June 15, 1969: "Hee Haw" Premieres

June 15, 1969: Hee Haw -- named for the sound produced by donkeys -- premieres on CBS, videotaped at their affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music. It was a cross of The Grand Ole Opry, American Bandstand and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

Country singers Buck Owens and Roy Clark co-hosted. Opry singer Roy Acuff and comedienne Minnie Pearl frequently appeared. The show was set in Kornfield Kounty, a rural farming community in an unspecified State in the Southern United States.

The show's sketches mostly centered around visits to local businesses in the county and the offbeat characters who live and work there, including KORN radio announcer Charlie Farquharson, played by Don Harron; Lulu Roman and her truck stop; Samuel B. Sternwheeler, a storyteller based on Mark Twain, played by Gordie Tapp; Junior Samples, real name Alvin Samples Jr., as a used car salesman; "Hey Grandpa! What's For Supper?" with country singer Louis Marshall Jones, a.k.a. Grandpa Jones, only 55 years old when the show began, answering the question, with the audience answering either, "Yum yum!" or "Yuck!"; and Archie Campbell alternating as a barber, telling his customers tall tales, often with malaprops, and as "Justus O'Peace," sentencing people to long stretches in jail for minor offenses. And, of course, there were the scantily clad "Hee Haw Honeys."

As with Laugh-In, and later Saturday Night Live and The Muppet Show, there would be a guest star, usually a country singer like Johnny Cash or Tammy Wynette, and they would engage in a "Pickin' and Grinnin'" session with Buck and Roy. They also had a "Joke Fence," an obvious ripoff of Laugh-In's Joke Wall.

CBS canceled the show after just 2 years, as part of their "Rural Purge." It got picked up in syndication, and continued to run until 1993. Buck Owens died in 2006, Roy Clark in 2018.

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June 15, 1969 was a Sunday. German soccer goalkeeping legend Oliver Kahn was born that day. So was O'Shea Jackson, the rapper and actor known as Ice Cube.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees were leading the Seattle Pilots, 4-0 after 5 1/2 innings, when the game was called due to rain. Stan Bahnsen had a 3-hit shutout going. Jimmie Hall, playing 1st base in place of Joe Pepitone, had hit 2 triples for 4 RBIs, both off Fred Talbot. Jim Bouton got the last out in the 5th.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 13-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday and Sal Bando hit home runs. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Roberto Clemente with 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field, sort of, between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs. The Reds won the opener, 7-6. The nightcap was suspended due to darkness in the top of the 8th, with the Cubs leading 5-4, and was resumed on September 2, and the score held until the end. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 1-for-8 with a walk, Pete Rose went 3-for-7 with 3 walks and 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench went 2-for-5 with 2 walks.

* The Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox, 9-0 and 13-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Dave McNally pitched a 4-hit shutout in the 1st game. Frank Robinson went 2-for-4 with a walk in the 1st game, and then sat out the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-7 with 2 home runs, 2 walks and 5 RBIs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 5-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Earl Wilson pitched a 2-hit shutout. The Tigers scored all 7 runs in the 5th inning. Al Kaline went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew each went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, and Killebrew also had 2 RBIs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Terry Harmon singled Rich Joseph home in the top of the 12th inning.

* The San Francisco Giants swept a doubleheader from the Montreal Expos, 7-4 and 6-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. Willie Mays went 2-for-7 with 2 walks.

* And the California Angels and the Washington Senators were rained out at the newly-renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 2. The Senators swept, 2-0 and 3-2. Jim Hannah pitched a 3-hit shutout in the 1st game.