| | | | UHF
(1989) |
n the anything-goes comedic spirit of "The Naked Gun" and "Airplane!" comes "Weird Al" Yankovic's take on the movies and TV shows we hold dear.
George Newman (Yankovic) is a man of imagination...sadly, that's gotten him into trouble time and again. Having been fired from everywhere from the fish market to the burger joint thanks to his fantasies (the latest of which involves a spoof of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"), he and his friend Bob (Bowe) are at a loss as to what to do next.
George's Uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) is a gambling man in deep with a mobster named Mr. Big, but that doesn't matter right now. What does matter is that Harvey just won the rights to TV station U-62 in a back-room poker game. Harvey's wife Esther (Sue Ann Langdon) sees this as a golden opportunity for George, so effective that night, George has his own TV station.
Right from the get-go, George and his girlfriend Teri (Jackson) are encountering strange and interesting people around the station, including a coin-collecting bum (Vance Colvig) and an otherworldly scientist (Geary) who makes his residence amidst beakers, tubes and TVs playing reruns of "Mr. Ed".
On his first official day, George (accompanied again by Bob) meets Pamela Finklestein (Drescher), a secretary/aspiring anchor who advises George against delivering a mis-routed package to a rival TV station...and with good reason.
The rival TV station is run by the merciless R.J Fletcher (McCarthy), a man who "has the town in the palm of his hand". This ruthless individual has got gripes with everybody, whether it be with his own son Richard (John Paragon), or with George, who gets anger and stone silence from R.J and his cronies. On his way out, George befriends and hires Stanley Spadowski (Richards), a simple-minded janitor who cares for his mop and for cleanliness. Fired from R.J's station, Stanley will soon see greater things than janitorial experience.
It's hard to spice up a line-up of reruns and local programming, but George tries in every way possible, from interviewing a clumsy shop teacher (Emo Phillips) to hosting a kiddie show with an unenthusiastic audience...from sending Pam out to cover a mayoral meeting with a midget cameraman (Billy Barty) to asking Teri out for a date over the air.
Falling asleep to "Beverly Hillbillies" reruns (leading into a great spoof of the song and video "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits), he unintentially stands up Teri, thereby shattering his relationship with her.
Depressed and wanting to get drunk, he sends Stanley out to cover the kiddie show. While drowning his sorrows in a drink with an umbrella at a nearby bar, George finds that he's struck ratings gold. With Stanley Spadowski as a new kiddie sensation, thanks to his bizzare gimmicks and off-kilter sense of upbeat humor, George heads back to the station and starts brainstorming more ideas.
Soon, the insane hits are coming fast and furious (while George is trying to win back Teri)... "Wheel Of Fish", "Celebrity Mud Wrestling", "Raul's Wild Kingdom" (where poodles fly out of windows and turtles stick to the ceiling), and more oddities. While the audiences are eating it up, Fletcher is losing viewers.
In an attempt to regain control, Fletcher buys the station, looking to demolish it. This leads to a freakish festival of acts in a "Save Our Station" telethon. When Spadowski is kidnapped, George goes to the rescue.
Will George save Stanley and win back Teri? Will the station survive? Will R.J get his comeuppance? It's the 80s, silly, what do you think?
 Don't forget that UHF is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
|
| | | | 
This cult classic has weirdness written all over it, but consider the source and it's not surprising. Yankovic and Levey, along with a talented cast of character actors and odd personalities, bring plenty of humor (and even a little heart) to this tale.
This movie is a great example of triumph over adversity, and as a bonus, the gags hit more often than they miss.
Don't miss this one!
|
| | | |  | 
This movie found its following on video. It bombed in theaters despite getting Orion's best audience scores since the first "RoboCop". Although it made back its budget and actually did better than several other movies that year (including "Earth Girls Are Easy" and "Drugstore Cowboy"), the movie still did better on video. The special edition DVD from MGM was originally to be a trailer-only release, but Al-oholics from all across America wrote MGM to deliver an SE. 
| |
'Weird Al' Yankovic filmed his movie almost entirely on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In narrating the commentary for the DVD edition, Al displays an uncanny ability to recall even the most mundane of details regarding the location of each shot. -Thanks to Shawn Leach
The scene when the switch is flicked on an editorializing R.J. Fletcher is a take-off on a similar scene in the classic Andy Griffith drama "A Face In The Crowd".
