''The Jimmy Dean Show'' is the name of several similar music and variety series on American local and

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

television between 1963 and 1975. Each starred

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Jimmy Dean Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials. He became ...

as host.

Daytime

''The Jimmy Dean Show'', initially called ''Country Style'', aired live on WTOP-TV in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

in early 1957. It was picked up by the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

-TV network from April 8 to December 13, 1957, under the name '' The Morning Show'' from 7 to 7:45 a.m. ET Monday–Friday before the station's regular newscast. Guests included

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music s ...

Jay Chevalier Joe J. Chevalier, known as Jay Chevalier (March 4, 1936 – March 30, 2019), was an American singer and songwriter from Louisiana who achieved success in several musical genres since the late 1950s. A pioneer of rockabilly music, he is best k ...

, Billy Walker,

Little Jimmy Dickens James Cecil Dickens (December 19, 1920 – January 2, 2015), better known by his stage name Little Jimmy Dickens, was an American country music singer and songwriter famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size (4'11" 50 cm, and h ...

George Hamilton IV George Hege Hamilton IV (July 19, 1937 – September 17, 2014) was an American country musician. He began performing in the late 1950s as a teen idol, switching to country music in the early 1960s. Biography Hamilton was born in Winston-Salem, ...

, and the Country Lads; Mary Klick was a regular. The producer was

Connie B. Gay Connie Barriot Gay (August 22, 1914 – December 3, 1989) was renowned as a "founding father" and "major force" in country music. He is credited for coining the country music genre, which had previously been called hillbilly music. Gay was the f ...

. CBS then carried ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on its daytime schedule from September 14, 1958, to June 1959 from New York, airing from 2 to 2:30 p.m. ET Monday–Saturday. Guests on the variety program included

Hans Conried Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's ''Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's ''Dudle ...

and

Jaye P. Morgan Jaye P. Morgan (born Mary Margaret Morgan) is a retired American popular music singer, actress, and game show panelist. Early life Morgan was born in Mancos in Montezuma County in far southwestern Colorado. Her family moved to California by t ...

Prime time

''The Jimmy Dean Show'' aired as a live half-hour summer series from Washington, DC, on CBS-TV from June 22 to September 14, 1957 from 10:30 to 11 p.m. on Saturday nights. Guests included

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...

, and the

Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January ...

.. ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' was later an hour-long weekly music and variety television show carried by

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

for three seasons from September 19, 1963, to April 1, 1966, out of ABC Studio One in New York.
The Jimmy Dean Show Official Site - History Its first season was written by

Peppiatt and Aylesworth Peppiatt and Aylesworth were a Canadian television comedy team. The team consisted of Frank Peppiatt (March 19, 1927 – November 7, 2012) and John Aylesworth (August 18, 1928 – July 28, 2010). John Aylesworth was born on August 18, 1928, in T ...

, and

Scott Vincent Scott Vincent (December 24, 1922 – May 31, 1979) was an American radio and television announcer and newscaster. Radio Scott Vincent was a staff announcer for nearly 25 years at ABC's flagship owned-and-operated station WABC-TV in New Yo ...

was the announcer. Of the eighty-six episodes produced at ABC, ten shows were made on the road: four at the

Ryman Auditorium Ryman Auditorium (also known as Grand Ole Opry House and Union Gospel Tabernacle) is a 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in Nashville, Tennessee. It is best known as the home of the ''Grand Ole Opry'' fr ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

; three at ABC Studios in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

; one in Winter Haven,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and one at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

in New York City. The variety program featured country performers such as

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", ...

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for the Buckaroos, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 ...

and Dean's former band member

Roy Clark Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted ''Hee Haw'', a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influen ...

, and pop artists like the

Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...

and

Gene Pitney Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 hit singles, inclu ...

. Comics

Jackie Mason Jackie Mason (born Yacov Moshe Maza; yi, יעקב משה מזא; June 9, 1928 – July 24, 2021) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. His 1986 one-man show ''The World According to Me!'' won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Cir ...

Don Adams Donald James Yarmy (April 13, 1923 – September 25, 2005), known professionally as Don Adams, was an American actor. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the television situation comedy ''Ge ...

, and

Dick Shawn Dick Shawn (born Richard Schulefand, December 1, 1923 – April 17, 1987) was an American actor and comedian. He played a wide variety of supporting roles and was a prolific character actor. During the 1960s, he played small roles in madcap comed ...

also appeared.

