched it when I was really young, but kind of lost interest as I got older.
“Hee-Haw” was on for years in this neck of the woods. I’m not much of a music fan, but it was all presented well and they really did seem to be enjoying themselves. Thought most of the humor was good[remember radio station K-O-R-N?] and Granpa Jones’ monologues.
I always assumed it aired all over the country. Were there any benighted areas that missed this? The redneck “Laugh-in” description is apt. Did the cast ever appear at the Grand Ol’ Opry, or is the Opry reserved strictly for singers?
We saw it in Vermont. I’d quote my favorite part, but Odinoneeye beat me to it…
My favorite Hee-Haw gal was Maryanne Gordon, IIRC Kenny Rodger’s wife…
I recall a segment on “Laugh-in” where two CBS network executives were conferring behind a closed door: “OK, what are we going to call this new show? How about ‘Laugh-In’?” “No, that one’s taken. How about ‘Hee-Haw’?” (Laugh-In ran on NBC)
I used to watch Hee-Haw, but I got disgusted with it after I tried to buy a used car from one of their advertisers. I kept calling him at BR-549 but he’d never call me back.
Sure, got it in New York City, but I don’t remember anybody being a huge fan around here, you sort of gazed at it bemused in bars and at parties and stuff. It was so alien STAR TREK was closer to my real life
We watched Hee-Haw on AFRTS (American Forces Radio and Television Service) in Germany in the late 70s. Every kid in my elementary school knew all the words to “Where O Where Are You Tonight”.
I don’t know which markets it played in specifically, but I do recall Roy Clark boasting that the two most popular syndicated shows of the 1970s were Hee-haw and Lawrence Welk – both after they had been canceled by their networks.
It was shown in Philly and my family watched it and I thought it was funny. What was that family, The Calhouns of something County, or something like that? That was my favorite bit. IIRC that bit always ended with Junior Samples saying “yup”. My brother’s and I used to sing that “doom despair and agony” song, and also the “where oh where are you tonight” song. We thought they were hilarious. I was always under the impression that it was syndicated nationally.
By the way… Does anyone else agree that Buck Owens was one of the homliest guys ever to walk the face of the earth. Man, did that guy EVER get beat by the ugly stick!
A regular Hee-Haw viewer from New York checking in. But I’m guessing when you asked about New York, you meant Noo Yawk (the city not the state). I grew up in the northernmost part of the state, which is so rural we considered Vermonters to be sophisticated cityfolk.
I read a Bizarro cartoon about ten years ago that showed a guy in Hell looking at a TV set. The caption read: “Hey, this place isn’t so bad! They have TV here. Wait a minute…every channel has Hee Haw on it.”