When RJ junior gives RJ Fletcher his birthday gift, a watch, you can hear it ticking when he opens the box and he then throws it back at him commenting on how it isn't a Rolex and the ticking is how you can tell it isn't, this is because Rolex second hands move smoothly, they don't tick. -Thanks to Bill Kemmler
The little boy that Stanley sprays with the fire hose is Adam Maras, the son of the stunt coordinator for the movie, Bob Maras, who is also in the cast as one of the thugs later on in the movie. -Thanks to Bill Kemmler
In the scene where Micheal Richards character, Stanley, sprays whiped cream in the mouth of a fan, that fan is none other than Dr. Demento, a crazy dj that gave Weird Al his start and was the first to play Al's song over the radio. -Thanks to Leroy
The head thug for R.J. fletcher played by David Proval later went on to be in "The Sopranos". -Thanks to Bill Kemmler
Director Jay Levey appears as Gandhi in the "Gandhi II" commercial. -Thanks to David Jones
Shooting began in May 1988 and was completed in September 1988. -Thanks to David Jones
It was because of his role with Victoria Jackson in UHF that Weird Al was able to produce Smells Like Nirvana. He had been unable to contact the band to get permission to do the parody (Al fans know he always asks permission). So Nirvana was the band playing for Saturday Night Live, of which Jackson was now a cast member. So he called her up, and got patched through and asked, live - during Kurt Cobain's monolouge if he could do the song. Kurt said yes, he paused and then as an after thought asked if it was gonna be about food. (Al fans know that many of his songs are about food) Al responded, "No, actually it's about how no one can understand your lyrics." Kurt replied, "Oh, ok then". -Thanks to Daniel Cohen
The secretary was played by Fran Drescher, who played the role of the nanny on the popular 90's sitcom "The nanny".
Stanley Spadalski was played by Michael Richards, who is famously known for his role as Kosmo Kramer on 'Seinfeld'. -Thanks to Josh
« Click
here to add some UHF trivia
Find much more great trivia in the filmmaker's commentary on the UHF DVD.
Rediscover your favorites! If you like
UHF or 80's Comedy classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Tootsie ..... Raising Arizona ..... Good Morning, Vietnam ..... Blues Brothers ..... Heathers ..... Fast Times At Ridgemont High ..... This Is Spinal Tap ..... Naked Gun ..... Adventures In Babysitting ..... Airplane ..... License To Drive ..... Money Pit ..... Porky's ..... Risky Business ..... Twins ..... Soul Man .....[More]
| | | |
The Beverly Hillbillies song parody in the movie was originally supposed to be a parody of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" but Prince would not give Weird Al permission to do the parody, thus Weird Al got permission from Dire Straits to parody "Money For Nothing" instead. Also, Mark Knopfler, who is Dire Straits' lead guitarist and vocalist, played the guitar on Al's song parody. -Thanks to Bob Morris
Trinidad Silva, the actor who played Raul, had a recurring role on "Hill Street Blues" and made an appearance in the drama "The Milagro Beanfield War". Sadly, midway through the filming of this movie, Silva was killed by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run. Not all of his scenes were completed. If he survived, we would have seen that Raul was a postal carrier and we would've seen the poodles' revenge as well.
Michael Richards had a dentist friend of his in London make his Stanley Spadowski teeth. -Thanks to Bill Kemmler
Originally, the celebrity for celebrity mud wrestling was to be a Henry Kissenger lookalike, but they got a Mikhail Gorbachev one instead. -Thanks to Bill Kemmler
Originally, the ballad of Jed Clampett video was to feature a Beddy Ebson lookalike, but he didn't look very much alike! -Thanks to Bill Kemmler
Actresses who auditioned for the role of Teri included Jennifer Tilly and Ellen DeGeneres.
