Taking inspiration from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Hee Haw was a variety show featuring
country music and humor set in the fictional Kornfield Kounty.
Originally, the show aired on CBS.
It premiered in 1969 but was canceled in 1971 after the network deemed it to be 'too rural'.
In syndication, it ran from 1971 to 1997.
And over on TNN, it aired from 1996 to 1997.
Reruns of the iconic sketch comedy series were broadcast on RFD-TV from September 2008
to April 2020.
Since then, it can be viewed on Circle.
The vast majority of each week's episodes included a series of skits, "corny jokes",
and blackouts, however, the bulk of the series focused on its music.
Every week, two or more country music guest stars would make appearances on the program.
Normally one of those guests would be well-established in the country music scene, while the others
would be newer, up-and-coming country stars, bluegrass groups, country gospel outfits,
or other acts.
During the final segment of each episode, the Hee Haw Gospel would perform a gospel
song.
This Quartet normally consisted of the show's co-hosts, Owen and Clark, along with Grandpa
Jones and Kenny Price.
Shows were only taped a few weeks out of the year – usually months in advance.
That meant that some of the more minor acts that would make appearances had already lost
their star power by the time the episodes they were featured in aired.
By the early 90s, the show began to abandon its rural setting in favor of a more nightclub-like
set, although rural settings were still used from time time.
On top of that, the show began booking newer pop-country acts.
This alienated longtime fans who started to believe that Hee Haw should have stuck to
its more traditional country roots.
Throughout its run, many famous country stars made appearances on the show, including Loretta
Lynn, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash.
Unfortunately, the majority of the Hee Haw cast members have passed away since the series
wrapped up.
Some of these since-departed cast members include Buck Owens, Junior Samples, and Roy
Clark.
If you're a fan of Hee Haw and have fond memories of tuning in each week to see your favorite
musical acts, keep watching to learn how each of it's major cast members died.
Roy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark was a singer and musician who hosted Hee Haw from 1969 to 1997.
He was born in 1933 in Meherrin, Virginia.
As a child, he spent some time in New York City, where his father moved to find work
during the Great Depression.
At 11, his family moved once again to Washington DC, where his father found a job at the Washington
Navy Yard.
Clark's father was a semi-pro musician who played guitar, fiddle, and banjo while his
mother was a talented pianist.
The first instrument that Roy played was a four-string cigar box ukulele.
He soon learned how to play guitar and that led him to learn how to play the banjo and
mandolin as well.
In 1947 and 1948, Clark won the National Banjo Championship.
When he was 15, he briefly toured with a band.
He then played at the various country-western music venues in the DC area for a while before
making his TV debut at 16 on WTTG.
The following year, he made his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry.
Following that, he toured the country for 18 months, playing backup guitar for David
Stringbean Akeman and several other influential country stars, performing at county fairs
and small town theaters.
In 1956, Clark competed on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on CBS.
In '69, he appeared regularly on George Hamilton IV's television series in DC.
After performing in Vegas for a couple of years, in 1960, Clark appeared as a guest
star on The Tonight Show when Jimmy Dean was filling in for Jack Paar.
He then appeared in Beverly Hillbillies as a recurring character.
In 1969, Clark teamed up with Buck Owens to co-host Hee Haw.
He would continue to do that until 1997.
During his tenure on the show, Clark was a member of the Million Dollar Band and frequently
participated in comedy sketches.
Clark died at his Tulsa home of pneumonia on November 15, 2018, at the age of 85.
Before we discuss the other Hee Haw cast members who have sadly passed away, take a moment
to show us a little support by giving this video a like and subscribing to the Facts
Verse channel.
Buck Owens
Born in Sherman, Texas, in 1929, Owens was the lead singer of the country music group
Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which charted 21 number 1 hits on the Billboard country
music charts.
Musically, he pioneered a style that came to be known as the Bakersfield Sound, which
got it's name from Owen's adopted home of Bakersfield, California.
As a child growing up in Mesa, Arizona, where his family moved during the Dust Bowl and
Great Depression, he discovered that he loved to sing and perform in school plays.
