UHF: Арзан телеарнаның хикаясы

1989 film by Jay Levey

UHF (released internationally as The Vidiot from UHF) is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Stanley Brock, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva; the film is dedicated to Silva, who died shortly after filming wrapped. The film was directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co wrote the screenplay with him. The film was originally released by Orion Pictures and is currently owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Yankovic and Levey struggled to find a production company to finance the film, but were eventually able to get Orion's support after stating they could keep the film costs under $5 million. Principal photography took place around Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yankovic stars as George Newman, a shiftless dreamer who stumbles into managing a low budget television station and, surprisingly, finds success with his eclectic programming choices, spearheaded by the antics of a janitor turned children's television host, Stanley Spadowski (Richards). He provokes the ire of a major network station that dislikes the competitive upstart. The title refers to the ultra high frequency (UHF) analog television broadcasting band on which such low budget television stations were often placed in the United States. Yankovic and Levey wrote the film after Yankovic's second studio album, and chose the approach of George having a vivid imagination to support the inclusion of parodies within the film. UHF was a financial disappointment, as it was overshadowed by several major Hollywood blockbusters that were released at the same time. The film also received mixed critical reviews, which left Yankovic in a slump that lasted until the surprise success of his next album in 1992. Despite being considered a failure, UHF went on to become a cult film thanks to home video and cable TV. The VHS of the film was rare and out of print for many years, with copies going for high prices online. In 2002, the film was released on DVD for the first time, and Shout! Factory released a special 25th anniversary edition of UHF on November 11, 2014, on DVD and Blu ray.

George Newman, a dreamer who bounces between jobs, is put in charge of Channel 62, a UHF television station, when his uncle Harvey wins ownership of it in a poker game. George and his friend Bob realize the station is nearly bankrupt, subsisting on reruns of old shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Mister Ed. When a package meant for their competitor, VHF station Channel 8, is misdelivered to George at Channel 62, he decides to deliver it himself, only to be rudely thrown out by RJ Fletcher, Channel 8's CEO. Outside, George meets Stanley Spadowski, a janitor who had just been unfairly fired by RJ, and offers him a job at Channel 62. George and Bob create new programs, including "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse", a live children's show hosted by George. The new shows fail to increase viewership and they find themselves days from bankruptcy. While fretting over their finances, George forgets his girlfriend Teri's birthday dinner and she breaks up with him. George laments about his life during the Uncle Nutzy broadcast. He abandons the set, tells Stanley he can host the show, and goes to a bar with Bob to drown their sorrows. At the bar they find the patrons eagerly watching Stanley's slapstick antics on Channel 62. Inspired by Stanley's popularity, George and Bob create a range of bizarre shows to fill the schedule, headlined by the re titled "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse." RJ, infuriated that Channel 62's ratings now rival those of Channel 8 (including a majority of Top Five shows), discovers Harvey owns the station and owes his bookie, Big Louie, $75,000 by the end of the week. RJ offers to pay off Harvey's debt in exchange for the deed to Channel 62. George launches a telethon to sell stock in the station, which would not only save it from RJ but also make it publicly owned. RJ's henchmen stall the telethon by kidnapping Stanley, whom George and several staff members eventually rescue. RJ again attempts to stall the telethon with a televised public statement, but Channel 62 engineer Philo hijacks it with secretly recorded footage of RJ insulting the town's population. The telethon ends about $2,000 short of its goal. Harvey concedes victory to RJ who, instead of immediately taking ownership, gloats to the crowd. Meanwhile, a homeless man approaches George, asking to buy the rest of the stock with money obtained by selling a rare coin that RJ, not being aware of its true value, gave him when he was begging for change. George pays off Big Louie, Harvey signs the ownership transfer, and the station officially becomes publicly owned. Because Channel 8 is late in filing its broadcast license renewal and due to the tirade that Philo broadcast, the FCC revokes their license and kicks it off the air. George and the Channel 62 staff and their audience celebrate. George and Teri rekindle their romantic relationship.

