What, Oh, What Happened on the Very First Episode of ‘Hee Haw’?
What happens when you take Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, steep it in war-weary America’s longing for simpler times, and throw in top country music stars for good measure? You get hee-hee hee-hee-hee haw Hee Haw! The long-running CBS variety hour debuted June 15, 1969 and made unlikely weekly TV stars of country music icons Roy Clark, Buck Owens, Minnie Pearl and“Grandpa” Jones, plus comics Junior Samples and Lulu Roman. Hee Haw also helped cement the sexpot status of Petticoat Junction stars Jeannine Riley and Gunilla Hutton.
Though it took a few seasons to really gain a following, Hee Haw proved a hit with both rural and urban audiences and really gained steam when it entered first-run syndication in 1971. In fact, the show, deemed tame enough for Saturday primetime family viewing, was popular enough that it ran a whopping 25 seasons. And it became a must-do gig for loads of country music superstars, including Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Tom T. Hall, Reba McEntire, Ray Stevens and Lynn Anderson.
So what happened on the very first episode of Hee Haw? Here are the details.
Everett Collection
Signature skits
The show promised big laughs from its yodeling opening theme song, performed with gusto by Clark and Owens and interspersed with clips of cast members yukking it up. To keep the guffaws going, that was immediately followed by Samples and fellow comedian Archie Campbell telling jokes to various cast members surrounded by cornstalks, a regular shtick that would become known as Kornfield Jokes. After each punchline, the rest of the cast popped up to offer a hearty “Heeeeeeee Haw!” of appreciation (or sometimes an equally hearty boo).
The rest of the hour introduced the show’s signature rapid-fire joke segments and long-running skits. Among them:
The Culhanes of Kornfield County: this pseudo soap opera entailed little more than Tapp, Samples, Jones and Roman tucked snuggly onto a couch where the ‘merely foolish’ family addressed such pressing issues as their zodiac signs and what to talk about during their sole telephone call of the year. The skit made particularly good use of Samples — cane-toting and generally unburdened by expression — who forever looked like he was surprised to find himself on TV.
Pfft! You Was Gone!: A sort of cornpone “50 ways to lose your lover,” this musical laugher featured Campbell and Gordie Tapp singing a memorable ditty about a lovelorn gent searching the world over for his wayward sweetheart. Each time, the tune ended the same way. The fellows (plus game guest stars in later years) revealed that their gal met another and pfft! — insert saliva shower here — she was gone.
The Moonshiners: Not much more to this quickie than two cast members, ostensibly liquored up, lounging on the ground in the company of a few pretty girls, some jugs of ‘shine and a big ol’ snoozy bloodhound originally named Kingfish the Wonder Dog. Kingfish would be succeeded by lookalikes Beauregard the Wonder Dog and Buford the Wonder Dog in later seasons.
KORN News — Hee Haw’s faux radio news break featured comic Don Harron as Charlie Farquharson reporting the weather, hyping local businesses and announcing other goings-on in good old Kornfield County.
Memorable Music
The first musical number of the episode belonged to Buck Owens and his Buckeroos performing “Johnny B. Goode,” while Riley, Roman, and their fellow cast mates the Hager Twins and Loretta Lynn lookalike Jennifer Bishop happily shimmied and frugged on hay bales around them. Owens later returned to sing his “Who’s Going to Mow Your Grass.”
Clark soloed on future guest star Waylon Jennings‘ “Sally Was a Good Old Girl.” Grandpa Jones — who, despite his elderly feller appearance and “grandpa” persona, was only in his mid-50s when the show began — performed a rollicking “The Banjo Am the Instrument for Me.” Yes, am.
And the silky-haired Hager twins catered to the rock ‘n roll youth in the viewing audience with a groovy version of “Gamblin’ Man.”
As for the episode’s musical guest stars, Loretta Lynn sang her self-penned 1968 hit “Your Squaw is on the Warpath Tonight.” And rising country trailblazer Charley Pride warbled the Hank Williams smashes “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” and “Kaw-Liga.”
Minnie Pearl, a Mark Twain twin and more
Other Hee Haw favorites made their debut appearances, too. Tapp’s Mark Twain lookalike “Samuel B. Sternwheeler ” told a few jokes. Pearl gathered the cast for some countrified stories, then snuggled up to Clark for some one-off punchlines. Ben Colder, aka Sheb Wooley, who had a novelty smash with 1958’s “The Purple People Eater,” gave a comically tipsy musical performance. “Hee Haw Girl” Cathy Baker and the show’s ever-present animated donkey took turns taking the audience into and out of commercial breaks.
And before “Mr. Clark” and “Mr. Owens” bid each other and the audience goodnight until the next week, Jimmy Riddle and Jackie, aka The Hambone Brothers, made their Hee Haw debut — a debut that doubtlessly brought overwhelming joy to little boys everywhere who’d been told they’d never amount to anything if they didn’t stop acting like ding dongs and making flatulence sounds with their hands.
Who were your favorite Hee Haw regulars?
Remind 
Queens of Country
November 2019
Get your toes-tapping as we give a nod to the queens of classic country music.
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