With its mix of country and western music and down-home humor, Hee Haw was one of American television's most popular variety series in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the first and most popular show about southern rural America.

Hee Haw debuted on CBS in 1969 as a spin-off of the network's Jonathan Winters Show. Producers believed that a variety half-hour centered around southern rural themes would appeal to the same audience that watched Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies (see entry under 1960s—TV and Radio in volume 4). The cohosts of Hee Haw were Roy Clark (1933–) and Buck Owens (1929–), both veteran country music (see entry under 1940s—Music in volume 3) musicians with comedic experience. An animated donkey appeared on a regular basis to react to the humor and to provide the "hee haw" of the title.

The show featured a regular company of comic actors and...