Stay Tuned

I have always liked this film, since I was younger. It's an expensive flop but at the same time I think it has plenty of laughs and is entertaining. The late great John Ritter is always good value and likeable as is Pam Dawber, the ultimate fanciable former sitcom star. She is differently attractive and I have always fancied her like many others, particularly from the Mork And Mindy days, you know that sitcom with Robin Williams that you used to find funny but when you look back now it kinda sucks!

This is good family entertainment. It's inconsistent and some of the references aren't that funny but on the most part the referencing of old movies and TV shows is where most of the humour lies. Good fun. ***

Roy Knable (John Ritter) loves watching television so much that his marriage is falling apart because of it. When a door-to-door salesman shows him a high-tech remote control, Ritter listens to his pitch, and buys into it when he discovers that it's for a new television and satellite system that offers 666 channels of programming--much of which is not available anywhere else. However, the salesman may not have been what he seemed to be, and Knable soon discovers that he may have agreed to a contract that obligated him to give up more than money.

Oh, how I loved this film! Director Peter Hyams and the writing crew of Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein and Richard Siegel definitely had my number on this one. Stay Tuned is a very clever horror comedy that is extremely underrated and perhaps was a bit mismarketed. Although I'm a huge horror fan, and love horror comedies, I'd never heard of this one before (however, later I did find references to it in a couple horror sources, so it seems it wasn't completely overlooked by the industry and fans). But the horror aspect of the film doesn't appear to be advertised anywhere. I watched this on HBO's Family Channel. Even though Knable's son is important to the plot and there are strong fantasy aspects, this is not really a family film. Not that kids might not like the film, but they'd have to be kids who like horror (comedies) and whose parents let them watch horror (comedies). Enjoyment of the film is also helped by having a familiarity with the material that is being spoofed, and the references are broad enough that it would take years of experience to acquire that familiarity.

Why spoofed? Well, on one level, Stay Tuned is just a long series of crafty takes on film and television programs and genres, giving many well-known classics a more immediate horror twist--immediate because they all put our heroes, Knable and his wife Helen (Pam Dawber), in peril in some way. There are many more subtle jokes, as well, and the film even pokes fun at film students/film geeks. The spoofs range from silly to poignant, and can be as quick as a title or as long as ten minutes or so. One of the best is a classic Warner Brothers-styled animated segment. The style and the quality should not be surprising, as Chuck Jones designed and supervised the animation.

Under different hands, maybe this material wouldn't be quite as good as it is. Hyams' direction is spot-on throughout the film, the script (including the dialogue) is very intelligent, and in addition to Ritter and Dawber being as good as I've seen them, Stay Tuned also features Jeffrey Jones (one of my favorite character actors) and Eugene Levy. Both are fantastic.

Stay Tuned deserves much wider recognition. It is funny, suspenseful and seems to draw from a well of endless inventiveness. It's as good as any other horror comedy I've seen. There is also a surface message of turning off the television and living your life, which is a worthwhile sentiment, but perhaps a harder sell when it is packaged in a film as excellent as this.

A 10 out of 10 from me.

This was a clever and funny movie, much better than I anticipated. Most of the humor involves takeoff or parodies of television programs and movies. Being familiar with most of them, I enjoyed the humor. The takeoff involved having the devil take charge of some of these programs.

John Ritter and Pam Dawber play husband-and-wife "Roy and Helen Knable" who get sucked into buying a TV dish package straight from The Devil. After the purchase, which comes complete with 666 channels, mayhem ensues. There were a number of spots in here I just laughed out loud. Knowing a lot of the TV programs that were being spoofed helps a lot, of course, but there is a lot of good material in this film. The special-effects were pretty good, too, especially for a film that really never got a lot of exposure nor, I assume, had a huge budget.

Jeffrey Jones and Eugene Levy, two guys who are usually pretty funny, supply some good humor here, too. I looked at this strictly for laughs even though I know the devil is somebody to take seriously, but this film was anything but played for seriousness. As a bonus, we even got a Chuck Jones cartoon in the middle of the story.

This is one wacky movie and I'd like to see it on widescreen DVD. I last saw it on tape. This is recommended to those who enjoy dark humor.

The things that Ritter's character found 'hellish' back in '92 are now common fare - e.g. stabbing each other in the back (figuratively) in 'The Apprentice', 'Survivor', etc.; paternity tests on 'Maury'; revealing the adultery of spouses (and nude wrestling) on 'Springer'; not to mention Jackass, Southpark or Borat.

I think the word is prescient.

I have often thought over the years about how this movie was so outrageously impossible when it was made, but how, within a few years how mainstream much of the portrayed content had become.

I think this is a movie - although a low budget comedy (dare I use the descriptor "B"?) - that should be recognized for its historical significance, and perhaps studied in sociology courses about the effect of media on society (or more exactly - the effect of media on media).

The significance of this movie has been overlooked.

The idea behind this movie was great. But, the writers missed so many opportunities for jokes. The characters in the movie jumped into probably 25 different movie or TV types. Each one was a ripe setup for several hilarious jokes. But, most of the time, the writers punted and just played it straight or relied on sight gags (which Ritter is known for).

So, they get dropped in the Arctic and wolves attack them. Not funny. They get dropped into a cat-and-mouse cartoon and the cat chases the mouse for ten minutes. Less funny than a real cat-and-mouse cartoon.They get dropped into a "professional" wrestling match and get thrown around the ring for a bit. Not funny.

Each scene was just bursting with comic potential, but the writers never went for the home run and always played it safe and bunted for the single. By the end, I was writing the big jokes in my head.

This movie is just begging to be remade with a team of actual comedians writing the script and, bonus, playing all the bit parts.