Stay Tuned

An exceedingly high-concept comedy, Stay Tuned follows Roy (John Ritter) and Helen (Pam Dawber) as they’re sucked into an evil satellite dish and forced to participate in a series of twisted television programs. There’s ultimately little doubt that Stay Tuned has lost a fair bit of relevance in the years since its 1992 release, as the movie, written by Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein, boasts (or suffers from) an ongoing emphasis on satirical sketches designed to poke fun at various early ’90s pop-culture items – including Driving Miss Daisy, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Beverly Hills, 90210. It’s clear, then, that the picture ultimately fares about as well as a garden-variety episode of Saturday Night Live (ie certain segments fare much, much better than others), which ensures that Stay Tuned‘s mild success is due mostly to the superb and charismatic work of its two stars – with, especially, Ritter delivering a solid performance that’s both funny and heartfelt. (The movie’s highlight, though, is Chuck Jones’ all-too-brief animated interlude.) By the time the frenetic final stretch rolls around, Stay Tuned has certainly confirmed its place as an appreciatively short, briskly paced, yet somewhat endeavor that hasn’t aged quite as well as one might’ve hoped.

**1/2 out of ****