UHF

After he became the king of song parodies, "Weird Al" Yankovic brought his brand of humor to the big screen with 1989's UHF.

This somewhat update on The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty has Al playing George, a day dreaming slacker who has a hard time holding down a job. He get's a big break however when his uncle, Stanley Brock, makes him a station manager of a small UHF station that he has won in a card game. George puts his wild imagination to use towards the programming, and to everybody's surprise, makes the struggling station a hit. When a competing network station owner, Kevin McCarthy, gets wind of George's success, he sets out to crush the small station.

"Weird Al's" brand of humor might be too wacky for some, but this film is a hoot and a lot of fun. Yankovic does a good job in a script that was tailor made for his instincts. This makes sense since he cowrote it. Spread throughout the movie, he has included a song parody and spoofs tv shows and commercials. He definitely knows his audience.

And it was a smart move to surround Yankovic with a seasoned supporting cast that includes Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Anthony Geary, Gedde Watanabe, John Paragon, and Billy Barty. And even though it's Yankovics show, a pre Seinfeld Michael Richards really steals the picture as the slow witted janitor Stanley Spidowski, who becomes an instant tv star after George gives him his own show.

After the film tested well, Orion Pictures decided to release it in the summer. But it was buried at the box office by bigger blockbusters. Since then however, UHF has found itself quite the loyal cult following. I think it's a fun flick and a great vehicle for "Weird Al."

It's on dvd and blu ray.