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 Players: Cast members take on some of the Shakespeare classics, with some unexpected twists.

* 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 ).

She also starred in the show's 1978 spinoff Hee Haw Honeys, cast with then-newcomer Kathie Lee Gifford ( then known as Kathie Lee Johnson, prior to her marriage to Frank Gifford ) as the singing daughters of diner owners Lulu Roman and Kenny Price ; it also spawned a national road show.

For instance, Hee Haw featured a gospel song at the end of each of its shows ; series stars Roy Clark, Buck Owens, Grandpa Jones and Kenny Price would sing either a traditional hymn or a newer one well known by mainstream country and Christian country audiences, and the segment itself served as a balance to the show's loony, corn-style humor.

That fall, viewers will be greeted with Hee Haw Silver-a collection of classic shows, with new introductions by longtime host Roy Clark ; " Silver " will fill out the show's 25th ( and final ) season.

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 ).

Lindsey portrayed " Goober " for the third and last time on the syndicated country music variety show Hee Haw, playing a more rustic version of the character.

In the Taekwondo classic Best of the Best, featuring some world-renowned martial-artists and a renowned martial arts grandmaster ( Hee Il Cho, the coach of the American team Frank Couzo ( James Earl Jones, prevents the American fighter in the last face-off of the competition, Tommy Lee Philip Rhee, to deal a fatal blow to his Korean opponent Dae Han Park ( played by Philip's real-life brother Simon Rhee ).

Faridi follows him up to " Taareek Vadi " ( Black Valley ) but at the last moment Sing Hee escapes by jumping into a cave.

On occasion, personalities from TV stations that carried Hee Haw would appear in this segment with Owens or Clark.

But because it takes two months to assemble a typical Hee-Haw segment, CBS has to fill the time period with specials until Hee Haw premieres on June 15.

The long-running series Hee Haw borrowed the style for program bumpers, transitioning from one show segment to the next or to commercials.

He himself has directed a feature film, Away with Words ( aka Kujaku, aka San tiao ren ) set in Hong Kong and Okinawa, starring Tadanobu Asano and Mavis Hee, as well as a segment “ Porte de Choisy ” in the feature film Paris, je t ’ aime.

* Horse Apples-A segment in episode 203, which later expanded into an entire episode in 207, that parodies Hee Haw and redneck comedy.

-- Rep. Frelinghuysen, R-5th Dist., had a special reason for attending the reception at the Korean Embassy for Gen. Chung Hee Park, the new leader of South Korea.

The offseason after their second World Series title, the Marlins made a questionable cost-cutting move as Derrek Lee was traded to Chicago Cubs for Hee Seop Choi and pitcher Mike Nannini.

Retaining a core of stars from their title team and hoping that newly acquired 1B Hee Seop Choi would emerge, the Marlins fell short of reaching the postseason, but they posted the third winning season in franchise history, boasting an 83-79 record.

During the season, the Marlins to made one of the biggest trades in club history as Los Angeles got P Brad Penny, 1B Hee Seop Choi and Double-A left-hander Bill Murphy in exchange for P Guillermo Mota, C Paul LoDuca and OF Juan Encarnacion.

Hee Haws appeal, however, was not limited to a rural audience.

Much of Hee Haw's origin was Canadian.