Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being that Hee Haw was far less topical, and was centered on country music. Initially co-hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark, the show was equally well known for its voluptuous, scantily-clad women in stereotypical farmer's daughter outfits, male stars Jim and Jon Hager and its cornpone humor.
Hee Haw's appeal was not limited to a rural audience. It was successful in all of the major markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Other niche programs such as The Lawrence Welk Show (which targeted older audiences) and Soul Train (a black-oriented program) also rose to prominence in syndication during the era. Like Laugh-In, the show minimized production costs by taping all of the recurring sketches for a season in batches— setting up for the Cornfield one day, the Joke Fence another, etc. At the height of its popularity, an entire year's worth of shows would be taped in two separate week-long sessions, then individual shows would be assembled from edited sections. Only musical performances were taped with a live audience; a laugh track was added to all other segments.
Barbara Ann Mandrell (born December 25, 1948) is an American country music singer best known for a 1970s–1980s series of Top 10 hits and TV shows that helped her become one of country's most successful female vocalists of the 1970s and 1980s. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
She was the first performer and is currently one of two females in country music history to win the Country Music Association's "Entertainer of the Year" award twice (the other being Taylor Swift). She also won the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" twice in 1979 and 1981.
Mandrell's first No. 1 hit was 1978's "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed", immediately followed by "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" in early 1979. In 1980, "Years" also reached No. 1. She added one more chart topper in each of the next three years. "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" (her signature song), then "'Till You're Gone" and "One of a Kind, Pair of Fools"— all hit number one between 1981 and 1983, a period during which Mandrell also received numerous industry awards and accolades.
Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Browns. A brash and colorful personality, Dean was the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in one season. After his playing career, he became a popular television sports commentator. Dean was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
Dean was best known for leading the 1934 "Gashouse Gang" St. Louis team. He had a 30–7 record with a 2.66 ERA during the regular season. His brother, Paul, was also on the roster, and was nicknamed "Daffy", although this was usually only done for press consumption. Though "Diz" sometimes called his brother "Daf", he typically referred to himself and his brother as "Me an' Paul".
The Gashouse Gang was the southernmost and westernmost team in the major leagues at the time, and became a de-facto "America's Team." Team members, particularly Southerners such as the Dean brothers and Pepper Martin, became folk heroes in Depression-ravaged America. Americans saw in these players, dirty and hustling rather than handsome and graceful, a spirit of hard work and perseverance, as opposed to the haughty, highly-paid New York Giants, whom the Cardinals chased for the National League pennant.
Roy Linwood Clark (born April 15, 1933) is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Roy Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre. Most of all, he is an entertainer, with an amiable personality and a telegenic presence.
During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark is highly regarded as a guitarist and banjo player, and is also skilled in classical guitar and several other instruments. Although he has had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God And Greyhound"), his instrumental skill has had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He is a member of the Grand Ole Opry and The Country Music Hall of Fame.
Born in Meherrin, Virginia, Clark grew up in Staten Island, New York and lived as a teenager in Washington, D.C. where his father worked at the Washington Navy Yard. At 14, Clark began playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin, and by age 15 he had already won two National Banjo Championships and world banjo/guitar flatpick championships. He was simultaneously pursuing a sporting career, first as a baseball player, and then as a boxer, before dedicating himself solely to music. At 17, he had his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
Charles Wilburn "Buck" Trent (born February 17, 1938) is an American country music instrumentalist. He invented the electric Banjo and also plays the five-string Banjo, Dobro, Steel Guitar, Mandolin, Electric Bass and Guitar.
Born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Buck started performing on WORD (AM) Radio at the age of 10. He traveled to California and Texas, finally arriving in Nashville in 1959 where he joined the Bill Carlisle Show and first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. He was a member of Porter Wagoner's "Wagon Masters" from 1962 to 1973, and also appeared on the Roy Clark Show and Hee Haw.
Over his long history, Buck has received many awards and nominations. He was twice named the Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year (1975, 1976) and he was twice the #1 Instrumentalist of the Year for the Music City Awards. Included in his nominations are the 1976 #1 Instrumentalist of the Year for Record World, 1972 through 1981 #1 Instrumentalist for the Music City News Awards and in 1979-1981 Instrumental Group of the Year (with Wendy Holcomb in the Bluegrass category) for the Music City News Awards.
HEE-HAW
(HERE COME THE BONE PEOPLE)
It was just a simple case of lobotomy
I'm feeling better now I've found my mind
The leaves on the tree are falling down to the ground
And I'm looking through an illusion in your mirror
Who is the man? Give us a clue
Living on thinners, choking on glue
There ain't no Christmas, there ain't no sin
Come back baby, where you been?
And he said Hee-Haw
And he said Hee-Haw
Here come the bone people
Knock knock knocking on the walls of Jericho
I'm burning in the desert, while some people froze
Movement in my fingers, blood runs from my nose
I'm a trickle in the stream, yeah and the wild wind blows
And he said Hee-Haw
Yeah he said Hee-Haw
Here come the bone people
Who is the man? Give us a clue
We're living on thinners and choking on glue
There ain't no Christmas, there ain't no sin
Come back baby, where you been?
Hee-Haw
Hee-Haw
Here come the bone people
The sky is red, I'm dead
The sky is blue, and so are you
Who is the man? Give us a clue
Living on thinners, you're choking on glue
Knock knock knocking, knock knock knocking
Knock knock knocking on the walls of Jericho
I'm burning in a desert, while some people froze
Movement in my fingers, blood runs from your nose
And I'm a trickle in the stream, while the wild wind blows
And he said Hee-Haw
He said Hee-Haw
Here come the bone people
The sky is red
And I'm dead.
(Wade/Wade/James/Freshwater)