Ray Stevens on Hee Haw: 1987

Hello one and all!! I had something of a surprise recently...I was clicking through the channels, well, actually I was looking on my television's program guide (an on-screen version of a TV schedule) and I was reading the special guests of a 1980's episode of Hee Haw on Circle TV. I turned to the channel and I caught the final minutes of an episode that featured Ray Stevens as a guest co-host!! The episode had aired on Circle TV at 8pm Eastern on Friday night. The problem is, the on-screen program guide, didn't list Ray as a guest for that episode of the show. They actually had an entirely different episode's guest list provided in their episode description. Well, I looked ahead on the schedule and seen that this 8pm episode would re-air at 11pm. I set my DVR and recorded the episode...and watched it at the same time...and enjoyed the entire episode. 

The episode was recorded in the fall 1986 taping sessions but it aired on March 28, 1987 as the final episode of the 1986-1987 season. When Roy Clark began having a different guest co-host each week it presented a major change in the show's long-time traditional opening sing-a-long. Buck Owens had left the show following the 1985-1986 season and so when Hee Haw resumed production in the summer of 1986 the producers began a guest co-host policy. The show would have it's usual opening where the announcer would welcome the viewers to the show, name it's hosts, and then do a run down of the cast members. Afterward, Roy Clark would interact with the guest co-host and that would lead into the guest co-host's first song of the episode. The guest co-host would sing a second song during the second half hour of the show. As I've written before, Ray Stevens appeared a lot of times on the show during this mid to late 1980s time period. He was most often serving as a guest co-host but there are other episodes where he's just a guest. The show's second half of the season always taped in the late summer/early fall...and when Ray taped his appearances in the fall of 1986 he sang a couple of songs from his then current album, Surely You Joust. In the screen cap Ray is singing "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat". 

I took a few screen caps of him performing that song...including an image of him twirling his hand around as he sang about fictional wife, Doris, and her inspired tap dance and Lash LaRue impression. Ray's hand was twirling so much during that portion of the song that it looks like a blur in the screen cap. You'll see that blurred hand in the collage I'll be posting at the bottom of the blog entry. In the screen cap off to the right he's at the piano during his second song of the episode. Ray's wardrobe consists of a yellow jacket, blue shirt, red tie, red pants, and yellow shoes. You'll note that he wore red pants and yellow shoes when he dressed up as Humpty Dumpty on his 1987 Crackin' Up album. It indicates that Ray was possibly photographing possible covers for that album around the time of this 1986 taping. Ray appeared in several cornfield segments and midway through the episode along came the Pickin' and Grinnin' segment. This segment, like most of the sketches, had been part of the show since it's June 15, 1969 debut. The guest co-host would trade jokes with Roy Clark...usually comical insults. The segment's title had multiple meanings. First off is the idea of the two hosts picking their music instruments (guitar and banjo) and grinning as they play...the other meaning is a reference at how the two would pick at each other in a grinning, joking manner with one-liners.

As you can see in the photo...Ray is playing a guitar and he's changed his wardrobe to a red shirt and blue jeans. I'm sure it was the producer's idea...I don't know if they would've wanted to see Ray in red pants and yellow shoes and seated there next to Roy Clark. The routine was part of the show from the beginning but at some point in the early '70s the cast-members began to take part in the routine as well. Cast members Irlene Mandrell and Linda Thompson can be seen in the background. I don't like taking screen caps that include a lot of people because you can never zero in one what you're wanting to capture without having others being cut out of the photo or in this case seeing the bottom half of people. I have some other photo's of Ray Stevens and Roy Clark from this episode but this is the only one that I captured featuring a far shot...the other screen caps are close-up. The second song that Ray sings on this episode is "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" and I posted a screen cap of Ray earlier seated at the piano. In that performance he makes a lot of comical faces. I have seen Ray perform this song on Hee Haw before, as a kid, and so this must be the second time he performed it...but then again he may have performed it on some of the episodes he appeared on during the upcoming 1987-1988 season. The song would go on to appear on a second volume of greatest hits that hit in the latter half of 1987 so it's possible he sang the song on a later episode. Now, having said that, Ray had previously appeared as a guest co-host several weeks earlier, too. He guest co-hosted the March 7, 1987 episode. The footage from that episode also originated in the fall of 1986...so he could have performed "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" on that episode, too, but then that wouldn't have made any sense to have a performance of the same song on two closely aired episodes. To add to the confusion Ray would appear on the September 26, 1987 episode...but on this appearance he was just a guest instead of a guest co-host. The guest co-host on that episode was none other than Ralph Emery. The footage from that episode originated in the summer of 1987. I'll try and find out on which episodes of Hee Haw Ray sang "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?"...because I know he sang it on more than one episode. 

