I’m surprised people are usually stunned when they learn that a commercial spokesman or mascot is being turned in to a potential video game, movie, or television series these days. Upon learning the Cavemen from the popular Geico commercials were being turned in to a television show, people were genuinely shocked. Who can blame them for at least trying for a television show? Sure, it’s a god awful idea (and the show’s oh so brief run on television shows it) but it’s not unlike Hollywood to not pay attention to interesting concepts and aim for some cash flow. Subsequent the success of Pee Wee Herman, the late eighties opened the doors for off the wall and wild entertainment all led by someone completely wacky and not afraid to take risks while entertaining children and adults alike.
“Pee Wee’s Playhouse” was a bona fide zeitgeist for children’s programming that managed to reach all audiences, and continues to be a cult fixture since Pee Wee himself is a man whose unabashed enthusiasm and absurd humor make him so beloved. From there on we had over the top but educational fare “Beakman’s World,” “Bill Nye,” and hell, even Weird Al Yankovic got in on the fun for a little while. One of the bigger follow ups to the Pee Wee Herman trail was Ernest P. Worrell, a local television spokesman, who became a spokesman for international products and soon enough transformed in to his own franchise garnering movies, and even his own short lived television series. As a child of the nineties I fondly remember waking up every Saturday morning to watch “Hey Vern!” on CBS kids to indulge in Ernest P. Worrell’s misadventures where he always gazed directly in to the camera wide eyed and over the top, like a living cartoon, and provided kids with the second best alternative to animation.
The late great Jim Varney was a living moving cartoon, a man who could be about as abundantly charismatic and slapstick as your normal Looney Tunes cartoon, and even when he flopped, he was always a man of incomparable charms and talents who keep all eyes on him. Mill Creek Entertainment now offers the Complete Series of “Hey Vern!” on DVD for all Ernest fans old and new, in denial and true, who are anxious to indulge in the four hour thirteen episode onslaught of loud and raucous comedy bits that the whole family can watch as Ernest takes part in some of his most favorite and least favorite activities that almost always have carnage and chaos right behind it. A large portion of the comedy in “Hey Vern!” was carried over in to his movies, save for his breaking of the fourth wall and his conversations with his friend Vern.
In a heartbeat if Ernest wanted to have an adventure, he’d surely have one, and with a rotating array of recurring characters, “Hey Vern!” is a stand out as one of the more entertaining follow-ups to the Pee Wee Herman juggernaut that created its own style while subtly taking from Pee Wee’s Playhouse and “You Can’t Do That on TV.” Some of the funniest episodes are in the first disc where Ernest reads a scary story to the audience and imitates the boogeyman by rumbling his cheeks, a small gesture that admittedly brought me to chuckles, and of course there are Ernest’s delving’s in to the art of magic that goes horribly awry, and his confrontation with his favorite sports that end up with some bruises along the way. Sure, it may not be high brow, but “Hey Vern!” is a fun series set with admittedly average picture quality, and no extras, but at least you get to see Ernest show Vern all of his favorite hobbies and having a damn good time doing it, regardless of how much destruction follows.
KnowhutImean?