UHF

1989 Comedy

UHF is the film debut of comedy rock satirist Weird Al Yankovic, who also co-wrote the screenplay. George Newman (Yankovic) and his friend Bob (David Bowe from The Cable Guy) are fired from their jobs at Burger World. So George decides to take over Channel 62, a failing local TV station that his uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) won in a poker game. George turns it around into an overnight success after letting the janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards from Seinfeld), host a kid's show. George then fills the broadcast day with bizarre programming, bringing the ratings up and saving the station. Soon, rival station CEO R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy) of Channel 8 threatens to sabotage the successful station, and George must come up with a way to save it. Only loosely constructed around this storyline, UHF is mostly a series of TV, movie, and music parodies strung together and played for cheap laughs. UHF also stars Victoria Jackson, Emo Philips, and Fran Drescher. more..

Director: Jay Levey

Starring: 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, David Bowe

 15 Reviews

Reviews

  • The movie is forever digressing so that Mr. Yankovic can offer media spoofs that have only the most tangential relation to the story.

    Stephen Holden - The New York Times

    11 May 2013

  • Yankovic fails to come up with anything new to freshen the stock storyline, and is content instead to let it serve as a creaky showcase for his forte, media parodies. But even the quality of these parodies is inconsistent, with the movie and music takeoffs being obvious and out of date.

    - TV Guide

    11 May 2013

  • Yankovic, an advocate of the Monty Python and Mel Brooks schools of comedy, favors yechy burlesque, and UHF, with its scant plot, is basically a variety show with skits, sight gags and gross stuff. "Weird" reminds us there's nothing quite like a good booger joke for pure entertainment.

    Rita Kempley - The Washington Post

    11 May 2013

  • UHF is not a uniformly funny experience, unless you have to wear a bib and tend to laugh at anything, such as sudden gusts of wind. Yankovic, co-writing with manager Jay Levey (who also directed), goes for gag after gag. Some hit, some miss. You laugh, you cry.

    - The Washington Post

    11 May 2013

  • UHF, a parody of trash television, is almost defiantly silly, but when it's funny it is very funny. This sloppy, good-natured satire certainly doesn't threaten "Network's" status as the classic decimation of the television business.

    Julie Salamon - The Wall Street Journal

    11 May 2013

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