Hee Haw was a victim of the rural purge

There is a saying that you never bite the hand that feeds you but that is just what CBS executives did in the early 1970s. They canceled a number of popular television shows just because they revolved around county living. THE BEVERLY HILBILLIES, PETTICOAT JUNCTION, GREEN ACRES, MABERRY RFD, and HEE HAW all were fan favorites and beloved by the viewing audience yet each of these series got the ax.

HEE HAW premiered in December of 1969 and became an instant hit. By 1971 it was number 12 in the Nielson ratings but was canceled that same year. Each week the country-themed variety program showcased the best talent in Nashville, Tennessee, where it was filmed. It remained in syndication for over twenty years and recently was being shown on several networks.

Roy Clark one of the stars and co-host of the show once said: “We weren’t selling anything. We were just having a good time. And that feeling — there are people who say ‘I wish my kids, I wish my generation, had a chance to see it.’ HEE HAW featured musical segments and comedy routines. There was slapstick, laughing out loud, and sometimes just plain corny segments of the show. Country music stars often sang their current hits and families could watch this series together.

HEE HAW enjoyed a generation of success in syndication between 1971 and 1991. The rural purge led to the popular show being canceled but politics kept it on the air. FCC rules in 1971 restricted stations that were not affiliated with a network from airing reruns of network programs during prime time. Shows like HEE HAW that remained popular helped to fill this programming gap. At the height of its success in syndication, the show earned eight million dollars in advertising a year, which was a lot for the time period.

In 1972 HEE HAW was airing in 205 non-network stations each week and became the No. 1 television show that was carried nationally on a non-network basis. oy Clark once said that syndication was the best thing that could have happened to HEE HAW and when newspapers told the tale there was one headline that read "HEE HAW strikes back.

It is ironic that the network executive acknowledged that ratings validated that the American public preferred "hillbillies, cowboys, and spies". They saw that what they were doing was working but tampered with the formula anyway. Michael Dann who was the CBS vice president at the time personally admitted to hating the rural-oriented programs he was airing, but kept the shows on the air because of the overall high ratings. Dann considered ratings as "the most important measure of a program's success".

James Aubrey who was then president agreed with Dann that the rural programs had value and should remain on the air. When Robert Wood replaced Aubrey as president he forced Michael Dann to cancel all the country-themed programming and later fired Dann. This is the reason that HEE HAW and other shows that were beloved by the viewing audience were removed from the television lineup. According to Wikipedia Robert Wood made this cryptic comment: "Just because the people who buy refrigerators are between 26 and 35 and live in Scarsdale, you should not beam your programming only at them."

The final fate of HEE HAW was sealed in 1991 when syndicated ratings began to decline. The producers of the show made a number of drastic changes, including firing almost all of the cast except for eight of the most popular stars of the show. The setting was changed to a more urban one and longtime viewers became disgruntled. They showed their disgust with the changes by abandoning HEE HAW.

The revised version of the show failed to attract new viewers that brought the end of the long-running variety show. The final episode was aired on May 30, 1992. It has now been 5 decades since HEE HAW first aired on CBS and millions of Americans have fond memories of the show that will always remain. Cornfield County lives on in the hearts of true fans.