Vernon Fenwick is a secondary human antagonist of the Turtles from the 1987 TV series.
History[]
Vernon Fenwick was a cameraman at Channel 6 in the 1987 TV series, who usually accompanied April O'Neil in her reports.
In general, Fenwick serves as a secondary human antagonist to the Turtles. Vernon Fenwick and Burne Thompson often wrongfully blamed the Turtles for crimes they were seeking to prevent. Fenwick is an ambitious man. Sometimes Vernon Fenwick tried to take April's place as a news reporter. Still, his general unwillingness to take risks, his cowardice in the face of almost everything, his pride, and his certain clumsiness were his undoing.
Interestingly, in the pilot episode, Vernon stood up for April after she had gone missing. Vernon often sped away at the first sign of trouble, leaving April behind. He was once abducted by the Turtles and blindfolded to operate sound equipment that neither April nor the Turtles knew how to use. His blindfolding was presumably not to reveal the Turtles or their hideout. Although April was annoyed by Vernon for the most part, in "Mutagen Monster" she recruits the Turtles to rescue Vernon from danger after learning that a crash between two chemical trains has created mutagen, resulting in two bulls transforming into a monster. Throughout the series, it was shown on several occasions that Vernon had more courage when trapped in a tough situation, as in "Leatherhead Meets the Rat King": Fenwick shows courage as a cameraman, which he never could muster as a reporter. In Leatherhead Meets the Rat King, April, Irma and Vernon are trapped in the sewers by Leatherhead and the Rat King. The two villains grow angrier with each other and resort to fighting rather than kidnapping, and Vernon stands his ground and records the fight with the video camera. Vernon gets the footage and believes it will be a great story. However, his pride proves his undoing, as he attempts to claim the story was his idea, until Donatello points out he failed to pay attention to detail by not removing the cap from the camera lens. Over time, he gradually befriends the Turtles and April, becoming a somewhat reluctant but otherwise reliable ally.
He is also quite ticklish, a fact Don Turtelli exploited on one occasion. When Don Turtelli kidnapped Vernon and April, he used his infamous "tickle torture" on Vernon, who refused to reveal secrets to the crime boss, actually earning praise from April for not cracking under pressure.
Trivia[]
- In the first episode and later on in the series, Vernon was April's cameraman.