UHF(1989)

PG-13
1h 37m
- Comedy
- Sci-Fi

Release Date: Jul 21, 1989 | Wide

An unemployed visionary becomes the manager of a local television station. The station becomes a success, with all sorts of hilarious sight gags and wacky humor.

Releases

Original Release | Jul 21, 1989

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Box Office Results

Updated as of Aug 15, 2026 11:34 AM ET

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$2,251,831
Total US & Canada:
$6,157,157
Total Worldwide:
$6,157,157

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Jay Levey
Director

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
George Newman

Victoria Jackson
Teri

Kevin McCarthy
R.J. Fletcher

Michael Richards
Stanley Spadowski

David Bowe
Bob

Stanley Brock

Uncle Harvey

Anthony Geary

Philo

Trinidad Silva

Raul Hernandez

Gedde Watanabe

Kuni

Billy Barty

Noodles

John Paragon

Richard Fletcher

Fran Drescher

Pamela Finklestein

Sue Ane Langdon

Aunt Esther

David Proval

Head Thug

Grant James

Killer Thug

Emo Philips

Joe Earley

Jay Levey

Gandhi

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

George Newman ('Weird Al' Yankovic) is a daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him from holding a steady job. The opening sequence is one of George's daydreams as a spoof of the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) with George as Indiana Jones venturing to a temple to steal an Academy Award statue and being chased, run over and flattened by a giant boulder. Awaking from his daydream, George and his best friend and roommate Bob Speck (David Bowe) are working at Big Edna's Burger World, a local fast food eatery in the small Midwest town where they live. When George makes a disparaging remark about Big Edna and she hears it, both George and Bob are fired and literally thrown out onto the street.George's inability to keep a steady job puts a strain on his long-suffering girlfriend Teri Campbell (Victoria Jackson) who tolerates his antics to a limit. George and Teri go to his uncle and aunt's house for a party where his compulsive gambling uncle Harvey Bilchik (Stanley Brock) wins the deed to a nearly bankrupt UHF television station in a poker game. After prodding by his wife Esther (Sue Ann Langdon), Harvey gives control of Channel 62 to George so he can manage the station.The next morning, George and Bob arrive at the station and meet the Channel 62 staff which is made up of the receptionist and wannabe reporter Pamela Finklestein (Fran Drescher), dwarf photojournalist and cameraman Noodles MacIntosh (Billy Barty), and eccentric engineer Philo (Anthony Geary). George attempts to introduce himself to the rival VHF network Channel 8 station but its owner, the mean and cynical R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), chases him out angrily. On his way out of the station, he encounters janitor Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), a mentally challenged man who has been unfairly fired by Fletcher for supposedly pitching a valuable research report, which has been on Fletcher's desk chair all the time. George offers him a job at Channel 62 as the head janitor.Seeing that Channel 62 airs mostly old reruns of classic TV series such as "Mr. Ed" and "The Beverly Hillbillies", George sees that the station can use much more talent. Though George creates new series (including the child-friendly but poorly named "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse"), the workload and bad debt of the station get to him. Amid the stress, he forgets Teri's birthday, causing her to break up with him over the incident. Despondent, George turns over "Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse" to Stanley so he and Bob can go out for a drink. Arriving at the bar, they find that all the patrons are excitedly watching Stanley's antics on Channel 62. Realizing they have a success on their hands, George and Bob are revived and inspired. They come up with ideas for more original series in Channel 62's lineup, all spearheaded by the newly retitled "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse".Through the film, there are cutaway scenes that are comic homages to popular series of the time, through either George's imagination or series specifically for Channel 62. For example, a dream sequence includes a music video for Weird Al's parody "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" in both the audio and visual style of Dire Straits' song "Money for Nothing", and fake commercials for "Plots 'R Us Mortuary Service", "Crazy Eddie's Used Car Emporium" and "Spatula City", as well as fake commercials for Channel 62's new TV series such as "Gandhi II", "Conan the Librarian", "Bowling for Burgers", an exercise show called "Stay Fit", a game show called "Strip Solitaire" hosted by Noodles, "Practical Jokes and Bloopers" and "Celebrity Mud Wrestling". Kuni (Gedde Watanabe), a local and eccentric karate instructor, becomes the host of the odd game show "Wheel of Fish". Philo becomes host of his own talk show "Secrets of the Universe". George sets up a revamped talk show called "Town Talk" with him as a Geralo Rivera-type host seeking controversial talk subjects. Raul Hernandez (Trinidad Silva) is hired for an animal show called "Raul's Wild Kingdom" where he talks to (and abuses) animals that he keeps in his apartment.As Channel 62's popularity grows, Fletcher becomes furious that a UHF station is getting better ratings than his network's programming. He learns that Harvey Bilchik is the owner of the station and has just gambled away $75,000 at the horse races and has only two days to pay off the debt. Fletcher makes Harvey the offer of covering his debt to his unseen bookie, Big Louie, in return for ownership of Channel 62, which he would then only too happily shut down (legally he cannot own two television stations in the same town). George learns of the deal and calls his aunt, who forces her husband to hold off and allow George time to raise the money Harvey owes by selling investment shares in Channel 62 through a 48-hour telethon.The telethon starts off successfully led by Stanley's boundless energy, but Fletcher sends his henchmen to kidnap Stanley. Without Stanley, the telethon grinds to a halt. George then leads a group to infiltrate Channel 8 and rescue Stanley. Philo sets up a hidden camera in Fletcher's office hoping to find something to nail him on. When he sees Stanley trying to escape, he alerts George who attempts to rescue Stanley, while imaging himself as John Rambo in a long fantasy spoof of Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) with features George (as Rambo) who attempts to rescue Stanley from Fletcher's private army. Kuni and his school of karate students also step in to complete the job and beat up most of Fletcher's henchmen.George and his group return in time to successfully finish the telethon just before Harvey's debt comes due, saving the station and making it a publicly-owned company. Fletcher on the other hand finds out that the penny he mockingly gave to a beggar earlier was a rare 1955 doubled die cent worth a substantial fortune, which the beggar sold and used to purchase $2,000 worth of Channel 62 shares (and a Rolex watch, to boot). Fletcher also discovers that a slanderous conversation of his contempt for his station's viewers was secretly recorded and rebroadcast by Philo and that Channel 8 failed to file paperwork to renew its broadcast license with the FCC. The FCC revokes his license and takes the station off the air. Philo is secretly revealed to be an alien and seeing that his work for Channel 62 is complete, teleports away unnoticed to his homeworld.As the film ends, George and Teri rekindle their relationship, (in a spoof of Rhett Butler's and Scarlett O'Hara's farewell speech from the movie Gone with the Wind (1939)), while the rest of the employees and fans of Channel 62 celebrate.

Storyline

George Newman is a daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him from holding a steady job. His uncle decides George would be the perfect man to manage Channel 62, a television station which is losing money and viewers fast. When George replaces the station's reruns with bizarre programs such as "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse", "Wheel of Fish" and "Raul's Wild Kingdom", ratings begin to soar again. Mean-spirited and cynical mogul R.J. Fletcher becomes furious that the UHF station is getting better ratings than his network's programming. Because of gambling debts, the uncle is forced to consider selling the station to Fletcher, who would only too happily shut it down (he cannot legally own two stations in the same town). George and his friends organize a 48-hour telethon to raise the money by selling investment stock from Channel 62 to save the town's new favorite station. — MGM/UA Home Video