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Line 9: Like Weird Al's music, the film focuses its comedy on oddball humor and [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche\|satire, parody, and pastiche]] of pop culture. Released in 1989, at the height of Weird Al's popularity, the film was expected to be a summer blockbuster, but barely broke even at the box office (opening against the 1989 ''[[Batman (film)\|Batman]]'' movie, after all) and instead became a [[Cult Classic]]. Then again, maybe a feature making fun of independent local TV does fit best [[Vindicated by Cable\|on the small screen]]? ---- {{tropelist}} Line 81 ⟶ 83: ...With just a hint of cheese!" }} * [[I'm Your Worst Nightmare]]: George says this during his Rambo-parodying fantasy. * [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Sort of. During the dreaded phone call between Uncle Harvey and Mr. Big, Mr. Big detaches his hand, replaces it with a meat cleaver appendage and violently chops a big loaf of lunchmeat (since it's Weird Al, probably ~~balogna~~bologna), signifying he means business. Harvey staggers in the pool (where he's lounging when the call takes place) and says, "I'm dead meat!". * [[Indy Escape]]: Parodied in a dream sequence with a dauntless boulder. Averted since the dream was interrupted, killing the character in said dream. * [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: Invoked by George, but Bob calls him on it, saying he doesn't drink; George says he's been meaning to start. Line 93 ⟶ 95: ** Who may or may not be [[Merv Griffin]], according to the commentary. * [[Man Child]]: Stanley, so very much. * [[Market-Based Title]]: Since the concept of UHF stations differs overseas (as some countries, like the UK, moved everything to UHF years ago), they asked Al for an alternate title. He suggested "The Vidiot"~~. The film was then released in some countries, much to Al's chagrin, as "The Vidiot From UHF", succeeding only in transforming an incomprehensible title to a terrible one~~. In a prime example of [[Executive Meddling]], the film was released in some countries, much to Al's chagrin, as "The Vidiot From UHF". This succeeded in transforming an incomprehensible title to a terrible one. Of course, [[Technology Marches On\|modern televisions don't differentiate between UHF and other frequencies, and haven't for years]], so it's not much better in the US anymore.▼ The Latin-American Spanish dub is known as "Los Telelocos". The concept of the small independent UHF station running [[Anime]] cartoons into the wee hours does exist in [[Japan]]. The United Kingdom, on the other hand? Most stations are regional, not local, and the majors (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, 4) are routinely transmitted on adjacent sets of channels from the same (BBC-owned) sites. ▲ Of course, [[Technology Marches On\|modern televisions don't differentiate between UHF and other frequencies, and haven't for years]], so it's not much better in the US anymore. * [[Media Watchdog]]: The FCC appeared in the end of UHF. * [[Metaphorgotten]]: George delivers many of these. Line 114 ⟶ 119: * [[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. * [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie]] * [[Red Right Hand]]: Although he's technically not the main ~~villan~~villain, Mr. Big is a spooky unseen ~~loanshark~~loan shark/crime boss with a detachable meat-cleaver hand. Also, [[Evil Sounds Deep]] applies to him as well. * [[Sassy Secretary]]: Pamela Finklestein. * [[Scary Librarian]]: ''CONAN: THE LIBRARIAN'' Line 124 ⟶ 129: * [[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]]: Independent U-62's attempts to fill the entire schedule with [[No Budget]] original local programming. Most big-city independents would struggle but manage to fill most of their schedule with old movies, local/regional live sports coverage, "classic television" reruns or syndicated fare. U-62 doesn't even have the means to do that, so the operation basically runs ad-lib and hyperlocal. * [[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." * [[Technology Marches On]]: The UHF band in general. There's a long history which (at least in the US) goes back to [[The Fifties]] - although the history in other countries (like the UK) will differ: The launch of [[FOX]] TV as a fourth US commercial network in 1986 was the [[Trope Breaker]]. Twelve VHF TV channels (which had been enough for three stations in each major market) were no longer adequate. TV sets have improved. And then there's the digital HDTV transition. Many longtime [[NBC]] and [[CBS]] affiliates chose UHF for their HDTV, as the once-valuable low-VHF channels are too plagued with impulse noise to be useful. VHF 2-6 became largely an over-the-air wasteland, to the point that the government paid [[PBS\|WGBH-TV]] about $160 million to move off a now-valuable UHF channel and go to VHF 5. After