manufacturing plant in Nashville was converted into a 100,000-square-foot studio by the production designer. This is where the sets were built for, Howard County Bank & Trust, two three-story jail cell tiers, an electrocution room, and Ernest's house. Scenes were shot at the Tennessee State Prison for three days. Reception Critical response Caryn James, reviewing the film in The New York Times, commented that "Ernest Goes to Jail so resembles a high-spirited cartoon that it is likely to be more amusing to children and less painfully obnoxious for parents than its predecessors." She considered the film's heavy focus on slapstick humor and comedic interactions with inanimate objects to be the biggest improvement, saying that while the film is not particularly inventive with this sort of humor, it would appeal to its young target audience more. Writing for the Sun-Sentinel, Roger Hurlburt agreed that Ernest Goes to Jail is a major improvement over the first two Ernest films, due to Ernest's comic mishaps being tied into a solid storyline, but cautioned that it is still a highly uneven work. He elaborated that "Undeniably, Varney is an adroit physical comedian with a flair for making faces, contorting his lean body and evoking a sensation of the heebie-jeebies at appropriate moments.", resulting in a number of inventive laughs, but that in the more dialogue-heavy scenes the characters become dull. In contradiction to Hurlburt, Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly said that the use of a full plotline in Ernest Goes to Jail makes it a worse film than the previous two Ernest installments, arguing that the Ernest character is best used in short gags and could never become a sympathetic hero. He gave the film a D. Box office The film debuted in third place during its opening weekend, earning $6,143,372. Its total gross was $25,029,569. Home media Earnest Goes to Jail was released on Laserdisc and VHS in January 1991. The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time on March 29, 2011 in a single disc Double Feature set along with Ernest Goes to Camp. References External links 1990 films American children's comedy films American prison comedy films 1990s English-language films Ernest P. Worrell films Films about capital punishment Films about lookalikes Films directed by John R. Cherry III Films shot in Tennessee Touchstone Pictures films 1990s American films