Hee Haw

History

Creation

On CBS

In syndication

Reruns

Cast members

Recurring sketches and segments

• "PFFT! You Was Gone!" — A comedic duet featured on the premiere episode. In the first few seasons, the song was performed by Archie Campbell, with Gordie Tapp joining on the chorus. In later seasons, a guest star would join Campbell on the chorus, and the guest star's name would be mentioned somewhere in the song's verse prior to the chorus. On episodes that featured more than one major guest star, the sketch would be repeated so that all the guest stars would have an opportunity to participate. Tapp or the guest star would often stand with his or her back to the viewer holding a pitchfork while Campbell, or the other cast member, holding a scythe, sang the verse. At the end of the verse, Campbell or the cast member would nudge Tapp or the guest star with his or her elbow, as a form of slapstick timing, whereby Tapp or the guest star would then spin around to the camera to join him or her on the chorus:
• KORN News — Don Harron, as KORN radio announcer Charlie Farquharson, would humorously spoof the delivery of local news, in his own inimitable way. In later seasons, KORN would become KORV. Harron had been performing the character since 1952 on Canadian television, and would continue playing Farquharson in many other media venues before, during and after Hee Haw.
• Lulu's Truck Stop — Lulu Roman owned this greasy spoon, where the food and customer service was usually pretty bad; Gailard Sartain was also in this sketch as the chef Orville, and George Lindsay often appeared in the sketch as their goofy patron.
• Hee Haw Players — Cast members take on some of the Shakespeare classics, with some unexpected twists.
• Hee Haw Amateur Minute — A showcase of some of the worst talent of all. A cast member would play some yokel who would have some kind of bad talent, which would almost always end up with the audience booing it; throwing vegetables and the hook operator yanking said act forcibly off the stage. After the sketch, five animated cartoon animals would appear onscreen booing as well.
• Samuel B. Sternwheeler — Gordie Tapp in a spoof of author Mark Twain giving off some homilies which intentionally made little or no sense whatsoever. After these recitations, he would most often be hit over the head with a rubber chicken or, in later years, be given a bomb or something that would eventually explode, leaving him covered in soot and a shredded suit.
• Stringbean's Letter From Home - Cast members would sit around a barn porch setting, listening to Stringbean read a letter that he receives from home. The letters included stories delivered in punch line format.
• The Haystack— A male cast member, and one of the Hee Haw Honeys talk about love issues while sitting at the haystack.
• Colonel Daddy's Daughter — Marianne Gordon was the pampered Southern belle daughter of her Colonel Daddy. She would sit on the swing at her plantation home, and would speak about the generosity of her Daddy. In later sketches, Tapp's character would no longer be seen but was always referenced to by his spoiled daughter, though the later seasons saw Tapp reprising his role of Samuel Sternwheeler giving romantic advice to his daughter. This sketch replaced the "Samuel B. Sternwheeler" sketch, which had previously been discontinued.
• The Moonshiners — Two of the male cast members, playing a couple of lethargic hillbillies, who would lazily tell a joke while dozing on the floor near a bunch of moonshine jugs and Beauregard the Wonder Dog, with three or four of the Hee Haw Honeys reclining in the background. Occasionally in later seasons, the camera would zoom in on two of the reclining Honeys lazily telling the joke.
• School Scenes — There were always school scenes throughout the series' run. At first, it was with Jennifer Bishop and Lulu Roman as the put-upon teachers, with most notably Junior Samples and Roy Clark as the students. When Minnie Pearl became the teacher, the set was a larger classroom with, at first, real children as the students, but would later return to the cast members playing children, with Pearl still as the teacher. In the later seasons, George Lindsay as the school bully would talk about his day in school.
• Advice to the Lovelorn — Hee Haw Honey Lisa Todd, reclining on a living room sofa, gives wacky love advice in a sultry manner and closes the sketch by winking at the camera. In later seasons of the sketch, George Lindsay, who provided the voice-over introduction in earlier seasons, now appeared on screen wearing a leisure suit, introducing the sketch.
