Back to the Future
About This Episode
Can you believe it’s been forty years since Marty McFly first revved up the DeLorean and blasted his way into pop culture history? In this Backtrack, we’re firing up the flux capacitor to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a first-time traveler, buckle up — because where we’re going… we don’t need roads.
(May contain some explicit language.)
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Show Notes
- 25 Facts About Back to the Future » bit.ly/451QRyC
- ‘The film wouldn’t even be made today’: the story behind Back to the Future at 40 » bit.ly/3GtmoQO
- Back to the Future™ » bit.ly/4nKtPnf
- Back To The Future: All 8 Timelines In The Movies Explained » bit.ly/3Uf93yy
- Email the show » podcast@genxgrownup.com
- Visit us on YouTube » GenXGrownUp.com/yt
TRANSCRIPT
| Speaker | Transcript |
| Jon | Welcome back Gen X Grown-Up Podcast listener to this backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown-Up Podcast. I’m John. Joining me as always, of course, is George. How’s going, man? |
| George | Hey, how’s it going guys? |
| Jon | Would not be a show without Moe. Hey, Moe. |
| Mo | hey everybody |
| Jon | Can you believe it’s been 40 years since Marty McFly first revved up the DeLorean and blasted his way into pop culture history? |
| Mo | Nope. |
| Jon | In this backtrack, we’re firing up the flux capacitor to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| Jon | Now, whether you’re a longtime fan or a first-time traveler, buckle up, because where we’re going, we don’t need Rose. |
| Mo | Oh, God. |
| Jon | we were talking before we started up recording for this episode. We’re like, let’s just stop because we have so much to say about it. Make sure we just catch it all in the recording. But there’s so, this is so close to so many Gen Xers and I’m sure we’re going to get into all that. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | There’s so much to talk about with Back to the Future. It’s such a good film. But before we get there, It’s time to dip in the mailbag for some fourth listener email. And our fourth listener this time around is Craig R., who dropped us a line with the subject line, phones. |
| Jon | All right. So here’s what Craig has to say. Hey, fellas, love all of your shows. But today I’m writing about your episode on phones. It’s always great hearing the differences of our experiences based on where you live. |
| Jon | In my small town, up until like 1992, all you had to do was dial the last four digits of the number when calling people in town. |
| Mo | Wireless, |
| George | Wow. |
| Jon | We talked about like the the the two digit prefix. but This is just the bottom four is like all I needed. |
| Mo | yeah. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Wow. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | remember people being miffed that they had to now dial the extra three numbers when they add that. says the portable phone was a game changer. My family finally got one being able to walk around the house while oh he says portable phone. |
| Jon | He’s like wireless in the house. |
| Mo | violence yeah |
| Jon | OK, that portable phone. |
| George | Not cellular, yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, not cellular. ah Being able to walk around the house while chatting was huge. One of the 900 number categories you didn’t touch on were the video game tip hotlines. |
| Mo | Hmm, that’s right. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. |
| George | Oh. |
| Jon | I remember a buddy I had. I remember a buddy and I had to call one because we were stuck on one part in a PlayStation game called D. We’re a couple of years out of high school at that point. |
| Jon | Okay. I remember D, but I didn’t know. I remember Nintendo had the tip lines you could call, but I didn’t know they were. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | There’s was an 800 number. It was the other ones were for pay. The 900 numbers. Maybe I’m misremembering that. Anyway, ah let’s see. |
| Jon | Nowadays, there would be a dozen walkthrough videos on YouTube till the whole game. But for him, he had to call the 900 numbers. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yep. |
| Jon | He says, my final anecdote, the same buddy and I called a psychic hotline as well. |
| Mo | Good job. |
| Jon | oo The one we called was something like $5 for the first five minutes, then $2.99 a minute after. It was just general fluff until the five minutes started to come to an end. And then she was building up about a major life event coming. |
| Mo | yep |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Understanding the ruse, we stopped the call at five minutes. Wow, discipline. |
| Mo | job |
| Jon | Well done. |
| Jon | ah Thanks for the content. It’s one of the shows I look forward to every week. You guys are a tad older than me. So there have been some things I first heard about from your show. Gen X grown up an educational show? |
| Jon | says. Perish the thought. No, no. He wraps it up saying, thanks again, Craig. Yeah. Thank you, Craig. Yeah. i I had a good time talking about the the the phones on that one. |
| Jon | And we we were going back to all the different, the 900 numbers and stuff like you said, but i I had not thought of the tip lines. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | I remember those now, now that Craig mentions it. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | So Craig, you educated us, it turned out, the other way around. So thanks for writing in. We love it every time the fourth listener drops us a line. ah If you’ would like your email, if you would like your email feature here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup.com. We’ll read every single one. |