Weird Al wrote the role of 'Philo' in UHF especially for Joel Hodgson of "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Joel didn't take the role because at the time of the filming, he was overwhelmingly involved in the production of the first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 at KTMA, a UHF station in Minneapolis. -Thanks to Adam Jaspering
Crispin Glover was asked to play Emo Phillips' role, but the ever-wacky actor instead wanted to play the car dealer who would "club a seal to give you a better deal"
«
Click
here to add a new Behind-the-Scenes item for UHF
|  |  |  | | UHF
Locations |
|
| | |
 Featured Movie Location: The UHF TV station
Wanna see the real life filming location used for The UHF TV station in the movie? These scenes were actually shot at KGTO AM-1050 Transmiter, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. [New! Show Google Map]
The UHF TV station looks like an old transmitter shack and antenna in the middle of an over-grown field. Weird Al's TV station building is gone. The drive and parking lot remains as does the tower. The tower looks just as it did when Philo (Anthony Geary) applied full power to override R.J. Fletcher's pious TV commentary with a tape showing his true feelings about the viewers.
Most of the scenes in the movie were filmed on location in Tulsa, OK. Including, Kuni's dojo and Al's apartment, The Burger World Al gets fired from, Spatula City, Raul's Wild Kingdom, Channel 8 and Channel 62 locations. [Thanks to tim]
We can't recommend enough the UHF DVD for inside information on the making of the movie and the locations. Weird Al takes time to list the exact street address of every single location used in the movie during the commentary!
Featured Link: Truly excellent site all about the making of the movie
Can you help? Do you know any of the Tulsa, Oklahoma filming locations used for UHF? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | ![[STEREO or SURROUND]](dd2.gif) | Trailer, Commentary, Featurette, OutTakes |
| Our
Comments: Music video and trailer, too. |
| | | | Trailer |
|
| | | |
The soundtrack is a combination of tracks from the movie and several miscellaneous Al songs, including Tone Loc and Fine Young Cannibals parodies and a polka medley of Rolling Stones songs.
John Du Prez's score was never released in any format, to the best of my knowledge.
«
Click here to add new music trivia for UHF
Soundtrack Available:
On CD
| | | |
 NEW!
Use our radical Retro Assistant to show you the most accurate information for hard-to-find UHF products anywhere on the web...
At a glance, you can now see all the Movie
releases, Soundtracks
or Movie
Posters, Scripts and Books ever available with online price comparisons, even if they're
rare, out of print or only available in another country!
Over 3 years in development and covering more than 10,000 of the
best products hand picked by our editors, we think it's the most fun and retro way to celebrate the era --and find what you
want.
It covers UHF DVD,
VHS,
Blu-ray,
HD-DVD,
Downloads,
Soundtrack
CDs, Movie
Posters, Scripts, Books and more... Why not give
it a try...
The
80's Movies Rewind is proudly a spam-free
non-commercial site, written by movie fans... for movie fans.
If
you enjoy this site, please help to support us and keep us
POP UP & SPAM FREE by ordering your stuff through our services.
As you probably already know, we
are not a corporation, but just 80's fans like you...
| | |
 | | Recent
Additions |
March 3, 2008: Commando USA / UK Blu-ray Coming Soon.
February 28, 2008: Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Soundtrack Update.
Previous
additions
We're always updating and improving, so please and check back with us regularly...
|
| | "TV as it was meant to be seen. In a movie theater"
| |  | | All in the name of the golden idol... |
Year:
| 1989 | Studio:
| Orion Pictures | Director:
| Jay Levey | Starring:
| 'Weird Al' Yankovic,
Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, David Bowe,
Anthony Geary, Gedde Watanabe, Fran Drescher | | - | - | Genre:
| Comedy | | | | + | Odd humor, funny characters, and good spoofs... | - | Not a movie for cineastes, and a few jokes do miss. If you're emotional about the victims of drunk-driving, this might be a little sad as well (See trivia for the explanation) |
|
The best links we've found for UHF.
 |  | |
The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site
| | | | |
|
|
| |
 |
NEW!
Be one of the first to try our unique new cold-war
era product helper to show you the best UHF
products and online deals...
-Even if they're rare or out-of-print!
It's got over 10,000 of the best choices hand picked
by our editors and the most accurate product information
anywhere on the web!
Select
from:
The
Movie
DVD,VHS,Blu-ray,HD-DVD,
Download Etc
Soundtrack
Songs, instrumental score and related music
Posters
& Scripts
As well as Books & More...
-Or Simply
Gimme
it All!
(Bit
slower, so be patient!)
|
| | |
More 80s features... | |
|
|
Page
Updated:
5/04/2008 |  | v0.927 | |
|
