UHF

UHF (1989)

16 corrected entries

(3 votes)

Corrected entry: The manager of the top rated television station in even the smallest town in America - and the town this film is set in seems to be quite a large one - would have no problem at all in obtaining a $75,000 loan from a bank (in the time the film was set, anyway). Based on advertising revenues alone, $75,000 would be a very modest amount to ask for. The whole premise of the telethon and the fundraising efforts is completely superfluous.

Correction: True, however George's adversary R.J. Fletcher is a big man in the business community with lots of financial connections. He could easily have pulled strings to see that George doesn't get a loan - and in fact this very thing happened in a deleted scene.

Grumpy Scot

According to Weird Al's website a deleted scene shows exactly this happening - RJ Fletcher pulls strings to stop Al getting a loan. The scene is not on the DVD or any other media because, as Weird Al says: "Deleted scenes get deleted for a reason... "

Correction: It's a fantasy, all happening in George's head. Anything can happen.

Being a fantasy sequence doesn't make a scene exempt from mistakes.

TedStixon

Corrected entry: When Terri visits R.J. in his office to tell him about U62, the door to R.J's office says "General Manager." However, when Stanley goes in there a few minutes later in the film, the door says "R.J. Fletcher." Both are definitely going into the same office. (01:10:40 - 01:13:45)

manthabeat

Correction: Toward the end, when Stanley is going into Fletcher's office to get away from the thugs, he shuts the door, and you can see the left door says "General Manager" and the right door says "R. J. Fletcher."

Movie Nut

Corrected entry: Right after George Newman pays off Big Louie, a man from the FCC tells RJ Fletcher, ".your broadcast made a big impression on me. I'm revoking your license. Effective immediately, you're off the air". This is in reference to Philo's broadcast of RJ calling the community "festering dogsnot" from the camera he had previously hidden in RJ's office. Although rude and offensive, there was nothing illegal about RJ's statement. The one who broke the law, if anyone, would have been Philo for illegally transmitting on Channel 8's frequency. (01:22:35 - 01:27:45)

Correction: He revokes Channel 8s licence because they are late filing their financial returns for the year, not because of the broadcast. He makes it clear that late filing of a return would normally involve a large fine - so it's a serious offence - but after seeing Fletcher's offensive broadcast he is taking Channel 8 off the air, something he is entitled to do anyway.

Corrected entry: In the Town Talk/Geraldo sequence, the order in which the maniacs are sitting changes. (01:02:25)

Correction: No, they don't. At 0.59:48 we have a slow tracking shot showing a Nazi, a hooker, a Klansman, a smiling schoolgirl and an axe murderer, in that order. Then we cut to a studio shot at 1.00:02 and the order is precisely the same.

Corrected entry: In the 'Conan the Librarian' trailer, the dummy which is hacked apart for bringing back some overdue books is broader than a human (easy to see in slow motion). (00:52:15)

Correction: Channel 62 makes and broadcasts a lot of cheesy programmes with poor production values, and this is just one of them. It's a part of the plot, not a mistake.

Correction: Yes, but this is a fantasy scene of George's. He is not a trained pilot, and can only base his fantasy on what he remembers seeing in movies, so he gets this wrong (either from the character mistake of false memory, or from seeing a movie that got this wrong as well).

Twotall

Corrected entry: During George's Rambo fantasy a man on the ground fires at him and he catches the bullet in his teeth. Problem is, the bullet still has the shell casing on it.

Correction: Yup, but its a fantasy, George obviously knows nothing about bullets.

Grumpy Scot

Corrected entry: George and Bob leave the deserted building after a disastrous taping of Uncle Nutsy's Funhouse, which featured half a dozen bored, unhappy kids. They go to a bar and watch the second half of the show, now starring Stanley, who took over as host. He now has an full audience of dozens of happy, enthusiastic kids. Channel 62 is miles from anywhere - where did those kids come from?

Correction: As mentioned, there are six kids with George, all spread out with the camera pointing at the benches in a wide shot. When the program returns with Stanley as host, the same kids have moved down on the bench to be closer to Stanley. When the camera cuts the to the bench again, it is a closer shot since all of the kids have moved closer together. No extra kids appear between the two segments.

Correction: No, he falls forward and then rolls over on the ground, hence he should get hit feet first.

Garlonuss

Correction: That's the whole point. That spoof makes fun of Rambo's obvious fakeness.

