Stay Tuned

1992 "Something weird's on the air."
6.3| 1h27m| PG| en
Details

Salesman Roy Knable spends all his free time watching television, to the exasperation of his wife, Helen. One day, TV salesman Spike convinces Roy to buy a satellite dish offering 666 channels. The new addition to Roy's home entertainment system sucks him and Helen into Hellvision, a realm run by Spike, who is an emissary of Satan. For 24 hours, the couple must survive devilish parodies of TV programs if they want to return to reality alive.

Director

Producted By

Warner Bros. Pictures

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
SnoopyStyle Darryl Knable is a nerdy kid in the suburbs. He likes to modify the TV and do his own broadcast. His dad Roy (John Ritter) however is obsessed with watching TV nonstop while struggling as a salesman. His successful wife Helen (Pam Dawber) breaks the TV in frustration. A mysterious stranger named Spike (Jeffrey Jones) offers Roy a magic remote and a giant TV to access a massive new TV package. Helen tries to leave Roy and both are sucked into Hellvision by the satellite dish. Darryl suspects foul play but his sister Diane just wants to party. Spike with his minion Crowley (Eugene Levy) have 24 hours to send Roy and Helen down to the devil.I'm a couch potato and this takes a good jab at people like me. I would probably like it more if Roy didn't start off so pathetically. Ritter is doing a lot of his bumbling pratfalls. This becomes a series of TV spoofs. Some of it works great in terms of danger in the scheme of the story. It's especially great when Roy uses his TV knowledge to good use. Sometimes the spoof is nothing but a spoof. The endless spoofs become repetitive tired puns. Obviously, there's the Three's Company scene. That's fun but there's no Mork & Mindy. The cartoon is the only truly fun section while the others are functional. It's not anything spectacular.
ReelCheese 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.
robin-hill-2 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.
mrtroll2006 I haven't seen the movie in years but do remember liking it. Both Ritter,Dawber and Jones are perfectly cast in this comedy. A married couple,one of which is totally obsessed with TV like many of us all..kidding...anyway both husband and wife are sucked into the TV through the Satel light dish and thus the real fun begins.I won't spoil the movie for anyone but there's a very amusing sequence where both are animated mice. If you happen to see it in the video store rent it. Even though it didn't fair well at Box Office it still is a pretty good flick. One of Ritter's best movies in my opinion. I bought it at a yard sale shortly after Ritter died in memory as well as I knew it was a good movie having first seen after it was first released on VHS. Everyone in the movie was awesome. Sure there's spots where it could of been better but for the most was pretty good flick.