He taught himself how to play music and became very proficient at guitar, mandolin, drums,
and horns.
Before making it as a musical artist and television personality, Owens worked as a truck driver.
It was during the routes that took him through the San Joaquin Valley in California that
he discovered his love for the town of Bakersfield.
After he and his wife settled there in 1951, Owens frequently made trips out to Hollywood
for session recording jobs at Capitol Records.
Doing this, he got to play backup for artists like Tennessee Ernie Ford, Tommy Duncan, Clete
Stewart, and Tommy Collins.
In time, Owens began recording his own rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, and country songs.
While he experienced several setbacks in his early musical career, eventually his hard
work paid off when he scored several hits on the Billboard charts.
While we could easily devote an entire video to Owen’s musical career, for the sake of
this video, we’ll go ahead and jump to his co-hosting work with Hee Haw.
Owen’s co-hosted the popular program from 1969 to 1986.
On March 25, 2006, Owens died of a heart attack in his sleep at his ranch in Bakersfield just
hours after he and his band played a show.
He was 76 years old when he passed away.
Roy Acuff
This legendary country music singer, fiddler, and promoter were nicknamed the 'King of Country
Music'.
He is frequently credited with helping guide the genre from its early string band and 'hoedown'
roots to the singer-based format that made it internationally successful.
Hank Williams told Ralph Gleason back in 1952 that Acuff was the biggest singer that country
music ever knew.
His musical career began in the 30s.
He gained some regional fame as the singer and fiddle player of the musical group the
Smoky Mountain Boys.
In 1938, Roy joined the Grand Ole Opry.
While his popularity as a musical artist waned in the late 40s, he remained one of Opry's
key promoters for the next four decades.
Acuff made numerous appearances on Hee Haw.
His final appearance on the show was on the October 28, 1989, episode.
After being active in the music industry for 70 years, Acuff passed away on November 23,
1992, at 89.
He died of congestive heart failure at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville.
Archie Campbell
Archie was a writer for Hee Haw, who also starred in the series.
He got his start as a country music singer.
After Hee Haw ended, he spent his remaining years playing golf and painting.
He even ended up opening up a gallery in Knoxville.
One of Archie's most famous Hee Haw Sketches was Rindercella.
The skit told the story of the fairytale Cinderella using spoonerism to switch around the letters
for comedic effect.
Campbell died of a fatal heart attack in 1987.
He was 72 when he passed.
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Known for his rich bass-baritone voice and his down-home sense of humor, Ford was a country
singer and television personality best remembered for his hit recordings of Sixteen Tons and
The Shotgun Boogie.
Ford was one of the most frequent guest stars to appear on Hee Haw.
Before appearing on that program, he hosted his own primetime variety show on NBC called
The Ford Show.
The program aired from 1956 to 1961.
From 1962 to 1965, he hosted a daytime talk show called the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.
In his later years, Ford and his wife Betty dealt with serious alcoholism.
Eventually, alcohol took a toll on both of their lives.
In 1989, Betty took her own life with an intentional drug overdose, and after that, Ernie's health
took a nosedive.
He passed away just two years later, on October 17, 1991.
Grandpa Jones
Born Louis Marshall Jones in 1913, Grandpa Jones was a banjo player and old-time country
and gospel singer.
After already establishing himself as one of the most influential country musicians
of the 1940s, Jones became a charter cast member on Hee Haw in 1968.
He was best known on the show for frequently shouting out his signature catchphrase 'outrageous'.
In January of 1998, Jones suffered from two strokes after performing at the Grand Ole
Opry.
He died on February 19, 1998, in Hermitage, Tennessee at the age 84.
Junior Samples
This comedian was best known for his 14-year run as a Hee Haw cast member.
Samples dropped out of school in the sixth grade.
For the first 40 years of his life, he worked as a carpenter and stock car racing driver.
He then recorded a story about catching the biggest fish ever seen in his hometown.
The recording ended up becoming a best-selling novelty record.
Samples were asked to join the cast of Hee Haw in 1969.
There he created a bumbling, hapless character who often stumbled and slow-talked his way
through his delivery – intentionally messing up jokes and flubbing his lines.