I vaguely remembered "Hey Vern!" from 20 years ago, mostly that there were a lot of jump cuts and primitive cut-out style "retro" graphics (that actually worked fairly well), there was some goofy stuff with the engagingly rubber-faced Jim Varney, and a few bits here and there that were bust-your-gut funny. But the show seemed to vanish like an annual flower after one season and never resurfaced.
When I saw a Mill Creek collection on DVD with the entire season for under $7.00, the few memories I had of the show were good enough that I decided to spring for it and see how it held up. Answer:It holds up pretty well for a kid's Saturday morning show from more that 20 years ago...in fact better than most kid's material from that era, or from any era.
I watched a couple of episodes each day for a week, so the repetition and running jokes for some of the skits got old pretty fast (this wouldn't have been an issue for a kid watching one episode every Saturday morning)...but I never got tired of Auntie Nelda, Doctor Otto, Existo The Magician, or Dust Bunny, and I only got a little tired of Ernest himself.
Along with the skits and characters that appeared in all the episodes were a few wonderful miscellaneous bits, like when Jackie Welch (who played "Simon Simmons") also did a couple of hilarious Julie Andrews parodies (tributes?), or the two appearances of "Bill And Coo".
I think that the cast and creators of "Hey Vern" were somewhat ahead of their time - "Pee Wee's Playhouse" took the same approach, and it was a big success (only short-circuited by Paul Reubens' melt down in his private life). Apparently they quit while they were ahead, or decided to concentrate on movies (there appear to have been several "Ernest" movies, which I never felt I needed to see). In any case, I enjoyed a return visit of all these goofy characters, and you might enjoy them too.
When I saw a Mill Creek collection on DVD with the entire season for under $7.00, the few memories I had of the show were good enough that I decided to spring for it and see how it held up. Answer:It holds up pretty well for a kid's Saturday morning show from more that 20 years ago...in fact better than most kid's material from that era, or from any era.
I watched a couple of episodes each day for a week, so the repetition and running jokes for some of the skits got old pretty fast (this wouldn't have been an issue for a kid watching one episode every Saturday morning)...but I never got tired of Auntie Nelda, Doctor Otto, Existo The Magician, or Dust Bunny, and I only got a little tired of Ernest himself.
Along with the skits and characters that appeared in all the episodes were a few wonderful miscellaneous bits, like when Jackie Welch (who played "Simon Simmons") also did a couple of hilarious Julie Andrews parodies (tributes?), or the two appearances of "Bill And Coo".
I think that the cast and creators of "Hey Vern" were somewhat ahead of their time - "Pee Wee's Playhouse" took the same approach, and it was a big success (only short-circuited by Paul Reubens' melt down in his private life). Apparently they quit while they were ahead, or decided to concentrate on movies (there appear to have been several "Ernest" movies, which I never felt I needed to see). In any case, I enjoyed a return visit of all these goofy characters, and you might enjoy them too.