Stay Tuned (1992)
Music Composed And Conducted By Bruce Broughton
Performed By The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra
Album Produced By Douglass Fake
Intrada Special Collection Vol.167
Limited Edition of 1500 Copies
27 Tracks - Running Time: 51:49
Released On April 18, 2011
- Danny Gonzalez
Film Music Examiner New York. New York, NY
Stay Tuned is a rather inventive comedy from 1992 that starred the late John Ritter (Three's Company, 8 Simple Ways) and Pam Dawber (Mork & Minday, My Sister Sam) as married couple Roy and Helen Knable who's marriage been on the fritz no thanks to Roy's addiction to television which has relegated him to being a couch potato in denial. When Helen tries to confront Roy about his short comings in their marriage, he retreats back into the boob tube and she decides to leave him by destroying his now scared grail. Then Spike (Jeffery Jones), a mysterious salesman (or is he) appears just as Roy desperately watches on his mini backup TV and offers him the chance to sample the ultimate TV set complete with over 600 exclusive channels and an enormous satilite dish. With one little catch....Just as Roy and Helen start to bicker after she returns and get zapped into another dimension? No. Actually inside their own TV set and starring in Hell's prime time lineup of shows which include Northern Overexposure, My Three S.O.B.'s, Thirtysomething-To Life, Meet The Mansons, Star Track and Driving Over Miss Daisy to name a few. Spike is revealved to be the head of programing for the Hell network in which the couple has to survive throughout the run of shows before their souls become property of hell. Darryl, the Knable's son is the only one who knows what is going on and tries desperately to get them out before Spike can meet his quota as well as Roy becoming the man he once was in a final battle to claim his wife's love and get them back home.
The film was directed by Peter Hyams, known for this terrific films Busting, Capricorn One, Outland and The Star Chamber to name a few brought in his then frequent musical collaborator, Bruce Broughton to write the score to this film. Broughton was the perfect choice for a film like this, however it was also a very difficult assignment because film itself was tricky in that it goes back and fourth between the fictional television world, the Knable's family home and the underworld programming network. The film was Hyam's first comedy and the score itself at times does sound like one, but it is a more straight forward and rather rambunctious work. The score basically throws everything at you especially during the television scenes where Ritter and Dawber shift from channel to channel to escape a preempted demise.
Broughton's score is energetic and melodic. It happens to also be one of his more underrated scores as well. The album starts off with the "Main Title", which is a wonderful piece of whimsy which includes a dashing, swashbuckling theme for Roy's character with an added weird theremin like synth thrown in the signify the television theme. Meet Darryl is a nice little piece of Suburban piece of Americana with wonderful woodwinds and strings bringing an airy and peaceful, boring take on the neighborhood the Knable's live in. The Dish is a brassy, percussive ominous piece where Roy and Helen bickering in their backyard get sucked through the evil satelite dish and zapped into the TV and first appear on a game show (more on that later). Then later the couple are now seen in France in a Marquis De Sade type state of execution where Ritter dressed like the Marquis is about to be beheaded. The album tracks "You Have Tits", "Aim The Dish", "Off With Your Wig", "Darryl Breaks Through", And "Redemption", all highlight this sequence which also included Darryl actually acting as the voice of "God" telling the executioners to let Roy go and with the time running out on Spike's quota clock, the Knable's survive to his disgust. Broughton scored the sequence with a somewhat classical tone only then to switch with more urgancy as Darryl tries to get his radio working and finally, ending with a somewhat moment of triumph for the couple with some glorious and harmonial brass. Spike comes up with the bright idea when a loophole occurs. Roy is then released and sent home Spike then calls Roy out as "gutless" and has Helen trapped on a carriage full of dynamite with an impending train "The 3:10 To Yuma" headed in her direction. Roy does go back and battles Spike throughout different channels as he desperately tries to get back to Helen. "The 3:10 To Yuma" is a wonderful cue and take off on Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" with Broughton's comical take and turns serious when "Roy Gets Shot", which starts the heroic action accentuated by aggressive brass. "The Big Sword Fight" brings back the swashbuckling theme heard in the Main Title as well as the rest of the score to a more triumphant and heroic fanfare as Roy finally defeats Spike and sends him to his own purgatory. Roy quickly gets back to Helen just as the train and his remote control is disabled, Broughton's urgent strings, percussion and brass all come into play as they finally figure out the way to get back home is to turn off the TV ("Turn It Off"). "So What Can I Tell you..." ends the film with another great rendition of the swashbuckler them as Darryl acting as the narrator tells the audience what has happend since and we see Roy as a fencing instructor of his own school.
Broughton not only scored those sequences in the film but also the TV sequences as well. Those are more varied than the actual score and when you blend the two together are extremely enjoyable as a whole. These tracks have been separated on the album as the "Imaginary TV Suites" for which Broughton composed about thirteen minutes of on top of the thirty-six for the original score itself. This suite includes the cheesy, dated music for the "The Game Show", which is a Newlywed Game puragtory game show Roy and Helen appear on after getting zapped into TV. TV Theme Medley consists of seven different mock shows that Roy and Helen or Roy alone appear in and all are wonderful parodies of the real themes to My Three Sons, Northern Exposure, Thirtysomething, Star Trek, and Driving Miss Daisy. The best tracks in my opinion are saved for last. "Roy Knable, Private Dick" is a terrific piece of noir styled jazz as Ritter now in a Black and White detective movie searches for Helen in a club and rescues her from a gangster who happens to be his next door neighbor, who meets his demise at the hands of a triggerhappy gangster. The music is wonderfully tailored to the sequence and feels like music itself would fit any movie with that style. The best sequence without question musically and of the entire film is "We're Cartoons!" this sequence animated and directed by the late Chuck Jones, is where Roy and Helen switch channels and are now in a Bugs Bunny style cartoon except they're roadent versions of their humanselves. The sequence is whimsical, hilarious and audcious. Roy is lured by the intoxicating smell and temptation of supersized donuts as a manical robotic cat wages all out war on elminating Roy and Helen. The music is frenetic, it is exciting and it's the style that Broughton also employed on his scoring duties on "Tiny Toon Adventures" in his lenghty track. It defenitely gave the 105 piece Hollywood Symphony Orchestra one heck of a workout.
Broughton's score is one that everyone has one wanted for a long time especially for fans of the movie for which I happen to be one of. Intrada Records, a long time collaborator in releasing Broughton's work saves yet another one of his wonderful, rousing scores from purgetory (sort to speak). There was a CD produced by Morgan Creek at the time of the film's release, but it only featured only two tracks of Broughton's music and this marks the first time the entire score has been released. The CD is well done and produced exceptionally well with infomative liner notes by Brian Satterwhite and Douglass Fake, which give informative insights on the film and the music.
Stay Tuned maybe a forgotten comedy but its music isn't. Bruce Broughton's score is a delightful and energic work of a terrific composer who deserves bigger and better projects. Terrific album.
Stay Tuned is currently available to order at Intrada's website (www.intrada.com), Movie Music Store (www.moviemusic.com and Screen Archives Enertainment. (SAE) (www.screenarchives.com)
