Hee Haw

Hee Haw was a long-running U.S. television variety show hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark and featuring country music and humor with rural "Kornfield Kounty" as a backdrop. It was taped at WLAC-TV (now WTVF) and Opryland USA in Nashville. The show's name was derived from the sound a donkey makes when it brays.

Created by Canadian comedy writers Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth, the show started on CBS as a summer 1969 replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Though the show had respectable ratings, it was dropped by CBS in 1971, along with fellow country shows The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, due to network executives' feeling that its viewers reflected the wrong demographics (e.g. rural, somewhat older and less affluent). Undaunted, the producers put together a syndication deal for the show, which continued in basically the same format for 20 more years (though Owens departed in 1986). In many markets, it competed in syndication (usually on early Saturday evenings) against The Lawrence Welk Show, which, for some of the same reasons, was also cancelled and resurrected in syndication in 1971. (In a few areas, "Hee Haw" and Welk were shown back-to-back.)

The show was well-known for its beautiful, voluptuous, scantily clad women in stereotypical Southern farmer's-daughter outfits and its cornpone humor. Hee Haw was a quintessentially American show; and although its appeal was not only limited to a rural audience (depite the fact that it was seen in all large markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), it is virtually unknown outside of the United States. Despite being one of the most successful syndicated television shows in American history, many urbanites and those living in the suburbs of large cities were unfamiliar with the show, while virtually all rural Americans who had television were familiar with Hee Haw--usually they were the show's strongest fans. Its success in the 1970s alerted local stations to the wisdom of scheduling niche programs, those appealing to older or ethnic audiences, in less-prominent time slots.

However, by 1991, a continued decline in its audience, the remaining part of which was aging, led to a dramatic change in setting, to a more urban feel combined with more pop-oriented country music, in an ill-fated attempt to gain younger viewers. The new format lasted a single season, during which the show alienated many of its longtime viewers. In its final 1992 season, the now renamed Hee Haw Silver featured Clark hosting a mixture of classic clips and new footage.

After the show's syndication run ended, reruns aired on The Nashville Network until 1997. Its 22 years in TV syndication was the record for a U.S. program, until "Wheel of Fortune" surpassed it in 2005. At the close of the 2005-2006 season, "Jeopardy" ("Wheel's" sister program, coincidentally) will surpass it also, making "Hee Haw" the third-longest-running off-network American TV program.

Doom, Despair Song:

Doom, Despair and Agony on me...
Deep dark depression, excessive misery...
If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all...
Doom, despair and agony on me.