ERNIE
Ernie - Richard Genelle
Ernie was the owner of the Angel Grove Youth Center Gym And Juice Bar. He was a one man operation. In addition to being the owner, he ran the place as well. Ernie was cashier, waiter, clean-up, and friend. His place was always packed. It was a favorite place of the Rangers for several years.
Ernie hosted several dances, Junior Science Fair, Ninja Finals, Karate Expo, Dance Competition, and a food festival at the Angel Grove Youth Center.
Ernie let his place be used after hours as well. He let Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Jason used the place to set up a surprise birthday party for Zack. Ernie also let Tommy and Kimberly have the place so that they could work on a model float for a parade.
Ernie did play favorites. While it was okay for some patrons to bring in a dog, cat or chimp, it was not okay for Bulk & Skull to bring in a pig. Although having a dog at his place, did help him. At one point, Ernie was going out of business. He did not have enough money to keep the place running. The dog, Pierre, belongs to a wealthy woman. The woman gives Ernie a reward - a check big enough to save the Youth Center.
Ernie was always coming up with new ideas to keep people coming back to the Youth Center. He made exotic shakes that were a big hit. The fruit was hard to come by, but when Tommy asked for one, Ernie willingly gave up his last one to Tommy.
Ernie started up his own soccer team. He had a tough time choosing who made the team. One young kid, Roger, was very disappointed that he did not make it on the soccer team. Ernie wished he could give all the kids who didn't make the team a second chance. Jason and Zack reminded Ernie that he could. Ernie posted a second try-out and all the kids were so good, that Ernie made a second soccer team.
In his college days, Ernie was an all star fullback football player. He helped Tommy train for the football tryouts. Ernie also tried to help cheer up Kimberly by telling Tommy to give her a flower. He was unaware that Kimberly was under a spell.
When challenged by Stone Canyon's Youth Center, Ernie put together his own broomball team. He was the coach and convinced Tommy, Jason, Zack, Billy, and Kimberly to play on his team. Ernie also had an assistant coach - Richie.
For a time, Richie worked for Ernie at the Youth Center. Then it went back to just Ernie running things. He tried to cover for Bulk and Skull when they were hiding from two girls that wanted to ask them to the vice-versa dance. Ernie did get tired of delivering notes from the girls to Bulk and Skull and told them to get an message service.
Ernie expanded the Juice Bar to include an area to eat outdoors.
Despite all the difficulties that they had given him, Ernie was proud of Bulk & Skull for graduating and becoming Angel Grove's Junior Police Patrol.
Ernie was very surprised when several Tengas, Master Vile, Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, and Rito Revolto showed up at his place. Master Vile was planning on throwing an end of the world party and he had selected Ernie's place. Ernie could do nothing except watch his place get taken over by monsters. Ernie was forced to dance while small children took care of the guests. Fortunately, the Rangers were able to defeat Master Vile's plans and Ernie's Juice Bar returned to normal.
Harriet Gerard, an executor of Randolph B. Burble Foundation, hired Detective Stone, Bulk & Skull to find the missing Burble Baby that had graced the jars of Burble baby food. The original calculations had been that the Burble baby was a teenager recently moved to Angel Grove. This lead Bulk & Skull to believe the Burble baby was Jason - who had just moved back to Angel Grove. Later, Harriet Gerard return to the Youth Center with Ernie and Detective Stone. The original calculations had been wrong. The Burble baby was a few years older and been living in Angel Grove for years. The original Burble baby turned out to be Ernie. Harriet Gerard gave Ernie a life long supply of Burble baby food. Ernie did not know what he was going to do with baby food at first, but then came up with the idea of using the Burble for baby food smoothies.
Kat and Tanya were busy putting together a ballet based on the story of King Midas. As usual, Ernie generously lent his place for rehearsals and the actual performance. Ernie enjoyed watching Adam and Jason practice their ballet moves. During the performance, Ernie asked where Tommy and Rocky where. Tanya told him that they were handling the lighting for the play. Ernie noticed that Adam and Jason were sitting in the audience and not getting ready to perform. He asked them why. Adam replied that a bet was a bet. Bulk & Skull had lost their bet with Tanya and Kat and were performing the parts that originally Adam and Jason were going to do.
Ernie expanded his business to include a beach club. He hired Emily to help at the beach club and when the beach club wasn't busy, at the Youth Center.
Ernie was very happy when Kat found his toaster in the lost and found box. He had been looking for it everywhere. Ernie did a double-take when he saw the older gentleman sitting with Kat. The older man seemed familiar to Ernie, but he couldn't place him. He gave him another glance and then went back to work.
Ernie took a vacation to Hawaii. When he returned to the Youth Center, he was in high spirits. Ernie told Tommy, Jason, Tanya, and Adam that his vacation in Hawaii had been his best vacation ever. He had gone water skiing, snorkeling, parasailing, and ate the best food. To celebrate his return, Ernie decided to throw a luau at the Beach Club. As he was getting things ready for the luau, Bulk & Skull approached him. Bulk & Skull needed to earn money for detective agency. Bulk & Skull pleaded with Ernie to give them jobs. Ernie told them that they could be bodyguards. Bulk & Skull misinterpreted this as meaning Ernie's bodyguards. Ernie corrected them by telling them that they needed to be bodyguards for the luau. At the luau, Ernie's high spirits continued. He invited the audience to dance with his Hawaiian dancers. Jason, Emily, Tanya, Adam, and Rocky participated. When the audience sat down, Ernie announced that he had another set of authentic dancers. Instead the audience was treated to cogs dressed in grass skirts. The cogs trashed the Beach Club. Ernie and his patrons quickly left the Beach Club. The following day, Ernie was back at the Youth Center. He went to talk to Tanya, Jason, and Rocky. They told Ernie that they were sorry about what had happened to his luau. Ernie was calm about it, especially since someone had come during the night and cleaned the whole place up. Ernie left to take care of another customer.
Ernie's foreign service unit recalled him. Ernie left for the Amazon to build bridges. Ernie sold his Youth Center to Lt. Stone, who became the new owner and manager.
Photo Gallery
