FanPost

3/8 Evening OT: The Buddy Ernst Edition

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Hey Dude is an American Western comedy series that aired from 1989 to 1991. The show was broadcast on the Nickelodeon network, and aired reruns onTeenNick in 2011. Hey Dude was Nickelodeon's second original live action television series, following the 1984 series Out of Control.

The series was set on the fictional "Bar None Dude Ranch" near the city of Tucson, Arizona. It portrayed the lives of the ranch's owner, his son, a female ranch hand, and four teenage summer employees. Hey Dude was a comedy geared towards a teenage audience.

The first three seasons have been released on iTunes and DVD.

Ben Ernst is a divorced, good-natured, somewhat bumbling father from New Jersey, with glasses, a slight build, and a receding hairline. He bought the Bar None Dude Ranch seeking escape from his high-pressure job as a New York City accountant. His son, Buddy, was displeased with the change of locale, primarily because he couldn't skateboard on desert sand. Buddy had a pet dog named Cassie. Featured early in the series, Cassie disappeared after the first season.

The staff originally consisted of two boys and two girls. The boys were Ted, an enterprising troublemaker, and Danny, an easy-going Hopi Native-American Indian. The girls were girl-next-door Melody and rich girl Brad, from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, who often wore dressy designer outfits at work, but was a very competent horse-rider. Her love-hate relationship with Ted was a plot thread during the first half of the series.

Ted later left the show for a time and was replaced by Ernst's nephew Jake, an eccentric slacker who liked to play the drums. Not long after, Kyle, a dim but handsome cowboy type, joined the cast. Soon after that, Ted came back from summer school, and he and Kyle became romantic rivals for Brad.

The show's only other featured adult was Lucy, a tough, authoritarian ranch hand. She is sometimes looked upon as a mother figure and the teens often asked her advice.