LISA TODD (1970-85)
Lisa's most memorable character was “Sunshine Cornsilk,” Cornfield County's weather girl who unsuccessfully chased ignorant hillbilly Junior Samples
The voluptuous brunette developed into a woman at an early age and also broke into Hollywood young. Her birth year is listed as 1954, which would indicate that she joined “Hee Haw” at age 16. Two years earlier (1968) she appeared in two episodes of “The Beverly Hillbillies” as Ilse, a German secretary who spoke little English and enamored Jethro. A 1972 newspaper article on her was entitled “Under Twenty Interview,” yet it didn't list her age. So we'll probably never know if she was really that young or if she changed her birthdate to appear younger to Hollywood producers.
“I'd never been on a farm or south of Maryland. I never spoke 'country' in my life,” she told interviewer Kurt Lassen in the 1972 article. “I went around telling people I'd gotten a series but when they'd ask which one I was going to be in I choked up. I just couldn't say it was going to be 'Hee Haw.'”
The native of Santa Barbara soon picked up the Southern dialect.
“I listened to Junior for a while and it was no trick to pick up 'country' from him,” she said. “I then realized that comedy does take talent and work and I worked on it to make it come off.”
Classic TV Beauties 1980s Countdown
THE HEE HAW HONEYS: MISTY ROWE, LISA TODD, GUNILLA HUTTON, MARIANNE GORDON, LINDA THOMPSON and BARBI BENTON
It was a rural, hicky show about country folk that many viewers were ashamed to admit they watched, and it only aired on a network for two seasons, but “Hee Haw” became a huge success all over America, including in large cities, enduring over four decades (1969-91) through syndication.
Hee Haw” centered on country music, corny jokes and buxom, scantily-clad women. And the eye candy of the show, the Hee Haw Honeys, were a large part of its success. The Honeys displayed comedic acting skills and a few of them could actually sing, but they were hired largely for their hotness
The Honeys wore halter tops and Daisy Duke shorts and country miniskirts, and they were often portrayed as too-real-to-be-farmer's daughters. They were all gorgeous knockouts that any city slicker would desire.
Although more Hee Haw Honeys appeared in the show than are featured here, these six girls represented the most popular of the group over the run of the series.
MISTY ROWE (1972-90)
Probably the most popular Honey, Misty was best known for “Misty's Bedtime Stories” and for playing Junior Sample's daffy assistant in “Junior's Used Cars.”
Misty stayed busy when she wasn't working on “Hee Haw.” Her website (www.mistyrowe.com) says she's appeared in more than 200 TV shows and 10 films. She's the only woman to portray both Marilyn Monroe and Minnie Pearl in films. She played Daisy Mae opposite Joe Namath in “Lil Abner” on Broadway then released a poster wearing her Daisy Mae shorts which sold more than one million copies.
“I hated the impression my looks used to give,” she told Movie Buff magazine in 1989. “You know, blonde, big boobs...But now I relish it. I'm famous for my figure.”
Originally from Glendora, California, Misty cashed in on her good looks in 1976 when she posed in the buff for Playboy magazine.
“If I could do it all over again, I'd get a boob job and do Playboy every year,” she said. “In my day, it was a stepping stone. Women now make a whole career out of being in Playboy. My breasts could have gotten me millions.”
.No. 20
GUNILLA HUTTON (1969-90)
This blonde beauty will forever be known as Nurse Goodbody, Doc Campbell's anxious but shapely assistant. A native of Sweden who moved to Texas when she was a girl, Gunilla said that people were always shocked to learn that she didn't have a Southern accent.
Gunilla was also a singer who sang solo on “Hee Haw” and opened for country acts Roy Clark, Mel Tillis and Roger Miller.
She said singing country music was a “natural transition for me because I think I've got a lot of country feeling in my background and then I was right there in Nashville where you're surrounded by country and western sounds.”
Gunilla was the second actress to play Billie Jo on “Petticoat Junction,” for one season (1965-66). She replaced Jeannine Riley on that sitcom, then four years later replaced her as a “Hee Haw” Honey.
“One of the reasons people enjoy [“Hee Haw”] is that we all really have fun making them,” she said. “The cast is the closest thing to a family you'll ever see together on one show."
MARIANNE GORDON ROGERS (1972-90)
Marianne was a true Georgia peach from Athens who played a wealthy Southern belle in a “Hee Haw” skit. As the favored daughter, she sat on a swing at her plantation home, dressed in a hoop skirt, fanned herself and told stories about her daddy, “The Colonel,” in a thick Southern accent.
One of her favorite lines was, “I've just been informed by my business adviser that I cannot list my beauty as a personal asset.”
“I couldn't do [the segment] with any of the other [girls],” producer Sam Lovullo said of Marianne to The Associated Press in 1983. “She's just right for the part. If she were to ever leave the show, I'd do away with the part.”
Marianne, who married (then later divorced) singer Kenny Rogers after he appeared as a guest on the show, acted in several of “The Gambler” movies – based on her husband's song of the same name -- and also appeared in “Rosemary's Baby.”
“She has this Southern charm that I think a Southern belle has. I think her role is cute,” Rogers said of his wife's part on “Hee Haw.” “A Southern belle, that's absolutely her."
LINDA THOMPSON (1977-90)
Linda was already well known when she became a Honey – she'd been Elvis Presley's girlfriend for more than four years. They broke up in 1976 and he died in August of that year.
The five-foot-nine beauty queen from Memphis had won a slew of pageants and was the reigning Miss Tennessee USA when she met the King of Rock and Roll.
“I lacked 12 credits from the University of Memphis,” she told Larry King. “And I decided I wasn't going to go back and get my degree. I was doing some modeling locally [in Memphis] and thought about maybe going to New York. But then Elvis came along and swept me off my feet.”
Linda developed into a songwriter who won an Emmy (2002) for the song “Aren't They All Our Children,” she co-wrote with then-husband David Foster for “The Concert for World's Children's Day.”
BARBI BENTON (1970-75)
Barbi was another Honey who dated an icon – Mr. Playboy Hugh Hefner. She appeared on three covers and posed for several nude layouts for the magazine before and during her stint on “Hee Haw.”
Barbi also had a singing career, recording three albums and charting a Top 5 song (“Brass Buckles”) on the country charts in 1975.
Barbi made several appearance on TV's “Fantasy Island,” but her acting skills were mostly disregarded by producers who were more interested in featuring her body on the screen.
“Everybody wants me for nude parts,” she said in a 1974 interview with the Milwaukee Journal. “I'll do a small nude scene in a lead role but I wouldn't do a part where I just show my 'bod.'
She explained the difference in posing nude in Playboy as opposed to showing it all on screen.
"In movies, you have 40 people watching you. In the magazine, there's just the photographer.”
The green-eyed brunette from Sacramento enrolled in UCLA to study animal medicine but soon realized that she couldn't stand the sight of blood. She modeled to earn money and was invited to appear on “Playboy After Dark.” By the second show, she said she was “sort of hand in hand with Hef.”
Of “Hee Haw,” she said, “I never liked it back in Sacramento because I didn't understand it. Now it just comes naturally.”
Click on your favorite Hee Haw Honey
