Stay Tuned Blu-ray Review

3 Stars Dated comedy

Stay Tuned makes its debut on Blu-ray as part of Sony’s MOD program, licensed from Morgan Creek, with an above average transfer.

Stay Tuned (1992)
Released: 14 Aug 1992
Rated: PG
Runtime: 88 min
Director: Peter Hyams
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Cast: John Ritter, Pam Dawber, Jeffrey Jones, David Tom
Writer(s): Tom S. Parker (screenplay), Jim Jennewein (screenplay), Tom S. Parker (story), Jim Jennewein (story), Richard Siegel (story)
Plot: A husband and wife are sucked into a hellish television set and have to survive a gauntlet of twisted versions of shows they find themselves in.
IMDB rating: 6.1
MetaScore: N/A

Disc Information
Studio: Sony
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: None
Rating: PG
Run Time: 1 Hr. 28 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Case Type: Blu-ray keepcase
Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 01/08/2019
MSRP: $24.99

The Production: 2.5/5

Roy Knable (John Ritter) is stuck in a dead-end job selling plumbing supplies, and the only enjoyment he gets out of life is watching television. So much so, that he is addicted, ignoring his kids and wife, Helen (Pam Dawber). Fed up with Roy choosing television over spending time with her, Helen smashes Roy’s television set, leaves a note for the children, and packs her bags. Enter Spike (Jeffrey Jones), chief salesman for satellite service HVTV offering 666 channels, who not only offers Roy the service on a trial basis, but throws in a brand-new 44-inch 900 line resolution television with matrixed Dolby Stereo! But HVTV is a sham – it is really a recruitment device for Satan to take innocent souls by having its “subscribers” try to survive 24 hours of interacting with the many different programs after they are sucked into that world by the satellite dish. And that is the rather thin plot that the hit or miss TV spoof skits are hung on, everything from game shows, quirky dramedies (Northern Overexposure), cartoons (one of the better skits directed by the legendary Chuck Jones), public access shows (Duane’s Underworld, a spoof of SNL’s public access spoof Wayne’s World), 1940’s detective noir, westerns, 1970s sitcoms (Three’s Company), music videos, classic commercials, etc., many of which fall rather flat. Helping Roy and Helen navigate the world of programming is Crowley (Eugene Levy), one of Spike’s minions that he banished.

I remember seeing a trailer for this film shortly before its theatrical release in 1992 and thinking that the film could go either way – be very funny, or mind-numbingly bad. I missed the theatrical run, but did eventually rent it on VHS a few years later, and realized it was the latter, which was a shame as I had enjoyed many of director Peter Hyams’ films up to that point (Running Scared, 2010, Capricorn One, Outland, The Presidio, and even Narrow Margin). The jokes fell flat in 1992, and seem very dated today (although Jeffrey Jones’ pitch about the free television and its specifications likely gets a bigger laugh today). Stars John Ritter, Pam Dawber, Eugene Levy and Jeffrey Jones do their best with the material at hand, but at the end of the day, Stay Tuned has you wanting to change the channel to something, anything else.

Video: 3.5/5

3D Rating: NA

Stay Tuned was shot on 35mm film with Panavision cameras in anamorphic 2.35:1. I have a feeling the transfer on this disc was provided to Sony by Morgan Creek, since it doesn’t quite live up to Sony’s catalog standards. It is not necessarily horrible, but is a bit soft at times, with drab colors and passable contrast. The print used does show some very minor instances of wear with occasional specks of dirt. It is no doubt a major improvement over the now out-of-print Warner DVD release from 2000.

Audio: 4/5

Sony and Morgan Creek have opted to provide a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track with matrixed surrounds rather than include the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix found on the prior Warner DVD release. Stay Tuned was released theatrically with a Dolby Stereo Spectral Recording 2.0 matrixed track, and that is likely what this track is based upon. The track has a nice and wide front soundstage with excellent stereo separation and well-prioritized dialogue. Surrounds are used to good effect, offering a sense of partial immersion with crowd noises, atmospherics such as wind, and other background effects. Bass response is also surprisingly good for a stereo track of this vintage, particularly during the Salt-N-Pepa music video sequence. Oddly, there are no subtitles or closed captions on this disc.

Special Features: 1/5

The Making of “Stay Tuned (1080i; 6:11): A typical 1990s era EPK behind the scenes featurette, obviously upscaled to 1080i from a standard definition source.

Overall: 3/5

Stay Tuned is a movie that has not aged well, mostly because the technology around us has changed enormously, but also because the shows and movies it is spoofing were part of the culture at the time the movie was conceived. Fans of the film (of which there are quite a few) will likely want to upgrade to this Blu-ray release.

Todd Erwin has been a reviewer at Home Theater Forum since 2008. His love of movies began as a young child, first showing Super 8 movies in his backyard during the summer to friends and neighbors at age 10. He also received his first movie camera that year, a hand-crank Wollensak 8mm with three fixed lenses. In 1980, he graduated to "talkies" with his award-winning short The Ape-Man, followed by the cult favorite The Adventures of Terrific Man two years later. Other films include Myth or Fact: The Talbert Terror and Warren's Revenge (which is currently being restored). In addition to movie reviews, Todd has written many articles for Home Theater Forum centering mostly on streaming as well as an occasional hardware review, is the host of his own video podcast Streaming News & Views on YouTube and is a frequent guest on the Home Theater United podcast.

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Josh Steinberg

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Thanks for the review, Todd! I remember enjoying this in theaters and on home video, but I probably haven't seen it since the mid-90s. I tend to still enjoy Peter Hyams films, good or bad, so I'll probably pick this up at one point.

The only thing I'm slightly less than enthusiastic about is the matrixed surround in the DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. For whatever reason, while my receiver has no problem decoding 2.0 surround tracks that are in the Dolby format, it stubbornly refuses to do anything with DTS-HD MA 2.0 other than play it in the left and right speakers only, even when I know it's a matrixed track.
 

Todd Erwin

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Thanks for the review, Todd! I remember enjoying this in theaters and on home video, but I probably haven't seen it since the mid-90s. I tend to still enjoy Peter Hyams films, good or bad, so I'll probably pick this up at one point.

The only thing I'm slightly less than enthusiastic about is the matrixed surround in the DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. For whatever reason, while my receiver has no problem decoding 2.0 surround tracks that are in the Dolby format, it stubbornly refuses to do anything with DTS-HD MA 2.0 other than play it in the left and right speakers only, even when I know it's a matrixed track.
Very odd. What receiver do you have?
 

Lord Dalek

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Joel Henderson
There were less than a dozen Dolby Digital releases in 1992. This wasn't one of 'em.
 
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