UHF (film)

UHF (also known as The Vidiot from UHF in Europe and Los Telelocos in Mexico) is a comedy cult film made in 1989. It starred "Weird Al" Yankovic, along with Michael Richards, David Bowe, Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Kevin McCarthy, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, and Trinidad Silva, who was killed during production in an off-set car accident; because of this, the film was dedicated to him. The film was directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him. It was originally produced by Orion Pictures Corporation, which was acquired by MGM in 1997.

Plot summary

In the film, Yankovic plays George Newman, a "daydreaming loser" (to quote IMDb's plot summary), whose uncle wins a faltering UHF television station (Channel 62) in a poker game and reluctantly puts George in charge. 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 leaves work during the middle of the day to go to a bar, leaving the weird but charismatic janitor Stanley Spadowski (Richards) in charge of the children's show currently in progress. The show becomes a hit among both children and adults, and the station is suddenly the most successful station in town.

However, R.J. Fletcher (McCarthy), the owner of a rival VHF station, Channel 8, a network affiliate, is furious at being beaten by a UHF station and schemes to gain control of channel 62, which he intends to turn into a parking lot. He plans to purchase the station from George's uncle, whose gambling has left him with a substantial debt that needs to be repaid quickly. Thanks to a telethon, George is able to come up with the money his uncle needs. Desperate and furious, Fletcher has his goons kidnap Stanley and hold him in the Channel 8 studio. George manages to free Stanley, Channel 62 becomes a publicly owned company, while Channel 8 loses its broadcasting license. George and Teri get back together.

In typical Yankovic fashion, the film has several parodies of pop media, including its intro, a spoof of the Indiana Jones series, along with fake commercials for Gandhi 2, Conan the Librarian, and "Spatula City". In fact, this entire movie could be considered a spoof of the movie Network (especially the line "These floors are as dirty as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!").

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 ("Siskel and Ebert thought I was the antichrist"), and UHF was overshadowed in the theaters by much larger films such as Lethal Weapon 2, Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 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, the strawberries were gone."

Overcoming theatrical failure, UHF became 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.

Soundtrack

"Weird Al" Yankovic also released a soundtrack for the film in late 1989, entitled UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff.

Deleted Scenes

The DVD release includes a selection of deleted footage from the film, obtained from a VHS tape Yankovic claims was laying around his house for thirteen years. Some of the missing 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. The poodles are likely seeking revenge.
A Channel 62 show promo for "Those Darn Homos," which featured two men in tight-fitting clothing chasing each other with fly swatters.
A series of scenes depicting a receptionist named Elaine, who worked for Terri. 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 further taunts Noodles Macintosh.
A scene in which R.J. is practicing additional slander to be used against George during his news broadcast.
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 longer sequence with George and Terri 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).

Trivia

Originally, the fight sequence between Stanley and the Channel 8 workers was longer.
Stanley was originally intended to sing "Helter Skelter" while being held hostage, but this was changed because Richards didn't 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.
According to Yankovic on the UHF DVD commentary track, 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 cut from the syndicated version.
The PG-13 rating also bewilderingly cites "language", although Yankovic is a notoriously clean comedian, and the worst word in the movie is "hell."
The role of Philo was originally written for a friend of Yankovic's—Joel Hodgson. Hodgson turned Yankovic down. 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.
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, 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."
According to the commentary track, Orion Pictures wanted to change the name of the movie for its release in other countries because they felt the US-centric moniker UHF would have no meaning. Yankovic suggested the name The Vidiot. Orion decided that they needed to connect the international release to the American one, 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.
The tropical drink Yankovic is seen drinking in the bar scene was meant to be a ridiculously over-decorated drink; however, due to limited shooting time and a not-always-competent props department, they had no time to correct the mistake.
The "Spatula City" sign was placed on a real billboard 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.
Michael Richards uses fake teeth for his character in the movie, and there is actually a scene in which he does not have them in, a fact that bothered Richards for some time.
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.
Yankovic thanked the extras on the set of "Wheel of Fish" by giving them the actual fish.
An early draft for the script also includes Uncle Harvey's accountant.

Quotes

"Badgers? Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers!" - Raul Hernandez, the usually animal loving host of "Raul's Wild Kingdom" reacts in inexplicable rage and terror that badgers have been included in a shipment of animals for his show. A parody of the "Stinking badges" line from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. (Also an homage to Blazing Saddles.)
"This means something; this is important." - George Newman, after he piles a massive mound of mashed potatoes on his plate and strokes it with his fork. This is a reference to the Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
"Do I still get to be the janitor?" - Stanley Spadowski, after being given his own show on Channel 62.
"Don't you know the Dewey Decimal System?" - Conan the Librarian, in an advertisement for a film bearing the name of the character.
"Lesbian Nazi hookers abducted by UFOs and forced into weight loss programs: all this week on Town Talk." - George Newman, on a commercial for Town Talk, a parody of "trash TV" talk shows.
"Life is like a mop. Sometimes life gets full of dirt and crud and bugs and hairballs and you gotta clean it out. You gotta stick it in here and rinse it off and start all over again. And sometimes life sticks to the floor so much that a mop, a mop, it's not good enough. You gotta get down there with like a toothbrush, you know, and you gotta really scrub 'cause you gotta get it off. But if that doesn't work, you can't give up. You gotta stand right up. You gotta run to a window and say, 'These floors are dirty as hell, and I'm not gonna take it any more!'"-Stanley Spadowski, a parody of the "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" speech from the film Network.
"Stupid! You're so stupid!" Kuni (Gedde Watanabe) from the Wheel of Fish game show. The sound bite is a popular staple of the Opie and Anthony Radio Show.

External links

UHF and its relationship with Tulsa, Oklahoma

Ультравысокая частота (фильм)