UHF (movie)

UHF was rereleased on DVD in 2002 by MGM

UHF is a comedy cult film made in 1989. It starred "Weird Al" Yankovic, along with Michael Richards, Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Kevin McCarthy, Gedde Watanabe, and Billy Barty. 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 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). 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 (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. The owner (McCarthy) 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, and the station becomes a publicly owned company, while channel 8 loses its broadcasting license. George and Teri get back together.

In typical Weird Al fashion, the film has several parodies of pop media, including "Gandhi 2," "Conan the Librarian," and "Spatula City."

Reception

After very successful test screenings, Orion Pictures released UHF on July 21, 1989 as a hopeful summer blockbuster. However, the critical response was negative and UHF was overshadowed in the theaters by much larger films such as Lethal Weapon 2 and Batman. The initial failure aside, UHF became very popular on home video, with out-of-print video cassettes selling on eBay for sizable amounts of money. It was rereleased on DVD in 2002 by MGM, to the joy of its fans.

External links

• UHF and its relationship with Tulsa, Oklahoma