UHF (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| UHF | |
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 UHF theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Jay Levey |
| Produced by | John W. Hyde Gene Kirkwood |
| Written by | "Weird Al" Yankovic & Jay Levey |
| Starring | "Weird Al" Yankovic David Bowe Victoria Jackson Kevin McCarthy Michael Richards Fran Drescher 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 (USA) |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $6,157,157 (USA) |
| Preceded by | The Compleat Al (1985) |
| Followed by | The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library (1992) |
| IMDb profile | |
UHF (also known as The Vidiot from UHF in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, and Los Telelocos in Mexico) is a comedy film made in 1989. It starred "Weird Al" Yankovic, Michael Richards, David Bowe, Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Kevin McCarthy, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary and Trinidad Silva. The film was directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him. It was produced by Orion Pictures Corporation.
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[edit] Background
The film plays on a characteristic of the American television industry of the 1960s through the time that the film was made. During this period, there was a notable division between programming in the American VHF and UHF television bands. Typically, UHF stations were low-budget operations, with corresponding low broadcast and programming quality, and generally poor reputations to match. Most UHF transmitters were actually translators, used to rebroadcast network stations into rural areas. The remainder were generally LPTV or local stations with limited range and viewers, often carrying PBS, religious, or foreign-language programming.
[edit] Cast
- Weird Al Yankovic as George Newman
- Victoria Jackson as Teri
- Michael Richards as Stanley Spadowski
- David Bowe as Bob
- Fran Drescher as Pamela Finklestein
- 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
[edit] Plot summary
In the film, Yankovic plays George Newman, a daydreaming loser, whose constant daydreaming has just cost him another job, at Big Edna's Burger World. One night, Mr. Harvey Bilchik, his uncle, wins a faltering UHF television station (Channel 62) in a poker game. Prompted by his wife, and having nothing better to do with the station, he (reluctantly) puts the unemployed George in charge, along with his friend Bob (Bowe). Station employees are soft-spoken scientist/studio engineer Philo (Geary), spirited receptionist (and wannabe news reporter) Pamela Finklestein (Drescher), photojournalist/cameraman Noodles MacIntosh (Barty, in one of his final roles), and the eccentric janitor Stanley Spadowski (Richards), who actually started out as a janitor for their VHF rival, network affiliate Channel 8, but got unfairly fired for pitching a research report, and immediately afterwards was hired by George Newman. George and Bob, in addition to their administrative duties, star in a children's show, Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse (complete with unenthusiastic live studio audience). George himself also hosts a local human interest show, Town Talk with George.
The station struggles, and one night George works late and forgets the birthday date he set up with his girlfriend Teri (Jackson) and her parents. She dumps him, and in his resulting depression he walks off the set of the kids' show in the middle of a broadcast, leaving Spadowski to host the remainder of the show.
Going to a nearby bar to drown his sorrows, he discovers that other patrons are mesmerized by Stanley's oddball hosting style, and his rather unusual inspirational messages. George and Bob rush back to the station, and Stanley accepts the host's spot permanently, on the condition that he can still be the station janitor. And so Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse becomes Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse.
With Spadowski hosting, the show immediately becomes a massively popular hit among both children and adults. Inspired by the overnight success of Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse George and Bob then give Channel 62 a revamped programming lineup. They premiere shows such as "Wheel of Fish" (hosted by karate-teacher Kuni (Watanabe)) and "Raul's Wild Kingdom," whose host (Silva) announces that poodles can fly. Incredibly, Channel 62 not only appears in the next television ratings list, but is suddenly the most successful station in town.
However, R.J. Fletcher (McCarthy), the villainous, spiteful owner of Channel 8, is furious at being beaten by a UHF station. He calls George's Uncle Harvey in hopes to buy the station—and his timing turns out to be ideal because at that same second Uncle Harvey had just been informed by his unseen bookie, Big Louie, that the horses he'd chosen for a race had all lost, and so he now has a massive gambling debt ($75,000) which must be repaid in two days. Harvey makes a deal for Fletcher to purchase the station (which he intends to close down and convert to something else, as FCC by-laws forbid owning two TV stations in the same town), but when George finds out, he phones his aunt, who forces her husband to give George time to match the cash and buy the station. After agonizing on how to raise the money, the answer suddenly comes to him, in the form of a telethon. In no time at all the Channel 62 crew launches a telethon to sell investment shares in the station to local viewers.
Desperate to make the fund-raiser fail, Fletcher's goons kidnap Stanley and hold him in the Channel 8 studio. Due to a camera he had earlier installed to keep an eye on Fletcher (which George had unwittingly told him to do), Philo sees this and informs George. With the help of Kuni and his students, George manages to free Stanley, and they rush back to the last moments of the telethon, to discover that they are still $2,000 short of the amount needed, as time runs out. Assured of victory, Fletcher goes before the crowd to announce the end of Channel 62, but a fortuitous circumstance—to which (ironically) Fletcher has inadvertently contributed earlier in the movie—suddenly raises the last of the needed money at literally the last second: the bum, who appears periodically in the movie asking for change, has returned and asks George Newman not for change this time, but the last several shares of stock in U62; $2,000 worth "and keep the change!" George immediately takes the money, pays Uncle Harvey's gambling debt off, and not only is Channel 62 saved, it has now become a publicly-owned company.
