UHF - transmitter with limited hope

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Movie
German title UHF - transmitter with limited hope
Original title UHF
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1989
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jay Levey
script Al Yankovic
Jay Levey
production Gene Kirkwood
John Hyde
music John Du Prez
camera David Lewis
cut Dennis M. O'Connor
occupation

UHF - channels with limited hope (original title UHF ) is an American comedy film from 1989 .

action

The dreamy George Newman loses job after job due to his amusing daydreams, which slowly brings his best friend and constant companion Bob to the edge of despair. Georges Uncle Harvey wins the television rights of Kanal 62, a small, ailing television station, in a round of poker. His wife persuades him to hand over the management to George. The beginnings turn out to be very difficult, especially since Kanal 62 only broadcasts ancient series and cannot offer a contemporary program.

While visiting the competition, Kanal 8, which belongs to the media mogul RJ Fletcher, George meets the recently fired caretaker Stanley Spadowski and promptly hires him. When Kanal 62 faces inevitable bankruptcy and George's girlfriend Teri breaks up with him because of a forgotten date, the broken George leaves a children's show to Stanley, which becomes a huge success thanks to Stanley's naturally freaky manner. The market value of Kanal 62 skyrocketed and the whole program was modernized, which annoyed RJ Fletcher.

Due to a botched horse racing bet, Uncle Harvey owes the bookmaker Big Louie $ 75,000, payable in three days. Fletcher wants to take the opportunity to buy the station and to close it at the same time. George and his crew try to save the channel by selling shares, which in turn leads Fletcher to kidnap the station's star, Stanley. With the help of his friends and a small but decisive mistake on the part of Fletcher, George and the others manage to save Channel 62 and at the same time stamp Channel 8 into the ground, and Teri is reconciled with George again.

criticism

“Turbulent satire enriched with numerous film quotes by a“ film freak ”, which dragged American genre cinema of the 80s as well as the“ soap operas ”of US television through the cocoa. Sometimes too rough and hectic. "

- Lexicon of international film

Background information

  • The station engineer calls himself "Philo", a homage to Philo Farnsworth , one of the pioneers in the development of television technology.
  • The role of Philo was originally intended for Joel Hodgson .
  • Since Trinidad Silva (Raul) died in an accident during production, parts of the film had to be rewritten. The film is dedicated to him.
  • In the DVD commentary, Yankovic says that Mike Judge was a huge fan of UHF and that "Burger World" in Beavis and Butt-Head pays homage to the movie.
  • Because the song Kung Fu Fighting - intended for the scene in which Uncle Harvey receives a threatening phone call while relaxing in his pool - could not be used for financial reasons, Yankovic wrote a short rock song called Let Me Be Your Hog .
  • In a scene in which Raul (Trinidad Silva) receives a new batch of animals for another broadcast, he complains: “We don't need any smelly badgers!” This is a non-transferrable pun on a quote from the western film Der Schatz der Sierra Madre , who from his original "We do not need no stinking badges!" ( badges = badges) on badgers was changed (= badgers).
  • The opening sequence parodies the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark .
  • One scene parodies Hollywood-typical sequels with a trailer for the fictional Gandhi II , which have hardly anything to do with the original, successful movie (as in this case).
  • The album Planet Punk by the band Die Ärzte contains a few original quotes from the film, especially the intro of the album So I, I have three guys out there who are about to make you all .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for UHF transmitters with limited hope . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ UHF - Channel with Limited Hope in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on April 8, 2012