The Biggest UHF Tour of Oklahoma

In October of 2025 I set forth on a road trip to Texas that included a stop near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

For those of you who don’t already know, Weird Al’s UHF (1989) is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it was filmed in Tulsa.

UHF is about George Newman, a guy whose imagination is so out-of-control that it gets him fired from every job he’s ever had.

But that all changes when his uncle wins a failing retro TV station in a poker game and gives it to his nephew to run.

George works to make the station a success, and his efforts attract the rivalry of the city’s major TV network.

It becomes a David-and-Goliath showdown when the big network station tries to sabotage and, ultimately, buy out George’s little UHF channel.

Rife with random sketch-comedies strung loosely together to form a semi-coherent plot, over-the-top action sequences, true love, and pop-culture references galore, it’s…

Well, it is funny and stupid.

And I think it’s hysterical.

The Nerds of the Internet* had provided addresses to the filming locations on the Wikipedia page.

*Actually, I have since learned that most of these addresses were provided by Al Himself in one of the DVD commentaries.

On Friday, October 17th, 2025, I plotted a giant loop to cover the best-known of these, and set out with the UHF Soundtrack playing in my car (I mean, hey, if you’re going to do something this hokey, you gotta do it right).

The UHF Tower

The first place I stopped was the iconic UHF antenna tower.

Antenna scene in the UHF film (left)
and my best recreation from memory (right, even if the memory wasn’t exactly).

In the movie, this towers over a dilapidated little TV station.

Mind you, this station was dilapidated when they were filming in 1988.

In 2025, it’s just not even there.

But the antenna remains.

Kuni’s Karate & George’s Apartment

The next stop was Kuni’s Karate School, which was next door to George’s apartment in the film.

Today it’s a restaurant, and the storefronts below have been replaced by garage doors:

Kuni’s Karate School & George Newman’s apartment in UHF (left)
and what that building looks like today (right).

City Hall & a Fishy Detour

The next stop was City Hall where Fran Drescher’s character makes her debut as a news reporter.

Why, yes, I did clip this gif right before one of the best sight gags in cinematic history.
…sight gags. 🤭

It’s actually a local church in downtown Tulsa but, sans the signs they put up to make it City Hall in the movie, there it was with the same lamp posts and stairs:

Both photos from my trip, since you can see the movie version best in the gif above.

From there, I went to the White River Fish Market.

This one isn’t actually a filming location.

Although, it is another one of those great places to step back in time:

“She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.”

The reason I went here is because there’s a scene in UHF where they play a game show called “Wheel of Fish” and Mrs. Phyllis Weaver wins a Red Snapper that was purchased from this fish market:

They did not have whole Red Snapper for purchase (yes, I asked), but I did find some fillets:

Me and the Red Snapper fillets.

So, I had some Red Snapper.

It was, indeed, very tasty.

“Ahhh, a red snappah.”

Big Edna’s Burger World

The Fish Market was actually my backup plan for lunch.

Originally, I had hoped that Big Edna’s Burger World from the film was still some kind of a restaurant.

It appears that a new restaurant is in as of December 3, 2025, but at the time it was only an empty building:

But, after coming face to face with the reality that the tv-station wasn’t there anymore, I was just really glad to see that the building:

1. still exists, and
2. is relatively unchanged.

George Newman (“Weird Al”) and Bob (David Bowe) getting kicked out of Burger World (left), and
me being a goofus tourist taking a selfie at an abandoned restaurant on a main road in Tulsa (right)

All the Miscellaneous Stuff at the End

The way I plotted this trip was to hit the main stuff first so that if anything went wrong or I had to return earlier than planned I’d’ve seen the best stuff already.

So the last stops were kinda random, and I wasn’t quite as disappointed at what happened next:

At Crazy Ernie’s Used Car Emporium, I found a much bigger Buick dealership.

It looked like the little used-car place had probably been gone for quite some time.

Crazy Ernie’s Used Car Emporium (left) and me at NOT Crazy Ernie’s Used Car Emporium (right)

I took a photo from my car, and moved on quickly before I could be boxed in by a horde of car salesmen.

The final stop on this trip was to Channel 8.

This was the headquarters of the rival network-TV station in the film.

It’s still there and remains almost entirely unchanged:

Channel 8 in the film (left) and in October 2025 (right).

However, it now has a large security fence, cameras, and a keycode entrance.

So this is another one I saw from my car and then moved along.

That’s a Wrap!

There were some other miscellaneous places I could have stopped, but for various reasons I decided to just hit most of the main ones this time around.

(I realized in writing this that I overlooked Spatula City, and if I go back and the building is still there, that one will definitely be on my list.)

For this trip, I was quite satisfied to have gotten to see as many of the filming locations from one of my favorite movies as I did.

Apparently, I am not the only person crazy enough to have thought to do this.

While compiling this post, I found at least one other person who went on his own version of this trip some 22 years prior and document it here:

UHF – My 15 Year Pilgrimage

Rob O’Hara, whoever you are, I salute you for being an early trailblazer in this endeavor!

The Road Trip Soundtrack