Stay Tuned

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but not so good
Review: The movie is ok but I would not advise you to see it if you want a movie with a well written script.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, but not that good
Review: This movie is ok... it's not really suspensful and it doesn't surprise you. If you want to see this movie I would suggest buying it used or renting it because it is not worth the full value.The only reason I bought it was because George Gray is in the credits and I am a loyal fan.

Rating:
Summary: A very innovative and fun flick
Review: This movie was very cute. John Ritter gives a great performance. About a couple having their share of problems (mainly that Ritter ignores his wife and watches t.v. instead). She breaks the t.v., and he meets Spike, an agent of the devil that offers him a new satelite entertainment system, complete with 666 channels. The catch? He and his wife are sucked into the satelite dish, and have to survive 24 hours of dangerous programming. If not, Satan gets their souls. Excellent animation sequence by Chuck Jones. Genuinely funny! A must see for those who enjoy comedies with bizarre (yet interesting and well written) plots.

Rating:
Summary: A sloppy, unfunny effort
Review: This silly comedy is nowhere near as funny or original as it thinks it is. The concept is old-hat and has been done better in films like PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? This heavy-handed mess's script was recycled for the dreadful, even more pretentious LAST ACTION HERO, which came out the following year.

Rating:
Summary: Mork and Mindy MeetsThree's Company
Review: Two of the greatest TV stars of the 70's are put into this movie that I can't even tell if it's good or bad.Pam Dawber played Mindy on Mork and Mindy. John Ritter played Jack Tripper on Three's Company. Roy Knable and his wife are sucked into a TV that they bought from the devil. Now, is that funny or stupid. Am I braindead? Is this the godfather or is this the attack of the killer tomatoes. Help me here!

Rating:
Summary: A good family film
Review: 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.