Darryl Knable is a nerdy kid in the suburbs. He likes to modify the TV and do his own broadcast. His dad Roy (John Ritter) however is obsessed with watching TV nonstop while struggling as a salesman. His successful wife Helen (Pam Dawber) breaks the TV in frustration. A mysterious stranger named Spike (Jeffrey Jones) offers Roy a magic remote and a giant TV to access a massive new TV package. Helen tries to leave Roy and both are sucked into Hellvision by the satellite dish. Darryl suspects foul play but his sister Diane just wants to party. Spike with his minion Crowley (Eugene Levy) have 24 hours to send Roy and Helen down to the devil.
I'm a couch potato and this takes a good jab at people like me. I would probably like it more if Roy didn't start off so pathetically. Ritter is doing a lot of his bumbling pratfalls. This becomes a series of TV spoofs. Some of it works great in terms of danger in the scheme of the story. It's especially great when Roy uses his TV knowledge to good use. Sometimes the spoof is nothing but a spoof. The endless spoofs become repetitive tired puns. Obviously, there's the Three's Company scene. That's fun but there's no Mork & Mindy. The cartoon is the only truly fun section while the others are functional. It's not anything spectacular.
Stay Tuned
1992
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy
Stay Tuned
1992
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy
Plot summary
The Knables are having marriage problems: Roy is a lousy plumbing supplies salesman by day and couch potato by night, and his wife, Helen, is a successful senior product manager for a vitamin company. Roy watches too much TV every night and Helen just cannot stand it. Then one night, Helen offers Roy a night to save their relationship: a romantic getaway without phones, their children, and especially no TV. Unfortunately, when Roy's hooked on the big screen, there's no going back. This frustrates and angers her and Helen decides to smash the family console with one of Roy's trophies as a wake-up call to reality. A heartbroken-to-disoriented Roy then hears the doorbell and finds out that it's a mysterious salesman named Spike who offers him the "ultimate getaway" from all the hate, frustration, and failures: a new remote controller and a new state-of-the-art satellite TV. Roy accepts the new TV by signing a free trial contract not knowing that he just sold his soul to the devil himself. But later, Helen is both not impressed and steamed. After a fight outside, the "dish" activates. Roy and Helen try as hard as possible to escape, but it was too late for the force of gravity from the dish sucks them into the "Cable Television World of Hell" - all six hundred and sixty-six channels worth. Now they must survive through every episode of shows such as the game show "You Can't Win", the U.W.W.F. (Underworld Wrestling Federation) match, "Northern Overexposure", "Driving Over Miss Daisy" and a cartoon sequence called "RoboCat", "Autopsies of the Rich and Famous", "Duane's Underworld", "HTV", and "Off With His Head", all within 24 hours. If successful, they will return back to home, but if they fail, the devil keeps their souls forever. After they survived one day without harm, Roy gets sent back home while Spike hold Helen hostage. Now with the help of their children, Daryl, a communication whiz, and Diane, a fashion freak, Roy must re-enter the underworld of Hell Vision TV and save his wife, while keeping a distance from Spike. It is then that Roy will learn the hard way that there's more things in life than only a television. Like commitment. (Formerly
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Stay Tuned... What an Appropriate Title
My friend Kenn Harris recommended this movie to me and I was against it from the start weeks ago because it always looked stupid to me and I hate John Ritter with a passion. But I called him and apologized for doubting him - this film is a hidden treasure.
While it is true that John Ritter is a one-dimensional actor, this film does not rely heavily on his acting or even his speaking. The bulk of this film is visual gags and pop culture references. If you grew up watching TV, you should catch most of these and they're hilarious. "Different Strokes" was great, and so was "Fresh Prince of Darkness"... and who can forget "Frankensteinfeld"? If that's not enough, two great actors round out the cast - Jeffrey Jones and Eugene Levy. Jones is often a minor actor, but he is given top spot in this film, and rightfully so. As we later saw in "Ravenous", this man has a full potential for evil and his screen presence is terrific. Levy is classic, his character is the real hero of this film. Best of all, this is a younger Levy, years before he became known as the father from "American Pie"... this is pure Levy, untainted. This film highly recommended.
yes, a silly movie CAN be eerily prescient
The 21st century has seen a number of reality shows, but none like this! John Ritter and Pam Dawber play a couple who get sucked into a satellite dish and sent through a world of twisted shows whose titles reminded me of some of the scenes in "UHF". One scene even lets John Ritter spoof his most famous role.
As it turns out, the movie may have been intended as something silly, but it now looks more serious. So many reality shows force people to perform self-degrading acts for money - like what Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr do in "The Magic Christian" - while the audience cheers the whole thing on. Viewers end up desensitized to things previously considered appalling, sometimes thinking that a real-life tragedy is part of the show (like what happens at the end of "Phantom of the Paradise").
But like I said, the movie was almost certainly intended as totally silly, and it comes out really funny. Mind you, you'll only get the jokes if you know a lot of TV shows. I figure that if the movie got made now, other spoofed titles could be "666 Feet Under" and "No Country for Mad Men".