UHF (film): Difference between revisions

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Things change when a depressed George carelessly puts station janitor Stanley Spadowski in charge of the channel's early-morning kids' show; to everyone's surprise, Stanley's [[Cloudcuckoolander]] antics become an instant hit [[Periphery Demographic|across all demographics]]. Emboldened, George unleashes the full force of his creativity with a line of unique, oddball shows to fill out the rest of the schedule, with Stanley as their flagship superstar. These moves quickly catapult U62's ratings to #1 in town -- which prompts Channel 8 head honcho R.J. Fletcher to take them down by any means necessary...
 
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]].
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=== Trope examples include: ===
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* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: R.J. Fletcher himself.
* [[Harpo Does Something Funny]]: Aside from one action sequence, Michael Richards' part is entirely ad libbed because "it was funnier than anything we could write."
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: The cast includes Michael Richards and Fran Drescher before either was well known.
** David Proval from ''[[The Sopranos]]'' is one of the kidnappers of Stanley.
** And the guy from ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' now owns a network affiliate.
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* [[Scary Librarian]]: ''CONAN: THE LIBRARIAN''
{{quote| '''Conan:''' Don't you know dah dew-ay dec-ihm-ahl sys-tahm?}}
* [[Science Marches On]]: An interesting tidbit in the very beginning at Big Edna's. You can see a sign in the background saying that they cook all of their meat "medium with a pink center unless otherwise specified". This was in 1989 and ''not a joke'', as it was before the 1993 [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_in_the_Box:Jack in the Box#E._coli_disaster coli disaster|Jack-in-the-Box E coli disaster]] in which four children died and hundreds of others became sick in the Seattle area as well as California, Idaho and Nevada, after eating undercooked and contaminated meat from Jack in the Box. These days '''all''' meat is cooked well done unless specified, and menus have warnings against eating undercooked meats.
** Though to be fair, ''pink'' beef can still be hot enough to kill bacteria. It's ''red'' beef that's trouble.
** [[Technology Marches On]]: The UHF band in general.
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* [[Severely Specialized Store]]: Spatula City.
* [[Shouting Shooter]]: In the ''[[Rambo]]'' parody.
* [[Shout -Out]]: George's show, "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse" takes its name from a skit in an issue of ''MAD''.
** The scene where Stanley first goes on air has a shout-out to [[Network]]. The whole concept of an station/network rising to instant unscripted prominence could be considered one, too.
** Philo is named after Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the television.