• The Culhanes of Kornfield Kounty — The adventures of the Culhane family, depicted as all they did was sit on an old-fashioned sofa in the parlor, which focused on Cousin Clem Culhane ; Cousin Junior Culhane ; Cousin Grandpa Culhane ; and Cousin Lulu Culhane who would sit in deadpan character and comment, à la soap opera. After the death of Samples, his role was filled by cast member Mike Snider in the role of Cousin Mike.
• Pickin' and Grinnin — Musical interludes with Owens and Clark and the entire cast, with the duo "dueling" by playing guitar and banjo the instrumental to "Cripple Creek," telling jokes and reciting one-liners. The sketch always ended with Clark's banjo solo, each time ending a different comical way. For the first couple of seasons the sketch featured only Clark and Owens, and in later seasons the entire cast participated. When the entire cast began participating, the sketch was introduced by the show's emcee Cathy Baker. This sketch at first would always open the second half of the show before alternating with the "Hee Haw Honky Tonk" sketch in the later seasons.
• Samples Sales — Junior Samples, as a used car salesman, would try to palm off a major "clunker" and then hold up a sign to remind viewers that his phone number was "BR-549". The reason for the change from BR-549 to BR-1Z1Z was during the 1980 season, Junior gave up the car lot and became a "consumer advocate", whose job was to save the public from dishonest people like himself. The next season, he went back to the car lot gig but changed the number. Hee Haw Honey Misty Rowe joined Samples in later seasons as his assistant, and during this time Samples at one point would guise himself as a magician, whom Rowe would introduce as "Junior the Great."
• "Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me" — Another popular sketch usually performed by four male cast members sitting around in hillbilly garb surrounded by moonshine jugs and looking overtly miserable. The song began with the chorus, which all of them sang with each one alternating a mournful howl after each of the first three lines. The chorus went:
• The Gossip Girls — This sketch is the female counterpart of "Gloom, Despair...", which featured four female cast members surrounding a washtub and clothes wringer singing the chorus:
• "Hee Haw Salutes..." — Two or three times in each episode, Hee Haw would salute a selected town and announce its population, which was sometimes altered for levity, at which point the entire cast would then "pop up" in the Cornfield set, shouting "SAA-LUTE!!" Initially ending with laughter, this was changed by the mid-1970s to applause as a nod toward legitimately saluting small-town America. Also in the early 1980s, John Henry Faulk would salute a figure in American history, which would receive the same appropriate nodding applause. In the later seasons, the cast would say "Salute" on the Pickin' and Grinnin' set.
• The Joke Fence — Two or three times during each show a cast member, standing in front of a high wooden fence, would tell a one liner joke. ' Regardless of whether the joke teller was female or male, a portion of the fence would swing upward and hit them on the rear end after the punch line was delivered.
• Archie's Barber Shop — Archie Campbell as the local barber, with regular customer Roy Clark, and two or three other regulars sitting in the "waiting chairs". Campbell would share comic dialog with Clark or tell one of his "backwards fairy tales" such as "Rindercella." In the later seasons, the sketch would began with a sign that read, "Meanwhile, down at the barbershop..." surrounded by two barber poles before dissolving into the sketch.
• Doc Campbell — This long-running sketch featured Archie Campbell playing the part of a doctor who often gave out terrible advice and bizarre medical "facts." Patients would often be one of the show's cast members. The sketch is also remembered for cast member Gunilla Hutton's role as Doc Campbell's assistant, Nurse Goodbody. In later seasons, the sketch featured only Doc Campbell and Nurse Goodbody, with the sketch beginning with Campbell shouting, "Nurse Goodbody," to which she would hurry into the office, nervously answering "Yes, Doctor," and gyrating her hips.
• Justus O'Peace — This sketch featured Archie Campbell as a judge who wore what looked to be a bowler hat, a red undershirt, and suspenders sentencing people to long jail time for some of the silliest misdemeanor "crimes." Kenny Price also made occasional appearances as the sheriff. Years later Archie's son, Phil Campbell, as well as Gordie Tapp, appeared in a recurring sketch about two police officers. They also did a courtroom sketch with Dub Taylor as the judge and Gailard Sartain in his role of Cletus Biggs from "Biggs, Shy, and Stir."
