Hee Haw

…and on the television show Hee Haw for 20 years. Announcing her presence with a signature "How-dee! I’m just so proud to be here!" and sporting a trademark flowered hat with a \$1.98 price tag dangling from it, she regaled audiences with tales of her search for a "feller" and…

…Green Acres (CBS, 1965–71), and Hee-Haw (CBS, 1969–71). The Andy Griffith Show, like other rural comedies, featured “just plain folks” who used words of few syllables, did not work on Sundays, and did not go in much for the sophisticated ways of the big city. As such, the characters were…

, and Hee-Haw were all in the top 30 the year they were canceled by the network. The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres were also eliminated at the end of the 1970–71 season, and not a single rural comedy was left on CBS, the network that had…

…country music audiences, such as Hee Haw, and on general-interest talk and variety shows, such as The Dean Martin Show (later called The Dean Martin Comedy Hour). His storytelling facility led to further literary pursuits, including a memoir called The Storyteller’s Nashville (1979), a handbook on songwriting, and several novels.