UHF (film)

UHF
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jay Levey
Produced by	John W. Hyde Gene Kirkwood
Written by	"Weird Al" Yankovic Jay Levey
Starring	"Weird Al" Yankovic David Bowe Fran Drescher Victoria Jackson Kevin McCarthy Michael Richards Anthony Geary Billy Barty Trinidad Silva
Music by	John Du Prez
Cinematography	David Lewis
Editing by	Dennis M. O'Connor
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	July 21, 1989 (1989-07-21)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$6,157,157

UHF is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva, to whose memory the film is dedicated. The film was directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him. It was released by Orion Pictures.

Yankovic stars as a shiftless dreamer who stumbles into managing a low-budget television station and, surprisingly, finds success with his eclectic programming choices. However, he provokes the ire of a major network station that dislikes the competitive upstart. The title refers to Ultra High Frequency (UHF) television broadcasting on which such local television stations broadcast in the United States.

UHF earned mixed to poor critical reviews. While only a modest success during its theatrical release, it became a cult film on home video.

The film was distributed as The Vidiot from UHF in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe. On several parts of the DVD commentary Yankovic expresses distate for the international title. He suggested The Vidiot when producers suggested that overseas audiences would not know what the title meant, and they combined the two titles.

Plot

George Newman ("Weird Al" Yankovic) is a daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him from holding a steady job. His gambling uncle Harvey Bilchik wins the deed to a bankrupt UHF television station in a poker game. After prodding by his wife, Harvey gives control of Channel 62 to George. George and his best friend Bob (David Bowe) meet the Channel 62 staff which is made up of the receptionist and wannabe reporter Pamela Finklestein (Fran Drescher), dwarf photojournalist and cameraman Noodles MacIntosh (Billy Barty), and eccentric engineer Philo (Anthony Geary). George attempts to introduce himself to the rival VHF network station but its owner, the cynical R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), chases him out angrily. On his way out of the station he encounters janitor Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), who was recently fired by Fletcher. George offers him a job at Channel 62.

Though George creates new shows (including the kid-friendly but poorly named "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse"), the workload and bad debt of the station get to him. Amid the stress he forgets his girlfriend Teri's (Victoria Jackson) birthday, causing her to break up with him over the incident. A despondent George turns "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse" over to Stanley so he and Bob can go out for a drink. Arriving at the bar, they find that all the patrons are excitedly watching Stanley's antics on Channel 62. Realizing they have a hit on their hands, George and Bob are revived and inspired. They come up with ideas for more original shows in Channel 62's lineup, all spearheaded by the newly retitled "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse."

As Channel 62's popularity grows, Fletcher becomes furious that a UHF station is getting better ratings than his network's programming. He learns that Harvey Bilchik is the owner of the station and has just gambled away $75,000 at the horse races. Fletcher makes Harvey the offer of covering his debt to his bookie Big Louie in return for ownership of Channel 62, which he would then only too happily shut down (at the time of the film he legally couldn't own two stations in the same town; the FCC later relaxed duopoly rules in 2000). George learns of the deal and calls his aunt, who forces her husband to hold off and allow George time to raise the money Harvey owes by selling investment stock in Channel 62 through a telethon.

The telethon starts off successfully led by Stanley's boundless energy, but Fletcher sends his goons to kidnap Stanley. Without Stanley, the telethon grinds to a halt. George then leads a group to infiltrate Channel 8 and rescue Stanley. They return in time to successfully finish the telethon just before Harvey's debt comes due, saving the station and making it a publicly owned company. Fletcher on the other hand finds out that the penny he mockingly gave to a beggar earlier was a rare 1955 doubled-die cent worth thousands, which the beggar sold and used to purchase Channel 62 stock. Fletcher also discovers that a slanderous conversation of his contempt for his station's viewers was secretly recorded and rebroadcast by Philo and that Channel 8 failed to file paperwork to renew its broadcast license with the FCC. The FCC revokes his license and takes the station off the air. As the film ends George and Teri rekindle their relationship, while the rest of the employees and fans of Channel 62 celebrate.

Throughout the film, there are cutaway scenes that are comic homages to popular shows of the time, through either George's imagination or shows specifically for Channel 62. For example, a dream sequence includes a music video for Yankovic's "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" in both the audio and visual style of the Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", and fake commercials for Plots 'R Us Mortuary Service, Gandhi II, Conan the Librarian and Spatula City are shown throughout the film.

