During one summer in the early 1970s, she was a live-in secretary/babysitter for Anita Bryant at her home in Miami. Gifford's career took off in the 1970s (during her first marriage to Christian composer, arranger, producer and publisher Paul Johnson) as a vocalist on the game show "Name That Tune" with Tom Kennedy (she performed the "sing a tune" segment as Kathie Lee Johnson). In 1978, she joined the cast of the short-lived "Hee Haw" spinoff, "Hee Haw Honeys".