Meanwhile, the other guests on this episode were Steve Wariner, he sang "Lynda" and "Life's Highway"; Lyle Lovett was another guest and he sang "Cowboy Man" and "Farther Down the Line". Loretta Lynn appeared in the episode and sang "Red, White, and Blue", a song she'd written in the mid '70s for her album, When the Tingle Becomes a Chill. The song, which I'd never heard before, had actually been a Top-20 hit for her in 1976. This episode also featured a segment with The Million Dollar Band (Roy Clark, Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolph, Danny Davis, Jethro Burns, Johnny Gimble, and Charlie McCoy). The group performed "Jambalaya". In the collage below I included the screen cap of Ray with the blurry arm during his performance of "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat" along with another screen cap of Ray and Roy.

Ray Stevens on Hee Haw: 1980 (Second Appearance)...

As mentioned in the blog entry immediately preceding this one this is my second blog entry of the day...as the day progresses, though, I may write some more blog entries...one never knows. We're suppose to have a massive weather system roll through this area later today and into the evening though and wind gusts could reach 40 to 50mph...and so that could hamper any kind of potential future blog entries for the remainder of today.

Several weekends ago RFD-TV aired Ray's second 1980 appearance on Hee Haw. I had never seen that appearance as I had always been familiar with the first 1980 appearance where he sang "Shriner's Convention" and "Love Me Longer". The reason I had been more familiar with that appearance is because TNN (the former cable channel, The Nashville Network) used to air repeats of Hee Haw in the early to mid 1990s and among those repeats was Ray's first 1980 episode. That episode originally aired in February 1980. In his second 1980 appearance, from October, Ray performed his re-arranged version of "You've Got the Music Inside" as well as his current single at the time, "Night Games". In addition Ray appeared in several comedy segments with George Lindsey which took place in the iconic cornfield set. I created some screen caps for my own collection of Ray Stevens photos that I've saved over the years from online searches, etc. but I won't be posting all of the screen caps from his second 1980 appearance on the blog. I'll share another one a little bit later. The February 1980 episode featured footage taped in the fall of 1979 whereas the October 1980 episode featured footage taped in the summer of 1980. Hee Haw had a quirky production process in which everything was recorded out of sequence during just two month-long production periods each calendar year and all the footage was edited and assembled into 26 half hour episodes. Footage taped during the summer production period appeared in the first 13 episodes of each new season while footage taped in the fall of the year began appearing in the remaining 13 episodes. The series kept this production method intact throughout it's entire history. I often make mention of the show's production style because it enables readers to have a better idea of why a singer may be performing a hit from a previous year or something that had yet become a hit but was performed anyhow...and it all had to do with the taping sessions of the show and which production period the guest was making their appearance.

Now, altogether, Ray made numerous appearances on the television series, Hee Haw, throughout it's long run. His first appearance occurred in 1972 (with a beard ironically enough...not clean-shaven). In fact both of his 1972 appearances shown him with facial hair. He was one of the guests on the 1972-1973 season opener (September 16, 1972) and he performed "Turn Your Radio On" and "Along Came Jones". In his second appearance that season (November 25, 1972) he performed "Isn't It Lonely Together" and "Gitarzan". The footage that appeared in both episodes was taped in the summer of 1972. As you can tell by the songs chosen he kept it in the late '60s for three of the performances with the lone exception being "Turn Your Radio On" which at the time of his appearance in the fall of 1972 was considered one of his recent recordings. It had become a hit on the country charts in the latter half of 1971 and into 1972. I've never found out why he or the producer of the show decided on songs that Ray recorded several years earlier (1968/1969) rather than sticking to more recent material (oddly enough his 1970 massive hit, "Everything is Beautiful", was not performed during either 1972 appearance!) but nevertheless his first two appearances from 1972 were wonderful to see.

The next appearance from Ray occurred in October of 1975 and on this episode he performed "Misty" and "Indian Love Call". The footage was taped in the summer of 1975 and so this was months before he would win a Grammy in the category of Best Arrangement of the Year for "Misty". Ray didn't make another appearance on Hee Haw until the February 1980 episode. The bulk of his appearances on the series arrived in the mid to late 1980s. The show had long featured Roy Clark and Buck Owens billed as co-hosts. Buck, however, decided to leave the series at the end of the 1985-1986 season (the show debuted in 1969). This caused the show's producers to come up with a guest co-host feature in which each week Roy would be joined by a different co-host each week. Ray appeared as a guest co-host throughout the late 1980s and he also appeared on episodes as a music guest without being featured as a guest co-host. In 1987, for example, he appeared on two episodes that aired within several weeks from each other...which was an unusual occurrence for any guest let alone a guest co-host. It's my feeling that Ray was such a natural that he could've easily become the show's official co-host along side Roy Clark following Buck's departure but I don't think the idea of Ray ever becoming a permanent co-host was ever discussed but how amazing would it have been!! Even though Ray had appeared on country music programs throughout the 1970s and several single and album releases entered the country music charts that decade he was still thought of as a pop music vocalist and singer of novelty songs but this perception began to change during the late 1970s and so by the time his 1980 appearance on Hee Haw came along he was being marketed as a country music performer. He was marketed and promoted as a country music artist pretty much exclusively from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s before he began an incredible run with comedy records which forever labeled him as a singer of novelty/comedy songs.

