John Cherry was partner and head of creative at Carden and Cherry Advertising in Nashville, Tennessee. In the early 1980s, the agency created a character for TV ads and dubbed him Ernest P. Worrell. About the same time, an actors’ strike in Hollywood brought actor/comedian Jim Varney back to Nashville from Los Angeles. Varney had been featured in an earlier series of “Sgt. Glory” commercials produced by the agency. Cherry put Varney into Ernest’s denim vest, and together they made advertising history and ten movies.