Stay Tuned

"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! :^)

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.

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.

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.

The funniest bit is probably Roy Knable being plopped into a certain Santa Monica three story house, tripping over a sofa, and being questioned by a certain blonde and brunette, "Where have you been?!" Is "Three's Company" John Ritter's personal Hell? Who knows, but it's a broad wink to the couch potatoes in the audience.