• "Uh-huh, Oh Yeah!"—Cast member and banjo picker Buck Trent would recite a comical poem, talking blues-style to his banjo instrumental. At the end of the poem, Trent would go into a crescendo of "Uh-huh"'s and finish with a climactic "Oh, yeah!" In later seasons of the sketch, an animated critter would appear onscreen at the end of the sketch, carrying a sign that poked fun at the poem, to which Trent would then respond in a comical way.
• Hee Haw Dictionary — Archie Campbell, dressed in a graduate's cap and gown, would give the definition of a word with a comic twist. Sometimes wads of paper would fly into the scene as a way of punishing the bad joke that was told.
• Gordie's General Store — Gordie Tapp as the owner of a general merchandise store. It was also a place where one of the cast members would tell a comedic story in early seasons. In later seasons, the focus shifted from Kornfield Kounty residents stopping by to the comedic banter of Tapp and Gailard Sartain, who played the role of Gordie's incompetent employee Maynard, who often would send Tapp into fits of anger or agony by the sketch's end.
• "Real Incredible" — This sketch, which ran in the early 1980s, was Hee Haw's parody of TV's two popular reality series that ran during that period: ABC's That's Incredible and NBC's Real People. Don Harron, in his role of Charlie Farquharson, hosted the sketch, comedically introducing it by transposing the shows' two titles: "Welcome to Real Incredible." Assisted by George Lindsay, the sketch at first showed clips of actual rural folks engaging in unusual activities; but was later spoofed by cast members involved in comical, and obviously fictional, unusual activities.
• Misty's Bedtime Stories — This sketch featured bedtime stories delivered by cast member Misty Rowe. Grandpa Jones or George Lindsay would be heard off-screen introducing the sketch in a near-whisper, "And now it's time for Misty's Bedtime Stories." A lit candle would be sitting on the night stand beside her bed and Rowe would deliver one of her bizarre stories, sometimes a rewritten nursery rhyme. By the sketch's end, she would deliver a comical "moral to the story," giggle, wink at the camera, and blow out the candle.
• Empty Arms Hotel — Roy Clark as the head desk clerk at one of the few accommodations in all of Kornfield Kounty, who would pop up from behind the front desk after the bell was rung, usually by a complaining guest.
• Goober's Garage — George Lindsay, in his Andy Griffith Show role of Goober, as the owner of the local garage where he would talk about cars and jalopies with whoever appeared in the sketch that week. Sometimes, non-cast member Jack Burns would appear in the sketch as the city slicker/con-artist type trying to pull a fast one, with Goober emerging more intelligent. For a short time in the early 1980s, after Burns' run, Chase Randolph appeared in the sketch as a muscular "hunk" mechanic hired by Goober and being pursued by Honeys Diana Goodman, Misty Rowe, and Nancy Traylor. The running gag of Randolph's run was that Randolph was more interested in fixing up his hot rod than giving in to the advances of the girls, while Goober then offered to go out with the girls instead — only to strike out miserably. In later seasons, after Randolph's run, Goober was joined in the sketch by Goodman, Rowe, and Lisa Todd as his beautiful but not very bright mechanics.
• The Farmer's Daughter — Cast member Linda Thompson as the daughter of a strict farmer. The running gag in the sketch was that Price would always come up with clever ways to thwart Thompson's dates with her boyfriend Billy Bob.
• The Weather Girl — A spin-off of "KORN News," where Hee Haw Honey Lisa Todd would spoof the weather forecast. Grandpa Jones appeared with Todd and she would determine the forecast according to the condition of Jones' knee. In later seasons, Gailard Sartain, wearing an inflated globe costume, accompanied Todd as her human weather map, who would chase Todd off the set by the sketch's end.
• "Hee Haw's All-Jug Band" — A musical sketch, featuring most of the female cast members, singing a comical song, in which the punch line differed each week. Cast member Lulu Roman "played" moonshine jugs, which partially explains the sketch's title. Minnie Pearl introduced the sketch each week, loudly announcing, "We're gonna play now!" At the end of the song, she would similarly conclude "We're through playin' now!"
