TVSquad

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Jim Hager: The comedian/musician was one of the Hager Twins from the TV show Hee Haw. He appeared in other TV shows as well, including The Bionic Woman, and received a TV Land Award last year for his work on Hee Haw. He died after collapsing in a Nashville coffee shop. He was 66.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Boots Randolph: He was a renowned sax player best known for his early 60s hit "Yakety Sax," which was later used as the theme song on Benny Hill. Randolph recorded dozens of albums and played in many bands, and was part of the Million Dollar Band on Hee-Haw for many years. He died after suffering a brain aneurysm and falling into a coma two weeks ago. He was 80.

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet - Best Of
• Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters - Best Of
• Beverly Hills, 90210 - Season 2
• Dinosaurs - Seasons 3 and 4
• The Girls Next Door - Season 2
• Hee Haw - Vol. 7
• The King of Queens - Season 8
• Melrose Place - Season 2
• Three's Company - Janet's Favorites
• What I Like About You - Season 1
• Will & Grace - Season 6

(S05E13) Ya know, no matter what part political affiliation you claim, I think we can all agree that Bill Clinton lends himself well to comedy. There's just enough hillbilly in his character to make him easy to laugh at. Family Guy certainly isn't the first show to take a run at Clinton, and they've now featured the former president four or five times, but there's plenty of room at that party.

That's getting ahead of the game though. Before we could get to the Peter and Bill hijinks, there was the loosely relevant opening at the Quahog Marine Center. While it was a long way to go to get to the main plot, there were a lot of funny bits in that opening. Herbert at the fondle tank, Stewie's stripper line, and Seamus saving Peter from the octopus were all good bits. I especially liked the Wacky Wall Walker finish to that.

It's time to hike up your overalls, dust off your cornballs, pluck your chicken-ducks, tweedle-dee your slap happy banjo monkey, and come up with other assorted country-fried colloquialisms that don't make any sense because CMT will be hosting a Hee Haw marathon on July 29 that'll air from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. According to Sitcoms Online, this is the first time reruns of the long-running variety show and musical showcase have been on television in nearly a decade. Also, the last two episodes of the marathon will be repeats of episodes shown earlier during the marathon, which is kind of a gyp, considering they only had like eighty-billion episodes to pick from. Future showings of the popular series will cover every episode that aired from 1969 to 1991.

(S02E03) Yeah, I know, this review is a couple days late, but that's okay. It means we've all learned an important lesson. You've learned patience, and I've learned not to trust Tivo so much. Luckily, the episode repeated last night so I was able to catch it without having a gap in my reviews staring at me like some kind of malevolent eye swirling inside a black hole. Or maybe that's being melodramatic. Anyway, my review:

In this episode, Chauncey and the gang are visited by Middle America (the puppet version), a yammering chunk of the United States who speaks only in gibberish and says "Texas" every other word. This eventually leads to a spoof of Hee Haw called Horse Apples which features a group of trailer park dwellers cracking jokes about incest and lynching. You know, typical family fare. The whole "Middle America" gag is funny for awhile, but eventually it wore thin. The other segments, such as Clarence's obligatory annoying of people on the street and a "Beat Kids" segment where we learn about pet castration seemed to lack their usual energy.

It's weird, I haven't even thought about Hee Haw in probably ten years, and today someone asked me a question about the show. Then I get home and find out that longtime Hee Haw co-host Buck Owens had died! [Insert Twilight Zone theme here.]

Owens died today in Bakersfield, CA. A lot of people just know him from humorous bits on Hee Haw and various other appearances on TV shows, but a lot of people don't know that he had 20 number one records in the 60s and 70s.

Every Tuesday morning here on TV Squad , we will highlight the week's TV-on-DVD releases. Some noteworthy releases today, January 10, 2006:

• Andromeda - Vol 5.3
• As Time Goes By - Reunion Specials
• Black Books - The Complete 1st Series
• The Flash - The Complete Series
• Hee Haw - Collection Vol 5
• The House of Eliott - Series 2
• Men Behaving Badly (UK) - The Complete Series 3; The Complete Series 4
• Nighty Night - The Complete 1st Series
• Red Dwarf - Series 7
• Rising Damp - Series 1
• Strong Medicine - The Complete 1st Season
• Urban Gothic - Season 1
• Viva la Bam - The Complete 4th And 5th Seasons
• Wild Kingdom - Hunters Of The Sky; The African Wild 2