Rural network harvests corny Hee Haw reruns
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Reruns of the old corn-pone comedy-variety show Hee Haw are coming back.
The one-hour programs will air at 7 p. m. Sundays beginning Sept. 7 on cable’s RFD-TV, which bills itself as “rural America’s most important network.”
“Hee Haw and RFD-TV is a match made in heaven,” Patrick Gottsch, the channel’s founder and president, says.
Hee Haw was on the air somewhere for 28 years — first on CBS for two years starting in 1969, then in first-run syndication for two decades. Reruns aired on the old Nashville Network cable station from 1994 to 1997 and briefly on CMT in 2006.
Country performers Roy Clark and Buck Owens were co-hosts, Clark for the entire run and Owens for 17 seasons.
The show, which got its name from the sound of a donkey braying, began as a country version of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
RFD, based in Omaha, Neb., with production facilities in Nashville, has been on the air since December 2000 and is available in 35 million homes. Its programming includes livestock auctions, tractor pulls, rodeo events, cooking shows and variety programs. It also simulcasts Imus in the Morning featuring radio personality Don Imus.
Many segments of Hee Haw portrayed people in overalls and straw hats who lived in Kornfield Kounty. Regulars included George Lindsey, Junior Samples, Minnie Pearl, Archie Campbell, Roy Acuff, Misty Rowe, Lisa Todd, Gunilla Hutton, Barbi Benton and twins Jim and Jon Hager. On the Web: www. rfdtv. com
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