Movies-TV

A weak Hollywood parody of weak TV programs...

This movie aims to be a parody of television programming, but aims low and barely even hits that. Watching this movie is a bit like sitting with a friend who tells not-so-funny jokes, and then laughs really hard at them. I got the feeling the people making this movie thought they were being rather witty, but the end result didn't turn out nearly as clever as they thought it would.Not horrible, and if you're in the right mood for utter fluff, it may be worth a look, but don't go out of your way to watch it.

Stay If You Want, But You'll Be Sorry.

Terrible flick about two adults (John Ritter and Pam Dawber) who literally get sucked into their new satellite system. Thus they must try and survive every television situation you can imagine as they become characters on all kinds of crazed performing that have Satanic twists. Jeffrey Jones is the demonic figure who has fooled Ritter into purchasing the system in the hopes of owning his soul. The couple's bratty children (David Tom and Heather McComb) are the only hope for survival. "Stay Tuned" is just a long group of stringed-together television parodies kept together by sticky gum and used scotch tape. Eugene Levy tries to be the saving grace as one of Jones' henchmen who ends up being banished to TV land just as Ritter and Dawber, but ultimately he fails just as the movie does. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

The funniest montage of spoofs I've ever seen

From the first time I saw the preview, I knew I had to see it. And my feeling was right. The plot of this movie is kinda campy: a guy gets sucked into his satellite dish, with his family following him to the (hopeful) rescue, and when he gets to this TV-world, he finds that a certain bad guy doesn't want him to leave. Fine. But the world he gets trapped, a Hell of sorts, in is the funniest, most well-rounded selection of TV spoofs, circa 1992. Wayne's World? "Dwayne's Underworld". "I've fallen and I can't get up"? It's there. That Maxell ad with the guy in the chair who is blown away by the music? It's there. This movie will bring you back to 1992 in a way you wouldn't believe. I love it.

Hey! I remember this!

I caught this movie on TV tonight, and after watching it, God do I feel old. This came out my senior year in high school, and watching it really took me back.I remember watching all those shows they parodied when they were new, and I remember all the movies that they spoofed when they first came out. Creepy. I especially liked the Maxell commercial parody, but what was up with the music video? Salt N Pepa is so has-been it's really sad. Hell, they weren't even *that* big when the movie came out. They were big in the late '80s.This movie is worth seeing, if only for the spoofs. It's horribly dated now (and it's hard to believe I've been out of high school almost 10 years!) but it's still worth it. Be warned though: if you're in the younger set (13 or under) chances are you never saw many of the shows they spoof in this film. As a result, many of the jokes might be lost. Who knows, a lot of those shows will live forever in reruns.I admit, the acting at times isn't spectacular, but it gets the job done. A good script is what saved this film from the dustbin. On the whole, a good job. If the acting had been stronger it would have been a brilliant film.Cheers

Light Satire

The Boston Phoenix review of this movie sarcastically lambasted its lack of depth, meaning, and relevance. Shakespeare this ain't; it's a formula comedy with some great laughs that make fun of the idiot box. John Ritter is always hit and miss, but it's nice to see Pam Dawber working. Jeffrey Jones is a great devil that doesn't really seem evil.

John Ritter Really Shines In This One!

STAY TUNED is one of those farce fully fun movies that you just watch to be entertained and enjoy. It was directed by (and photographer - D.P.) Peter Hymes (2010:The Year We Make Contact) and it stars John Ritter and Pam Dawber (two TV veterans) as a husband and wife that suffer the midlife crisis that every family faces. John is way to tuned into the television that it becomes the catalyst to separate their marriage.

Enter the Devil himself - or at least one of his co-workers, played hysterically by Jeffrey Jones and an incompetent sidekick played by Eugene Levy - and you got a plot the Devil would even enjoy. Both Pam and John are sucked into the TV and when there, start by switching around from channel to channel in Hell Vision. The parodies and the shows the mock and parody are hysterical. There is even a skip into STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION and an immensely funny zap into the set of THREE'S COMPANY - which terrifies John Ritter.

I must admit John is the best thing about this movie. Son of the famous Tex Ritter, his comic timing and prat falls are the best. He has a way to make the silliest things very funny. I always thought his talents have always been underrated. Like the 80's version of (Dick Van Dyke.) His energy and enthusiasm is contagious. Pam Dawber and kids to an okay job, but it definitely Johns and Jeffrey's movie. The good and Evil personified in the Television world.

The DVD are not many, but the do have the original trailers and the behind the scenes documentary with original cast and crew comments and behind the scenes footage. I like this movie for the sheer fact that at certain times I can be a couch potato and in a strange way this is a fantasy version of what can happen if you never get away from it. It's Fun! (8-25-02)

It grows on you...