Sereenie

Corrected entry: When Raul is demonstrating the ability of the turtle to stick to the ceiling, if you watch the turtle, you can tell when Raul switches the real turtle for a fake one. He even looks down at his hand when he does it. (00:40:25)

Correction: This is obviously intentional.

Correction: He "looks down at his hand" to lick the turtle so it will stick to the ceiling.

Corrected entry: At the last minute of "Save Our Station" when Stanley said, "This is it. This is our last minute," the time is 11:59 and nine seconds. When R.J. takes the plug out, it is exactly 12:00. If one count between those, it is only 13 seconds, not 51. (01:24:30)

tylerasktaylorsteckleralexdenny

Correction: This is an artifact of film-making technique. Films are not presented in real time - they'd be too long if they were. Events are compressed or elongated for dramatic purposes all the time - such as this instance.

Corrected entry: When Terry attempts to talk with Fletcher and he lets off his speech about the public, which Theo records, there is a pause as Terry's face is shown - but the pause does not appear in Theo's replay action.

Correction: He edited it out, of course. No television engineer is going to allow dead air to be broadcast.

Corrected entry: In the Clubhouse scene with the 'Marble in the Oatmeal'-competition, the spout from the waterhose the boy gets a 'drink' from sprays past the dummy (or whatever it was they hosed). (00:50:30)

Correction: You are watching a film within a film - the careful staging of a television show which involves physical stunts with children. Obviously the producers of 'Stanley Spadowski's Funhouse' carefully stage the stunts to make sure the children are not hurt, and that is what we see.

Corrected entry: Al goes to visit his Uncle Harvey who just bought "a little TV station at the edge of town". We know that it is close by because Al still has the same uniform on from earlier in the day when he was fired from the burger joint. It is also made clear that RJ is Al's cross-town rival who is trying to take over the UHF station. So why is it when, later in the film, when Uncle Harvey goes to meet RJ about selling the station, he has to take an airplane to do it? We even see RJ meeting Uncle Harvey at the airport. Did he really need to take a plane to go across town?

LoserClone

Correction: As George and Teri are driving to the Channel 62 building for the first time (the night they meet Philo), George says that Uncle Harvey is "going to California and doesn't want to be bothered with it." He was at his seasonal/vacation home in California when RJ called him and had to quickly fly back.

Correction: Just because Al lives close by the TV station, it does not mean that Uncle Harvey does. In fact, he lives out-of-state, and bought the station from there (Notice how Al always talks to his uncle on the phone, never in person?). When RJ propositions him with a business deal, he finds it important enough to fly in in person to negotiate.

Twotall

First, he didn't buy the TV station. He won it in a game of poker. He had a pair of 6's, he was bluffing. Second, saying Uncle Harvey lives out of town doesn't change the fact that George is still in his Burger World uniform and also went to Terri's house for dinner in the same clothes on the same night. I always understood that the party took place at a second home, but what do I know.

Plot hole: R.J. Fletcher is shown as a ruthless businessman who knows everything there is to know about Channel 62 - who owns it, how much it's worth, who is running it, the financial troubles it is having and so on and so on. He is also fully aware of the telethon and the fact that George is selling the station as a going concern for a total of $75,000.00. It is simply asking too much of audience credulity or 'suspension of belief' to think that such a hard-headed businessman would not work out that he could, using stooges, buy a controlling interest in the station for $37,501.00, saving himself a small fortune and closing the station down over the objections of his minority shareholders. Something this blatant could not possibly be a character mistake - he is already planning on buying the station for the full price (from Big Louis) so don't tell me he wouldn't just switch plans and buy it from George instead!

More mistakes in UHF

Earl Ramsey: Gun control is for wimps and commies. Listen, let's get one thing straight. Guns don't kill people. I do.

More quotes from UHF

Trivia: During one of Stanley's Clubhouses, Stanley sprays whipped cream into an audience member's mouth. This is Dr. Demento, the first DJ to put Weird Al on his station. (00:54:50)

More trivia for UHF

Chosen answer: It's making fun of "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" which is an often referenced 'quote' from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (Actually, the real line is "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!", but that's the way people say it.)

Myridon

Mel Brooks borrowed the line in "Blazing Saddles." In that film, the line actually was "We don't need no stinkin' badges."

Leicaman

More questions & answers from UHF

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