Ernest P. Worrell

Ernest P. Worrell is a fictional character and the lead protagonist in a series of films that were produced through Disney's Touchstone Pictures label. The character originated from a series of commercials before progressing to other forms of media, primarily television and later cinema.
==Background==
===Development and history===
Ernest P. Worrell was created by the Nashville advertising agency Carden and Cherry, by executives John R. Cherry III and Coke Sams. He was used in various local television ad campaigns where he was portrayed by actor Jim Varney. Prior to the ads, Varney was already an established television and stage actor. The format for the commercials were simple. Ernest would address the camera as his neighbor, Vern, and explain the product in his usual comedic delivery. Vern himself, who was never shown, nor spoke, often came off as annoyed by Ernest's unwanted visitations and would sometimes try to get rid of him. At the end of the commercials, Ernest would sign off with his catchphrase, "KnowhutImean?"
While Vern is never shown to ever say anything, it is implied that he finds Ernest to be an unwelcome pest due to him trying to slam his door in Ernest's face on a few occasions. Vern also shakes his head "no" whenever Ernest invites him to do something. Ernest, despite having good intentions, is utterly oblivious to Vern's apparent distress regarding him and always regards Vern as his closest buddy and confidant.
The products Ernest pushed, varied. Due to the increase in clients Carden and Cherry received, upwards of 25 commercials would be filmed in a single day. Varney was a professional comedic ad libber and a quick memorizer, allowing him to be capable of reshooting the same commercial just with a different product in rapid succession. The popularity of the commercials would lead to a cameo appearance in the low budget comedy Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam, before the character was picked up by Disney to produce his first solo feature film Ernest Goes to Camp. The following year, a television show, lasting one season, titled Hey Vern, It's Ernest!, would also air. Ernest would go on to appear in eight more movies, roughly half of which would be with Disney and the other half independently released, before Varney's untimely death in 2000.
The Ernest character would return in new commercials as a CGI cartoon, created by an animation company called face2face and produced by Ernest originators Carden & Cherry. Ernest was voiced by John C. Hudgens, an advertising and broadcast producer from Little Rock, Arkansas, who also played an Ernest type character in some regional live action commercials, though none of them would be as well received. A reboot titled Son of Ernest was pitched in 2012. No further development had occurred since the announcement and with Cherry's death in 2022, the film was most likely abandoned.
===Personality===
Ernest P. Worrell is a dopey, but good-natured handyman. He considers himself a worldly person with knowledge on all things in life. In actuality, he is an unintelligent blow-hard who constantly makes absurd notions and decisions. He can be very intrusive to the point that he is destructive, though he seems completely oblivious to his own actions. His eccentricities are made up with his genuinely good heart and his want for helping others. He has a soft spot for small animals and kids, the latter of whom he easily relates to and tends to offer helpful advice towards.
Despite his clumsy and uncoordinated behavior, Ernest is actually rather heroic and isn't afraid of confronting villains and danger, though he does occasionally succumb to things that frighten him. Ernest is also emotionally vulnerable as his feelings are easily hurt and becomes depressed when he feels that he has failed those closer to him. Nevertheless, Ernest manages to keep a positive outlook on life and is certainly someone who is young at heart, as he is easily able to accept unusual and supernatural affects.
===Physical appearance===
Ernest is a tall and gawky man. His usual wear is that of denim jeans, work boots, a grey t-shirt (occasionally a long sleeve shirt), blue vest and a beige work cap. In Ernest Goes to Jail, he is revealed to own nothing, but multiple line ups of these clothing items.
===Powers and abilities===
Ernest, somehow, possesses a string of unusual abilities, brought upon for comedic effect. His skills vary from film to film, though some are constant throughout.
*Technical knowhow: Ernest, for the most part, possesses handyman skills in the fields of electricity, plumbing, engineering, and auto mechanical. Despite being socially incompetent, he seems to know his way around a machine.
