Télémaniacs

"Stay Tuned" introduces us to the depressing world of Roy Knable, a man whom lives for television. When his wife Helen tosses a bowling trophy through the TV set in a desperate attempt to gain her husband's attention, he finds himself in the market for a replacement set... and thats where "Spike" comes in. Spike seems to be simply a pushy cable tv salesman, until we see that Spike works for the Devil himself!

Soon Roy and Helen find themselves sucked into the world of bad cable tv, filled with bizarre spoofs of Wayne's World, Driving Miss Daisy, MTV, 1940's black and white mystery movies, stereotypical westerns, and so on. The catch? They must stay alive for 24 hours, at which point they are allowed to come back to Earth. If they die in that time frame, their souls are doomed to hell forever.

As Roy and Helen, John Ritter and Paw Dawber are the perfect real-life sitcom graduates to play the suffering couple. Along the way, they deal with Spike (played by Jeffrey Jones - best known as Principal Rooney in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") dogging their every move, and they make friends with Eugene Levy, as a demon executive cast off into the TV dimension by a threatened Spike.

Although the TV parodies skirt the line between wildly funny and clever, and dull and uninspired, the performances from the excellent cast make this better than it probably should be. The Underworld Wrestling Foundation sequence seems like it could have inspired MTV's current pop-culture parody, "Celebrity Deathmatch". And be sure to pay close attention to the animated "Robocat" sequence, directed by cartoon legend Chuck Jones, and featuring styles and motifs borrowed from Warner Bros classics, and Tom & Jerry shorts.

"Stay Tuned" is a funny film that although somewhat dated now, still manages to provide a wild ride.

Oh yeah, there IS a quick scene involving the sitcom that John Ritter is best known for, and it's one of the funniest moments in the film. Don't blink, or you may miss it! :^)

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. ***

I stumbled upon this movie while channel flipping, ironically enough. I thought that the film was very well done, with just enough cheesy humor to keep me groaning and laughing. The jewels of the film were found in it's references and TV jokes. Some humor at actor Ritter's expense gives the impression that movie is making fun of itself. Jeffery Jones plays an excellent role, further showing off the actor's versatility. What the film lacked in plot, it made up for in originality. The highlight of the film is a cartoon segment done by the legendary Chuck Jones, parodying the Tom and Jerry clichés we all grew up with. All in all, a funny if not cheesy film, definitely worth watching.

A very long time ago i saw a trailer of this movie when i was on vacation in the US and i said that one day i´d get to see this movie, some years went by and on my first trip to California i went into a Suncoast store bought some movie souveniers and asked for this film, I found it with a regular price and bought it,at this time i had just seen the trailer, not read any reviews or nothing, i just knew i had to have it cause it looked cool on the trailer, I was so right in buying it, this movie is great, being myself a couch potato i can relate to George Knable (Played wonderfully by the recently deceased John Ritter) and the stuff that happens to him when hes sucked inside his new satellite dish with his wife into a programming of 666 channels into alternative horror versions of classic shows and movies,Theres even an MTV kind of video with Salt N Pepa that is so cool i had to buy the soundtrack of this movie, i love that sequence when theyre all dancing, To me this film rocks and its a must see, John has passed away just 2 days ago and i feel this movie as being his best movie of all because he is the main character and he does a great job at being funny, I will always remember John Ritter.

I've read a few bad-type reviews on this, but that just shows what I know. i think Stay Tuned is one of the funnier movies to roll along in a while. Yeah, it's filled with TV rejects like Ritter, Dawber, and Levy, but they're still kinda funny. The funniest thing are the TV parodies (yes, they're funny, dammit), and the whole parody of the modern entertainment industry. Plus you've got a great Chuck Jones cartoon set right in the middle. Moves along just fast enough to keep your interest, and the characters are just tolerable enough you don't want to turn off on it. As was noted, it grows on you.