UHF (1989)

There comes a time in every man's life where he has to look the potato of injustice right in the eye. There's a powerful evil force in the universe, and it lives at Channel 8!

Director
Jay Levey

Cast
"Weird Al" Yankovic - George Newman
David Bowe - Bob Steckler
Michael Richards - Stanley Spadowski
Fran Drescher - Pamela Finklestein
Kevin McCarthy - R.J. Fletcher
Victoria Jackson - Teri Campbell

There's a list of movies in my head I consider "dumb, but not really." Movies such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), The Addams Family, The Gods Must Be Crazy, and a few others come across as stupid-ish at first glance, but tell an entertaining, perhaps well written, story.
UHF, written by musical satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic falls into that category.
I first watched this back in the early 1990s and remembered a few scenes all these years. I watched it for the second time a few days ago.
It's certainly not a cinematic masterpiece by any means. It's a ridiculously silly, slaphappy comedy satire.
For those even somewhat familiar with Yankovic and his music, it's exactly the kind of satirical comedy you'd expect. It entertains in just the way you think it would.
Years after its 1989 release, UHF also managed to leave an impression on audiences. For many, it was in the form of a "Twinkie wiener sandwich." You'll just have to Google that one because I'm not handing out that recipe.
Yankovic plays George Newman who's quite the daydreamer.
His lack of attention causes his friend Bob and himself to get fired from their job at a burger joint.
Desperate for work, George finds out that his uncle Harvey won the deed to local TV station, Channel 62, in a Poker game.
The station is near bankrupt, and its ratings and program line-ups aren't anywhere close to being on the charts. It's a doomed station.
But George sees a potentially rewarding opportunity with Channel 62 despite it being found on the lower end of the TV dial. So, he encourages his uncle to let him run the station with Bob to help him out.
When he starts his new job, George takes it upon himself to go meet his main competitor - RJ Fletcher, CEO of VHF Station Channel 8. This station would be located on the prime front end of the TV dial - the side reserved for stations with money. Obviously, this is before streaming and digital TV.
We see what kind of ruthless, unsympathetic, self-centered businessman Fletcher is when he fires the station's janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards - Seinfeld) and takes his one true prized possession away from him...his mop!
With the support of his girlfriend, Teri Campbell (Victoria Jackson - Saturday Night Live cast member 1986-1992), George creates a lineup of programs which boosts the station's ratings to the top.
During this line of success, George meets Stanley and hires him to clean the station. By chance, George discovers Stanley makes a popular host on an otherwise unsuccessful children's program. This, of course, helps boosts the station's ratings considerably. But Fletcher has his own plans to avoid getting beat.
A lot of the gags and jokes in the movie make me laugh. The rest is dated humor, and typical stereotypes often seen in comedies from 30 years ago. The reference to Geraldo Rivera's busted nose comes to mind.
The premise is ripe for parodic opportunities Yankovic is known for. And he pulls it off rather well for fans and comedy buffs to appreciate.
As a satirist, Yankovic is extremely talented. It shows in this movie. Audiences are even treated to a song, Beverly Hillbillies spoofing the song

Michael Richards and Weird Al Yankovic in UHF

Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. The music video, however, doesn't quite fit in the movie. Rather, it feels a forced as though the producers thought they needed to plant a Weird Al video in the movie somewhere. And instead of making the video as a part of the network's line of programs, they made it into a dream sequence. It felt planted.
This isn't a movie audiences will watch for its acting, although I could see some Kosmo Kramer in Michael Richards wirery and off-the-wall goofy physical performance as Stanley Spadowski.
When it comes to Weird Al, I think his true talent lies in his line delivery - his vocal inflections to show despair and sadness, or over-the-top excitement at the most mundane things. It's funny when he does it. Yankovic is the everyday man...Mr. Joe Sixpack. He pokes fun at the reactions to situations he and anyone else would encounter day to day.
Otherwise, I can see why film critic Roger Ebert referred to his acting on screen as creating a "dispirited vacuum at the center of many scenes." His talent his humor rather than acting. Audiences watch UHF to laugh.
Still, Yankovic excels tremendously on music albums for sure. As for this movie, well, audiences wouldn't go to see a Weird Al movie expecting an intense cinematic performance. UHF isn't nor tries to be that kind of movie.
What UHF  does do rather well is entertain.
Something about UHF still holds up as a comedic gag movie with all its spoofs of American pop culture and lifestyles.
Some of those jokes are still applicable to today despite the shift in commerce, change in entertainment platforms, and what passes for comedy 30 years later.
The movie relies just as much on its story as it does on its jokes.
George is touched upon as a daydreamer - someone who fantasizes himself as an untouchable hero similar to a Walter Mitty and his "secret life."
This characteristic isn't played in such a constant way to where it distracts from the movie and grows tiresome. Quite the opposite. In one instance we see George imagine himself as John Rambo as he goes to rescue Stanley from the evil clutches of Fletcher and his tough guys with guns and New York accents.
We also see him imagine himself as Indiana Jones going after a golden Oscar rather than the pagan idol from Raiders of the Lost Arc.
When UHF was released in 1989, it was up against some big titles - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Ghostbusters II, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Lethal Weapon 2. Talk about being buried! But somehow, Weird Al's movie has crawled its way through this crowd of heavyweight movies, and came out as a very respectable lightweight.  

Some jokes may have grown stale and dated over time, but there's still some life left in this movie's humor, satire, and sight gags. It's a parody that, in more instances than not, still applies to modern America. I'm glad I gave this movie another chance 30 years later.

Don't Fast Forward This One: Did the Joker Really Die at the End of Tim Burton's Batman?

