Actors - UHF

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	Actors - UHF

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 tragically killed during production in an off-set car accident. 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 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 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

After enjoying one of the most successful test screenings in their history, Orion Pictures released UHF on July 21 1989 as a hopeful summer blockbuster but critical response was negative 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

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

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for UHF (film) ]

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Actors - UHF

Plot summary

Reception

Soundtrack

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