Stay Tuned
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| Stay Tuned | |
|---|---|
 The movie poster for Stay Tuned. |
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| Directed by | Peter Hyams Chuck Jones ("Robocat" segment) |
| Produced by | James G. Robinson |
| Written by | Tom. S. Parker & Jim Jennewain & Richard Siegel (story) Tom S. Parker & Jim Jennewain (screenplay) |
| Starring | John Ritter Pam Dawber Jeffrey Jones Eugene Levy |
| Music by | Bruce Broughton |
| Cinematography | Peter Hyams |
| Editing by | Peter E. Berger |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | August 14, 1992 (USA) |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Stay Tuned (1992) is an American black comedy film directed by Peter Hyams, starring John Ritter, Pam Dawber, Jeffrey Jones, and Eugene Levy.
[edit] Plot
Ritter plays Roy Knable, a couch potato, and Pam Dawber plays his neglected wife Helen. After a fight, Mr. Spike (Jeffrey Jones) appears at the couples' door, offering him a high tech new satellite dish system. The dish soon sucks Roy and Helen into a hellish television world, full of satirical shows and movies. In some shows, the Knables are transformed into various roles and forms that fit the plot of the movie they happen to be in at the time. If they can survive for 24 hours, they're free to go. They are pursued by Mr. Spike (also known as "Mephistopheles of the Cathode Ray") who enters some shows along with the Knables in order to halt their advance. He, too, takes on alternate forms that reflect the themes of the various shows.
Helen and Roy's children (played by David Tom and Heather McComb) eventually catch on, and pitch in to help their parents.
The most noted sequence of the film is an animated sequence directed by Chuck Jones where the couple become cartoon mice who are chased by a robot cat.
The early 1990s musical group "Salt N Pepa" have a cameo near the end of the film. Mr. Spike, the DJ in that segment of the film, threw bladed-records at Roy Knable (dressed in a satirical Prince outfit.) However, Roy dodged them all and confronted Spike, winning back the remote. The music video ended and Roy used the remote to save his wife from being run over by a train.
[edit] Parodies
Some film and TV show parodies include:
- Wayne's World, -- Duane's Underworld in a twisted sketch show Saturday Night Dead (a parody of Saturday Night Live)
- The Silence of the Lambs -- Silencer of the Lambs commercial, a man binds and gags his kids to keep them quiet
- Three Men and a Baby, Rosemary's Baby -- Three Men and Rosemary's Baby
- The Dukes of Hazzard -- David Dukes of Hazzard
- Driving Miss Daisy -- Driving Over Miss Daisy
- Northern Exposure -- Northern Overexposure
- Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous -- Autopsies of the Rich and Famous
- The Exorcist -- The Exorciseist
- Murder, She Wrote -- Murder, She Likes
- Leave It to Beaver -- Meet the Mansons
- thirtysomething -- thirtysomething-to-life (in prison)
- Beverly Hills 90210 -- Beverly Hills 90666
- I Love Lucy -- I Love Lucifer
- Golden Girls -- Golden Ghouls
- Married with Children -- Unmarried With Children
- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -- Fresh Prince of Darkness
- Facts of Life -- Facts of Life Support
- My Three Sons -- My Three Sons of Bitches
- Diff'rent Strokes -- Different Strokes (about two elderly men literally having strokes)
- World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (then called World Wrestling Federation) -- Underworld Wrestling Foundation
- Star Trek: The Next Generation unnamed parody
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb -- This reference is made during a scene in Spike's control center. The center is modeled after the War Room and also features a Dr. Strangelove impersonator.
Other shows:
- Off With His Head (a documentary about the French Revolution, with Ritter as the Marquis de Knable.)
- Yogi Beer commercial (a commercial Yogi Bear parody about beer for children)
- You Can't Win (a game show awarding demises for wrong answers)
- Home Shopping Club - Home Shoplifting Channel
- Totally Hidden Video, America's Funniest Home Videos, Candid Camera -- Sadistic Hidden Videos
- A cartoon featuring Ritter and Dawber's characters as mice attempting to escape a robotic cat sent to destroy them. The short was directed by legendary Looney Tunes personality Chuck Jones.
At one point, Roy Knable stumbles through a channel onto the set of Three's Company, the TV show that catapulted John Ritter to fame in the 1970s. Two women dressed as characters from the show say, "where have you been?" This sends Roy into a screaming fit, quickly changing the channel.
