Life in the kornfield: my 25 years at hee haw

By Sam Lovullo

Book Overview

In 1969, a country music and comedy show called Hee Haw was the first telecast and became an instant hit, going on to become one of television's most popular shows. Now, through first-hand... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572970286
• ISBN13: 9781572970281
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.5" x 10.4"

Customer Reviews

Hee Haw trivia

LIFE IN THE KORNFIELD is basically a trivia book about the television program "Hee Haw" that a lot of my generation grew up watching. It may have targeted a southern country audience, but it had an impact in the rural Midwest as well. Some of the intriguing items that the writers provided were the whole story behind the origin of the program and the little-known connection that Oprah Winfrey had to the program. A surprise to me was the fact that "Hee Haw" went into syndication at such an early stage of the program's existence. Mr. Lovullo explains the circumstances behind that decision. On page 109 Sam Lovullo writes- "We were like one big open-house party, where all our friendly neighbors were invited to come on down and have a good time." That's evident in the shows. There are brief bios of the cast and some of the guests as well as a schedule of the guests and the dates of their appearances. Although the book is brief in a lot of respects, it is a good trivia book for a unique program that has it's part in country music and television history.

A fun trip down memory lane

Sam Lovullo takes us on an entertaining retro-journey through the "Hee Haw" years. It is a trip worth taking, whether you're newly-introduced to the show, or if you grew up with it being part of your Saturday evenings. The author offers up a bounty of fascinating insights into many of the marvelous cast members, from Buck and Roy to Junior Samples to Archie Campbell to the inimitable Grandpa Jones. This book made me smile, made me laugh, and even made me shed a tear or two of nostalgia. So many members of this show left this world much too soon. No one ever claimed that the jokes on "Hee Haw" were written by the hand of a genius. But no matter how bad the joke, how corny the pun, it made you smile; it made you feel good. It made you proud to be from the country, and proud to cherish the simple life.

im family

I may not have grown up watching hee haw, being fifteen years of age, but I still know what it was. my father and grandfather would sometimes tell jokes about junior samples...my relative, kinda...anyways my grandfather says whenever someone asks him if he is related "yeah, he was one of uncle franks boys" later he might say "uncle frank was my grandfathers half brother" I thought you hee haw fans might think that was funny, but I never knew the man and my father knows more about it.

"Sa-Loot!"

i grew up watching Hee-Haw. i never saw anything wrong with it then and i don't see anything wrong with it now. i love this book that the producer wrote. there are but a few errors, no doubt you already read about them in the other reviews here. what this book is all about is the celebration of the show itself, simply put. it's not a celebration of any individual cast-members as some would have liked to have seen from the reviews i've read here. "Hee-Haw", as a show, is what's being touted in the book. i love the detailed information about each program and what guest was on each show, all 585 episodes from 1969-1992. i also love the story about Archie Campbell and the creation of "Pffft You was Gone". Lovullo rightfully devotes more ink to the signature cast members of the show that were on it for nearly the entire run: Gordie Tapp, Grandpa Jones, George Lindsay, Lulu Roman, and the hosts Roy Clark and Buck Owens {Buck left the show in 1986 but it continued with Roy until 1992}. you'll read about the two "cast shake-ups" as Lovullo calls them in 1986 and 1991 when advertisers demanded changes to attract a young audience. The 1986 shake-up resulted in the loss of Don Harron, the Hager Twins, Lisa Todd, and host Buck Owens {although Buck's departure was voluntary}. the deaths of long-time cast members like Jackie Phelps as well as Kenny Price and Archie Campbell in 1987 caused further turmoil as the show became a little bit more 'classy' with a jazzy-looking gazebo as an added set for artists to sing in front of. before this, artists performed in an intimate "bar/honky-tonk" type setting in front of a crowd of lucky people. The 1991 shake-up was more devastating because it caused the loss of every cast-member except a chosen few: Roy Clark remained as host of course and Grandpa Jones, George Lindsay, Lulu Roman, Gailord Sartain, Gordie Tapp, Linda Thompson, Irlene Mandrell, and Phil Campbell were the only returning cast-members as the 1991-1992 season began. long-time favorites like Gunilla Hutton, Misty Rowe, Mike Snider, Roni Stoneman, among others were all gone. speaking of Gunilla Hutton, she and several other "honeys" are talked about under one heading: "Hee-Haw Honeys" naturally. on page 78 it makes reference to Hutton's former job on "Petticoat Junction", where she was 'discovered' by the Hee-Haw people. on page 83, there's an error that says "Green Acres" but only a nit-picker would bring up such a mistake knowing full well that Lovullo meant to say "Petticoat Junction". yes, the book needed some pre-viewing before going to the final presses but without human error, where's the reality? the casual mistakes or errors make the book even more endearing to me because it actually SOUNDS like Lovullo, who usually confused similar people with one another. read his gaffe about momentarily thinking Jimmy Carter was "Billy", which is the name of Jimmy's brother who had recently appeared on the show as a guest. The story went that Jimmy met Lovullo at

This is the bible for Hee Haw viewers

This book is a must have if you were and still are a fan of country music and the TV show Hee Haw. It has a complete episode guide, bios of the cast, info on some of the guests, the story of Hee Haw, and many more details. You can still watch Hee Haw on The Nashville Network at 7:00 EST/6:00 CST