Yankovic and his manager Jay Levey had discussed the idea of a movie for Yankovic around 1985, after his second major successful album; his popularity at that time led the two to thinking what other venues would work for the musician. The story concept they created was based on Yankovic's approach to his music videos, making parodies of other works. After sketching out a number of such parodies for a film, the concept of Yankovic being the owner of a small time UHF station broadcasting these parodies as shows was born, as this would not require having any significant plot to string the parodies together, in a manner similar to Airplane! (1980).

Primary filming for UHF occurred in Tulsa; the film's executive producer Gray Frederickson had earlier finished shooting of The Outsiders in Oklahoma, and found the ease and the cost to film in the state to suit the needs of UHF. The dead fish in the game show "Wheel of Fish" were real, obtained from the White River Fish Market. The news desk was located at OETA, a local PBS member station. The steps of City Hall are actually First Christian Church at 913 S. Boulder, built in 1920. Channel 8's exterior is an office block (6655 South Lewis Building) occupied by Hewlett Packard. The "U 62" building was constructed around KGTO 1050's AM radio transmitter site (5400 West Edison Street); the real KGTO studios had been moved elsewhere in 1975. Just the tower itself remains at this location today. The airport scenes were taken at Tulsa International Airport.

Yankovic was always envisioned to be the central character of the film George Newman, written as a straight man with a vivid imagination as to allow the insertion of the parodies into the film's script in a manner similar to the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).

UHF received mixed reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 61% rating based on 23 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "UHF is bizarre, freewheeling, and spotty, though its anarchic spirit cannot be denied." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average based on selected critic reviews, the film has a score of 32 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Critic Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun Times that Yankovic's approach to satire and parody works for the short form music video, but does not work to fill out a full length movie. Ebert also called to Yankovic's lack of screen presence, creating a "dispirited vacuum at the center of many scenes"; he gave UHF one star out of four. Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel wrote of the film, "Never has a comedy tried so hard and failed so often to be funny"; he gave it a zero star rating. Fellow Tribune critic Dave Kehr said of it "It's not surprising to find that UHF ultimately resolves itself into a series of four minute, video style sketches laid pretty much end to end, but at least Weird Al has given feature length fiction the old college try, introducing rudimentary plot and number of semi functional characters." Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times believed that, as the entire film comprised parodies, it gave no structure for the larger plot to work, thus resulting in "not much of a movie". According to Yankovic's Behind the Music episode, UHF enjoyed one of the most successful test screenings in Orion's history. Orion Pictures released UHF on July 21, 1989, hoping it would be a summer blockbuster that would revive their commercial fortunes. However, critical response was negative, The draw of these blockbuster movies also contributed to the low attendance at UHF premiere; The A. V. Club, in a retrospective, called UHF "a sapling among the redwoods" and the type of film that Hollywood has since abandoned. Yankovic and the film's creators considered that the film had a strong audience with younger viewers, which did well to fill midday matinees but did not succeed in helping to sell tickets for more lucrative evening and nighttime showings.

UHF has since become a cult classic, becoming popular on cable and home video. Though Yankovic has considered the possibility of a sequel, he has not actively pursued this. Yankovic noted that UHF is "a product of its era, and comedy has changed so much over the decades", but also considered that the type of comedy predated the nature of Internet phenomena and viral videos. Gedde Watanabe later reprised his role as Kuni for a guest appearance on The Weird Al Show in 1997. The music video for Yankovic's "Word Crimes", a song about errant grammar parodying Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", includes a nod to this movie. When a test paper is shown on the screen, the name George Newman (Weird Al's character from the movie) is displayed on the test. It also features a Reddit account called u/George Newman. A webseries called The Real UHF which was heavily inspired by UHF started in 2009. It starred Dr. Demento, Neil Hamburger and Count Smokula, and it featured guest appearances from Devo, George Clinton, and others. The series was the brainchild of Zack Wolk, an intern for Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. YouTube chef Andrew Rea, also known as Oliver Babish, has attempted to cook "Bob's favorite", the Twinkie Wiener Sandwich, which is a wiener inserted into a top cut Twinkie, topped with a helping of Easy Cheese.

Yankovic also released a quasi soundtrack for the film in late 1989, titled UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff, which featured songs (and commercials) from the movie as well as his own new, unrelated studio material.