Any Ernst Fans?

[D'Snowth]

Does Ernest's house remind anyone else of PeeWee's Playhouse? Seems like both are kinda on the same wavelength somewhat...

You mean that wasn't Vern's house he was spending so much time in?

 

[minor muppetz]

Hey, Vern! It's the Ernest P. Worrell Thread!

I thought I'd start a thread about Ernest P. Worrell, the main character from a franchise of Ernest movies, as well as various commercials and the saturday morning series "Hey Vern! It's Ernest!"

I have seen all of the Ernest movies, and the earlier ones are the best. Some of the later ones (Ernest Goes to School, Slam Dunk Ernest) are still good, though. The last two are mediocre.

Part of me wishes that more supporting characters would have returned for later movies. The only supporting characters to appear in multiple movies are Chuck, Bobby, and Ernest's dog Rimshot (I know Chuck and Bobby were on the saturday morning series... Was Rimshot as well?). In fact, I actually met Bobby's portrayer, Bill Byrge. He came to my school when I was in the 5th grade and spoke to the class about the movies. At the time I had seen a few of the movies, and the only ones I saw were ones featuring Bobby, but I didn't remember that character. At the time I wasn't that big a fan of Ernest, but meeting Bill Byrge did trigger more interest for me. And afterwards for the first few times I saw the movies I was surprised to see that Bobby was for the most part silent (considering the actor obviously could talk).

Still, I've recently been watching some of the Ernest movies again and reading about them on the internet movie database, and realised that while only a few characters were recurring in the movies, quite a few actors did appear in multiple Ernest movies. Daniel Butler had different roles in the first four, and there was one actor who appeared in both Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Goes to Jail (I forget the name... he played Reuben's attoryn in Ernest Goes to Jail).

In my opinion, Ernest Goes to Jail is the best one. It's the most cartoony, and it shows how versatile an actor Jim Varney was (playing both Ernest and Nash).

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I'm also a big fan of the Ernest P. Worrell character and his many movies, TV show and other appearances. By the way, has anyone ever confirmed the Jim Henson cameo in "Ernest Goes to Camp"? IMDB.com says he supposedly played a Minor in an uncredited role. (I'm guessing maybe they meant miner.)

 

[minor muppetz]

By the way, has anyone ever confirmed the Jim Henson cameo in "Ernest Goes to Camp"? IMDB.com says he supposedly played a Minor in an uncredited role. (I'm guessing maybe they meant miner.)

I remember when I first saw that on imdb, I watched the movie and the various scenes with minors, and I saw one in the background who resembled Jim Henson. I wonder if we could ask anybody at Henson about it (I guess it'd be more far-fetched to ask people who worked on the movie).

It's a shame that the DVDs don't contain any special features. It would be great to hear audio commentary from director John R. Cherry III.

 

[minor muppetz]

http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=45055

How'd I miss that? And that thread began just last year.

 

[Yorick]

I'm glad the old thread was linked in this one - we had some great posts there! I want to answer a few of them here:

Ernest's house in "Goes To Africa" reminds me of Pee Wee's house the most, so I agree about that!

And as for the Ultimate Ernest DVD set, it needs "Ernest Goes To Splash Mountain" too! It's a short special, but so great!

That's great you met Bill(Bobby)! And I agree, "Jail" is the best!

And I hope to find out if that is Jim Henson in "Camp" - that means maybe those two GREAT Jims met at that time!

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if Ernest Scarred Stupid was originally supposed to have Chuck. It seems odd how in that one, Bobby is the brother of Tom Tulip, who seems to be similar to Chuck. It makes me wonder if maybe Gaillard Sartain didn't want to be in it or if he was busy with something else.

I don't know how accurate this is, but Bill Byrge's internet movie database profile says that he was a librarian for a long time, and in 1996 retired to focus on his acting career... Yet the imdb doesn't lsit any credits for him past 1994 (I suppose he might have acted in commercials or plays, which wouldn't constitute imdb pages).

 

[minor muppetz]

After watching Ernest Goees to School recently, I must wonder... Is there any known motive for.. Uh, that school board person wanting the school in the movie to shut down? I mean, he goes so far as to bribe the football coach into trying to lose on purpose so the school can close down. And does a high school really need a winning football team in order to stay open?

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Winning football teams bring in revenue for the school and support from the public and certainly helps. Shouldn't be all about the football team, but it does stereotypically get that way sometimes.

 

[minor muppetz]

Another thing I find odd about Ernest Goes to School: When Gerta and Bobby make everybody smarter during the game, right before the final play, Gerta asks Bobby if he powered Ernest's brain... Bobby just looks shocked and it looks like he shouts "NINE!" Is that german for no? I guess that could have been an announcer or referee shouting, but it does sound like Bobby's voice (in the rare times when he does talk).