Originally published at: The opening to "Hee Haw" is now like a waking nightmare | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
seems like someone didn’t actually watch the show before throwing shade at it.
60 Likes
Infamously parodied on the Simpsons as “Ya-Hoo!”
10 Likes
Watching that show as a kid I kind of enjoyed it, no worse than other corny 70’s variety shows like Donny & Marie.
But it did color my view of both Roy Clark and Buck Owens-- it took a long time for me to realize they were good musicians and songwriters.
42 Likes
That show was actually pretty damn great in the day. It featured some of the best country acts of all times. And the hosts were brilliant! Buck Owens is one of my favorite country singer/songwriters (at least one Beatle thought highly enough of Buck’s songs to cover one of them), and Roy Clark could flat-out play a guitar. The comedy was cornball and quaint. The recurring show segments were absolutely brilliant. I could watch a supercut of “Pfft You Were Gone” segments all day. How you can favorably compare reality TV, the worst dreck foisted on the viewing public ever, to the talent and lighthearted humor of Hee Haw is completely beyond me.
59 Likes
That show is responsible for my appreciation for traditional country, bluegrass, and Appalachian folk music.
42 Likes
It was a rural answer to Laugh In
18 Likes
I disagree with the overall premise of this post, but I do have to concede that Buck Owens looks like a Sleestak.
11 Likes
Ditto to that, I bust out that tune on rare occasion to baffle people around me and makes me grin
21 Likes
And they were clearly having fun making it. I heard an interview with (I think it was) Roy Clark and he talked about how they’d get together for a week and film a whole slew of episodes, and it was a big party with everyone glad to see each other.
And it was “the South” seeing itself on TV in a way that poked gentle fun without painting everyone as a bumpkin.
I loved it as a kid sitting in the North - it was like something from a foreign country (which it kind of was).
26 Likes
I mean, as far as nightmares go, the intro is rather fun and corny. I am sure there is a “if you hear banjos, run” joke in there somewhere.
Granted I haven’t watched the show in decades, but there were some talented musicians mixed in with corny jokes.
9 Likes
I could get by on just ‘The Pee Little Thrigs’ – “I’ll puff and I’ll huff and I’ll hoe your blouse down!”
7 Likes
As a counterpoint to this opinion, here is the absolutely fantastic country artist Charlie Pride preforming “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Anton(io)” on Hee Haw.
I personally really enjoyed thia show as a kid. Very good humored and positive.
30 Likes
Roy Clark does not sweat this article. Roy Clark's Mesmerizing "Malagueña" (Live) - YouTube
14 Likes
I remember loving that show while watching it at my grandparent’s house. This intro is hilariously bad but I think that’s kinda also the tone of the show. I think they nailed it.
11 Likes
Yup. Cheesy as the opening was, even at the time, the show featured some serious talent.
For those who aren’t particular fans of the country genre:
33 Likes
Roy 
23 Likes
Until this show hit the airwaves, my mother’s musical tastes were confined to Percy Faith, Pat Boone, and the like. Afterwards, it was all Dolly, Kenny, Tammy, and Merle.
Not to my tastes, but you could definitely do worse.
13 Likes
The crazy thing about Hee Haw was they would shoot an ENTIRE season in 2 weeks. A whole day with the cornfield set up, then a whole day with the moonshiners, then a whole day on the joke fence, etc. The bits were then edited together into a season of episodes. Like with Hollywood Squares you can tell which bits were shot later in the day by how, shall we say, loopy some of the performers were.
31 Likes
Roy Clark was a badass banjo player and guitarist. The show was aiming for something cheesy, fun and hilarious, and it hit its mark perfectly. Why you be hatin’ on it?
26 Likes