*Electricity and magnetism manipulation: In Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest is able to survive a strong electrical jolt. Doing so caused him to gain electrical and magnetic manipulation. He was able to fire electrical bolts from his hands, draw metal objects towards himself, and later gained the ability to fly.
*Disguise expertise: Ernest has an array of costumes at his disposal, some of which he apparently pulls out of nowhere. For the most part, he is able to get away with being very convincing towards others while under guise. Some of his most famous disguises are actually recycled from Ernest's family members.
==Family==
Ernest has a large family made up of people with similar traits to him, almost all of whom were portrayed by Jim Varney, with the exception of Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain where young Ernest was played by an uncredited child actor. Varney, as Ernest, mentioned that his family was from Kentucky when he hosted Happy New Year, America on CBS December 31, 1988. Most of his family members had their appearance in either Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album and Your World as I See It. Some of them have also been done as disguises for Ernest in his movies.
===Worrell Family===
*Edna Worrell: Ernest's second wife according to the television commercials and Hey Vern, It's My Family Album. According to Ernest, Edna makes a great deep dish pie. Her middle initial is also said to be P. in Ernest's newsletter during the 1980s. By the time the films were made, Edna was retconned out of existence and Ernest was established as a bachelor.
*Ace Worrell: A fighter pilot who served in the army. His relation to Ernest is unknown, though he is believed to be a great uncle of his.
*Jennifer Sharkey Worrell: Ernest's deceased first wife.
*Astor Clement Worrell: Ernest's uncle, a wealthy college professor who likes to brag about his rich status and unusual intelligence and was the main narrator of Your World As I See It. Astor was also one of Ernest's disguises in Ernest Saves Christmas.
*Bunny Jeannette Worrell: The slow-witted and confused sister of Ernest who runs her own quirky hair salon called "Bunny's Beauty World."
*Lloyd Rowe Worrell: Ernest's bitter great uncle. He was Ernest's disguise as "The Snake Guy" in Ernest Saves Christmas.
*Auntie Nelda Worrell: Ernest's dramatic great aunt who is not on good terms with her son Izzy and often acts like the death of her husband, Morris, was a blessing. She tries to get men to notice her by acting innocent all the time. She was also one of Ernest's "multiple personalities" in Ernest Scared Stupid and one of his disguises in Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Rides Again, and Ernest Goes to Africa.
*Coy Worrell: Ernest's hillbilly brother who runs a store that sells car parts. He often chases women and is quite proud of the tattoo collection on his body. Coy has been married at least twice: first to Rayette Worrell and then to Anita Worrell.
*Billy "Boogie" Worrell: Ernest's cousin who operates a ride at an amusement park called The Scrambler. He is talented in music and dancing, but still manages to scare people with his crass and unstable personality.
*Davy Worrell: Ernest's light-headed great, great uncle who was a war veteran in the late 19th century. He helped his army troop win a battle against a Native American tribe led by Chief Running Vern, even though his troop wasn't even present at the time. He is a spoof of frontiersman Davy Crockett.
*Retch Worrell: Ernest's great, great-grandfather who was popular with women and had a girlfriend named Verna. He was a heavy gambler and incredibly stupid.
*Pa Worrell: Ernest's elderly father, a World War II veteran who has a politically incorrect view of the world. His first name is never revealed. He's an avid fisherman and is friends with an African savage named Qui Qua. When taking young Ernest to Disneyland, he was shown to be quite nerdy and exacting, going through every point of a turnstile for example when Ernest remarked to him that they could simply run through as it was empty.
*Ma Worrell: Ernest's elderly mother. She is known to be a good cook and according to Ernest she used to make a great chocolate milk, which is Ernest's favorite drink.
*Phineas Worrell: An English ancestor of Ernest in "Ernest Scared Stupid". He helped villagers of Briarville, Missouri banish a troll named Trantor, who Ernest accidentally released several generations later.
