#hee-haw

Today’s song going through my head (just the chorus)

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Lisa Todd

10 HOURS OF EEFIN’

This by no means is my favorite Roy Clark song, but perhaps the most historically significant song he ever recorded. Hee-Haw aired in 1969 and ran for two seasons with "respectable ratings." But by the end of 1971, CBS began its "Rural Purge," canceling The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Mayberry R.F.D., The Jim Nabors Hour and the Johnny Cash Show among others. Many of these shows were considered "demographically skewed," some toward rural audiences or in the case of The Lawrence Welk Show (also canceled in '71), elderly audiences. A few of the big wigs at CBS believed that certain demographics — the ones in which Hee Haw and the others performed poorly — could draw more advertising dollars and eventually won what had become a heated dispute in the network’s corporate offices. Luckily, Hee-Haw’s producers put together a syndication deal for the show, and as Roy notes in the song, "They canceled all the singin' and the pickin', but that stubborn little donkey wouldn't leave, and that little fella's still alive and kickin' and Hee-Haw's laughin' up its sleeve." The producers were successful, and Hee-Haw lived on in syndication until 1993, and on The Nashville Network (TNN) from 1996-1997.