Weird Al' Yankovic at the Grammys and at my High School in the 80's for UHF

Weird Al' Yankovic won at the Grammys! Remember him in 88 going to my high school looking for extras for the film UHF. I didn't make it but a girl I like did she had a red Toyota Celica and was in the scene at the ending when all the people in cars where lined up. Other kids stepped on her roof denting it she was yelling at them in the scene to get off her car! I did love her she was blond and had a red sports car with a speed O that said it went up to 150 mph!

~~~~~Locations
Primary filming for UHF occurred in Tulsa; the film's executive producer Gray Frederickson had earlier finished shooting of The Outsiders in Oklahoma, and found the ease and the cost to film in the state to be favorable for the needs of UHF. They found several favorable factors that made the city suitable for filming. At the time of filming, the Kensington Galleria (71st and Lewis) was being closed down to convert the mall into office space, allowing the production team to use it for both sound stage and interior scenes including those for both Channels 8 and 62; the mall was also situated near a hotel making it ideal for housing the cast and crew during filming. The area and close proximity to Dallas allowed them to recruit additional local talent for some of the acts during the telethon scenes.

The Burger World location was Harden's Hamburgers at 6835 East 15th Street in Tulsa, and "Bowling for Burgers" was filmed at Rose Bowl Lanes on East 11th Street. The bar location was Joey's House of the Blues at 2222 East 61st Street. The building used for Kuni's Karate School belongs to the Tulsa Pump Company and is located at 114 West Archer in Tulsa, while "Crazy Eddie's Used Car Emporium" was filmed on the lot of Ernie Miller Pontiac at 4700 South Memorial. The dead fish in the game show "Wheel of Fish" were real, obtained from the White River Fish Market. The news desk was located at OETA, a local PBS member station. The steps of City Hall are actually First Christian Church at 913 S. Boulder, which has looked the same since it was built in 1920. Channel 8's exterior is an office block (6655 South Lewis Building) occupied by Hewlett-Packard. The "U-62" building was constructed around KGTO 1050's AM radio transmitter site (5400 West Edison Street); the real KGTO studios had been moved elsewhere in 1975. Just the tower itself remains at this location today. The airport scenes were taken at Tulsa International Airport.

Casting
Yankovic was always envisioned to be the central character of the film George Newman, written as a straight man with a vivid imagination as to allow the insertion of the parodies into the film's script in a manner similar to the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). As the focus of the film was to be on the parodies, George was not fleshed out beyond enough character development to drive the principal storyline. The name "Newman" was selected as homage to Mad magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, further referenced by the name of "Uncle Nutsy's Clubhouse".

The role of Stanley Spadowski was written by Yankovic with Michael Richards in mind; at the time, Yankovic had been impressed with Richards' stand-up comedy and performance on the show Fridays. Yankovic had also considered that Stanley's role was influenced by Christopher Lloyd's performance on Taxi, and had considered reaching out to Lloyd to offer him the role, but decided to stay with Richards due to their original premise. Richards' agents had told Yankovic that he wasn't interested in the role as Richards at the time was suffering a bout of Bell's palsy, but when they reached out to Richards again, Richards came to the set, dropping right into the character of Stanley for the test read.

Other principal roles were cast through normal auditions, with most of the choices based on how well the actor fit the role. For George's girlfriend Teri Campbell, they didn't feel that they needed to spend a significant amount of time developing this side as they did not consider Yankovic to be the type of actor for a romantic lead. Although Jennifer Tilly and Ellen DeGeneres auditioned, they found Victoria Jackson's soft demeanor to be well-suited for the role.

For R.J. Fletcher, they found that Kevin McCarthy was in a similar stage of his career as Leslie Nielsen...one of many "serious vintage actors who had crossed over into satire", according to Levey, and McCarthy had relished the role. In the DVD commentary, Yankovic noted that McCarthy struggled not to laugh during takes. (McCarthy himself later described his own character as a fellow who "makes Ebenezer Scrooge look like Sally Struthers".) He also cited one of McCarthy's best-known roles, as the ageless history teacher in the classic Twilight Zone episode, "Long Live Walter Jameson". Noting McCarthy's gray hair, Yankovic recalled a scene at the end, when Jameson aged rapidly, saying, "For just a split second, he looked just like [he did in the movie]."

Fran Drescher was selected for the role of Pamela Finklestein, in part for her established comedy as well as her nasally voice that made for a humorous contrast for a news anchor.

For George's friend Bob Speck, they looked for an actor that could be seen as a friend to George. At one point, they had considered Jerry Seinfeld for the role, but he had turned it down. David Bowe, who had been a long-time Yankovic fan, easily fit the role during auditions.

Philo's role was written with Joel Hodgson in mind, building on Hodgson's stand-up routines of using homemade inventions and deadpan comedy. Hodgson turned down the role feeling at the time that he wasn't a good actor. At the time, Hodgson was also working on Mystery Science Theater 3000. They also had approached Crispin Glover for Philo's role, but Glover said that he only wanted to play a used car salesman and no other part, turning down the offer. As they sought other actors, their casting agent Cathy Henderson offered up Anthony Geary, who at the time had gained popularity due to his role on General Hospital. Geary wanted to perform the role both as a fan of Yankovic and seeing the role as completely opposite from his normal acting.

Kuni was written with the intention of being performed by Gedde Watanabe from the start.

Emo Philips was a close friend of Yankovic, and Yankovic felt that he had to include Philips in the movie, eventually creating the role of the clumsy shop teacher for him.

Although they ended up using Vance Colvig Jr. for the hobo in the film, Ginger Baker of the rock band Cream had volunteered to audition for the role, but Yankovic and the production team found Colvig to be a better fit.

Levey himself appears in the movie playing Mahatma Gandhi in the spoof segment Gandhi II.

Trinidad Silva had performed his primary scenes, but he died in a car accident after returning home. Although they had planned on bringing back Silva's character for the telethon scene which had not yet been filmed, they were too grief-stricken for the use of body doubles and dropped this. The film was dedicated to Silva.

https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Photos/Weird-Al-Yankovic-Anderson-Paak-win-at-the-Grammys/fp/11920

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHF_(film)