*Stephanie P. Worrell: Ernest's aunt from the television series. She had thick glasses and cried a lot.
*Ernie P. Worrell: Ernest's son. Only mentioned once by Ernest while answering fan mail in his own newsletter.
===Friends===
*Denton Rose: Ernest's best friend from school. Denton as noted on the Official Ernest P Worrell Facebook page was indeed Ernest's best pal growing up. In later years, Ernest went missing. Now, John R Cherry III planned to have Denton Rose Investigator of the Paranormal find out what happened to his old pal.
**Botswanan Lumberjack: A deep voiced lumberjack who, despite his occupation, claims to not have had a job because, "There ain't no trees in Botswana".
===Pets===
Ernest also had several pets during the course of his career. They are listed below in order of appearance.
*Shorty: Ernest's first dog. She appeared in several commercials usually having given birth to a litter of puppies in the back of Vern's new pickup truck while out driving with Ernest. His exact breed is unknown as she was portrayed by a different breed in each of her appearances. In the Hey Vern, It's Ernest episode "Hey Vern, It's Magic", he was a male and Vern's dog. He was portrayed by a Border Collie on the show.
*Pokey: A box turtle that Ernest had adopted from "actual nature" in Ernest Goes to Camp. Pokey and his family were used as "turtle paratroopers" during the battle with the miners toward the end of the movie.
*Ants: Ernest mentioned in Ernest Goes to Camp that he once had an ant farm.
*Rimshot: Ernest's second dog, a male Jack Russell Terrier. He is Ernest's best known pet. He is characterized as very smart. He was featured in two of the movies, Ernest Goes to Jail and Ernest Scared Stupid, in which he was also shown to be very brave and tough, as he would stand up to the main villains which would usually lead to his near demise.
*Jake: Ernest's Fantail (goldfish) in Ernest Goes to Africa. Sadly, he died when Ernest accidentally broke his fish bowl and then dropped him into the kitchen garbage disposal and mistakenly hit the wrong switch.
*Lizard: This is not really a pet but Ernest followed around a little lizard in the forest in the film Ernest Rides Again.
==Films and specials under Disney==
*Ernest Goes to Camp (1987)
*Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
*Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain (1989)
*Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration (1990) — Guest appearance
*Ernest Goes to Jail (1990)
*Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
*Slam Dunk Ernest (1995) (direct-to-video)
==Appearances outside Disney==
*Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album (1983) (direct-to-video)
*Ernest: Greatest Hits Volume One (a.k.a. The Ernest Film Festival) (1986) (direct-to-video)
* (1986) — Cameo role
*Hey Vern, Win $10,000...Or Just Count On Having Fun! (1987) (direct-to-video)
*Ernest: Greatest Hits Volume Two (1992) (direct-to-video)
* (1993)
*Your World As I See It (1994) (direct-to-video)
* (1994) (direct-to-video)
* (1997) (direct-to-video)
* (1998) (direct-to-video)
==Box office==
Film 	Release date 	Box office revenue	Reference
Ernest Goes to Camp 	May 22, 1987 	$23,509,382 	
Ernest Saves Christmas	November 11, 1988	$28,202,109 	
Ernest Goes to Jail 	April 6, 1990 	$25,029,569 	
Ernest Scared Stupid 	October 11, 1991 	$14,143,280 	
==Trivia==
*Jim Varney also provided the voice of Slinky in the Toy Story franchise and Cookie in Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
*A picture of Ernest was shown in the preshow of Cranium Command as an example of someone who does not use their brain correctly.
*According to John R. Cherry III, some of the Ernest scripts that didn't go into production ended up becoming other films, some for other studios. He claimed that Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was initially pitched as a potential Ernest film, while some fans believe that the movie RocketMan was originally going to be the unproduced Ernest Spaced Out (the film is constantly compared to an Ernest comedy).
==References==
==External links==
*Ernest P. Worrell at the Internet Movie Database
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