| Jon | And most of them, like Craig’s, will eventually make this show. Okay. With that good business in the rear view, |
| Jon | With that good business in the rear view mirror of our DeLorean’s rear view mirror, let’s jump into the body of this Back to the Future backtrack after this quick break. |
| Mo | I cannot believe this came out 40 years ago. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | I mean, Back to the Future, it still seems so so present in my mind because I remember it so well. 40 years just seems like a really, really long time. um Actually, the actual anniversary was July 1985. |
| Mo | nineteen eighty five |
| Jon | Yeah. yeah Yeah. It’s, as you said, just having rewatched it, it doesn’t feel you like sometimes you watch an old show or a movie and there’s or there’s editing, like it feels sluggish. |
| Jon | And this movie just pops along and it, it doesn’t feel that old. |
| Mo | yes Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | it it It was ahead of its years in terms of just like film structure. |
| Jon | Okay. I thought I was interrupting you. So ah |
| Jon | I’ll talk a little bit more about the, how i think it’s like a perfect movie. George, you want to catch the financial stuff? |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Usually do that. You can jump in after me. |
| George | Sure. |
| Jon | Okay. So I’ll do this first. And yet another thing that I almost spilled at the beginning before we started recording is, I’m going to mention the last week as we were teasing this episode is as I go back and watch this, |
| Jon | there are not many movies I consider perfect movies, but back to the future is so close. And I’d like to open up the floor for debate. Does anybody else feel it’s not that good or it’s not? Is it just me? Look at the rose colored glasses. What is it about that film that it just feels so good? |
| Mo | Yeah, I definitely agree. i don’t know if it’s perfect, but it’s damn near close, in my opinion. |
| Jon | hmm. Mm |
| Mo | um You know, nothing about it. You know I said I just recently rewatched it to prepare for the show as well. |
| Jon | hmm. |
| Mo | And me, my wife, we just sat and watched it getting the end like we didn’t. It was just like we watched a brand new movie today. We watched the whole thing, you know paid attention to the whole thing. |
| Mo | and And even at the end scene still got my heart pumping. you know I mean, it’s it still has it. and just whether Yeah, I know exactly what’s going to happen, but but the music and the buildup and i know everything on it, they just timed everything so well and the writing was so good on it. |
| Jon | And you know what’s going to happen. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | I just think it’s a great movie. |
| Jon | And everything that happens pays off. There’s all these little breadcrumbs that are left, you know, with Uncle Joey in prison. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | And then you see Uncle Joey later. There’s all these little pieces that pay off over time that nothing feels wasted or throw away. It all factors in. And it led it it’s why we revere it so much today, I think, because it just it felt so good. Then it continues to feel so good. |
| Jon | And it it was a huge it wasn’t just feelings. It was a huge financial success, too. |
| George | Yeah, so the budget on the film was $19 million, and in the domestic box office, or maybe even the box office worldwide, I’m not sure, ah did $388 million. |
| George | So I think they did okay. |
| Jon | Holy crap. That’s a $20 million investment. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| Jon | They almost $400 out of it. |
| George | They probably made a little bit of cash. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | um Yeah, so… |
| Jon | Holy crap. Yeah. Mm-hmm. on a twenty million dollars investment |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | they almost got four hundred million dollars out of it holy crap |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. yeah I did a little research on this and Bob Gale, the writer, he said he came up with the idea when he was looking through his old high school yearbook and he had the thought like, oh, what would we like to go back to those times? |
| Jon | yeah |
| Mo | And then he said he met with Zemeckis and they basically had, this cracks me up, these are the three high level basic ideas they have for the movie. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | High school kid gets sent back in time. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | He meets his parents. His mother falls in love with him. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | And then from that, they built the whole rest of the movie. |
| Jon | What? Accurate. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | That pans out. That pans out. Now, so and in in your list of trivia to the little things like we’re going to talk about in a minute in the casting that Marty wasn’t even always the same Marty. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Someone else started as Marty. But initially in the opening script, Marty was named McDermott. Now, can you imagine how uninteresting it would have been to Biff slap him on the head? |
