UHF (film)

Plot

George Newman ("Weird Al" Yankovic) is a Walter Mitty-esque daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him and his friend Bob (David Bowe) from holding a steady job. George's uncle Harvey Bilchik (Stanley Brock) wins the deed to Channel 62, a UHF television station on the verge of bankruptcy, in a poker game. His wife Esther (Sue Ane Langdon) talks him into giving control of Channel 62 to the out-of-work George. George and Bob 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), an unnamed overweight cameraman (Lou B. Washington), and eccentric engineer Philo (Anthony Geary). George attempts to introduce himself to the rival VHF network station Channel 8, but its owner, the grumpy and mean-spirited R. J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), angrily chases him out. On his way out of the station he encounters childlike janitor Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), who had just been unfairly fired by Fletcher for supposedly pitching a very valuable research report, which had been in Fletcher's desk chair all the time. George offers him a janitorial job at Channel 62.

Though George creates new original programming (along with running standard independent station fare like The Beverly Hillbillies reruns and Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons) in an attempt to revive the station's fortunes, ratings stay flat and Bob determines that Channel 62 is days away from insolvency after going through the station's books. George and Bob stay late at the station brainstorming ways to keep it afloat, which causes George to accidentally stand up his girlfriend Teri (Victoria Jackson) on her birthday, causing her to break up with him. The next day a despondent George walks out in the middle of the live kid's show "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse" so he can go to the bar and drown his woes in drink. He flippantly hands hosting duties to Stanley, whose bizarre antics are an instant hit with the audience by the time George reaches the bar; "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse" becomes a massive ratings smash that saves the station from bankruptcy. Channel 62 finds success with a line up of bizarre original shows and Spadowski as its flagship star.

Fletcher is initially dismissive of reports of channel 62's popularity (believing that such a station could never be a threat to a major network VHF outlet like Channel 8) but is infuriated when he learns of the upstart independent overtaking Channel 8 in the ratings and plots revenge. Bilchik then receives a call from his bookie, informing him that he lost all of his bets on that day's horse race; as a result, Bilchik has $75,000 of gambling debt that he must repay within two days. Fletcher offers Bilchik the $75,000 to buy out Channel 62. George learns of the deal and calls his aunt Esther, who forces Bilchik to give George a chance to match Fletcher's offer. George organizes a telethon to raise the money by selling stock in the station and sends network engineer Philo to wiretap the Channel 8 offices, as he fears Fletcher is planning to undermine his effort.

Led by Stanley's boundless energy, the telethon gets off to a quick start but grinds to a halt after he is kidnapped by a group of Channel 8 henchmen. Eventually Philo, in watching taped footage of the Channel 8 news office, spies Stanley on the screen, thus officially confirming everyone's suspicions: Stanley was abducted by the Channel 8 news goons. He shows George, who then leads a group to infiltrate Channel 8 and rescue Stanley. Fletcher airs an editorial criticizing Channel 62 as counter programming to the telethon, which Philo replaces with a recording of when Fletcher insulted the townspeople to Teri earlier in the movie through broadcast signal intrusion. Despite Stanley's return, the telethon ends with the station $2,000 short of its goal, and Fletcher arrives to pay off Bilchik's bookie Big Louie. However, their deal is scuttled by the timely arrival of a beggar that Fletcher insulted earlier in the film, who buys all the remaining shares, thereby allowing George to pay off Big Louie instead, just in the nick of time. The beggar explains to Fletcher that the penny Fletcher mockingly gave him earlier was a rare 1955 doubled die cent worth a substantial fortune, which explains how he was able to buy the remaining $2000 worth of Channel 62 shares (and a Rolex watch, to boot), while public backlash from the candid video of Fletcher causes the FCC to revoke Channel 8's broadcast license. 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, through either George's imagination or shows specifically for Channel 62. 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

Production

Yankovic and his manager Jay Levey had discussed the idea of a movie for Yankovic around 1985, after his second major successful album; his popularity at that time led the two to thinking what other venues would work for the musician. The story concept they created was based on Yankovic's approach to his music videos, making parodies of other works. After sketching out a number of such parodies for a film, the concept of Yankovic being the owner of a small-time UHF station broadcasting these parodies as shows was born, as this would not require having any significant plot to string the parodies together, in a manner similar to Airplane!.