The first time I saw this movie, I absolutely hated it. But, after catching it by surprise at the end of a homemade tape, I decided it was worth another go and watched it the whole way through. The movie parodies are funny enough, and playing with a lot of the concepts of films and subsequent genres is what eventually won me over. So don't worry if this movie turns you off the first time. Give it at least another before damning it.

A surprising piece of entertainment.

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 good family film

Whether you enjoy the experience of watching Peter Hyams's 1992 film "Stay Tuned" depends in large part whether you can stomach the antics of John Ritter. Personally, I always found Ritter enjoyable if a bit too "in your face." It's almost as though the late actor desperately needed you to like him, and he would do anything to get that attention. "Three's Company," that old show about three young people sharing an apartment in California while trying to move up in the world, obviously was the vehicle that propelled him into the stratosphere of beloved American television comedians. They even got Lucille Ball to host a greatest hits episode, which served as sort of an endorsement of Ritter's talents by the goddess of American sitcoms. Something unpleasant happened after "Three's Company" folded, however: Ritter couldn't seem to find meaningful work in Hollywood. His attempt to do a spin-off of "Three's Company" crashed on takeoff, and his movie career was mostly a disappointment unless you take into consideration the two "Child's Play" movies. Despite his cinematic problems, I've enjoyed several of Ritter's lesser entries. "Real Men" is one of them; "Stay Tuned" is another. The latter movie received heavy rotation on cable back in the early 1990s.

Ritter plays Roy Knable, the lazy patriarch of your typical American family who smothers his resentments underneath heavy doses of television. His lousy job as a plumbing supply salesman can't compare with the exciting career of his wife Helen (Pam Dawber). Roy hates that his wife is more successful than he is, so he routinely ignores her. Their two kids, Darryl (David Tom) and Diane (Heather McComb), generally stay out of the way. Darryl, who also does double duty as the film's narrator, spends most of his time up in his room figuring out new ways to torment his sister. Diane is moving through the adolescent airhead phase typified by boyfriends, social activities, and cheerleading. What Diane and Darryl Knable don't realize, along with their parents, is that the family's life is about to take a turn for the worse. When the television set implodes after yet another confrontation between Roy and Helen, a most unusual salesman turns up on the doorstep with an incredible offer: he's selling a new satellite television system with 666 channels of prime entertainment. The man proposing the deal is Spike (Jeffrey Jones), one of Satan's most important underlings who heads up a devilish program that tries to steal souls by sucking them into the world of television. Predictably, Roy and Helen Knable end up in this demented world battling for their very existence.

The television channels these two wander through resemble little the networks normal people watch. This is programming straight from the fiery pits, programming like "Duane's Underworld," a demonic wrestling program, "Northern Overexposure," a game show where losing carries a greater cost than mere money, "Driving Over Miss Daisy," "Thirty Something to Life," and dozens of other wacky programs based on real television shows but with the purpose of killing Roy and Helen in order to steal their souls. There's even a scene where Ritter finds himself in the role of Jack Tripper on a "Three's Company" spoof and another segment where Roy and Helen are stuck in a cartoon as mice battling a robotic cat. The two need to survive this nightmarish world for twenty-four hours whereupon Spike must return them to the land of the living. Problem is, very few people last that long. Not with Spike and his toady Crowley (Eugene Levy) working behind the scenes to seal their doom. Only with the help of Darryl, Diane, and a suddenly contrite Crowley will Roy and Helen return to their domicile. It won't be easy since Spike, facing the wrath of his boss, enters the system to personally bring about Roy's demise. Battling the forces of darkness has rarely been this much fun.

The thing that struck me after recently rewatching this film is how out of date it is. "Stay Tuned" by its very nature hasn't aged well. A film that spoofs television relies on the content available at the time for laughs, and nowhere is this truer than in this film. It's entirely possible there will be viewers watching this picture on DVD who have no idea what some of these spoofs mean. I clearly remember the Memorex commercial, for instance, but younger people won't. Fortunately, the movie is still great fun even if you don't catch all the references largely due to the efforts of John Ritter and Pam Dawber. Ritter does his usual shtick, namely breaking a few objects, falling down a couple of times, playing the moral and physical coward, and even engaging in a bit of swordplay with Spike. Dawber's role is low-key but critical as she plays the straight man to Ritter's antics. She still looks great, too. I'm less enchanted with the two kids, especially the grating Heather McComb. She's supposed to play a snotty pre-teen, however, so I guess she does her job well. "Stay Tuned" is, surprisingly, a fairly conservative film that endorses the idea that less television and more family time is a good thing. I can't see many viewers arguing with this thesis.