| Jon | McDermott, McDermott. There’s something about McFly that’s just kind of demeaning that allows the bullies taunts to kind of get in there a little bit. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | and there were And there were other things that ah I’ve learned that changed from the initial thing. So going back to the 50s, like we now know, no i think we can do spoilers 40 years later. We now know the way that that Marty gets back to the future or the present in our case. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | is that they know when the clock tower, lightning is going to hit it and they can harness that energy. But otherwise, before that, they were saying, how are we going to 1.2 gigawatts of energy? Well, they were going to, there was going to be a nuclear test site near the town and they were to harness the power of a nuclear blast to get the 1.2 gigawatts, which… |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | I mean, it makes great sense in hindsight before you’re building out. But the way the the clock tower factored in was so much smarter because his girlfriend wrote, I love you on the back of it. That’s why he had the flyer. That’s why i knew the exact time. It was a clock. So they knew the time the clock stopped. It was so much more, so much more informed and so much better in terms of like layering to the story. |
| Jon | I love that they ended up going, oh, let’s go with something that’s in the town. That’s an event you can pin down. And they laced it throughout the the narrative. |
| Mo | They also had a thing where they it was supposed to be ah um an actual time machine rather than a car. The DeLorean something they yeah before DeLorean. |
| Jon | Before it was the Dorian. Really? |
| Mo | um But the issue they had was that one, that they said that time machines don’t move but really, except through time, you know, and the fact that when they switched it to Lorien, they said that that really helped move a lot the script forward because they could you know get him from place A to B in this time machine without going through time because he has a car, you know. |
| George | um There’s a lot of little interesting, weird factoids that would have changed the movie that we know and love today. But um probably one of the most unusual ones is that Doc Brown, who has dog, right? |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Einstein and Einstein goes on the first time travel trip, right? |
| Mo | I’m saying. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | As part of the thing in the parking lot. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | But it wasn’t supposed to be a dog originally. It was going to be a chimp. which I’m really glad that that wasn’t the case because that would have been too many competing things on screen. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Like the dog is, it’s nice to have, but it’s also passive. It’s kind of in the background. It doesn’t take as much away from the scene with Marty and Doc Brown there. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | So if you’d have had a chimp doing all the, is he going to like, is he going to push the stick shift? |
| Mo | he |
| George | Is that why you need him in there? Because he’s going to put it into high gear or something? |
| Mo | Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. |
| George | I’m glad that they did the remote control with the dog in the car. I think that played out much better, especially even the opening scene with all the clocks and the little Rube Goldberg machine to feed the dog. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | oh yeah |
| Jon | Yes. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. well and And plus, there’s like the, like, look, I guess it fits with Doc Brown that he might have a chimp. Okay, he’s this weird eccentric. But also, when you go back to 55, you get to see Einstein as a puppy, right? |
| Jon | Now, it’s weird that he he’s lived that long. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | He must to be an old dog. |
| Mo | Yeah, he lived 30 years. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Or maybe it’s maybe it’s a maybe it’s an ancestor. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Maybe it’s that maybe its Einstein’s mother or something. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | But you to see he’s had this puppy or at least the lineage of this puppy his whole life. So it’s another thing that they could use to show the passage of time. He had a dog. Now he had a puppy. it And two, I got to mention how I had forgotten how They change people’s makeup to put them out of time. |
| Jon | And so I always think of Doc Brown as being an old guy, but he was made to look old in the beginning so he could look normal when he’s in the 55s. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | And it’s that kind of thing that, again, layers in to show that passage of time. |
| Mo | There was a part where they said the original title or somebody wanted to change the title from Back to the Future to Spaceman from Pluto, believe it or not. And I don’t know if this is true or not, but the rumor is that Spielberg, because he was kind of involved with in the movie as well at that point, he replied back to the person who made the recommendation and said, oh, man, thank you. |
| Jon | yep |
| Mo | We needed the laugh. ah What was the real title you wanted it to? Yeah. |
| Jon | but |
| Mo | And he said the guy never responded back, so they kind of went with the title. |
| Jon | He felt the burn, didn’t he? He’s like, oh, that was not well received. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Don’t let that one go. |
| Mo | Yeah, but the thing is the script was rejected 44 times. I can’t believe that. |
| Jon | Wouldn’t it be interesting? |
| George | I can. |
| Mo | Yeah, I guess. |
| Jon | Can you really? it Would it be interesting to look at one of the early scripts and see why? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | hu |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Because maybe it was to get it to this point. Why do you say you could see it, George? |
| George | Well, think about it. Okay, so we accept Back to the Future as a staple of our Gen X movie-going youth. |
| Mo | Yes. |
| George | Before Back to the Future, how many stories like that did you see in cinema? |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Good point. That’s very good point. |