years of experimentation, TV was publicly demonstrated by NBC (then WNBT channel 1, on the Empire State building) as a curiosity at the 1939 World's Fair in [[New York City]]. With no stations in most markets (and [[World War 2]] as a distraction which pushed TV tinkering aside in favour of radar tinkering) it languished until after the war. Channel 1 was lost to land-mobile radio in 1948 and a few channels above VHF 13 were lost to the military; with only twelve possible channels, the hundred or so original stations in 1948 were routinely interfering with each other. The Federal Communications Commission stopped issuing any new TV licences for three years while they decided how to fix the mess; ultimately they opened seventy new channels (UHF 14-83, 470-890MHz) in the then-unproven UHF spectrum. NBC launched "Operation Bridgeport" as a test station, rebroadcasting their NYC station's signal into a community in Connecticut. By 1954, a hundred underpowered UHF stations went on the air... and eighty of them went out of business within the first year. Apparently the feds didn't think to require set makers include UHF tuners until the 1964 model year, and the early tuners were of such poor quality that UHF TV licences in any given city were routinely spaced at least six channels apart. The end result was seventy channels of not much except static. With only 12 VHF channels, each major city could usually be given three (adequate for [[NBC]] and [[CBS]] as the two main networks of the era, although perennially third-ranked [[ABC]] often ended up struggling on outlying stations in places like Muskogee, Oklahoma) and fourth-ranked [[DuMont]] was basically doomed (out of business by 1956). 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. By the late 1960s, three stations per major city was no longer enough, due to the need to accommodate educational television (NET and its eventual successor, [[PBS]]) and programming in other languages (such as Spanish). In the largest cities, there were more stations than viable mainstream networks, leaving more than a few struggling big-city "independents" to fill most of their schedules with live sports and old movies. The strongest stations, established early by the existing NBC and CBS network AM radio affiliates, tended to hold the prime spots at the lower end of the VHF dial. ABC often landed on high-VHF channels (to the point where the single-line '7' in a circle is a distinctive logo for many ABC owned-and-operated stations) while PBS, independents or niche broadcasters were relegated to the UHF wilderness. In some places (such as NYC and Philadelphia), PBS member stations actually obtained out-of-state licences (WNET 13 Newark NJ, WHYY 12 Wilmington DE) just to grab the last available VHF spot; the Educational Broadcasting Corporation paid more than $6 million for existing (but seventh-ranked locally) Newark station, inheriting 13 Newark's obligations to serve New Jersey as part of the deal. More than a few home antenna installations with a huge, professionally-installed VHF antenna on the roof and a bent metal coathanger of a folded dipole dangling from the back of the set to get the lone educational UHF station were not uncommon in the early days if UHF was merely an afterthought. Even if an antenna were designed for proper "82 channel" coverage the best that could be done was "up to 100 miles VHF, 60 miles UHF" as the longer-wavelength VHF signal was more capable of bending a bit to get around obstacles. Over-the-air TV began to lose viewers to cable TV in the 1970s; the cable companies could install one antenna per station on the tallest point in the city, shift the received signals to other channels, boost them and distribute them. This moved signals which were UHF over the air to VHF on some arbitrary channel on the cable. The TV sets were also slowly improving; by the mid to late 1980s it was no longer necessary to use separate tuners for UHF and VHF, nor was it necessary to endlessly 'clunk' through seventy empty channels to find the few UHF stations available in glorious fuzzy analogue. The launch of [[FOX]] TV as a fourth US commercial network in 1986 was a tipping point; it ensured that twelve VHF TV channels (which had been enough for three stations in each major market) were no longer adequate. Fox was built on a core group of owned-and-operated stations which trace their ancestry to the failed [[DuMont]] network thirty years prior, but its parent News Corporation has deeper pockets and could buy better programming. Many former independents were quick to join the nascent fourth major commercial US network. By 1994, Fox was openly poaching affiliates from the established networks and outbidding CBS for NFL games. New World Communications switched a dozen of its stations from CBS to Fox, forcing CBS onto UHF in Atlanta, Austin and Cleveland. CBS ended up on a very poor UHF channel assignment