Trailers for "Big Bully," "Ace Ventura," "Chill Factor," and "Stay Tuned" are on the disc, as well as a short making of featurette and cast biographies. I'm happy to see "Stay Tuned" make the sometimes difficult transition from VHS to DVD even though I forgot all about the film for at least ten years. Hyams's picture is a rather obscure slice of early '90s nostalgia that is still amusing to watch all these years later. Fans of the late John Ritter will find this disc a must have for their collections.

It grows on you...

The first time I saw this movie, I absolutely hated it. But, after catching it by surprise at the end of a homemade tape, the movie parodies are funny enough, and playing with a lot of the concepts of movies and subsequent genres is what eventually won me over. So don't worry if this movie turns you off the first time. Give it at least another before damning it.

Yes, The Devil Made Me Watch This!

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.

John Ritter sucked into TV land.

Synopsis:
John Ritter stars as Roy Knable, a true couch potato whose life and marriage is disintegrating around his ears as he watches TV to escape it all. On the same night that his wife Helen (Pam Dawber) intends to leave him, a mysterious salesman named Spike (Jeffrey Jones) appears to sell Roy a new television set, complete with a gigantic satellite dish that will beam 666 channels right into Roy's living room. Yet something goes awry when Roy and his wife get sucked onto the satellite dish and enter the hellish world of Satan TV. From there it is a frantic rush to survive before time runs out.

About the Movie:
Stay Tuned is probably one of my favorite comedic movies. I first saw it in the early 90's and when I saw that it had come out on DVD I jumped at the chance to get it.

Stay Tuned is filled with slapstick humor, a great many very twisted comic plays on classic television clichés and TV shows. Among them are Saturday Night Live, Star Trek The Next Generation, Three's Company, WWF, and classic cartoons. The cartoon is presented in a wonderfully delightful animated sequence that was actually supervised in production by the legendary animator Chuck Jones (who did many of the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons.)

This is truly at the top of the films John Ritter starred in. Ritter's comic timing help make this film. While this film never got much notice, it certainly is an excellent example of why John Ritter's comedic career managed to span over 2 decades. He was very good as what he did.

Veteran comic Eugene Levy ("SCTV" and "American Pie") also plays a major role in this film as Crowley, a down and out Hell TV Exec who helps the Knables on their journey. He manages to play the lovable slimeball quite entertainingly.

Jeffrey Jones plays the bad guy, Hell TV's CEO, Spike. He's a great actor for the bad guy in a comedy, and he manages to be convincingly evil and funny at the same time without making the role look stupid, as tends to happen to bad guys in slapstick comedies these days.

With John Ritter's comic timing and Pam Dawber playing the straight-man as they tumble from demented channel to demented channel, this film is great for a lot of laughs.

About the DVD:
Stay Tuned comes in a cardboard DVD snap case, marking it as budget fare. It is presented in widescreen format with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Both the picture and sound are pretty good. I did not notice any issues with either. The DVD comes translated into French (why no Spanish?) and has English, French and Spanish subtitles.

For special features, the DVD comes with an extended theatrical trailer, cast info and a behind the scenes featurette look at the movie. The cast info is simply a list of actors in the film. They don't even provide bios for them, making this a clear case of beefing up content with minimum effort.

The featurette is the type that they used to show on television just before the movie came out, with interviews with the cast that are completely unenlightening if you have seen the movie. It's only mildly interesting. The bad side is that the music which plays behind the commentator is outright annoying through the first quarter of it.

This DVD release is a pretty standard no frills release.

Overall, a great movie on a standard unexciting DVD release. 4 stars

Not That Bad

Stay Tuned is basically a movie that spoofed other movies and T.V shows such as Wayne's World, Driving Ms. Daisy and many more. If you like funny movies this is a good movie to watch it also has a great line of actors like John Ritter,Pam Dawber,Jeffrey Jones an Eugene Levy so you know this movie is going to be funny. This movie isn't a must see but sooner or later if you never saw it maybe you should go out and rent it.I give Stay tuned a 6/10

Seriously underrated horror comedy

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.

Great Premise Disappoints

STAY TUNED offers a great comedic premise. John Ritter is a couch potato extraordinaire who gets what he may have long wished for when he is literally sucked into the 500-channel universe. Trouble is, this cable package is straight from h-e-double-hockey-sticks, with shows like "Duane's Underworld" and "Meet the Mansons." Along with wife Pam Dawber, he must survive 24 hours or be, to borrow a TV term, canceled.The problem is, STAY TUNED never really capitalizes on this joke-rich notion. It starts out strong, but the continual TV parodies are often lame and gradually grow tiresome. The likable Ritter tries hard, he really does, but this material is far beneath him. Some of it is lightly funny, in a "Cracked" magazine kind of way, but most of it is not. And because it's basically a family film, things stay too tame to really please grown-ups.Die-hard Ritter fans, 12-year-olds and staunch couch potatoes will get the most out of STAY TUNED. And although there's been much worse emitted from Hollywood, the rest of us are generally disappointed.