| George | None. |
| Jon | Okay. Yeah. |
| George | It’s the first of its kind when you talk about a person going back in time, not just altering the past. Most of the time, it was a serious docu thing. Like, if somebody went back in time, they altered something in the past that devastated humanity. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. Right. |
| Jon | Mm, right. |
| George | This just took him and his family out because he fell in love with his mom. Or vice versa, she fell in love with him. |
| Jon | Just very small, right? |
| Mo | We’re the other way around. |
| Jon | Small impact, right, yeah. |
| George | Yeah, so the fact that you could do it in a comedy setting with a time… travel movie that I don’t think you saw that very often certainly not before Back to the Future now since then it’s kind of a key dynamic in a lot of time travel stuff everything you see i mean there’s if there’s time travel they’re going to have some funny elements to it I just think that Hollywood is very narrow-minded if it didn’t work before they don’t like to approve it now |
| Mo | That’s true. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm, yeah. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Oh, I see. I see what you’re saying. You’re saying like they probably had keep revising it because they were gun-shy about spending $20 million dollars on this untested kind of concept for a first story. |
| George | Yeah, I mean, and I don’t know how much of a household name Zemeckis even was at that point. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | i I think it early in his career for sure, I think. |
| Jon | Yeah, 85. |
| George | So |
| Jon | Well, he he was he wasn’t brand new, but he certainly wasn’t. He wasn’t Bob Zemeckis, the powerhouse. |
| George | I don’t know how bankable he was. Back to the Future certainly made him bankable. |
| Jon | Right. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s for sure. |
| Jon | Yeah, yeah, without a doubt. you know, and there are other little nuggets in there that the script and probably all those rejections are what allowed them to fine tune the script and make it feel so good. As I described things like the reason he went back to 1955 wasn’t because that was that were where they were planning to go. |
| Jon | He’s in the car and he’s just punching in numbers. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | and’re like, oh, what a coincidence. That’s the day I learned about time travel. oh kind of reminisce. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And then that just happens to be what it’s set on when Marty is running from the Libyans. |
| Mo | Right. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | And so he accidentally goes back there, but it all works out so well. So maybe if it had only been rejected or never rejected, and only had two provisions. |
| Mo | That’s true. |
| Jon | We might not have had this tight story that we have now that not only carried a movie, but carried a franchise moving forward. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It was so well built. |
| Mo | It’s amazing that they somehow did all this stuff and none of it felt contrived and it so easily could have, you know. |
| Jon | Could have. Yeah. Yeah. No question about it. Yeah. Okay. So we’ve talked cut about the origin of this film and where it came from and our thoughts on it. We get back from this quick break. We’re talk about all of the, the talent that brought this thing to the screen. And a lot of them, you know, some of you might not know some cameos are in there. |
| Jon | Stick around. We’ll be right back. |
| George | As we often like to do when we’re talking about a TV show or a movie, we like to go over the talent that was involved in making that thing come to life for us. And in this case, I think it’s stupid if we don’t start off with Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly. |
| George | uh he’s essentially ah the main character throughout the entire franchise ah along with doc brown is his cohort kind of counterpart it’s almost like he’s batman and doc brown is robin but they’re both bumbling idiots it’s kind of funny but um of course michael j fox who was super big during the mid eighty s you know he’s got family ties going and there was a lot of controversy around family ties in this movie because he couldn’t |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | negotiate all the time. So they had to fly him in and out. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| George | and the guy was exhausted working 24 hours a day at some points. |
| Jon | Yeah! |
| George | um So a tremendous effort, but what’s funnier still, and a lot of fans of this movie probably know he was not the original Marty McFly. So the original concerns around shooting schedules and stuff like that weren’t even present because Eric Stoltz, who they did film some scenes with was supposed to be Marty McFly. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Quite a few. |
| George | And I love Eric Stoltz, But he’s no Michael J. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| George | Fox. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. Now, two things you mentioned there that I want to make sure I commented on, and you touched on one of them, how… He was working family ties and maybe you saw the documentary. The recent, there was a Michael J. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Fox documentary and they like have animatics showing like what his day was like. |
| Mo | Yep. |