• "Hey Grandpa! What's For Supper?" — Grandpa Jones is cleaning a window pane and when the entire cast asks, "Hey, Grandpa, what's for supper?," he recites a dinner menu in poetic verse. Often, he describes a delicious, country-style meal, and the cast would reply approvingly, "Yum-m yum-m!" Sometimes he would serve a less than spectacular meal ', to which the cast would reply, "Yuck!" One notable run-through of the routine had Grandpa saying "Ah ain't got nuthin'," which would be one of the few times he ever got booed during this routine. The second time was when he offered "a big fresh roast of good moose meat." In the later seasons, Grandpa would wear a chef's hat with his head peaking out of an open kitchen doorway, but the menu recitals remained the same.
• Grandpa and Minnie's Kitchen — This sketch, which ran throughout most of the 1970s, spoofed TV cooking shows in which Grandpa Jones and Minnie Pearl would deliver hilarious recipes that made no sense.
• Jerry Ralph R.B. "Bob" Bevis — This is a sketch that appeared mostly in the 1980s and it featured Gailard Sartain as the owner of a small store/flea market attempting to sell junk. The sketch would start with a hand-held camera zooming up to the front door and the door being flung open to reveal the fast-talking salesman standing behind the counter surrounded by the junk he was trying to sell. The character was a clown with red cheeks, and wild, clown-like hair. The running joke was his attempts at becoming a big singing star; and at the end of every sketch, just as he is preparing to pull out a guitar and starts to sing, the camera would zoom out and the door would swing shut.
• Biggs, Shy, & Stir — This featured Gailard Sartain as "Cletus Biggs of Biggs, Shy, & Stir," Kornfield Kounty's most honorable law firm, where our motto is, 'When in doubt, sue!'" He would advertise the week's "special" such as "Sue Your Parents Week" or "Sue Your Teacher Week," etc. He always concluded the sketch by saying, "Remember, we're in the alley behind the courthouse above the pool hall!"
• The Cornfield — Vignettes patterned after Laugh-In's "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 1973 murder, Stringbean was not replaced; and a wooden scarecrow was simply seen in the field as a memorial. Guest stars often participated in this sketch as well; and on occasion, personalities from TV stations that carried Hee Haw, as well as country music radio personalities, would appear in this sketch with Owens or Clark.
• The Naggers — This sketch featured Gordie Tapp and Roni Stoneman as LaVern and Ida Lee Nagger, a backwoods bickering couple, inspired in part by the radio comedy The Bickersons. Kenny Price made occasional appearances ' as their son Elrod; and Wendy Suits of the show's background singing group the Nashville Edition would sometimes play Ida Lee's equally nagging mother.
• Kornfield Kounty Operator Assistance — Irlene Mandrell as Kornfield Kounty's telephone operator would answer phone calls from various Kornfield Kounty residents, who would eventually hang up in various degrees of frustration, causing operator Mandrell to often say, innocently, "And they wonder why we telephone operators turn gray!"
• Grinder's Switch Gazette—This sketch featured Minnie Pearl as the manager of the local newspaper who often insisted that her mute secretary, Miss Honeydew, take down an "important" news item which was always nonsense.
• About 200 Years Ago — This sketch, which ran in 1976 in celebration of the Bicentennial year, was a parody of CBS' "Bicentennial Minutes"; in the sketch, Grandpa Jones would deliver a fractured historical "fact" about the Revolutionary War era. Jones then concluded the sketch with a knockoff of Walter Cronkite's signature sign-off line, "I'm Grandpa Jones and that's the way it was, 200 years ago...er, more or less."
• The Almanac — A sketch that ran in the late 1970s, where Grandpa Jones would deliver almanac entries that made no sense. Jones then concluded the sketch with a knockoff of the proverb "truth is stranger than fiction," with Jones replacing the word "fiction" with the name of a well-known celebrity.
• Archie's Angels — Aired in the mid-1970s, this sketch was Hee Haw's knockoff of Charlie's Angels, the popular TV crime show from that period. Three of the Honeys portrayed the Angels, with Archie Campbell's voice giving them humorous "assignments" over an intercom, as with the actual Charlie's Angels TV show.
• "Let's Truck Together" — This sketch reflected the CB radio craze during the mid-to-late 1970s. Kenny Price and Gailard Sartain, as truck drivers, would swap funny stories and one-liners with each other over the CB airwaves.
