Hey Vern, It's Ernest!

Hey Vern, It's Ernest!
Genre	Family-oriented Comedy
Directed by	John R. Cherry III Coke Sams
Starring	Jim Varney Gailard Sartain Bruce Arntson Mac Bennett Daniel Butler Bill Byrge Debi Derryberry Mark Goldman Denice Hicks Jackie Welch
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	John R. Cherry III Andy Heyward Robby London
Producer(s)	Coke Sams Stacy Williams
Running time	18-22 minutes (Not including commercials)
Production company(s)	Emshell Producers Group DIC Entertainment, L.P.
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 17, 1988 – December 24, 1988

Hey Vern, It's Ernest! is an American children's television program. It aired on Saturday mornings on CBS for one season in 1988. Each episode involved short sketches on a certain theme or scenario, featuring Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney), his unseen friend Vern, and various others. The filming locations were in Nashville, Tennessee and Burbank, California. It was a production of Ernest creator John Cherry's production company, The Emshell Producers' Group, in association with CBS, and was distributed by DIC Entertainment. The series was later rerun on The Family Channel in the early 1990s.

Cast

Recurring sketches and characters

• Lonnie Don's School of Hollywood Sound Effects: A fictional sound effects wizard demonstrates how to make a sound from one of his movies. The procedure is always the same: he places his hand over his mouth and blows a raspberry.

• Haircut: Ernest walks into Earl the Barber's shop and asks him to make him look like a "Wall Street tycoon." However, the barber always misunderstands him, and instead fanatically styles his hair into something that rhymes with the word "tycoon" (e.g., a "baby baboon," a "clock set on noon," "large feet in a cartoon," a "deadbeat raccoon", etc.) Whatever the hairstyle, Ernest initially is aghast, but then stares at it thoughtfully in the mirror and says, "It could work."

• Sergeant Glory: Varney plays an aloof, fast-talking military Sergeant teaching a class of recruits about the subject of the day. He gives them two rules to remember, the second of which is almost always "Obey all rules." The character originated in an ad for Purity milk a short while before the character of Ernest was created. (In "Hobbies," the rules were both "They seldom stand.")

• My Father the Clown: A spoof on family-friendly sitcoms which featured a professional clown, his stay-at-home wife, and two kids: an aspiring clown (Skeeter) and his straight-laced brother (Eddie) who is routinely the victim of the antics.

• Existo the Magician: A clumsy magician who stumbles over his words, and attempts to perform tricks that always go awry.

• Matt Finish: A self-described "photographer at large" who loves taking pictures of everything. His name is a pun on matte finish, a type of non-glossy photo paper.

• Mrs. Simon Simmons' Mind Your Manners: A spoof of Emily Post, Mrs. Simon Simmons teaches the ways of proper etiquette, but in many cases, breaks other norms of social protocol in the process.

• Ernest's Tongue: Ernest's tongue gets sprayed with different kinds of food.

• Mac and George: Mac and his "roommate" George, an Iguana who supposedly can do many of the same things a person can.

• Chuck and Bobby: Chuck and his brother Bobby (who rarely speaks), get themselves into various adventures. These two characters made appearances together in Ernest Saves Christmas as the Orlando Airport's storage agents and Ernest Goes to Jail as security guards for a bank while Bobby made an appearance with his younger brother, Tom in Ernest Scared Stupid. Bobby's final film appearance was in Ernest Goes to School.

• Willie the Robot: A homemade robot with a bucket head and a '70s "Have a nice day" Smiley face. Originally appeared in Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam.

• Baby Ernest: Ernest as a baby would talk about a situation involving his parents and end by saying "Boy, grownups sure talk funny. KnowhatImean?"

• Woody: A ventriloquist dummy who looks like Ernest.

• Dust Bunny: A dusty rabbit, named after dust bunnies, who appears to live under dusty furniture, and always gets in and out of the picture by sneezing.

• Dr. Otto: The main character from Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam would sometimes be featured in his lab creating new things. When he feels he has a great idea, he would sometimes exclaim "Viola!" ("Voila!") or "Eureka, California!" ("Eureka!")

• Bill and Coo: A country music duo who sing sad but funny songs. They only appeared in two episodes, "Pets" and "School."

Episodes

Releases

Various episodes were released on home video—some on DIC Entertainment's own label—in the late 1980s-early 1990s.

DIC streamed several episodes for free viewing on their KEWL Cartoons website until KewlCartoons became Jaroo.

Mill Creek Entertainment released a two-disc DVD set containing all thirteen episodes on January 18, 2011.^[1]

Awards

References

External links

• Hey Vern, It's Ernest at the Internet Movie Database
• Hey Vern, It's Ernest at TV.com