| Jon | And he would get picked up by this private car and driven here and costume change on the way. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | um It’s crazy. You’re so popular. You have to have a special caravan to get you between two different things you’re working on. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | But I remember also hearing stories about when they had to announce to the crew that they’d recast Marty and Eric Stoltz was out because a lot of the stuff they had shot and some of the first things they shot was the stuff at the Twin Pines Mall, the beginning of the film, and they’d done the the car reveal and all that. |
| George | Some stuff in the high school. Yeah. |
| Jon | Yes. And so that footage is extant. You can still find it out there. There’s still that early stuff and his screen test and early scenes. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | And you can imagine this was a big movie. um And and people were like, oh, no, we’re changing gears. And that means is this on the rocks? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Is it not going to go well? And I’ve heard Christopher Lloyd say there was a tone change. when Michael J. Fox joined the set, like, oh, now the movie feels like something that’s special. |
| George | Sure. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | and Again, not taking away from Eric Stoltz. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | He just wasn’t right for this role, maybe. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | So I think ultimately it was the right decision, even though it probably, I’m sure it hurt some feelings at the time. I can’t imagine being that poor guy and saying, oh, you’re not right for the film. Like, ouch. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | But, oh, well, speaking of new, different tone. |
| George | It would not have been the film or the franchise that it was had Eric Stoltz been in the role. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | Oh, for sure. |
| George | You can look at him in some other great roles. Of course, Pulp Fiction, he was in a little role. He was in some kind of wonderful. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | um he was He’s been in a lot of different stuff. He’s not a Marty McFly. |
| Mo | No. |
| Jon | Certainly. Certainly. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, for sure. |
| Jon | Well, so someone that was his character from the first moment I saw him on screen, I bet there was never any question about get rid of him was Christopher Lloyd as doc Brown. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Jon | He’s this eccentric inventor who made the time machine. And you see, you mentioned a second ago, his, his Rube Goldberg clocks and everything at the beginning. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | And you have like, what’s going on. This and intricate thing is just to open a can of dog food and dump it. And Einstein wasn’t even there. Cause he’s out with doc Brown anyway, but yeah, |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | He’s a weird, he’s a weird guy and a weird relationship to have this old guy and this high school kid that are best friends somehow. And it doesn’t, it doesn’t quite, but they just, they don’t address that at all. |
| Jon | Like they’re just great friends, whether they’re related somehow or whatever, they clearly have a respect for one another. |
| George | No. |
| Jon | And Doc Brown, he employs, i don’t mean financially, but he employs Marty to be like his eyes and ears into his experiments. Hey, did you stop by the house? |
| Jon | Is this still there? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Bring the recorder. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | We’re going document this and everything. And something that I didn’t really feel until this most recent rewatch is the excitement that he has at the beginning of the film. This is the edge of his life’s work coming to fruition. |
| Jon | The time machine he thinks is finally going to work. And he’s about to put the dog through it and try it. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | And you got to remember the first time we see it is not the same as the second time we see it because the second time through, he knows it works all his life and he’s waiting until he gets to that time of the of his life to do it. |
| Mo | he |
| Jon | But he just so epitomizes somehow being like respectful, being kind of crazy, being a genius, and illustrated best when he’s, every time in any of the films, when he’s put together a model, and he’s like, you have to forgive me, it’s not to scale, don’t time to paint it or anything, and there’s this intricate model that has all these pieces, and it’s iss so you know its accurate. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. Mm-hmm. yeah |
| Jon | He’s just this kook, that you love and is so good hearted and gave up almost everything at the end of the film to save this kid who he knew knows he’s the one that sent back. So he becomes maybe the hero of the film and maybe, maybe more than Marty in some cases. |
| Mo | Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. And you also can’t think of the other people in the cast that played such a big part. Like Leah Thompson, who played his mom. Now, she had to play his mom, current mom, and young mom. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Like, they had the same actress. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | And Leah Thompson back in… |
| Jon | And different current mom later. he She had like three different versions to play. |
| Mo | Yeah. And as the… ah And she was, like, in a bunch of 80s big hits. They were some kind of wonderful. She was… I mean, Red Dawn she was in. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | i mean, she was, like, a pretty hot commodity back then. |
| George | this was This was only her sixth film, by the way. |
| Mo | Really? I did not know that. |