• Hee Haw Honky Tonk — With the Urban Cowboy craze in full swing in the early 1980s, Hee Haw answered with its very own Urban Cowboy-esque honky-tonk. The sketch was a spin-off of "Pickin' and Grinnin'," with cast members, as patrons of the honky tonk, throwing out one-liners between parts of the "Hee Haw Honky Tonk" song. The honky tonk was replete with its mechanical bull and also included a background conversation track during the one-liners to add to the realism of an actual nightclub. The sketch also at times featured Roni Stoneman, in her role of Ida Lee Nagger, chasing men with a net. The sketch was also patterned after the Party on Laugh-In''. The "Hee Haw Honky Tonk" set also became the main stage for most of the musical performances for the rest of the series' run.
• Kurl Up and Dye — This is a sketch from the show's later years, which featured several of the cast members in a beauty parlor where they would gossip. From time to time, Gailard Sartain would appear in drag as one of the fussy women.
• Fit as a Fiddle — This sketch ran in the 1980s to reflect the aerobic dancing craze of that period. The sketch featured several of the female cast members including Diana Goodman, Victoria Hallman, Gunilla Hutton, Misty Rowe, Nancy Traylor, Linda Thompson and Jackie Waddell and male cast members Jeff Smith and Kelly Billingsey delivering one-liner jokes while aerobic dancing. Sometimes cast member Smith would be seen on an exercise cycle in the background.
• Slim Pickens' Bar-B-Q — Slim Pickens would have his friends over at a barbecue at his home, where a musical guest or cast members would perform. The segment would always open up spoofing Burma-Shave road signs as some of the cast members were seen piled on a truck driving down the road to Slim Pickens' Bar-B-Q, whose guests often complained about the food, to which Pickens would counter with something like "I may not have prime meat at this picnic, but I do have prime entertainment!" Then he would bring out the entertainment.
• The Post Office — Minnie Pearl and Grandpa Jones ran the post office, who often dealt with unhappy customers.
• The Quilt — Minnie Pearl gave romantic advice to several of the Hee Haw Honeys while sitting around in a circle, making a quilt.
• Knock Knock — Buck Owens told a knock-knock joke to an unsuspecting cast member or guest star. If the guest star was a major country artist, the joke would be written to reveal the punch-line answer to be the title to one of the singer's biggest hits, which Owens would then sing badly on purpose.
• The Hambone Brothers — Jackie Phelps doing some rhythmic knee-slapping, while Jimmy Riddle eefed.
• Stories from John Henry Faulk and Rev. Grady Nutt — Beginning in the late 1970s, John Henry Faulk, followed in later seasons by Rev. Grady Nutt, would sit around in a circle with some of the male cast members on the set of Gordie's General Store telling some of their humorous stories. At the beginning of Grady Nutt's sketches, Grandpa Jones would introduce Nutt as "Hee Haw's very own Prime Minister of Humor." These sketches discontinued after Nutt's death in a plane crash in 1982.
• Ben Colder — A singer of cheesy parodies of popular country songs. Sheb Wooley had created the character before the show began and portrayed the character during his time on the show and his guest appearances.
• Claude Strawberry, Country Poet — Roy Clark played a poet reminiscent of Mark Twain who would recite poems with a country twist.
• The Little Yellow Chicken — An animated little yellow chicken who would always mistake anything and everything for an egg. The chicken would sit on items, such as a ringside bell, a man's bald head, a billiard ball, a football, a golf ball and even a bomb, with various disastrous results. The little chicken was produced by Format Films.
• Animated Critters — Interspersed within the show, besides the above-mentioned chicken, were various applauding or laughing animated farm animals; a kickline composed of pigs during an instrumental performance; a pack of dogs that would chase an extremely bad joke teller; three sultry pigs that twirled their necklaces during an instrumental performance; a square dancing female pig and a male donkey to an instrumental performance; a pair of chickens dancing, with one of them falling flat on its face; the ubiquitous Hee Haw donkey, who would say quips such as, "Wouldn't that dunk your hat in the creek," and a pig that would sneak up on a musical guest, kiss him on the cheek and sneak off after his performance. Sometimes, certain animals would carry appropriate signs with some kind of quip. The animation was produced by Format Films.