Meanwhile, the disgruntled Fletcher is approached by an FCC official, who informs him that Channel 8 has lost its broadcasting license and "effective immediately is off the air", because of the station's lateness in filing for a license renewal. George and Teri get back together, Philo, his work done, leaves for home (the Planet Zircon), as does Uncle Harvey (Los Angeles, in his case). And the aforementioned fortuitous circumstance comes to light: Fletcher had gotten accosted by the bum outside the Channel 8 offices earlier, and so, in order to get the bum out of his hair, gave him what he thought was just a regular run-of-the-mill one-cent penny. But now it turns out that what Fletcher had really given the bum was a rare 1955 Double-Die Denver Mint Penny, worth a fortune. This explains how he was able to buy the last shares of stock of U62—and what happened to the Rolex watch Fletcher was supposed to get on father's day.
In typical Yankovic fashion, the movie has several comic homages to pop media: some of which are its intro, a parody of the Indiana Jones series (a parody of the Rambo series is included later in the film); its ending, which spoofs Gone with the Wind; a fake promo for "Town Talk With George Newman" (spoofing Geraldo Rivera and other bawdy daytime talk shows); a dream about The Beverly Hillbillies (set to "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits and Sting). There are also fake commercials for Gandhi 2 (with Gandhi played by UHF director Jay Levey), Conan the Librarian, and "Spatula City". In fact, this entire movie could be considered a spoof of both Network and A Face in the Crowd; it even parodies famous lines from Howard Beale ("I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!") and Lonesome Rhodes (his climactic deprecation of his own fans and sponsors). As Yankovic affirmed in an interview "The critics called it hackneyed. But it wasn't that. It was just a big excuse to be goofy."
[edit] Reception
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. But critical response was negative, and UHF was overshadowed in the theaters by much larger films such as Lethal Weapon 2, Batman, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The movie got a very poor rating and was out of the theaters the 1st week. He says that it wasn't 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!"
Overcoming theatrical failure, UHF has since become a cult classic, becoming very popular on cable and home video, with out-of-print video cassettes selling on eBay for sizable amounts of money. After much pleading from fans, the movie was rereleased in Europe and North America on DVD in 2002 by MGM, and in its debut week it became a top ten bestseller in Variety. Although not officially marketed as a "special edition", 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, and a deleted scenes reel with Yankovic's commentary.
[edit] Soundtrack
"Weird Al" Yankovic also released a soundtrack for the film in late 1989, entitled UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack And Other Stuff.
[edit] Deleted scenes
The DVD release includes a selection of deleted footage from the film, obtained from a VHS tape Yankovic claims was lying around his house for thirteen years. Some of the unused footage includes:
- A very brief scene of Raul being attacked by his poodles during the telethon that was presumably unfinished due to the actor's death.
- A Channel 62 show promo for "Those Darn Homos", which featured two men in tight-fitting clothing chasing each other with fly swatters.
- A scene from the telethon involving Dr. Leon Zemlich offering medical incentives for buying U-62 stock; a free chest X-ray and a free enema. (Followed by Al's comment, "With friends like this, who needs enemas?")
- Two longer sequences of "Town Talk" with guest Joe Early the shop teacher, after Joe accidentally dismembered his thumb on the table saw, both of which then have him showing off a drill press.
- A scene in which Stanley Spadowski grinds his hand in a meat grinder.
- A series of scenes depicting a receptionist named Elaine, who worked with Teri. Yankovic mentions on the commentary that the actress was never informed her scenes were removed until after the movie was released, which he still regrets.
- A scene in which Richard Fletcher further taunts Noodles Macintosh.
- A scene in which R.J. is practicing additional slander to be used against George during his news broadcast.
- A scene in which Stanley Spadowski offers whipped cream to his audience.
- A longer sequence of Philo's show, "Secrets of the Universe", in which his recipe for homemade plutonium calls for ingredients at hand: an egg beater, a car battery and a bowl of strawberry Jell-O, put in a microwave for twelve minutes at 8000 degrees, and "leave your house for several hours". Yankovic said that the scene was cut because "the timing...just...wasn't...slow...enough".
- A subplot in which the head thug is revealed to have an intense phobia of insects. This culminates in a scene in which the thugs attempt to steal the suitcase filled with the money raised from the Channel 62 telethon, but instead steal a suitcase filled with Philo's live insect collection. The suitcase is opened in the car and the head thug panics so badly that he drives the car over a cliff, which, according to Yankovic, explodes and kills the occupants of the car.
- George being turned down for a loan, with the banker being revealed as a stooge for R.J.
- A "romantic" scene with George and Teri.
- A longer sequence with George and Teri exploring the station for the first time.
