UHF (film): Difference between revisions
incorporate a couple of "Weird Al" quotes, cited to https://film.avclub.com/we-got-it-all-on-uhf-an-oral-history-of-weird-al-yan-1798278657
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(incorporate a couple of "Weird Al" quotes, cited to https://film.avclub.com/we-got-it-all-on-uhf-an-oral-history-of-weird-al-yan-1798278657) |
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* [[Prop Recycling]]: The producers struck a deal with KOED to build a news set in their studio. The Tulsa network used the set for their own broadcasts for a couple years afterward.
* [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!]]: "A U! H! F! Station!"
* [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie]]: Gandhi II and a few others. There are also many joke listings on U-62's schedule board for implausible and ridiculous programmes that don't exist, not even as trailers.
* [[Red Right Hand]]: Although he's technically not the main
* [[Sassy Secretary]]: Pamela Finklestein.
* [[Scary Librarian]]: ''CONAN: THE LIBRARIAN''
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* [[Severely Specialized Store]]: Spatula City.
* [[Shouting Shooter]]: In the ''[[Rambo]]'' parody.
* [[Show Within a Show]]: The entire picture is basically a series of short comedy sketches; the fictional TV station is merely a framing device to pass this all off as one feature-length film. [[Word of God|Al]]: "I was known for doing parodies, so we wanted to do a movie that was lousy with parodies — TV commercial parodies, movie trailer parodies, and obviously TV show parodies — and we hung them on a plot line that seemed like the thing to go well with that basic concept. Namely, that I would be the general manager for a small UHF [https://film.avclub.com/we-got-it-all-on-uhf-an-oral-history-of-weird-al-yan-1798278657 TV station]..."
* [[Smug Snake]]: RJ Fletcher.
* [[Struggling Broadcaster]]:
* [[Styrofoam Rocks]]: Parodied. In the opening sequence, a rock bounces right off George Newman's head mid-fantasy and does nothing to him.
* [[Technology Marches On]]: The UHF band in general. In 1989? "It was a total anachronism even when it came out — it was on the tail end of UHF even being a thing. But as a kid, that was where you went to see all the weird programming. You know, you had your UHF dial, and you flipped it around, and there was everything from PBS stations to Spanish-speaking stations to low-budget public stations, to just out-and-out weirdness."
*
** The "U-62" frequency? Gone. UHF 52-69 were auctioned to mobile phone operators for billions in 2009-11. [[American Television Stations]] were moved down to DT51 or lower, only to be further repacked to DT36 or lower by 2021. Stations historically on this channel (such as CBS owned-and-operated WWJ-TV 62 Detroit) may still display '62' or '62.1' in their branding, but physically they're on some other, lower channel.
* [[Temporary Substitute]]: Anthony Geary wasn't originally planned to play Philo; one of Al's favorite comics, [[Joel Hodgson]], was. But he couldn't accept the role. Before you go "aw, man!" keep in mind that Joel had turned it down due to being burned out in Los Angeles and returning to Minneapolis, where he ended up starting [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|his own little show]] on its own UHF station KTMA.
* [[They Just Didn't Care]]: Parodied with ''[[Gandhi]] II'', which deliberately misses the entire point of the original movie (and, for that matter, [[Critical Research Failure|Mahatma Gandhi's way of life]]).
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