Cast

• "Weird Al" Yankovic as George Newman
• David Bowe as Bob/Bobbo the Clown
• Fran Drescher as Pamela Finklestein
• Victoria Jackson as Teri
• Michael Richards as Stanley Spadowski
• Stanley Brock as Harvey Bilchik
• Anthony Geary as Philo
• Billy Barty as Noodles MacIntosh
• Trinidad Silva as Raul
• Gedde Watanabe as Kuni
• Vance Colvig Jr. as the bum
• Kevin McCarthy as R.J. Fletcher
• David Proval as Fletcher's head goon
• John Paragon as R.J. Fletcher, Jr.
• Belinda Bauer as Mud Wrestler
• Dr. Demento as himself/Whipped Cream Eater
• Emo Philips as the shop teacher
• The Kipper Kids as themselves

Reception

UHF has an approval rating of a "Rotten" 55% on Rotten Tomatoes from 22 reviews counted.

According to Yankovic's Behind the Music episode, UHF enjoyed one of the most successful test screenings in Orion's history. Orion Pictures released UHF on July 21, 1989 as a hopeful summer blockbuster, hoping that Yankovic would pull them out of the water. However, critical response was negative, and it was out of the theaters by the end of the month.^{[citation needed]} Yankovic has stated that it was not a "critic movie". As "Weird Al" states in his commentary of the movie, UHF was thought to be the movie that would "save the studio" for Orion. He was treated very well because of this. He states in the commentary: "Every morning I would wake up to fresh strawberries next to my bed. Then, when the movie bombed, I woke up and...no more strawberries!"

Within the month prior, and up to the release of UHF, bigger blockbuster movies like Ghostbusters 2, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, Batman, Licence to Kill, When Harry Met Sally, and Weekend at Bernie's were also released by studios. The draw to these blockbuster movies is also attributable to the lower attendance at "UHF's" premiere.

UHF has since become a cult classic, becoming very popular on cable and home video.^{[citation needed]} The movie was rereleased in Europe and North America on VHS, but because of the little money earned at the box office, it soon fell out of print. In the several years UHF was out of print, the film developed a cult following, and fans of the film and Yankovic in general pawed desperately for a copy. Prices skyrocketed, ranging from fifty to a hundred dollars or more. Finally, UHF was released on DVD in 2002 by MGM, and in its debut week it became a top ten bestseller in Variety. The North American DVD contains numerous extras including a music video of the movie's theme song, a commentary track featuring director Jay Levey and Yankovic himself (with surprise guest appearances by costar Michael Richards and Emo Philips and a phoned-in appearance by Victoria Jackson), and a deleted scenes reel with Yankovic's commentary.

A webseries called The Real UHF which was heavily inspired by UHF started in 2009, and starred Dr. Demento, Neil Hamburger, and Count Smokula. It featured guest appearances from Devo, George Clinton, and others. The series was the brainchild of Zack Wolk, an intern for Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

Soundtrack

Yankovic also released a quasi-soundtrack for the film in late 1989, entitled UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff, which featured songs (and commercials) from the movie as well as his own new, unrelated studio material.

Locations

Most of the individual locations used during the creation of the film are in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Burger World location was Harden's Hamburgers at 6835 East 15th Street in Tulsa, and Bowling for Burgers was filmed at Rose Bowl Lanes on East 11th Street. The bar location was Joey's House of the Blues at 2222 East 61st Street. The building used for Kuni's Karate School belongs to the Tulsa Pump Company and is located at 114 West Archer in Tulsa, while "Crazy Eddie's Used Car Emporium" was filmed on the lot of Ernie Miller Pontiac at 4700 South Memorial. Indoor scenes for both Channels 8 and 62 were filmed on a sound stage in a shopping mall (Kensington Galleria, at 71st and Lewis) that was in the process of being closed down and converted to office space. It is now (2013) TV Guide offices. The dead fish in the Wheel of Fish game show were real, obtained from the White River Fish Market. The news desk was located at OETA, a local PBS member station. The steps of City Hall are actually First Christian Church (not Christian Science Church) at 913 S. Boulder, which has looked the same since it was built in 1920.

Channel 8's exterior is an office block (6655 South Lewis Building) occupied by Hewlett-Packard. The "U-62" building was constructed around KGTO 1050's AM radio transmitter site (5400 West Edison Street); the real KGTO studios had been moved elsewhere in 1975. Just the tower itself remains at this location today. The airport scenes were taken at Tulsa International Airport.

See also

• Pray TV

External links

• UHF at the Internet Movie Database
• UHF at AllRovi
• UHF at Rotten Tomatoes
• UHF and Other Stuff at MusicBrainz
• UHF Filming Locations, 15 Years Later at robohara.com
• Another UHF Tour