in Milwaukee and ended up purchasing U-62 station WGPR Detroit (now WWJ-TV) outright for $24 million out of pure desperation. Yup, the same frequency way up the dial which "Weird Al" figured no sane broadcaster would want only five years earlier. Oh well. Satellite TV was also a major "equaliser" as UHF stations like Ted Turner's WTBS 17 Atlanta got picked up nationally. Canadian cable companies were prone to pulling stations from Shaw's CANCOM satellite feed and dumping "U-62 Détroit" into distant communities as far afield as Newfoundland. Eventually, in some cases the Détroit HDTV feeds started turning up on cable in Canadian border communities which already had perfectly viable in-region US stations which would have been more than adequate. The final straw that broke the "UHF as underpowered independent station" [[Dead Horse Trope]]? The digital transition after the turn of the millennium. The new system worked very well on UHF and very poorly on low-VHF due to a form of interference known as "impulse noise". The digital system contained a few extra bits in the signal as spares for "forward error correction" - if the interference is small-scale random white noise which only clobbers a random bit now and then, the new TV's could correct those errors and - to a point - display a perfect HDTV picture right up to the point where the video goes off a "digital cliff". When there are too many errors to correct, audio and video break up and freeze entirely - but until then, everything looks perfect. By contrast, the "impulse noise" dumped by motors and appliances on the formerly-valuable low-VHF channels came in bursts, periodically wiping out the entire channel for some brief fraction of a second. That's not so easy to fix these days. Because the DTV signal is digitally compressed, it takes a second or two for the receiver to find its place in the image and recover - and by then the next burst of impulse noise will have wiped everything out again. Stations which had used a UHF channel for their HDTV during the period (roughly 2003-2009, depending on market) when the old signal was running in parallel on VHF often simply left the digital TV on UHF when the transition was over. VHF 2-6, once some of the most valuable spectrum in broadcasting, was a [[Ghost Town]] and an empty wasteland. There were even a few suggestions that VHF 5 and 6 be dropped to provide space to extend the now-crowded FM radio band, although this was never implemented. And then there's the flood of so-called "digital antennas" into the 21st century marketplace. They're small and don't take much space on the retailers' shelves, but many of them perform poorly as they're merely a rebrand of a "UHF-only antenna". Quite a few of these cheap antennas actually perform worse on VHF 7-13 (which remains in use digitally in many communities) than on UHF because the antenna is physically too small to do the job. ** In the meantime, mobile telephone companies have their own beady eyes on huge chunks of the now-valuable UHF spectrum, which is getting crowded. The number of available vacant channels has dropped; UHF 14-83 becomes UHF 14-69 becomes UHF 14-51 becomes UHF 14-36 with stations forced to move to lower channels as governments realise they can sell this frequency spectrum to mobile telephone companies for billions of dollars. In some cases, the government has even paid longtime broadcasters (including Boston [[PBS]] flagship WGBH) to move back to VHF channels which no one wants, so that precious UHF spectrum can be auctioned and sold. * [[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]]). {{quote\|"No more Mr. Passive Resistance... he's out to kick some butt!"}} Aside from the obvious, he's also depicted ordering a steak.<ref>[[Sacred Cow]] warning: Hinduism considers practice of the consumption of beef taboo.</ref> It's Weird Al. [[They Just Didn't Care]], orbecause they were deliberately [[Comically Missing the Point]]? * [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: As the trailers embedded in the film are jokes (where the corresponding feature presentations don't actually exist), the joke by necessity must be self-contained within the fake trailer. * [[Trailers Always Spoil]] * [[What Could Have Been]]: [[Sylvester Stallone]] was going to cameo as the helicopter ride ticketer during the ''Rambo'' parody scene, but had to cancel due to schedule issues. ~~And as~~As mentioned above, Al originally wanted Joel Hodgson to play Philo. After Hodgson turned down the role of Philo, Al asked Crispin Glover if he wanted the role, and Crispin said he would only be in the movie if he could play Crazy Ernie. Al turned him down. ** David Spade was one of the people who auditioned for the role of Bob. Line 155: {{reflist}} [[Category:Short Titles]]▼ [[Category:Films of the 1980s]] [[Category:~~UHF~~{{PAGENAME}}]] [[Category:Film]] ▲[[Category:~~Short~~Cult ~~Titles~~Classic]]