UHF

PLOT:

George Newman (Yankovic) is a daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him from holding a steady job. After his latest firing from “Big Edna’s Burger World,” his uncle Harvey Bilchik (Stanley Brock) wins the deed to Channel 62, a faltering UHF television station, in a poker game. (“With a pair of sevens; I was bluffing.”) Harvey decides to give control of Channel 62 to the unemployed George.

George and his best friend Bob (David Bowe) meet the Channel 62 staff, including receptionist and wannabe reporter Pamela Finklestein (Fran Drescher), midget photojournalist and cameraman Noodles MacIntosh (Billy Barty), eccentric engineer Philo (Anthony Geary), and new janitor Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), who was recently fired from rival VHF station Channel 8. Though George creates new shows, including the kid-friendly “Uncle Nutzy’s Clubhouse” which he hosts, the workload and bad debt of the station get to him. Amid the stress, he forgets his girlfriend Teri’s (Victoria Jackson) birthday, who breaks up with him over the incident. 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 come up with ideas for more shows in Channel 62’s line up, spearheaded by the newly retitled “Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse”.

As Channel 62’s popularity grows, tyrannical Channel 8 owner R. J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy) becomes furious that a UHF station is getting better ratings than his network’s programming. He learns that Harvey is the owner of the station and has just gambled away a large sum of money. Fletcher makes Harvey the offer of covering his debt in return for ownership of Channel 62, which he would then happily shut down because legally he cannot own two stations in the same town. George learns of the deal and calls his aunt, who forces her husband to hold off, allowing 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 a small bit of charity earlier in the film resulted in Channel 62 making its goal. He also discovers that a slanderous conversation of his regarding the population of the city was secretly recorded and rebroadcasted by Philo and that Channel 8 failed to file paperwork to renew its broadcast license with the FCC, which orders 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 Gandhi 2 and Spatula City are shown throughout the film.

REVIEW:

I remember the days when this came out and cable and satellite TV weren’t these huge money grubbing juggernauts they are these days and more importantly, there was no reality shows! People actually had imagination back then. I wonder what happened to this world! *SIGH*

I wish I could say that I really liked this picture, but truth is, I felt it kind of leveled off and became very humdrum after the exciting opening. If you’ve ever seen any of Weird Al’s videos or even the Saturday morning TV show he had, then you know he has quite the vivid imagination and some may even go so far as to say he has the mind of child. I was expecting some of this to come through in the film, and it did in some of the commercials and whatnot, but as far as the actual film went…well, let’s just say, there’s a reason he doesn’t get more acting jobs.

Michael Richards becomes a breakout star of the station when he is asked to fill in. Conversely, he is the breakout star of this film. The exuberance and enthusiasm he displays as well as comic timing and innocence really make his character a viewer favorite.

I had the hugest crush on Victoria Jackson when she was on Saturday Night Live. Since then she has lost some of that lustre for me, but watching this I remember why I had those feelings for her.

Fran Dreshcer also makes an appearance here, but she isn’t that memorable. However, I do think it was a good start for her career and led to bigger things.

The cast is pretty good, so is the story, but I just think if you’re going to make picture like this, then go deeper into the shows. What I mean by that is show more commercials and clips from what they’re showing interspersed with the actual story. If they would have done that, I’d probably be a bigger  fan of this film, but as it is, I just felt this was an average picture.

3 out of 5 stars