UHF (film)

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UHF
UHFposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJay Levey
Written by"Weird Al" Yankovic
Jay Levey
Produced byGene Kirkwood
John W. Hyde
Starring
CinematographyDavid Lewis
Edited byDennis M. O'Connor
Music byJohn Du Prez
Production
company
Cinecorp
Distributed byOrion Pictures
Release date
  • July 21, 1989 (1989-07-21)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million
Box office$6.1 million[1]

UHF (released internationally as The Vidiot from UHF) is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Stanley Brock, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva; the film is dedicated to Silva, who died shortly after principal filming. The film was directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him. The film was originally released by Orion Pictures and is currently owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Yankovic stars as George Newman, a shiftless dreamer who stumbles into managing a low-budget television station and, surprisingly, finds success with his eclectic programming choices, spearheaded by the antics of a janitor-turned-children's television host, Stanley Spadowski (Richards). He provokes the ire of a major network station that dislikes the competitive upstart. The title refers to the Ultra high frequency (UHF) analog television broadcasting band on which such low-budget television stations often were placed in the United States.

Yankovic and Levey wrote the film after Yankovic's second studio album, looking to apply the musician's parody and comedy to film, and chose the approach of George being a straight man with a vivid imagination to support the inclusion of parodies within the film. They struggled with finding a film production company for financing the film, but were eventually able to get Orion Pictures' support after stating they could keep the film costs under $5 million. Principal filming took place around Tulsa, Oklahoma, with many of the extras for the film from the Tulsa and Dallas, Texas areas.

UHF earned mixed critical reviews, and was further impacted by being released in the middle of one of Hollywood's largest blockbuster summer periods. While only a modest success during its theatrical release, it became a cult film on home video and cable TV. Shout! Factory released a special 25th-anniversary edition of UHF on November 11, 2014, on DVD and Blu-ray.

Plot[]

George Newman's uncle Harvey wins the deed to Channel 62, a nearly bankrupt UHF television station, in a poker game, and puts George, a dreamer who bounces between jobs, in charge. George and his friend Bob realize the station is nearly bankrupt, subsisting on reruns of old shows like Green Acres and Mr. Ed. When a package is mis-delivered to the station, meant for their competitor VHF station Channel 8, George decides to deliver it himself, only to be rudely thrown out by RJ Fletcher, the CEO. Outside, George runs into Stanley, a janitor unfairly fired by RJ, and offers him a job at Channel 62.

George and Bob create new programs, including "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse", a live children's show hosted by George. The new shows fail to increase viewership with the station days from bankruptcy, and while fretting over their finances, George forgets his girlfriend Teri's birthday and she leaves him. George laments about his life on "Uncle Nutzy", then goes to a bar for a drink with Bob, giving Stanley the opportunity to host the show. At the bar they find the patrons enjoying Stanley's slapstick antics on Channel 62. Inspired by Stanley, George comes up with a range of bizarre shows to fill the schedule, headlined by the re-titled "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse".

RJ, infuriated that Channel 62's ratings now rival those of Channel 8, discovers Harvey owns the station and owes his bookie Big Louie $75,000 by the end of the week and offers to pay off Harvey's debt in exchange for the deed to Channel 62. George launches a telethon to sell stock in the station, which would not only save it from RJ but also make it publicly owned. RJ's henchmen stall the telethon by kidnapping Stanley, whom George and several staff members rescue. RJ again attempts to stall the telethon with a televised public statement, but engineer Philo hijacks it with footage of RJ insulting the city's population during a confrontation with Teri which Philo had covertly recorded.

The telethon ends $2,000 short of its goal. Harvey concedes victory to RJ who, instead of immediately taking ownership, celebrates by triumphantly speaking to the crowd about what will become of the station. Meanwhile, a hobo whom George had helped earlier approaches him, wanting to buy the rest of the stock with money he got from selling a rare coin that RJ had given him, unaware of its true value. George pays off Big Louie, Harvey signs the ownership transfer, and the station officially becomes publicly owned. RJ learns that due to Channel 8 filing late for renewal of their broadcast license and, moreover, the rant Philo had broadcast, the FCC is revoking their license. George and the Channel 62 staff and their audience celebrate and George and Teri rekindle their romantic relationship.

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.[2] 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! (1980).[2]

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 producers Gene Kirkwood and John W. Hyde; Kirkwood stated he had previously seen Yankovic's videos and wanted to make a movie with him.[2] Kirkwood and Hyde had connections with Orion Pictures, who offered to fund the production as long as they could keep it under $5 million.[2]

The title of the film was selected to refer to, at the time of the film's writing, the predominance of local television stations operating on ultra-high-frequency broadcasts in the United States, which were typically known for quirky, low-cost production shows, which the film spoofed.[2] 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, with which Yankovic has expressed dissatisfaction.[2][3]

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 suit the needs of UHF.[2] 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.[2] The area and close proximity to Dallas allowed them to recruit additional local talent for some of the acts during the telethon scenes.[2]

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.[4] The dead fish in the game show "Wheel of Fish" 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, 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.[5] 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 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).[2] 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.[2] 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".[2]