He's had such a lengthy, successful run with comedy songs and albums entirely devoted to comedy throughout the mid 1980s and beyond that the mere mention of him, once upon a time, being a pop music vocalist is often met with laughter from those not familiar with the range of songs Ray had recorded over the decades before he began the country comedy phase of his career for which much of his material over the last several decades has played to. I'd say within the last decade and a half he's released plenty of non-comedy projects and so he never abandoned the ballad/serious side of his career...but as in times past a lot of the consumer attention tends to gravitate toward whatever comical recording might come along from him rather than the non-comical. His television series, CabaRay Nashville, offers Ray the chance to showcase his diverse range of music styles as well as provide a lot of guest artists an outlet to perform and talk. The series also gives certain viewers, those not as familiar with Ray, a chance to see how serious he really is and how he lives and breathes the recording and creating process.

Now, for those that like to take note of whether or not Ray has or doesn't have a beard during an appearance, there are numerous times throughout 1975 where Ray made television appearances with facial hair and then there are appearances that year where he's clean shaven. He's bearded during the Grammy awards telecast (presenting an award along side Moms Mabley) as well as in an appearance on Pop! Goes the Country in 1975. Ray appeared clean-shaven on his Misty studio album but yet he has a beard on a compilation album released the same year (1975) called The Very Best of Ray Stevens. Interestingly Ray performed the same set of songs on both Hee Haw and Pop! Goes the Country. Anyway, here are the two 1975 albums side by side. Ray had a beard on the album cover of Losin' Streak in 1973, let's not forget...so it isn't something that had been unprecedented prior to 1975...but from 1978 onward all of the studio albums features Ray on the album cover with a beard. I don't think Ray's ever appeared clean-shaven in public since 1978. I've sometimes wondered what the reaction would be if Ray would shave off the beard, simply for shock value, given how many decades he's been seen with one. It's still Ray Stevens...with or without facial hair...and I think a lot of people, as strange as it sounds, tend to forget that and would actually think the lack of facial hair would mean a change in personality or performance style or vocalization, etc., etc. It would certainly change his visual appearance obviously but it would still be Ray Stevens. The last studio album released by Ray to feature him clean shaven is 1978's There Is Something on Your Mind.

Ray Stevens On Hee-Haw, Part 3!!!

Early Monday morning here...a few minutes past midnight...August 29th. On Sunday night the 1972 Hee-Haw episode with Ray Stevens re-aired on RFD-TV. This particular episode first aired on RFD-TV back in late February of this year. After it's February air-date RFD, for whatever reason, began re-running the 1971-1972 season for a second time. Here's hoping that the rest of the 1972-1973 season airs this time around. Ray will appear for a second time during this season. Ray appeared on episode's 78 and 88 in 1972...a 10 week span between appearances...so looking at this year's calendar if all goes well and my math is correct that second 1972 episode featuring Ray will air on November 6th.

As I touched upon in previous blog entries about this episode it marked the arrival of several key cast-members: Misty Row, Marianne Gordon, and Gailord Sartain. In the case of Sartain he wasn't mentioned in the opening credits but he appeared several times in police uniform on the show.

George Lindsey, who'd been appearing on and off as Goober throughout the 1971-1972 season, appeared several times on the 1972-1973 season opener but wasn't featured in the opening cast call either. Ray Stevens performed "Turn Your Radio On" and "Along Came Jones" but didn't participate in any of the comedy sketches. A lot of this happened due to the fact that a lot of the comedy sketches were taped during sessions in which the guest stars weren't at the studio. By the mid '70s and especially throughout the '80s the guest stars were often featured in quite a few of the sing-a-long comedy sketches but in the earliest episodes of the program many of the guest stars were on hand to sing their songs and that was it. The season opener for 1972, with Ray Stevens as a guest, will re-air on RFD-TV later this morning at 10am Eastern.

Arlene Harden and Dizzy Dean are the other guests. Check out my previous entries titled "Ray Stevens on Hee-Haw" and "Ray Stevens on Hee-Haw, Part 2!!!" for further commentary about that particular episode.

In the meantime, Ray's current Spirit of '76 CD is ranked among the Top-40 best selling Amazon Mp3's in the Singer-Songwriter category.

As you can tell I did a redecoration project on this blog page. I removed the Ray Stevens time-line that ran along the right side of the page to only showcase a few items. I did this because the time-line was rather lengthy and it ran quite a long way down the side of the page. Even though I've always known the time-line was lengthy I decided to shorten it up considerably to where it ends right around where the third blog entry ends. This way the blog page looks a lot more concise and compact which is how I prefer it looking for awhile.