For the television conisseur

Pam Dawber and the late John Ritter are Helen and Roy Knable who end up in a world of television. Helen is so fed up with Roy's addiction to television that she ends up leaving him. Their kids stay with Roy and the kids themselves join their parents in the world of television. Roy finds himself in drag,as an animated mouse and in a black-and-white detective drama. What's even cooler is that Roy is on the set of Three's Company,Ritter's legendary classic sitcom. Two unknown actresses as Janet and Chrissy,walk into the apartment and ask Roy in unison,"Where have you been?". Ritter actually reprised his role of Jack Tripper for a short time! There's also Duane's Underworld on Saturday Night Dead,a parody of Saturday Night Live's Wayne's World. Duane and his sidekick,both ghouls,have Roy on the show and rave about Helen's physical beauty("Schwing!"). The Knables' kids get their mom and dad out of TV and back into the real world. Dawber's sitcom Mork & Mindy,a spinoff of Happy Days,ran on ABC from 1978 to 1982,during the tenure of Three's Company,another ABC sitcom(1977-1984). I dedicate this film to the memory of Ritter(9/17/48-9/11/03).

New To Our Fall Schedule: "No Survivors."

TV veteran John Ritter plays Roy Knable, a pathetic couch potato who is easily duped into buying an extravagant new system by the mysterious Mr. Spike (Jeffrey Jones). The catch is that Roy and wife Helen (Pam Dawber) are sucked into this system and made to participate in the shows. They have 24 hours to get back to the "real" world.VERY mild, rather disappointing comedy is a one-joke comedy, and that one joke is dragged out too long. There are some chuckles to be had, sure, but overall the movie is below average. It might have worked better as a series of skits on "Saturday Night Live" or something like that. The one segment that admittedly stands out is the animated segment where Roy and Helen are turned into cartoon mice. Cast is OK but they've better utilized, and given better performances, in other films. Jones is the one actor who seems to be having the most fun.It is recommended for those who would like to see Ritter in a hip-hop wardrobe and dancing to Salt-n-Pepa's "Start Me Up."At the very least, it is likable and harmless.Though I still give it 4/10.

A GREAT GOOFY COMEDY!

Are you aware of what you watch on television? Imagine what would happen if you were sucked into the television world and had to fight your way out. This goofy comedy is great. When John Ritter 's character turns to couch-potato retirement, the Devil comes knocking with a super deal on bizarre cable service. The Devil is desparate for souls. It's hilarious! Especially the cartoon scene.

Not your usual programming.

I first caught STAY TUNED on weekend afternoons when I didn't have anything better to do. Sure the movie was kind of cheesy and had a plot that was meant to be satirical and not realistic, but I always enjoyed watching. John Ritter was a great comic and like all great actors, was able to improve any material given to him.

Ritter plays Roy Knable, a traveling plumbing supply salesman who is suffering from a midlife crisis and slowly retreats into the world of television. One night a strange man (Jeffery Jones) shows up at his doorstep offering him that chance to preview a new satellite system. Knable can't refuse, sings a contract, and after an argument with his wife (Pam Dawber), the couple are sucked into the satellite system and begin living television shows. The big hitch is that the satellite station is a pet project of Satan and some of his demons and all the shows have a diabolical twist meant to kill the "participants" and steal their souls. The only way out of the contract that Knable signed is if they survive 24 hours in the tv programming world from Hell.

Besides Ritter, the movie provides some decent performances from Dawber and Jones (he seems to be the king of modern cheesy movies) and also a fine supporting turn from Eugene Levy.

The movie offers some comic parodies that are now outdated (Wayne's Underworld for instance) and some cheesy dialogue. Still, the show is fun to watch and Ritter is a total joy. Also, this film was made years before reality tv (the first season of MTV's REAL WORLD hadn't even aired yet) and it's satirical look at television viewing and making is even more relevant today than when it was more than a decade ago.

The DVD includes a brief featurette, theatrical trailers, and a list of cast information.

RIP TO John Ritter

first like alot of folks I know I was Stunned by the sudden passing of John Ritter.I have always Been a Big Fan of His.this film was pretty basic but thanks to John Ritter it had some real funny moments.it was corny in spots but John Ritter saved it as He usually did whenever he was Performing.He had that Gift.the film is pretty average but John Ritter made it worth seeing.