Directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him, the film was originally released by Orion Pictures and became owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after their takeover in 1997.

Yankovic and Levey struggled to find a production company to finance the film, but eventually secured Orion's support after agreeing to a $5 million budget.

Overshadowed by several concurrent major Hollywood blockbusters, UHF underperformed commercially and also received mixed critical reviews, which left Yankovic in a slump until the surprise success of his next album Off the Deep End in 1992.

Factory released a 35th Anniversary Edition on 4K UHD, boasting a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative and audio commentary with Weird Al and director Jay Levey.

George Newman, a daydreaming slacker who bounces between jobs, is put in charge of Channel 62, a UHF television station, after his uncle Harvey Bilchik wins ownership of it in a poker game.

George and his friend Bob Steckler realize the station is nearly bankrupt, subsisting on reruns of old shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Mister Ed.

Outside, George meets Stanley Spadowski, a janitor whom RJ had recently fired unfairly for falsely discarding a missing report, and hires him at Channel 62.

Meanwhile, a homeless man approaches George, asking to buy the remaining stock with money obtained by selling a rare 1955 doubled die cent that RJ, unaware of its true value, gave him when he was begging for change.

Executive producer Gray Frederickson had earlier finished shooting of The Outsiders in Oklahoma, and found the ease and cost of filming in the state appealing.

The Kensington Galleria (71st and Lewis) was being closed down to convert the mall into office space, allowing the production team to use it for both sound stage and interior scenes including those for Channels 8 and 62.

[3] Yankovic wrote the role of Stanley Spadowski with Michael Richards in mind, having been impressed with his stand-up comedy and performance on the show Fridays.

Stanley's role was influenced by Christopher Lloyd's performance on Taxi, so Yankovic had considered offering it to him, but kept Richards due to their original premise.

Yankovic cited one of McCarthy's best-known roles as the ageless history teacher in the classic Twilight Zone episode "Long Live Walter Jameson".

Noting McCarthy's gray hair, Yankovic recalled a scene at the end, when Jameson aged rapidly, saying, "For just a split second, he looked just like [in UHF].

"[4] Fran Drescher was cast as Pamela Finklestein, for her established comedy and for her nasally voice that made a humorous contrast for a news anchor.

As the producers sought other actors, their casting agent Cathy Henderson suggested Anthony Geary, who had gained popularity on General Hospital.

[3] Kuni was conceived for Gedde Watanabe, while Yankovic created the role of the clumsy shop teacher for Emo Philips, a close friend of his.

Ginger Baker of the rock band Cream volunteered to audition for the role of the hobo, but Yankovic and the production team found Vance Colvig Jr. as a better fit.

Ebert also called to Yankovic's lack of screen presence, creating a "dispirited vacuum at the center of many scenes"; he gave UHF one star out of four.

[10] Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel wrote of the film, "Never has a comedy tried so hard and failed so often to be funny"; he gave it a zero star rating.

[11] Fellow Tribune critic Dave Kehr said of it "It's not surprising to find that UHF ultimately resolves itself into a series of four-minute, video-style sketches laid pretty much end-to-end, but at least Weird Al has given feature-length fiction the old college try, introducing rudimentary plot and number of semi-functional characters.

"[12] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times believed that, as the entire film comprised parodies, it gave no structure for the larger plot to work, thus resulting in "not much of a movie".

[citation needed] The film has been compared to Young Einstein, which similarly scored well with test audiences but failed to make a critical impression.

The US and Canadian DVD contains numerous extras including a music video of the theme song, a commentary track featuring director Jay Levey and Yankovic (with surprise guest appearances by costars Michael Richards and Emo Philips and a phoned-in appearance by Victoria Jackson), and a deleted-scenes reel with Yankovic's commentary.