Musical legacy

• The Million Dollar Band — This was an instrumental band formed of legendary Nashville musicians Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph, Roy Clark, Floyd Cramer, Charlie McCoy, Danny Davis, Jethro Burns, and Johnny Gimble ; who would frequently appear on the show from 1980 through 1988. The band would perform an instrumental version of a popular song, with each member showcasing his talent on his respective instrument.
• The Hee Haw Gospel Quartet — This group sang a gospel hymn just before the show's closing. The original lineup consisted of Buck Owens, Roy Clark, Grandpa Jones, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. Ford was later replaced by Kenny Price. In contrast to Hee Haw's general levity, the quartet's performance was treated solemnly, with no laughter or applause from the audience. Jones did not wear his signature hat during the segment, and would frequently appear entirely out of his "Grandpa" costume. In the first few seasons that featured the Quartet, cast member Lulu Roman would introduce the group along with the hymn they were about to perform. Several of the Quartet's performances were released as recordings. Joe Babcock took over as lead singer after Owens left the show, and Ray Burdette took over as bass singer after the death of Kenny Price; but the Quartet was not featured as often from that point on. However, the show still closed with a gospel song—if not by the Quartet, then by either the entire cast, a guest gospel artist, or cast member Lulu Roman. The concept of the Quartet was based on the 1940s group the Brown's Ferry Four, which recorded for King Records and included Grandpa Jones, the Delmore Brothers and Merle Travis. Jones suggested the idea to the show's producers, supported by Clark.
• The Hagers — This twin brother singing duo would also perform a song each week on the show. They would often perform their own versions of pop/rock songs from the 1960s and '70s.
• Performances by cast members — In addition to hosts Buck Owens and Roy Clark, who would perform at least one song each week, other cast members—such as Gunilla Hutton, Misty Rowe, Victoria Hallman, Grandpa Jones, Kenny Price, Archie Campbell, Barbi Benton, The Nashville Edition, Vicki Bird, and Diana Goodman—would occasionally perform a song on the show; and the show would almost always open with a song performed by the entire cast.
• The Hee Haw Cowboy Quartet — This group, patterned after the Hee Haw Gospel Quartet, was short-lived, having formed near the end of the series' run. Like the group name suggests; the quartet, dressed in cowboy costumes, would perform a western song in the style of the Sons of the Pioneers on a Western-style stage setting.
• Cloggers — Throughout the 1980s, several champion clogging groups would frequently appear on the show, performing their clogging routines.
• Child singers — For a brief time in the early 1980s, child singers, mostly in the 10- to 12-year-old bracket, would occasionally appear on the show performing a popular song. Such guests included Kathy Kitchen, Stacy Lynn Ries, and Cheryl Handy.

Guest stars

Stage settings

Elvis connection

''Hee Haw Honeys'' (spin-off series)

Hee Haw Theater

Comic book adaptations

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

Legacy

Footnotes