World of Weird Al Yankovic

However, if Ebert is being honored for his fine work in the Critic episode "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice", I approve



Actually, no I don't Go sit on a thumb

Squirrelygirl @ Jun 26 2005, 03:48 PM wrote: I remember Gene Siskel saying something like "Yeah, like some parents are really going to name their kid 'Weird Al'."

Wait a minute, wait a minute...you mean to tell me that "Weird Al" is a stage name?!?

Next you're going to tell me that he's not crazy and wacky when he's not performing.

As much as it pains me to say it, there were a couple of points that I agreed with Ebert.

Yankovic should have decided if he wanted to string together a series of TV parodies or make a movie about the rescue of a fly-by-night TV station.

There are a couple of places where the movie does feel a little disjointed. However, rather than blaming Al, I tend to think he was working under the rules that the studio gave him. I suspect that they insisted on some sort of story line.

He needs to practice throwing back his shoulders and strutting;

It certainly works in IAATP. Yup, works for me... :9~

scottidog @ Jun 26 2005, 11:31 PM wrote: As much as it pains me to say it, there were a couple of points that I agreed with Ebert.



There are a couple of places where the movie does feel a little disjointed. However, rather than blaming Al, I tend to think he was working under the rules that the studio gave him. I suspect that they insisted on some sort of story line.

But you cant blame Al for the storyline parts. Didnt he say he wrote the bits and Jay Levey wrote all the parts stringing it together?

scottidog @ Jun 27 2005, 12:31 AM wrote: There are a couple of places where the movie does feel a little disjointed. However, rather than blaming Al, I tend to think he was working under the rules that the studio gave him. I suspect that they insisted on some sort of story line.

I agree with that. He said he wanted the movie to be more of an excuse to goof off. He probably didn't want as much of a story line as the studio did.

minnick27 @ Jun 27 2005, 11:03 AM wrote: But you cant blame Al for the storyline parts. Didnt he say he wrote the bits and Jay Levey wrote all the parts stringing it together?

I'm not sure the writing chores were divided that evenly, as Jay is known to have been the sole writer of the "Town Talk" commercial (which was in essence a bit parodying trash TV). They probably collaborated equally on most of the script, but no doubt there were scenes where only one of them would shine (see above).

I'm still trying to figure out who Charles Holloway is and where he came from, as IMDb is crediting him with the "Conan the Librarian" commercial.

Maybe Charles Holloway was the one who came up with the concept. It's not too far-fetched that one of the Mad/Cracked/etc. type magazines had a spoof of Conan with a librarian concept.

I checked Totally Mad and it wasn't Mad...but there were tons of those types of magazines in the late 70s/early 80s.

anthontherun @ Jun 27 2005, 07:46 PM wrote: Maybe Charles Holloway was the one who came up with the concept. It's not too far-fetched that one of the Mad/Cracked/etc. type magazines had a spoof of Conan with a librarian concept.

I checked Totally Mad and it wasn't Mad...but there were tons of those types of magazines in the late 70s/early 80s.

It's certainly possible, but a quick search turns up nobody at "Mad" or "Cracked" named Charles Holloway (or the usual first name variations).

Of course, that's assuming that's where the supposed inspiration came from. I'm serious, I have no idea who the guy is or why he's listed. That name is not familiar to me at all.

But of course, further discussion of this should probably go into one of the "UHF" threads in the media section.

Yeeeouch. I had no idea Ebert had ripped into UHF THAT badly. Oh man, poor Al.

Found a mention of UHF in a pretty unexpected place. Scroll down.