UHF (movie)

UHF (also known as The Vidiot from UHF) 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. 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.

Related Topics:
IMDB - UHF - Television station - Poker - VHF - Telethon - Publicly owned company

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In typical Weird Al fashion, the film has several parodies of pop media, including 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!").

Related Topics:
Gandhi - Conan the Librarian - Spatula - Network

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