UHF(1989)

After George’s (“Weird” Al Yankovic) uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) racks up $75,000 in gambling debts to Big Louie and is given two days to pay him back, he considers selling the Channel 62 station to the villainous Channel 8 station owner R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), who intends to use the Channel 62 station’s headquarters for something else since an FCC by-law prevents him from owning two stations in the same town. George, not wanting to see that happen, has his aunt Esther (Sue Ane Langdon) talk to Harvey about giving him some time to come up with the cash to buy the station from him, and he allows it.

George eventually decides to hold a telethon selling investment shares in the station to local viewers to raise the $75,000. Fletcher’s attempts to sabotage it all meet with failure, and the Channel 62 crew eventually manages to reach a little over $73,000, but time is almost running out. Just when things look their bleakest, the homeless bum (Vance Colvig, Jr.) – who appeared periodically in the movie asking for change – comes up to George and presents him with $2,000 to buy shares with, bringing the total past the $75,000 mark at the last second. Harvey signs over the station to George, pays his debt to Big Louie with the cash, and Channel 62 is saved and becomes a publicly owned company.

During the celebration, a representative of the FCC comes up to R.J. Fletcher and tells him that, due to his station being late with its broadcasting license renewal, and also due to Fletcher made a big impression on him lately with his programming (i.e. when Philo [Anthony Geary] played the tape of Fletcher insulting the collective intelligence of the town’s viewers during a live broadcast Fletcher made in an attempt to sabotage the telethon), his station was now off the air. To make matters worse for him, the homeless bum comes up to him and reveals that he got the $2,000 because what Fletcher thought was just a regular penny that he gave him earlier in the film was actually a 1955 Double-Die Denver Mint penny worth a fortune, and when he cashed it in, he made enough money to buy the shares needed to save the station (as well as a Rolex).

George and Teri (Victoria Jackson) get back together, and Philo – who reveals himself to be an alien (to everyone’s apathy) – returns to his home planet.