Movies You Gotta Catch: UHF
Name: UHF
Directed by: Jay Levey
Year: 1989
Genre: Comedy
Starring: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Victoria Jackson, Michael Richards, Fran Drescher
PLOT: A young down on his luck dreamer, George Newman (Yankovic), is having a hard time keeping a job, mostly because he has a problem with keeping his overactive imagination in check. He finally gets a chance to put his creativity to good use when his uncle lets him work in his TV Station, which he had recently acquired in a poker game. George has no clue how running a television station works and is failing badly until he discovers a star in his eccentric janitor Stanley Spadowski (Richards). Stanley is a kind dedicated man who loves entertaining children almost as much as he loves his mop. George, Stanley, and the misfit band of television personalities including on field reporter Pamela Finklestein (Drescher) seem to have finally found their stride when an evil television mogul, R.J. Fletcher, is threatened by their success. Fletcher gets George’s uncle to sell him the station in order to pay off a large gambling debt. George has one chance to buy the station from his uncle and away from R.J. by raising the funds via a telethon. Things aren’t going well when Stanley is abducted by a band of thugs hired by Fletcher. George must use his imagination to save the day and he does so in a style fitting to the great Weird Al!
WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT IT:
Elaborate pop culture references and scenes that only the king of satire ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic could do.
The opening is a homage to Indiana Jones!
Emo Philips as a High School Shop teacher with “butter fingers”
“Ballad of Jed Clampett” Beverly Hillbillies/I Want My MTV Song/Music Video
It’s a movie starring Weird Al Yankovic, and if you’re a fan of Weird Al, it’s like you would expect a Weird Al movie to be: Awesome music, pop culture references, and tongue in cheek comedy.
Quotable Lines:
Raul Hernandez from “Raul’s Wild Kingdom” when getting a wrong shipment of Badgers for his show: “Badgers? We don’t need no stinking Badgers!”
Kuni Host of “Wheel of Fish”: “You’re So STU-PIIIID!”
Conan the Librarian: “Don’t you know the Dewey decimal system?”
Kuni Host of “Wheel of Fish”: “Oh, Red Snapper…very tasty!!!”
Authored By: Patrick Henry (Estrada)
Produced By: Briana Caceres