Kim Basinger and Jack Nicholson in Batman.

I was seven years old when the movie Batman was released in June, 1989. The movie's poster had two names on it - Keaton and Nicholson. Nothing seemed more impressive than that! Jack Nicholson plays Jack Napier/ Joker in a performance resembling his role as Jack Torrance in The Shining. Michael Keaton, fresh off the set of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice plays Bruce Wayne/ Batman. People held their breath for that casting choice, but it all turned out brilliantly. With Kim Basinger as reporter Vicki Vale in the cast, Batman was the blockbuster movie of that summer.
Batman was something new for general audiences at the time as it portrayed a dark caped crusader. Gone was the campy Batman of the 1960s.
In 1989, Batman was everywhere. I became obsessed over Batman, buying into all the toys and merch after I saw it in the theater with my older brother. This has since subsided into a healthy appreciation. Still, I have a nostalgic love for this Burton film.
One thing about this movie I heard back in its glorious Bat- heyday that I haven't heard since is a fan theory (before the term existed) that the Joker didn't die in the end. (Look out! Spoiler! Oooh...too late.) There was no way to look into this theory back then except possibly finding some tidbit of info inside a movie magazine, specifically a Batman collector movie magazine. That existed. Or, if a sequel were to come about, which one eventually did, then audiences would have to wait for it to come out and see if the Joker returns or not. Otherwise, nothing ever popped up. I only heard this theory through word of mouth.
Even in the pool of infinite knowledge that is the internet, I can't find any mention of this outdated, perhaps generally unheard of film theory. Why? The answer of course is that the Joker/ Jack Napier dies at the end. He falls from a dangling ladder attached to his getaway helicopter as a granite gargoyle hangs from his leg thanks to Batman's attempt to prevent his escape. He splats on the pavement below. He dies. The end.
I'm guessing this short-lived theory was based on hopes of seeing Jack Nicholson's Joker performance come back in a sequel, before fans knew Tim Burton's Batman Returns would be that anticipated sequel. And when that came out, alas...no Joker. Although there was a fan theory back then that while the Penguin in Batman Returns is living in the sewer, the Joker is up above committing all his criminal shenanigans on the streets of Gotham City.

If he didn't die at the end of Batman, Joker's return in a later movie could have been the stuff of movie legend. Or, it just as easily could have been the dumbest thing to happen. Who knows? Hollywood can bring anyone back from the dead, after all.

Anyhow the theory was that the Joker audiences see fall is either a double or a puppet...or, something other than the real Joker. Whenever he made the alleged switch is anyone's guess.

The character was popular back then, and to watch him die in his first big on-screen confrontation with Batman is disappointing. At least for me it was. There was not much set up for a sequel. But like the comics, there doesn't need to be a setup as Batman could (and did) come back to take on another threat to Gotham City.
Three particular scenes stirred the imagination of some movie goers back then just enough to come up with this theory.
During the fight scene with the Joker and Batman, Batman beats him up pretty badly causing the Joker to have blood run down his chin. The crimson blood is visible on his powdery white chin as he's dangling from the ladder. When we see the Joker's dead body lying on the pavement below, the blood on his chin is completely gone. That, of course, is a mere movie mistake. But at the time of its release - Joker didn't die! See? No blood!
In that same scene, Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) pulls a joke laughing bag from the Joker's coat pocket. The sound of mechanical laughter emanates from this small bag.
Some thought this was a clue Joker would get the last laugh...perhaps, in a sequel. 

Incidentally, after the 1997 Joel Schumacher film Batman and Robin, a script for a fifth Batman film supposedly entitled Batman Triumphant made the rounds at Warner Bros.

From what I've read on various movie websites such as denofgeek.com, and others was that the film was to have Batman facing off with the villainous Scarecrow as well as Harley Quinn. Quinn would be written as the Joker's daughter seeking revenge on our hero.

In this version, audiences would have seen Batman suffering visions of his old foes thanks to the noxious gas of the scarecrow, including the Joker which would have been played again by Jack Nicholson. 

Would Batman Triumphant have been a reality, I'm sure by that time audiences would know the Joker didn't die in the first movie, if in fact he actually didn't die. And he wouldn't be portrayed as a mere hallucination.   

It's important to keep in mind that the campy 60s Batman was the Batman 1989 audiences were familiar with. Such a scenario would have been a likely one in the 60s series, with any villain trying to pull that same plot to foil the dynamic duo.

I think, however, that particular gag in the Joker's pocket was simply that - a gag. Joker has the last laugh.
The final scene that suggests this theory still baffles me as to why it's there in the first place.
When Vicki Vale and Batman are hanging on the edge of the cathedral as the Joker stands over them, the scene cuts away briefly to a shot of the Joker's overcoat and hat hanging on a gargoyle.
Why was that scene included? Why does the audience need to see where the Joker hung his hat and coat right in the middle of the movie's intense climax?
Somehow, a few people interpreted this odd cutaway scene as a clue that the Joker somehow replaced himself with a double. Even though this is an incorrect interpretation, the purpose of this short scene is still baffling to me.
The only online reference to this hat and coat scene I found was a post on moviemistakes.com.

If the joker had a chance to get away before jumping on his getaway copter, it seems he would have done so. The idea he went to the trouble of finding and using a double seems superfluous.
Then again, it could be argued that maybe he anticipated Batman would somehow foil his helicopter escape and he wanted to make it seem like Batman killed him. Doing so may have benefited him in the long run.
Nevertheless, it's all theory. The Joker dies when he hits the pavement below, and Batman is deemed Gotham City's hero.