RFD-TV Corrals ‘Hee Haw’ For Sunday Lineup
Classic Variety Show Set in ‘Kornfield Kounty’ Anchors Sunday Schedule
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 8/12/2008 10:02:00 AM
RFD-TV has rustled up the vintage variety show Hee Haw for its program lineup, starting Sept. 7, officials said Tuesday.
The Hee Haw episodes will anchor RFD-TV’s new Sunday night lineup at 8 p.m. ET and repeat Monday mornings. RFD-TV plans to run the Hee Haw episodes in the same order they originally aired.
“Hee Haw should be of particular interest to RFD-TV viewers, as this classic show, by far, has been the No. 1 request to be added to our program lineup for the last three years,” RFD-TV founder and president Patrick Gottsch said in a prepared statement.
The show began as a summer replacement for CBS’ Smothers Brothers Show in June 1969, and moved to first-run syndication after 51 episodes. At its height, Hee Haw was the nation’s No.1-rated, non-network show with the residents of Kornfield Kounty reaching 90% of U.S. households on 220 television stations. Ultimately, the program became one of the longest first-run syndicated TV shows in history, producing 585 one-hour shows.
Hee Haw was a variety show that embraced the rural lifestyle of the South with skits, curvy country girls and corny jokes. The undeniable highlight of Hee Haw was the musical performances that filled each episode, not only by co-hosts Buck Owens and Roy Clark, but an array of country music superstars and singers on the rise performing music that ranged from classic country to contemporary, and gospel to bluegrass.
Among the country stars who dropped in on the cast were George Jones, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, and Hank Williams Jr.
