Hee Haw outside the South

[Dondd]

"Where oh where, are you tonight? Why did you lead me on? I search the world over to find me a true love, you found another and whoop you was gone." Sorry I never forgot that routine. Actually never watched the show more than once or twice. I could never stand Green Acres.

That is an earworm.
I had no choice in watching the show, the family had it on.
But, must admit, that's one heckuva song/routine.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I suppose Europe qualifies as "outside the South": Hee Haw aired on the American Forces Network Europe, which was intended for U.S. servicemembers but also had a loyal following among European civilians who lived close enough to AFN transmitters or had cable:


Image courtesy of Claus Grimm. (By the way, note the schoolmarmish disclaimer under the SNL listing. At first, I thought it was a joke!)

What do you, leave out to make it run 45 minutes?

 

[TexasTom]

What do you, leave out to make it run 45 minutes?

That's an easy answer -- the commercials. AFN's TV service was commercial free so programs would run either completely free of interruption or with only an occasional PSA. Since "Hee Haw" was syndicated, it was probably timed for a pretty heavy commercial load, and apparently without the commercials it was only 45 minutes long.

 

[powers]

That's an easy answer -- the commercials. AFN's TV service was commercial free so programs would run either completely free of interruption or with only an occasional PSA. Since "Hee Haw" was syndicated, it was probably timed for a pretty heavy commercial load, and apparently without the commercials it was only 45 minutes long.

Exactly! I don't know how it is today, but I remember in the 80s and 90s a 30-minute program was about 22 minutes without breaks and an hour program was about 44 minutes so that makes perfect sense. Maybe run one or two promos in between the shows and you've got your 45 minutes.

 

[TexasTom]

Exactly! I don't know how it is today, but I remember in the 80s and 90s a 30-minute program was about 22 minutes without breaks and an hour program was about 44 minutes so that makes perfect sense. Maybe run one or two promos in between the shows and you've got your 45 minutes.

At the beginning of the 80s, there was huge variance in how long a program would run without the breaks. For network prime time, a half hour program was actually around 25 minutes of actual show, and an hour program was around 50 minutes. Daytime programs did match the running times that you mention, and first-run syndicated programs such as "Hee Haw" could vary depending on when they were expected to run. So a program such as "Hee Haw" might have run as short as 44 minutes without commercials.

Over the course of the 80s and 90s, prime time commercial loads slowly went up and hour-long shows lost a couple minutes per decade. Nowadays, a half hour show will run around 21 minutes and an hour program around 42 minutes.

 

[bpatrick]

KDFW had it on Thursdays until The Waltons caught on. When I lived in Dallas Hee Haw was on KXAS Saturdays at 6 (CT), while KTVT had Lawrence Welk at 5.

 

[vchimpanzee]

KDFW had it on Thursdays until The Waltons caught on. When I lived in Dallas Hee Haw was on KXAS Saturdays at 6 (CT), while KTVT had Lawrence Welk at 5.

WBTV Charlotte aired "The Waltons" a week late so it could show The Muppets.