The Jimmy Dean Show

Did You Know?

• Peppiatt and Aylesworth, who wrote for The Jimmy Dean Show, later created Hee Haw in 1969, bringing on Buck Owens and Roy Clark as hosts.
• The show hosted the first network television appearance of Connie Smith in October 1964, two months after her debut single Once A Day reached number one.

Daytime

Before it was known as The Jimmy Dean Show, the program began as Country Style on WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C. during early 1957. CBS picked it up and broadcast it as The Morning Show from April 8 to December 13, 1957, weekdays from 7:00 to 7:45 a.m. ET. Regular performer Mary Klick appeared alongside guests such as Chet Atkins, Little Jimmy Dickens, and George Hamilton IV. Connie B. Gay produced. A later version aired on CBS from New York between September 14, 1958, and June 1959, running Monday through Saturday from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. ET. That variety show featured guests including Hans Conried and Jaye P. Morgan.

Prime time

The Jimmy Dean Show aired as a live half-hour summer series from Washington, D.C. on CBS from June 22 to September 14, 1957, from 10:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday nights, with guests including Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, and the Andrews Sisters. It later became an hour-long weekly music and variety show on ABC for three seasons from September 19, 1963, to April 1, 1966, out of ABC Studio One in New York. Its first season was written by Peppiatt and Aylesworth, and Scott Vincent was the announcer.

Of the eighty-six episodes produced at ABC, ten were made on the road: four at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee; three at ABC Studios in Hollywood, California; one in Winter Haven, Florida; and one at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The program featured country performers such as George Jones, Buck Owens and Roy Clark, and pop artists like The Everly Brothers and Gene Pitney. Comics Jackie Mason, Don Adams, and Dick Shawn also appeared.

Muppet character Rowlf the Dog debuted as a regular on the show, and during the premiere episode in 1963, Dean interacted with an animated Fred Flintstone. The show hosted the first television appearance of Hank Williams, Jr. in 1964, and the first network television appearance of Connie Smith in October 1964.

Jimmy Dean and Rowlf the Dog

Rowlf the Dog, a Muppet sidekick who frequently sang duets with Jimmy Dean, made his network television debut on this show. Introduced as Dean's "ol' buddy," Rowlf appeared in 85 out of 86 episodes, becoming Jim Henson's first Muppet with a regular network slot. Don Sahlin handled the puppet's maintenance, while Jerry Juhl contributed to writing the Rowlf sketches alongside the show's staff writers. During production, Henson performed Rowlf, with Frank Oz and later Jerry Nelson operating the Muppet's right arm. Grateful for the exposure, Henson offered Dean a 40 percent stake in his company, but Dean declined, later stating he hadn't earned it. The pair reunited one last time on an October 8, 1967 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, performing "Friendship" with a "herd of cows" gag.

Home media and syndication

ABC disposed of the black-and-white videotape used for this longer-running prime-time series. The Jimmy Dean Estate recovered eighty-two surviving 1960s reference 16mm Kinescope copies from the UCLA Archives, and Donna Dean Stevens Entertainment restored them in 2016 and 2017. Season 1, unseen for over fifty years, was released as a DVD set in January 2017, featuring exclusive interviews with Merle Haggard, Bobby Bare, Bill Anderson, and Donna Dean Stevens. Restoration producer and editor Steve Boyle remastered the show, which began airing on RFDTV on January 1, 2017.