UHF (1989)

Genre: Comedy (spoof)

Writers: Jay Levey and "Weird Al" Yankovic

Director: Jay Levey

The choice to do my next entry on the movie UHF was, specifically, because I already had a number of screencaps on my drive from it and I was considering adding pictures to this blog. I have no idea how this is going to translate when it does its magic movement to my facebook notes. So this may be the dawning of a new age for whatever it is I'm doing here. Either that, or this will be the entry that I'll eventually rewrite in its entirety.

I do recall, with great fondness, when this movie was released. I also recall that the only element of this movie available in the little town I grew up in was the soundtrack album, as the film itself was never released to our tiny rinky-dink movie theatre. I had to wait for it to get released on VHS. This was tricky on a lot of levels, because in 1989, "Weird Al" Yankovic was probably the only musician I really cared about. This was, of course, before grunge and alternative music had become mainstream enough for those of us growing up in tiny South Dakota towns to have ever heard of it. Even though UHF did very poorly in the box office, it never failed to disappoint me. But then, I understood Yankovic's sense of style fairly well. Mainstream America, in spite of its general acceptance of Yankovic as a comedy musician, was not ready to embrace him as an actor. Come to think of it, mainstream America never really figured out if he was supposed to be a comedian or a musician. "Weird Al" Yankovic has always been an oddity in the entertainment industry. He is our world's Aristophanes.

While this isn't the first cinematic effort of "Weird Al" Yankovic--there was a direct-to-video release a few years prior called The Compleat Al (1985) that made its way through a run on Showtime or Cinemax, maybe both--it is the only major movie release with Yankovic's name attached, not including brief cameos here and there. For example, some might remember Yankovic's appearance in the Zucker brothers spoof The Naked Gun (1988). There is probably a good reason for that; starting with the fact that, while Yankovic may be an excellent performer, he is not much of an actor.

The director and co-writer of UHF is Jay Levey, and to my knowledge, this is the only feature-length film he ever directed. Levey is actually Yankovic's manager, and has been since the early 1980's; he also plays Gandhi in the trailer for Gandhi II. This is all I know about him.

The movie itself is a comedy, something I would personally call a spoof. To me, the word spoof brings to mind many works of the Zucker brothers, such as Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984), and the aforementioned The Naked Gun. I took the time to look up the word, and I found that it is sometimes considered a synonym of the word parody. Since this is a movie starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, perhaps the most well-known parody artist of the modern music industry, calling it a spoof seems appropriate. Part of me wants to talk about the more recent concept of the movie spoof, but it would mostly be a rant on how incredibly bad it has gotten. For the younger people reading this, there is no requirement that states that all spoofs must have the word "movie" in the title.

UHF opens with a parody (of course) of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with Al himself playing the hero. This eventually fades into a fast food burger joint, where George Newman ("Weird Al" Yankovic) and his friend Bob (David Bowe) work. They are almost immediately fired by the manager, a very mean-looking woman known as Big Edna (Nancy Johnson, although we only see her once). It is quickly revealed that George cannot focus on anything because he's always daydreaming, which leads to him getting fired quite frequently. He also has a girlfriend, Teri (played by SNL alumnus Victoria Jackson), and she often gets mad at him because he always forgets their dates. In short, George Newman has a severe case of Attention Deficit Disorder that was never diagnosed. I'm not sure what Bob's excuse is--he's supposed to be the responsible one of the pair, but for some unseen reason, he gets fired right along with George every single time.

Before George and Bob can begin their job hunt, George's uncle, Harvey Bilchik (Stanley Brock) wins a television station during a poker game and his wife Esther (Sue Ane Langdon) talks him in to letting George manage it. The television station is a UHF station (get it?) that broadcasts locally on Channel 62. While things go badly in the beginning, eventually the station becomes outrageously popular, thanks to the help of the mildly brain damaged janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), who is an apparent savant when it comes to hosting a children's television program.

Meanwhile, the local network affiliate, Channel 8, is the local competition. It's run by an over-the-top corporate villain, R. J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), who even has his own Italian mafia-like gang of thugs. Among his personal bootlicks is his own son, Richard (John Paragon), who reminds me of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho (2000) for some reason. Perhaps he's Bateman's older, tackier and less successful half-brother or something.

What makes this movie fun to watch is the constant bombardment of movie parodies and oddball television programs being played on Channel 62. Some of the most memorable include "Secrets of the Universe," in which the station's resident mad scientist will show the viewers how to make plutonium from common household items, and "Raul's Wild Kingdom," where Raul unsuccessfully teaches poodles how to fly. One of my personal favorites, "Wheel of Fish," almost demands a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KezvwARhBIc

Is this brilliant filmmaking? Not even close. If you've ever seen one of Yankovic's music videos, though, you should have a pretty good idea of what this movie has to offer.