The two attempted to shop the script around Hollywood film agencies for about three years without luck. They were surprised when one of their agents had shown the script to the founders of a new production company, Cinecorp, who were interested in the script and had given it to directors Gene Kirkwood and John W. Hyde; Kirkwood stated he has previously seen Yankovic's videos and wanted to make a movie with him. Kirkwood and Hyde had connections with Orion Pictures, who offered to fund the production as long as they could keep it under $5 million.

The title of the film UHF was selected to refer to, at the time of the film's writing, the predominance of local televisions operating on ultra high frequency broadcasts, which were typically known for quirky, low-cost production shows, which the film spoofed. However, at the same time, cable television was becoming popular and displacing UHF stations, and the meaning of UHF was being lost to the general public. Yankovic suggested the title The Vidiot for the film's international release, but the studio eventually went with The Vidiot from UHF in an effort to connect the international and American versions, which Yankovic has expressed dissatisfaction with.

Locations

Primary filming for UHF occurred in Tulsa; the film's executive producer Gray Frederickson had earlier finished shooting of The Outsiders in Oklahoma, and found the ease and the cost to film in the state to be favorable for the needs of UHF. They found several favorable factors that made the city suitable for filming. At the time of filming, the Kensington Galleria (71st and Lewis) was being closed down to convert the mall into office space, allowing the production team to use it for both sound stage and interior scenes including those for both Channels 8 and 62; the mall was also situated near a hotel making it ideal for housing the cast and crew during filming. The area and close proximity to Dallas allowed them to recruit additional local talent for some of the acts during the telethon scenes.

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. 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 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.

Casting

Yankovic was always envisioned to be the central character of the film George Newman, written as a straight man with a vivid imagination as to allow the insertion of the parodies into the film's script in a manner similar to the 1947 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. As the focus of the film was to be on the parodies, George was not fleshed out beyond enough character development to drive the principal storyline. The name "Newman" was selected as homage to Mad magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, further referenced by the name of "Uncle Nutsy's Clubhouse".

The part of Stanley was written by Yankovic with Michael Richards in mind; at the time, Yankovic had been impressed with Richards' stand-up comedy and performance in the show Fridays. Yankovic had also considered that Stanley's part was influenced by Christopher Lloyd's performance on Taxi, and had considered reaching out to Lloyd to offer him the part, but decided to stay with Richards due to their original premise. Richards' agents had told Yankovic that he wasn't interested in the part as Richards at the time was suffering a bout of Bell's palsy, but when they reached out to Richards again, Richards came to the set, dropping right into the character of Stanley for the test read.

Other principal roles were cast through normal auditions, with most of the choices based on how well the actor fit the role. For George's girlfriend Teri, they didn't feel that they needed to spend a significant amount of time developing this side as they did not consider Yankovic to be the type of actor for a romantic lead. Although Jennifer Tilly and Ellen DeGeneres auditioned, they found Victoria Jackson's soft demeanor to be well-suited for the role.

For R. J. Fletcher, they found that Kevin McCarthy was in a similar stage of his career as Leslie Nielsen, one of many "serious vintage actors who had crossed over into satire", according to Levey, and McCarthy had relished the role. In the DVD commentary, Yankovic noted that McCarthy struggled not to laugh during takes. He also cited one of McCarthy's best-known roles, as the ageless history teacher in the classic Twilight Zone episode, "Long Live Walter Jameson." Noting McCarthy's gray hair, Yankovic recalled a scene at the end, when Jameson aged rapidly, saying, "For just a split second, he looked just like [he did in the movie]."

Fran Drescher was selected for the role of Pamela, in part for her established comedy as well as her nasally voice that made for a humorous contrast for a news anchor.

For George's friend Bob, they looked for an actor that could be seen as a friend to George. At one point they had considered Jerry Seinfeld for the role, but he had turned it down. David Bowe, who had been a long-time Yankovic fan, easily fit the part during auditions.

