This insistence paved the way for shows such as Hee Haw and variety shows hosted by country singers like Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell.

Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop.

The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being that Hee Haw was far less topical, and was centered on country music and rural Southern culture.

From 1969 until the late 1980s, Hee Haw was produced by Yongestreet Productions, named after Yonge Street, a major thoroughfare in Toronto.

Hee Haw started on CBS-TV as a summer 1969 replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

During the show's peak in popularity, Hee Haw often competed in syndication against The Lawrence Welk Show, a long-running ABC program which had also been canceled in 1971, also in an attempt to purge the networks of older demographic-leaning programs.

Like Hee Haw, Lawrence Welk was picked up for syndication in the fall of 1971, and there were some markets where the same station aired both programs.

( The success of Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk in syndication, and the network decisions that led to their respective cancellations, were the inspiration for a novelty song called " The Lawrence Welk-Hee Haw Counter-Revolution Polka ," performed by Clark ; the song became a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in the fall of 1972.

Mirroring the long downward trend in the popularity of variety shows in general that had taken place in the 1970s, ratings began to decline for Hee Haw by the mid-1980s, a trend that continued into the early 1990s.

The changes included a new title ( The Hee Haw Show ), more pop-oriented country music, and the barnyard-cornfield setting replaced by a city street and shopping mall set.

During the summer of 1992, a decision was made to end first-run production, and instead air highlights of the show's earlier years in a revamped program called Hee Haw Silver ( as part of celebrating the show's 25th year ).

Its 24th season is referred to the batch of shows that aired from January through May 1992 when it was re-titled The Hee Haw Show.

The Hee Haw Silver episodes spotlighted many of the classic comedy skits and moments from the show, with a series of retrospective looks at performers who had since died, such as David " Stringbean " Akeman, Archie Campbell, Junior Samples, and Kenny Price.

Hee Haw continued to pop up in reruns ( see below for details ) throughout the 1990s and later during the following decade, in a series of successful DVD releases from Time Life.

surpassed it also, making Hee Haw currently the fifth-longest-running off-network American TV program, though the longest of its genre.

Reruns of Hee Haw began airing on RFD-TV in September 2008, and the show has aired there since, currently anchoring the network's Sunday night lineup with a re-airing of that week's episode the following Monday.

Concurrent with this special was the unveiling of a Hee Haw exhibit, titled Pickin ' and Grinnin, at the Oklahoma History center.

In later seasons, harmonica player Charlie McCoy joined the cast and eventually formed the Hee Haw Band, which became the house band for the rest of the series ' run.

Some of the most popular sketches and segments on Hee Haw included:

" Hee Haw " magazine ( Vol.

1, No. 2, July 1970, A Charlton Publication ) attributes this song to Susan Heather ( a pseudonym used by Marian B. Yarneall ), ( c ) 1952, 1965 by Mamy Music Corp out of Paoli, Pa. Later references show copyrights held by Gaylord Program Services, Inc. out of Nashville, TN, but this may be because Gaylord holds the copyrights for " Hee Haw.

* Hee Haw Amateur Minute: A showcase of some of the worst talent of all.

* The Haystack: A male cast member and a woman ( usually one of the Hee Haw Honeys ) talk about love issues while sitting at the haystack ( the skits began with just the top of the haystack on camera and then panned down to reveal the couple ).

Two albums were subsequently released under the Hee Bee Gee Bees name, featuring parodies of various pop groups that had originally been featured in the Radio Active radio series, where all three of the comedians were cast members.

In June 2012, Kong Hee and four other church members were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust for misusing over SGD $ 50 million of church money, much of it to finance the music career of his wife Sun Ho.

In June 2012, Kong Hee and four other members of the church were arrested by the CAD.

; Won Hee: A third year student, he tends to be one of the most charismatic members of the gang and also the one that talks the most other than Ghoon-Hahm.

In 1969, Akeman and Grandpa Jones became cast members of television's hit show Hee Haw.

Benton is known for her years as a regular on the country music series Hee Haw, appearing in comic skits with other cast members.

* Animated Critters: Interspersed within the show, besides the above mentioned chicken, were various applauding or laughing animated farm animals ; a kickline composed of pigs ; a pack of dogs that would chase an extremely bad joke teller ; three sultry pigs that twirled their necklaces ; a square dancing female pig and a male donkey ; a pair of chickens dancing, with one of them falling flat on its face ; the ubiquitous Hee Haw Donkey, who would say " Wouldn't that dunk your hat in the creek?

During the 1970s and early 1980s, this show was probably the best-known showcase for popular country music on commercial television, aside from other half-hour performer-hosted syndicated shows ( most notably The Porter Wagoner Show, which is perhaps the only other weekly country music show of this era to approach Hee Haws longevity.

Elvis Presley was a fan of Hee Haw and wanted to appear as a guest on the program in the 1970s, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, would not allow him to do so.

The musical sitcom starred Kathie Lee Johnson ( Gifford ) along with Hee Haw regulars Misty Rowe, Gailard Sartain, Lulu Roman, and Kenny Price as a family who owned a truck stop restaurant ( undoubtedly inspired by the Lulu's Truck Stop skit on Hee Haw ).

Hee Haw continues to remain beloved and popular with its long-time fans and those who've discovered the program through DVD releases and its reruns on RFD-TV.

This particular fact was reinforced when TV Guide ranked the series number 10 on its 50 Worst Shows of All Time List in 2002 ... a full 10 years after the last first-run episode aired on May 30, 1992 ( although the entry specifically refers to the Hee Haw Honeys spinoff, not the main show itself ).

* Hee Haw on RFD-TV

The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea ( Harvard University Press ; 2011 ) 744 pages studies of on modernization under Park, 1961 – 1979.

* Other notable people with phocomelia syndrome are: Thomas Quasthoff, an opera singer ; Hee Ah Lee, a pianist who has two fingers on each hand ; and Eli Bowen, who made his living performing in freak shows.

The original broadcasts took place on BBC Radio 4 between 1980 and 1988 ( as detailed in the table below ), with one programme ( The Hee Bee Gee Bees Special ) from the same team premiering on BBC Radio 2.

" The concept's mixed reaction eventually spelled an end to the " video " concept on Hee Haw.

One of his TV appearances with Cash was on the popular country series Hee Haw on February 16, 1974.

* Junior Samples was a comedian on the TV show Hee Haw.

* Kenny Price, country music singer, made appearances on Hee Haw