Man I was there were variety shows like this still on TV today. You get a well known country music star and have a variety show with different personalities and entertainers.
This is a memory for me , as i used to watch this every week with my father who passed when i was 15, it was his favorite show .. and he had many Hank Thompson records, thanks for putting this out.
Rowlf was the _real_ breakout Muppet star. He showed up in the second episode of _The Jimmy Dean Show_ in September 1963 to promote National Dog Week and was so well-received, Dean invited him back. Then he just never left! I guess Dean and Henson knew each other from their days doing local shows and commercials in the DC area. It doesn't look as though they worked for the same station, though, so I'm not clear on how they met. Dean really set the standard for Muppet/human interaction. Season 1 Episode 2 is available on RU-vid. From the start, Dean is perfectly willing to play straight man to a puppet, and to perform with the puppet exactly as he would with a human ("Yer ad-libbin', Rowlf"). Except it's a talking dog.
Actually, Jim Henson got his start in the 50s on Washington DC television, and The Muppets already existed at this point, albeit in a much smaller capacity! Craig Shemin's got an excellent book on the topic called "Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show" if you're interested in learning more.
"living fast won't hide the past, it's just to ease the pain." I wish I wrote that, what a beautiful line. used to think I was sophisticated, but this is the music my parents and grandparents were hearing on the radio in rural America. White PeopleThings. American Music.
So many people remember him mostly from the poorly-written, badly-produced _Hee Haw,_ and it's really sad. All the great talent going to waste because musicians thought it would be good to play caricatures of themselves. Have you seen the two episodes earlier in the first season of _The Jimmy Dean Show_ with Grandpa Jones? It you haven't, hasten ye and find it forthwith! Those episodes were a revelation to me. He was a crack clawhammer-style banjo player, and one heck of a showman.
