Life in the Kornfield: My 25 Years at Hee Haw

Rating:
Summary: "Sa-Loot!"
Review: 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 some function. Jimmy said how much a fan of the show he was. Lovullo said: "yeah, we just had Jimmy on the show the other day!". Lovullo says that all Jimmy did was smiled and said: "no, that was Billy...I'M Jimmmy!". so, slipping of the tongue was common for Lovullo and i'm glad the book retained some of that. starting on page 3 and running to page 56, Lovullo explains in depth the story of Hee-Haw and how in TV the producer gets more credit than a director or the actual creator of a show...so Lovullo talks about the creators of the show that rarely got much press coverage: John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt. after the show's life is recalled, the "cast" section begins with a look at every cast-member that graced the Kornfield. Don Harron, who on the show played the hilarious newscaster "Charlie Farqueson" for KORN-TV, is recalled as a legend in Canada. After the castmember section comes the guest star section with small or large comments from Lovullo on all the guests both from country music and Hollywood. after that comes more technical behind-the-scenes credits only real fans of the show will find interesting like who the writers were, the directors, the lighting directors, set designers, etc. after that section comes the 585 episode break-down. The first episode aired on June 15, 1969 and the last episode aired on May 30, 1992 without ever missing an air-date in that 23 year run. as far as longevity, Hee-Haw is the longest-running syndicated country music program at 21 years (it's first two years, 1969-1971, were on CBS). it beats Lawrence Welk in the syndicated battle, too: Welk was on the network from 1955-1971, 16 years and in syndication from 1971-1982, 11 years. In total longevity, Welk's 27 beats the 23 of "Hee-Haw"...but more importantly, Hee-Haw ended production in 1992, and those last episodes in 1991-1992 included contemporary acts as guests in addition to legends allowing the show to have an impact on a contemporary music audience at the time. Hee-Haw had always scheduled a wide variety of music guests from country music with various sounds {bluegrass, novelty, country-pop, etc.} to try and appeal to everyone's musical taste. On the other side of the equation, Welk's last programs looked like they were from the '50s which did please his audience but not the public-at-large who wanted contemporary pop/rock acts on the show. enough rambling, "Life in the Kornfield" is a must-have for EVERY real fan of the show.

Rating:
Summary: Inaccuracies & Misinformation
Review: I read the book, very little about Jeannine Riley of Petticoat Junction. And while we are on the topic of Petticoat Junction, this is the show that also starred Gunilla Hutton, not Green Acres as you stated in your book. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough dirt.
Review: Lovullo tries to be as nice as he can to everyone that worked at the show. I expected to read more about the stars and their lives. Almost half of the book is a videography of each episode!