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...

character

Rowlf the Dog Rowlf the Dog is a Muppet character, a scruffy brown dog of indeterminate breed with a rounded black nose and long floppy ears. He was created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Rowlf is the Muppet Theatre's resident pianist on ''The Muppe ...

(performed by

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

) debuted as a regular on the show, and during the premiere episode of the series in 1963, Dean interacted with an animated

Fred Flintstone Fred Flintstone is the main character of the animated sitcom '' The Flintstones'', which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960 to 1966. Fred is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintsto ...

.
The Jimmy Dean Show Official Site ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' in 1964 hosted the first television appearance of

Hank Williams, Jr. Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...

, who at the age of fourteen sang several songs associated with his legendary late father,

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

Jimmy Dean and Rowlf the Dog

The show introduced

, his

side-kick, who often performed duets with Dean. Introduced each time as Dean's "ol' buddy", Rowlf was

's first

to score a regular spot on a network television show and appeared in 85 of the 86 episodes. While

Don Sahlin Donald George Sahlin (June 19, 1928 – May 29, 1978) was a Muppet designer and builder who worked for Jim Henson from 1962 to 1977. Sahlin began making puppets at age 11, initially building a shadow theater and cardboard figurines. As an a ...

maintained the puppet,

Jerry Juhl Jerome Ravn Juhl (July 27, 1938 – September 27, 2005) was an American television and film writer, best known for his work with The Muppets. Biography Juhl was born in St. Paul, Minnesota; his family moved to Menlo Park, California, when ...

assisted in writing the Rowlf sketches with the help of the show's staff writers and even assisted Jim Henson and Jimmy Dean on occasion. During production on episodes that featured Rowlf the Dog, Jim Henson would perform Rowlf with the Muppet's right arm operated by

Frank Oz Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is an American actor, puppeteer, and filmmaker. He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in ''The Muppet Show ...

, and later by

Jerry Nelson Jerry L. Nelson (July 10, 1934 – August 23, 2012) was an American puppeteer, best known for his work with The Muppets. Renowned for his wide range of characters and singing abilities, he performed Muppet characters on ''Sesame Street'', ' ...

.
Jim Henson's Red Book entry, November 18, 1965 Henson was so grateful for the exposure Dean offered on his show that he in turn proposed that Dean take a 40 percent stake in The Jim Henson Company, Henson's company. Dean refused, however, later saying in 2005, "I didn't do anything to earn that."
Craig McDonald interviews Jimmy Dean, 2005 When it came to an episode of ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

'' that aired on October 8, 1967, Jimmy Dean and Rowlf the Dog were reunited one final time where they performed "

Friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept o ...

" while doing the "herd of cows" gag.

Influence

, a Canadian duo who wrote for ''The Jimmy Dean Show'', noted that while it had a country music star, and rural comedy was extremely popular in the 1960s, the show itself had quite little rural humor. In 1969, Peppiatt and Aylesworth created ''

Hee Haw ''Hee Haw'' is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with the fictional rural "Kornfield Kounty" as the backdrop. It aired first-run on CBS from 1969 to 1971, in syndication from 1971 to 1993, and on TNN from 199 ...

'' as a way to cater to the rural audience, bringing on two of Dean's most frequent guests as hosts,

and

ABC schedules

* September 1963 – March 1964: Thursday, 9–10 p.m. Eastern Time * March–August 1964: Thursday, 9:30–10:30 p.m. ET * September 1964 – September 1965: Thursday, 10–11 p.m. ET * September 1965 – April 1966: Friday, 10–11 p.m. ET

Home media and syndication

The longer-running prime-time series was produced on black and white videotape which was later disposed of by ABC. Eighty-two of the surviving 1960s reference 16mm

Kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...

copies of the series were salvaged from the UCLA Archives by the Jimmy Dean Estate and restored by Donna Dean Stevens Entertainment in 2016 and 2017. In January 2017, the painstakingly remastered Season 1 of the show, which had not been seen in over 50 years, was released as a DVD set. The set includes exclusive interviews with Merle Haggard, Bobby Bare, Bill Anderson, and Donna Dean Stevens.
Jimmy Dean Show Restoration Press Conference Remastered by restoration producer and editor Steve Boyle, the restored show began broadcast on

RFDTV RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United Sta ...

on January 1, 2017.
The Jimmy Dean Show on RFDTV

Notes

References

* . * . * '' Billboard magazine, Billboard'', 1957–66

External links