Jimmy Dean Show, The

But perhaps the one artist who first brought country music before a widespread audience is Jimmy Dean. Dean, the Plainview, Texas native best known for his 1961 No. 1 hit, "Big Bad John" and giving us sausage to eat at breakfast, hosted a number of eponymously-named network series in the 1950s and 1960s.

His first television exposure came in 1957, when he had a self-titled daily CBS series that was based in Washington. He also had a primetime series that ran during the summer of '57 and featured primarily country talent and older popular acts. The daytime series ran from April to December 1957, and again from September 1958 to June 1959.

After a few years of concentrating solely on radio, Dean returned to network television in 1963 with The Jimmy Dean Show. A variety hour, Dean welcomed country and pop acts of the era, along with comedians and other favorites. He also bantered with Rowlf (yup, Jim Henson's piano-playing Muppet mutt).

Regulars included Molly Bee, Ron Martin (a comic singer who never seemed to finish a song), Roger Price and Mort Marshall (whom, as Lud and Lester, did a comedy act) and the Jubilee Four, a gospel act who closed out each show.

The 1963 incarnation of The Jimmy Dean Show ran for three seasons on ABC, with the show going "on location" during the final year. The most notable telecast occured in October 1965, when the show featured the first Country Music Association Awards show.

In addition to "Big, Bad John," Dean's hits include another No. 1 hit, "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning (And the Last Thing Ev'ry Night)" (1965), "P.T. 109" (1962, depicting the wartime career of President John F. Kennedy), "To A Sleeping Beauty" (1962) and "I.O.U." (1976, the mother's day tribute). He later hosted a syndicated series (another self-titled entry) from 1973-1975.

Today, of course, Jimmy Dean is best known for his pork sausage business. To many classic country fans, however, he'll always be known for his saga songs and his easy-going crooning style.