The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 98

Hee Hails' a'hootin' and 9, lieved enough in Hee Haw to move it into syndication. And their audience has stuck with them. If the past is an indication of what's ahead, the antics in Kornfield Koun-ty, "where there's always nothin' happenin'," will be around for. many more Fourths of July. said.

"And I thinlc they had a terrific time. The vholecastyand the various guests, poppin up and down in the cornfield, sayin' some. thin' we hope somebody's going, to enjoy." When Hee Haw began critics were unremitting in their criticism. But audiences loved the show. CBS kicked the program off the network after a two-year run.

But the two men who started the whole thing, a couple -Canadians named John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt, be Buck Owens came t0 Hee Haw af terv a prosperous musical He was born in Sher-Continued on page 6 vK. By Joe Angus' Today is July Fourth': the Ail-American day. What better time to salute- an Ail-American television program? 'foe Haw the show thtft keeps 'em laughin year after year, will begin its 14th season in September. An impressive statistic. Jt has become the most popular syndicated TV show, moving ahead of Lawrence Welk's program.

An estimated 38 million Americans watch the antics in Kornfield Kojunty each week. does the cornpone fun still attract so many viewers? Si think it's a great, AO-American show," sajd Buck' who cottars, with Roy Clark anHce kind of lo3k at us as being a version of Dogpatch, said "in a recent phone conversation fr'6m his ranch near Bakersfield, Calif. The cast is "truly All-ArjQierican," Owens said. The characters are untaineers-, moonshiners, "who never likfcd to work. Sort of like Barney Google and Snuf-fy an outfit in thfunny papers." tjwens said folks like thS show because "we poge fun at ourselves.

It -5 down to earth." people also appreciate Haw's spontaneity. "Seldom, if ever, do we rehearse the thing. They tuwi on the cameras and wejgo." performers read their lines off cue cards. Mistakes, bloopers, goofed-uplines are left in the shiow; that adds the liveliness. Owens said majriy of the mistakes "em funnier than the 'j "People often ask me if we're having as much fun as we seem ing.

Yupr we really he The show's producers are closely attuned to the-best in country music. That is evident in the quality of performers the show features Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolph, country legends like Ernest Tubb. Co-hosts Owens and Clark old pickin' and grinnin' themselves are central to the show. Owens' musical past includes a string of hits: "Act Naturally," "Together Again," "Love's Gonna Live Here," "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," and others. Roy Clark can act like little kid one minute mischievous; bug-eyed, and the next minute play, a difficult song -on the acoustical guitar with flawless ease.

There may be lots of silliness on Hee Haw but the musicians are dead serious about turning in their best Owens says one of the main things the show has going for it is "it's the opposite of being slick. There is nothing slick in that show." The show is videotaped twice a year, in four-week sessions. Hee Haw is produced by GaylordYongestreet Program Services, Inc. Edward, l'AGayloriiV is' editor and of The Oklahoman varid Times. Owens said the' Gay-lord family visited the set recently the cornfield scenes were being filmed.

"I think the Gaylords were astounded," Owens Slick production for corny show "Hee Haw tapes. 2 6 all-new, hours eath "year, half in June, half in October. V. Production is done at Opryland Studios, Nashville. The entire cast, around 90 people, gathers for four weeks of work: The Hee Haw formats are filmed during single, long sessions.

The workdays, sometimes stretch to 12 hours. All the cornfield. scenes aretfilmed at once, one ''after the barbershop -scenes are filmed together; and so on. All the musical numbers are viSeo'taped one after another. Thousands of 'silly one-liners are video-' taped.

At the end of the month's filming, producer Sam Novullo has as many as 15,000 individual snippets of videotape, each encoded with a number. All this information is fed into a Novullo and director Bob Boatman, and their assistants, pore over computer printouts to put together 13 one-hour shows from the thousands of bits and Then the ''master" for each show is reviewed Vt to, se; tlt-plays if Is dubbed! off, duplicated, and sent to stations around thb country. HeeMaw was a pioneer in the use of computer editing equipment while still on CBS-TV in 1969. One of the corniest shows on TV is put together in one of the slickest, most efficient operations around. real skit." it JULY 4, 1982, TV NEWS fc..