June 3, 2022 Trivia Contest

Additional Bowden Comments

The answer is: 5. Flatt & Scruggs made recordings of the themes of 3 related tv shows from the 1960s. They had a HUGE hit with the Beverly Hillbillies theme. Not as well known were a couple of 45 rpm singles where they did the theme to Petticoat Junction (Come and ride a little train that is rolling down the tracks to the junction — Petticoat Junction.) They had some girl singers to chant “Petticoat Junction” while Paul Warren’s fiddle made the train whistle and chug-chug-chug sounds. On live performances the girls’ part was taken by high baritone singer Cousin Jake Tullock, the bass player. Earl used to tease Jake about putting on his “bonnet” to sing this song. Petticoat Junction took place back near the Beverly Hillbillies old home place (Hooterville, Pixley, etc) and was a spin-off vehicle for the actress who played Jed Clampett’s sister “Pearl Bodine” — mother of Jethro. Her name was Bea Benaderet and was mostly known at the time for voicing cartoons for Warner Brothers Looney Tunes, the Flinstones, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc.

The next show was “Green Acres” which was a spin-off of Petticoat Junction! By the same production company “Filmways”. Manhattanites Oliver Wendell Douglas and his wife Lisa (played by Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor (Zsa Zsa’s sister) moving to a worthless farm in Hooterville and playing “fish out of water”. Flatt & Scruggs also recorded this theme song “Green Acres is the place to be, farm living in the life for me!” on a 45 rpm record. June Carter was enlisted to sing Eva Gabor’s part of the theme song.

NONE of these 3 recordings was used as the actual tv theme songs. Flatt & Scruggs indeed played the Hillbillies’ theme song, but veteran cowboy singer Jerry Scoggins sang it (not Lester). The reason is interesting. Lester was perfectly happy to sing the theme, but at the time (1962), the intent was each week to insert a little sung theme of the SPONSOR of that week’s episode. For instance Winston cigarettes. At the end of the opening theme Jerry Scoggins sang “Winston tastes good — like a cigarette should!”, or the “Kellogs — the Best to you each morning!” They felt this would be easier for Scoggins to do in a Los Angeles studio near his home. It would have been burdensome for Lester to have to come to a studio to record all of these, what with Flatt & Scruggs crushing road schedule. THAT is why Lester didn’t sing the theme song for broadcast. They recorded their own version of the Hillbillies theme in Nashville immediately after recording the theme with Jerry Scoggins singing for broadcast.

Now as for the others:

1. Mac Wiseman had a hit record in the 1950s for DAVY CROCKETT (king of the wild frontier), not Daniel Boone. The Daniel Boone tv show didn’t happen until the 1960s, played by the same actor (Fess Parker) who portrayed Crockett in a 1950s Disney movie.

2. The Dillards appeared on several Andy Griffith Show episodes as The Darling Family who seemed to get into shenanigans every time they left the hills to come into Mayberry. They had nothing to do with the show’s theme song.

3. Bill Monroe had nothing to do with the Hee Haw theme, although he and the Blue Grass Boys appeared on the show. The closest Monroe came to tv music was a very poorly conceived attempt to have Bill and the Blue Boys record a commercial for Dr. Pepper, which if you think about it is NOT a song suited to bluegrass performance! The commercial had a VERY short life span!

4. Flatt & Scruggs 1949 recording “Foggy Mt. Breakdown” was used by producer/actor Warren Beatty as part of the score for the MOVIE Bonnie & Clyde in the late 1960s. There was no tv show Bonnie & Clyde. Warren Beatty went to the same high school in northern Virginia as Pete Kuykendall, the late publisher/editor of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. Pete was a proslytizer for bluegrass music at his high school and used to play his 78 rpm bluegrass records for friends. His record of Foggy Mt. Breakdown caught Warren’s ear.

6. The Po’ Rambling Boys (featuring our friend Laura Orshaw on fiddle!) did indeed recently record “East Bound and Down” from the MOVIE “Smokey & the Bandit” which starred Burt Reynolds et. al. It wasn’t a tv show however. They are getting good radio air play with this bluegrass rendition of the original Jerry Reed performance.

7. Terry Baucom and the Dukes of Drive have no relationship to the Dukes of Hazzard. The band is named for Terry’s old nickname from the 1970s when he was billed as “The Duke of Drive” for his powerful banjo style.

8. Allison Krauss had nothing to do with the Murphy Brown tv show or its music.

9. Ralph Stanley had nothing to do with the tv show The Waltons other than it took place in the hills of Virginia; Ralph also lived in the hills Virginia.