The Ford Show Tennessee Ernie Ford

The Ford Show

Hosted by Tennessee Ernie Ford, the likeable singer, comedian, entertainer received his own variety show sponsored by the Ford Motor Company which gave Ernie the venue to entertain millions with his informal friendly manner and talent. His music was a combination of gospel and country and western. His homespun catch phrase “Bless Their Little Pea Pickin’ Hearts”, endeared him to the nation.

The Ford Show (also known as The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford and The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show) is an American variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Ernest Ford, which aired on NBC on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956, to June 29, 1961. The show was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, whose founders shared a last name with the host but had no known relation. Beginning in September 1958, the show was telecast in color, and was broadcast from NBC Studios at 3000 W. Alameda Avenue in Burbank, California. It is also one of the first places that showed Charles M. Schulz‘s Peanuts characters in animated form, which, like the later specials, was directed by Bill Melendez.

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