Stay Tuned (1992) on Netflix
Roy Knable, a Seattle plumbing salesman, ignores his wife, Helen, to watch television. A man named Spike sells him a 666-channel satellite dish, and it pulls the couple into Hellvision.
- Netflix2.7/5
- IMDb6.3/1014,326 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes44%
Trailer
Plot summary
Helen Knable gets little attention from her husband Roy, a plumbing salesman in Seattle who spends his free time in front of the television. Fed up, she smashes the family's set with one of his fencing trophies. A salesman named Spike then comes to the door with a satellite dish that offers 666 channels, and Roy takes the deal. The dish pulls Roy and Helen into Hellvision, a world of demonic television parodies ruled by Spike, an emissary of Satan. The couple has twenty-four hours to survive the programs; if they die inside them, their souls become Satan's property. Their children, Darryl and Diane, are left behind at home.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Stay Tuned (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Tim Burton was originally chosen to direct Stay Tuned on account of his art and style, but left to make Batman Returns instead. Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante and Joe Johnston were also considered before Peter Hyams lobbied Morgan Creek and was hired in spring 1991.
- Dan Aykroyd was the first choice to play television addict Roy Knable, but the cost of building the film's many Hellvision environments pushed the producers toward more affordable leads, John Ritter and Pam Dawber.
- Advertising copywriters Jim Jennewein and Tom S. Parker wrote the Stay Tuned screenplay over nine months in their free time, with consulting help from fellow copywriter Richard Siegel; Morgan Creek Entertainment and Warner Bros. bought it for $750,000 in April 1990.
- The animated sequence that turns Roy and Helen into cartoon mice was produced in the United States by Chuck Jones Productions for about $800,000, taking six months and a team of five full-time and seven freelance animators, with Chuck Jones designing the caricature models himself.
- The animation team asked director Peter Hyams for freedom to design the cartoon mice with the mannerisms and movements of the Knables rather than the actors' likenesses, and he agreed, giving them a high level of autonomy; Steven Leiva of Chuck Jones Productions described the arrangement.