- A longer sequence with the performance by the Kipper Kids (the men with the large chins) during the telethon.
- Kuni revealing how he and the other martial artists knew where to rescue George in time.
Some of the footage which was mentioned in the commentary but not shown on the DVD (or possibly even filmed) included Kuni being established as George's landlord and a scene in the opening Indiana Jones parody with George answering a payphone and a voice on the other end begging him not to enter (although production stills also on the DVD seem to confirm that the latter scene was in fact filmed). Another scene that was cut out was a part of the Plots-R-Us scene, in which a crane operator is lowering a casket and the body falls out with a thud. The announcer says, "Has this ever happened to you?". There was also another scene cut out for its similarity to another movie-Fletcher and his son fighting over the suitcase full of money, but they accidentally open the suitcase and the money would fly into the crowd. The scene was cut for being "too It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"
[edit] Miscellanea
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Most of these items are addressed on the DVD's commentary track.
- The opening sequence references Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Comedian Emo Phillips made a small appearance in George's "Town Talk" show. He is a high school shop teacher who cuts his thumb off on the show while demonstrating how a table saw works.
- Stanley was originally intended to sing "Helter Skelter" while being held hostage, but this was changed because Richards did not know the words.
- Because Trinidad Silva died during the film's production, parts of the film had to be rewritten to make up for the loss of Raul. The missing scenes supposedly involved Raul being the mailman who delivered the package to the wrong station, and the poodles seeking revenge for throwing them out of the window. The film is dedicated to him.
- The two scenes that earned the movie a PG-13 rating from the MPAA are the scene with poodles being thrown out the window and the scene where Joe Earley (played by Emo Philips) accidentally cuts his thumb off with a table saw. Both of these scenes are typically cut from the syndicated version, although some syndicators, including UPN, have aired the table saw scene. (Other sources have stated that the scene in which "Conan the Librarian" chops a teenager in half also contributed heavily to the rating.)
- The PG-13 rating also cites "language", although Yankovic is a notoriously clean comedian, and the few allegedly obscene words in the film are "hell", "lesbian", "Nazi", and a deleted scene that said the word "homos" (though none of these could be considered actual curse words).
- During the commentary, Al says that Mike Judge was a big fan of UHF, and that "Burger World" in Beavis and Butthead was a homage to the movie.
- The role of Philo was originally written for a friend of Yankovic's — Joel Hodgson. Hodgson turned Yankovic down due to schedule conflicts. At the time of UHF's production, Hodgson was, ironically, producing a show at a station similar to the one portrayed in UHF called KTMA. The show was the cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 before being nationally televised.[citation needed]
- According to Yankovic on the commentary, Ginger Baker of the 60s supergroup Cream came in and auditioned for the part of the bum, played in the movie by Vance Colvig Jr. He also made mention that actor Crispin Glover showed interest in playing the role of Crazy Ernie, the used car salesman glimpsed briefly on TV (who threatens to club a baby seal if he doesn't sell enough cars) but that he and director Jay Levey passed on him because they could not see him in that role.
- Very much like his character Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, Michael Richards' character in this movie, named "Stanley Spadowski", is based on a real person, a man Yankovic knew named "Stanley Snadowski", owner of the Bottom Line nightclub in New York City.
- According to the commentary track, Orion Pictures wanted to change the name of the movie for international release because they felt the title UHF would have no meaning in other countries, whose television bands have different designations. Yankovic suggested the name The Vidiot. Orion decided that they needed to connect the international release to the original, so as Yankovic says: "I went from having a really bad movie title, to having the worst movie title EVER." This refers to the final international title, The Vidiot from UHF. However, the original title is kept on UK prints.
- The "Spatula City" sign was placed on a real billboard in Tulsa, OK, for the film, and was left there for several months after shooting was over. According to the DVD commentary, many tourists would exit the freeway like the billboard said, and would drive for long periods of time looking for Spatula City, thinking that it was real. The billboard could be seen from eastbound SH-51 at its intersection with Memorial Drive.
- During the filming of the movie, Yankovic had some of the moles on his face removed. This means that in some scenes they are present, while in others they are not.
- All scenes filmed for both Channels 8 and 62 were filmed on a sound stage in a new shopping mall that was still under construction.
- Unable to obtain the rights to use "Kung Fu Fighting", their original choice, for the scene in which Uncle Harvey receives a threatening phone call while relaxing in his pool, Yankovic wrote a brief rock song entitled "Let Me Be Your Hog".
- In an interview with UGO, Yankovic said that he "doubts seriously" that a UHF 2 would ever be in production, stating, "...if a major motion picture studio puts a big pile of money in front of me, I'd have to consider it, but... I just kinda think it's not gonna happen."
- Dr. Demento made a cameo appearance as the "Whipped Cream Eater" during a "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse" segment.
[edit] External links
- UHF at the Internet Movie Database
- UHF at Rotten Tomatoes
- UHF and Other Stuff at MusicBrainz
- UHF Filming Locations, 15 Years Later at robohara.com
