Hey Vern, It's Ernest!, on CBS
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I guess the character of Ernest P. Worrell (played by Jim Varney) got his start in commercials, before going on to movies as well as this Saturday morning kids' show. I don't remember any of the commercials, but I feel like I must have been aware of the character before the show started... though I could be mistaken. There was one Ernest movie before this series, but I don't think I ever saw it. Certainly I've never seen any Ernest movie in a theater, but I may have seen bits of some of them on TV. The only one I've ever watched all the way through, as far as I recall, is Ernest Saves Christmas, which came out later the same year this show premiered, 1988. Though I couldn't have seen that until it was on TV at some point, probably in the 90s. In any event, I've never been a fan of the character (or any of the other characters Varney played in the show or movies). I don't remember anything about the show, except that he thought he was friends with some guy named Vern, whom he's constantly pestering. But Vern (whom we never actually see or hear) clearly doesn't like Ernest at all, and I totally understood how he felt. Of course, there was more to the show than just Ernest bugging Vern, including sketches featuring not just Varney's many characters, but any number of characters played by other people (whom I also probably didn't like that much). So... yeah, I don't even know how much of this show I ever watched, but at least I remember its existence, and being annoyed by it. But it's possible I kind of liked a bit of it, I dunno. And it's possible I'd like it slightly more if I watched it today. Or not.