The career of Al Yankovic is a storied one. The accordion wielding master of musical parody started in the late 70's thanks to the exposure of Dr. Demento, and thanks to the birth and rise of MTV in the 80's, Weird Al became a household name with his spoofs of everyone from Michael Jackson to Madonna with classics like "Like a Surgeon", "Eat it", "I Lost on Jeopardy" and so on.
Yankovic's popularity would soon catch the interest of fledgling Orion Pictures, who had hoped to make Al the face of their studio. And in 1989, UHF was released in theaters. Directed by Al's longtime manager Jay Levy (who is even in the film as a gun toting bad ass Mahatma Gandhi) The movie is a wacky send up of television and pop culture as only Weird Al could do.
Al plays George Newman, a man with a big imagination, but an even bigger inability to hold a job. When his uncle Harvey gives him a struggling channel 62 UHF station, George is immediately up to the challenge, only to see the channel suffer due not only to lackluster programming, but the successful competitor in Channel 8 run by the evil R.J Fletcher (played by Kevin McCarthy). The job at the station also almost costs him to love of his girlfriend Teri (Played by Victoria Jackson) It seems like George is about to give up, but when he allows goofy janitor Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards) time on the air, he becomes an instant success, and Channel 62 begins to find its audience.
And what we get from there is a ton of great parodies, and all around wacky television shows. Classics like Wheel of Fish, Conan the Librarian, Strip Solitaire, and who can forget the classic commercial for Spatula City. So much crazy variety that you almost wish channel 62 was an actual station. Sure beats most of the garbage we get on TV today, that's for certain. If there was an issue I have with the movie, I would say Al is a bit wooden at times, and definitely not as good an actor as he is a musician. But with such a strong supporting cast including the likes of Fran Drescher, Billy Barty, Gedde Watanabe, Trinidad Silva and more, it's hard to really have much of an issue with Al's performance. He tries, but you can tell he's stronger at music than movies.
UHF hit theaters on July 21st, 1989, and was not only slaughtered by critics, but only made a measly six million at the box office. Though while that is pretty minor, it is forgivable considering how stacked the summer of 1989 was. Ghostbusters II, Batman, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon II just to name a few released that year. It's not hard to see how a smaller film like UHF could get lost in the shuffle. But thanks to cable and home video, it did eventually find its audience and has since become a cult hit, which perfectly fits such a wacky and fun film.
The film was recently released on Blu-Ray by Shout Factory, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. I do still have the DVD version released by MGM back in the early 2000's, and it's one of my all time favorite DVDs. You get tons of content including deleted scenes, the UHF music video, and a fun commentary with Weird Al and Jay Levy, which tells you everything you probably never needed to know about the filming of UHF, and even features guest commentary from Emo Philips and Michael Richards.
UHF is a fun, wacky, and irreverent knock on television that is still a fun watch over 25 years later. Sure, we live now in a world where the term UHF is dead, and the concepts of television have gradually changed since, but it's got Weird Al, and even a scene with Dr. Demento eating whipped cream. What's not to love? If you're a fan of 80's movies, Weird Al, or just want a fun comedy for all ages, UHF is one worth tuning in to.