The role of Stanley Spadowski was written by Yankovic with Michael Richards in mind; at the time, Yankovic had been impressed with Richards' stand-up comedy and performance on the show Fridays.[2] Yankovic had also considered that Stanley's role was influenced by Christopher Lloyd's performance on Taxi, and had considered reaching out to Lloyd to offer him the role, but decided to stay with Richards due to their original premise.[2] Richards' agents had told Yankovic that he wasn't interested in the role 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.[2]

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 Campbell, 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.[2]

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.[2] In the DVD commentary, Yankovic noted that McCarthy struggled not to laugh during takes. (McCarthy himself later described his own character as a fellow who "makes Ebenezer Scrooge look like Sally Struthers".) 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 Finklestein, both for her established comedy and for her nasally voice that made a humorous contrast for a news anchor.[2]

For George's friend Bob Speck, 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 role during auditions.[2]

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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2]

Kuni was written from the start with the intention of being performed by Gedde Watanabe.[2]

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.[2]

Although they ended up using Vance Colvig Jr. for the hobo in the film, Ginger Baker of the rock band Cream had volunteered to audition for the role, but Yankovic and the production team found Colvig to be a better fit.[2]

Levey himself appears in the movie playing Mahatma Gandhi in the spoof segment Gandhi II.[2]

After Trinidad Silva had performed his primary scenes, his character was to return for the telethon scenes which had not yet been filmed; however, he died in a car accident after returning home. The filmmakers were too grief-stricken to use body doubles and dropped Silva's appearances in the telethon. The film was dedicated to Silva.[2]

Reception[]

UHF received mixed reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 64% rating based on 25 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "UHF is bizarre, freewheeling, and spotty, though its anarchic spirit cannot be denied."[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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 a zero star rating.[9] 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."[10] 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".[11]

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, hoping it would be a summer blockbuster that would revive their commercial fortunes. However, critical response was negative,[12] and it was out of the theaters by the end of the month.[citation needed] The film has been compared to Young Einstein, which similarly scored well with test audiences but failed to make a critical impression.[12] 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.[13] 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.[12] Yankovic and the film's creators 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.[2]

The poor critical response of UHF left Yankovic in a slump[2] 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, inspiring him to write "Smells Like Nirvana" and complete the album Off the Deep End.[14]

Legacy[]

UHF has since become a cult classic, becoming popular on cable and home video.[2] The movie was released on VHS in Europe, the United States and Canada 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 magazine. The US and Canadian 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 DVD and Blu-ray, while Fabulous Films released the movie on Blu-Ray in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2015.[15]

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.[15] 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.[16]

Gedde Watanabe later reprised his role as Kuni for a guest appearance on The Weird Al Show in 1997.

The music video for Yankovic's "Word Crimes", a song about errant grammar, includes a nod to this movie. When a test paper is shown on the screen, the name George Newman (Weird Al's character from the movie) is displayed on the test. It also features a Reddit account called u/George-Newman.

A webseries called The Real UHF which was heavily inspired by UHF started in 2009. It starred Dr. Demento, Neil Hamburger and Count Smokula, and 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!.

YouTube chef Andrew Rea, also known as Oliver Babish, has attempted to cook "Bob's favourite," the Twinkie Wiener Sandwich, which is a wiener inserted into a top-cut Twinkie, topped with a helping of Easy Cheese.[17] The video has accumulated over two million views as of August, 2020. According to him, it is delicious.

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.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "UHF (1989)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad O'Neil, Sean (March 23, 2015). "We got it all on UHF: An oral history of "Weird Al" Yankovic's cult classic". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  3. ^ DVD audio commentary, menus, etc.
  4. ^ UHF - My 15 Year Pilgrimage, Rob O'Hara
  5. ^ A little history of KFMJ 1050 AM, Wayne McCombs, Tulsa TV Memories
  6. ^ "UHF (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  7. ^ "UHF Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  8. ^ Ebert, Roger (July 21, 1989). "UHF". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  9. ^ Siskel, Gene (July 21, 1989). "'UHF's' attempts to be funny a complete failure". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  10. ^ Siskel, Gene (July 21, 1989). ""Weird Al" Yankovic gives old college a try with UHF". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  11. ^ Wilmington, Michael (July 21, 1989). "Movie Reviews: The Parody Runs Amok in Yankovic's 'UHF'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c Tobias, Scott (June 14, 2012). "Weird Al's UHF is uneven, but that just made it ahead of its time". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  13. ^ "The Numbers".
  14. ^ Weingarten, Christopher R. (October 11, 2012). "'Weird Al' Yankovic Looks Back at 20 Years of 'Smells Like Nirvana'". Spin. Buzzmedia. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Zalben, Alex (November 11, 2014). "'Weird Al' Yankovic Reflects On 25 Years Of 'UHF' – And Looks Forward to a Broadway Musical". MTV. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  16. ^ https://www.cinemablend.com/new/UHF-2-Here-What-Weird-Al-Yankovic-Has-Say-68184.html
  17. ^ Babish, Oliver (June 23, 2020). "Binging with Babish: Twinkie Wiener Sandwich from UHF". YouTube.

External links[]

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