UHF (film)

UHF
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jay Levey
Written by	"Weird Al" Yankovic Jay Levey
Produced by	Gene Kirkwood John W. Hyde
Starring	"Weird Al" Yankovic Kevin McCarthy Michael Richards David Bowe Victoria Jackson
Cinematography	David Lewis
Edited by	Dennis M. O'Connor
Music by	John Du Prez
Production company	Cinecorp
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date	July 21, 1989 (1989-07-21)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$6.1 million[1]

UHF (released internationally as The Vidiot from UHF) is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Stanley Brock, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva in his final film role; as Silva died before filming wrapped, the film is dedicated to his memory. Directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him, the film was originally released by Orion Pictures and became owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after their takeover in 1997. Yankovic and Levey struggled to find a production company to finance the film, but eventually secured Orion's support after agreeing to a $5 million budget. Principal photography took place around Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Yankovic stars as shiftless dreamer George Newman, who stumbles into managing a low-budget television station and surprisingly succeeds with his eclectic programming choices, spearheaded by the antics of a janitor turned children's television host, Stanley Spadowski (Richards). The competitive upstart provokes a major network station. The title refers to the ultra high frequency (UHF) analog television broadcasting band on which such low-budget television stations were often placed in the United States. Yankovic and Levey wrote the film following Yankovic's second album, "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D, and set parodies within George's vivid imagination.

Overshadowed by several concurrent major Hollywood blockbusters, UHF underperformed commercially and also received mixed critical reviews, which left Yankovic in a slump until the surprise success of his next album Off the Deep End in 1992. However, UHF soon became a cult film on home video and cable TV. The VHS version was rare and out of print for many years, with high prices online. In 2002, the DVD was released, and Shout! Factory released a special 25th-anniversary edition on November 11, 2014, on DVD and Blu-ray. On July 2, 2024, Shout! Factory released a 35th Anniversary Edition on 4K UHD, boasting a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative and audio commentary with Weird Al and director Jay Levey.