Philo's role was written with Joel Hodgson in mind, building on Hodgson's stand-up routines of using homemade inventions and deadpan comedy. Hodgson turned down the role feeling at the time that he wasn't a good actor. At the time, Hodgson was also working on Mystery Science Theater 3000. They also had approached Crispin Glover for Philo's role, but Glover said that he only wanted to play a used car salesman and no other part, turning down the offer. As they sought other actors, their casting agent Cathy Henderson offered up Anthony Geary, who at the time had gained popularity due to his role on General Hospital. Geary wanted to perform the role both as a fan of Yankovic and seeing the role as completely opposite from his normal acting.

Kuni was written with the intention of being performed by Gedde Watanabe from the start.

Emo Philips was a close friend of Yankovic, and Yankovic felt that he had to include Philips in the movie, eventually creating the role of the clumsy shop teacher for him.

Although they ended up using Vance Colvig Jr. for the hobo in the film, Ginger Baker of the band Cream had volunteered to audition for the part, but Yankovic and the production team found Colvig to be a better fit.

Levey himself appears in the movie playing Mahatma Gandhi in the spoof segment Gandhi II.

Trinidad Silva had performed his primary scenes, but he died in a car accident after returning home. Although they had planned on bringing back Silva's character for the telethon scene which had not yet been filmed, they were not comfortable with the use of body doubles and dropped this. The film was dedicated to Silva.

Reception

UHF mostly received mixed reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 63% rating based on 24 reviews, with an average score of 5.6/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average based on selected critic reviews, the film has a score of 32 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Critic Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that Yankovic's approach to satire and parody works for the short-form music video, but does not work to fill out a full-length movie. Ebert also called to Yankovic's lack of screen presence, creating a "dispirited vacuum at the center of many scenes"; he gave UHF one star out of four. Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel wrote of the film, "Never has a comedy tried so hard and failed so often to be funny"; he gave it no stars. Fellow Tribune critic Dave Kehr said of it "It's not surprising to find that UHF ultimately resolves itself into a series of four-minute, video-style sketches laid pretty much end-to-end, but at least Weird Al has given feature-length fiction the old college try, introducing rudimentary plot and number of semi-functional characters." Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times believed that, as the entire film comprised parodies, it gave no structure for the larger plot to work, thus resulting in "not much of a movie".

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 it 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. The film has been compared to Young Einstein, which similarly scored well with test audiences but failed to make a critical impression. Yankovic has stated that it was not a "critic movie". As Yankovic 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, studios released bigger movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, Batman, Licence to Kill, When Harry Met Sally, and Weekend at Bernie's. The draw of these blockbuster movies also contributed to the low attendance at UHF's premiere; The A.V. Club, in a retrospective, called UHF "a sapling among the redwoods" and the type of film that Hollywood has since abandoned. Yankovic and the creators of the film considered that the film had a strong audience with younger viewers which did well to fill midday matinees but did not succeed in helping to sell tickets for more lucrative evening and nighttime showings.

The poor critical response of UHF left Yankovic in a slump that lasted for three years, impacting the finalization of his next studio album; the slump was broken when the band Nirvana rose to wide popularity, giving him the inspiration to write "Smells Like Nirvana" and complete the album Off the Deep End.

Legacy

UHF has since become a cult classic, becoming very popular on cable and home video. The movie was re-released 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. Shout! Factory released a special 25th Anniversary Edition of UHF on November 11, 2014 on Blu-ray and Fabulous Films released the movie on Blu-Ray in the UK on July 27, 2015.

Though Yankovic has considered the possibility of a sequel, he has not actively pursued this. Yankovic noted that UHF is "a product of its era, and comedy has changed so much over the decades", but also considered that the type of comedy predated the nature of internet phenomena and viral videos. Yankovic further maintained the unlikelihood of a sequel to UHF in an interview, citing the underwhelming box office returns of the film, and lack of industry interest in financing another UHF project.

Gedde Watanabe reprised his role as Kuni in a guest appearance on The Weird Al Show.

Weird Al's video "Word Crimes" gives a nod to this movie. It is a song talking about errant grammar used by people online and in the English language. There is a test shown on the screen and the name George Newman (the character that Weird Al played in the movie) is the name on the test.

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! link title

Soundtrack

Yankovic also released a quasi-soundtrack for the film in late 1989, titled 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.