| Jon | Is that right? |
| George | Yeah, this was number six in her film franchise. |
| Jon | Huh. |
| George | So if you think about that, she’s playing this dual role. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Older mother, younger mother, right? ah She pulled it off flawlessly as much as any of the other experienced people on set. |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah. |
| Jon | Wonderfully. Yeah. |
| George | I don’t know who to attribute that to. Her or the director, the writers are all combination. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | But yeah, for her sixth film, she knocked this out of the park. |
| Mo | Yeah, absolutely. |
| Jon | think there’s plenty of credit to go around. It was so well done. Yeah. Who |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | going round robin, right? |
| Jon | wants to get Crispin? |
| George | ah |
| Jon | Is it? |
| George | I guess I’ll do k Crispin. That’s fine. |
| Jon | Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. |
| George | You know, the other half of that parenting duo in this film is played by k Crispin Glover as George McFly. He’s the awkward, nerdy father ah who’s always getting bullied by ah character we’re going talk about next. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | And I’m sure everybody can figure out who that is. But um Crispin Glover, he brought… |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | an awkwardness to the role that I don’t know anybody else in that timeframe could have brought, even though, and I’m going to, you know, get outside of this film just a little bit. We know in back to the futures two and three, Crispin Glover’s not there. |
| Mo | Right, they recast. |
| Jon | yeah |
| George | It’s somebody made up to look like him, and there’s a big lawsuit over likeness rights and everything, ah and k Crispin Glover has had a very weird and strange Hollywood reputation ever since. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | But ah in this one film where he does play George McFly in a large portion of the movie, he embodies that character so well that, to be honest with you, I don’t know that he wasn’t just playing himself. |
| Mo | I don’t mean. |
| Jon | You’re right, George. There’s something about, as I learned more about, like when I was a kid and saw this movie, I didn’t know actors from any, you know, I knew who Marty, but I knew who Marty McFly, sorry. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | I knew Michael J. Fox was, but I really didn’t even know Christopher Lloyd, you know, that well, you know, i’m like he looks familiar, but, but learning about him, he’s such a weird, eclectic kind of the man, the man, Crispin Glover. |
| Jon | He’s so like, the stories I’m being hard to work with and being so awkward in terms of communication and stuff. But, Every time he was on screen in this, I am captivated because there’s something like you feel, maybe it is just him. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | You feel like, At any moment, he could go in any direction. He just seems so out of his own head sometimes and fumbling around. And his physical humor, I think, is genius in the way he he overreacts everything to the point that not having him in the later ones, it just felt like it wasn’t that character anymore. |
| Jon | It’s almost like, you know, Lorraine had remarried almost. It’s kind of how it felt. and they were just kind of doing lip service because he was fascinating in this role. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | Yeah, I mean, I don’t know how true this is, but they said that he was just very difficult to work with, just in general. |
| Jon | I’ve heard. |
| George | that’s That’s been his reputation ever since this movie. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | You know, and they… Oh, it has. And that’s why they basically kind of said that, you know, it’s he’s just not worth the effort kind of thing. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | Like, you know, I mean, as good a role he did, they said it’s not worth it. They’d rather rewrite the character later to give him a lesser role than to pull him back into this. You know, they said they redo takes, they had to redo all this stuff. |
| Mo | And he, you know, again, I think he pulled it off so well, maybe because of the type of person he is, but it’s not that kind of person that everyone can work with. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Wasn’t he? |
| George | No, I think he was. |
| Jon | George might know this. Wasn’t he in a like a Charlie’s Angels movie? |
| George | he was in the He was a bad guy in Charlie’s Angels movie. |
| Jon | Yeah, I thought so. The second one. |
| George | Got the same reputation on that film set as well. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | um i And I think, you know, you talk about Crispin Glover and we’re spending a lot of time on him, but there’s a reason. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| George | um I think the best choice he made of any of the characters’ characteristics was the laugh. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. yeah that That kind of let weird. |
| George | if you think about that laugh that he does, it’s breathy and understated and it goes to the character. |
| Mo | It’s uncomfortable. |
| George | Like the character is awkward and understated himself and tries to hide under everything because he doesn’t want to be noticed by people. |
| Jon | Awkward. |
| Mo | hmm. |
| George | And that’s the way his laugh was too. So when I watched that movie years and multiple times over and over again, that choice, I, I have to feel like that he made a conscious decision. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | Oh, this, This guy wants to be under the radar. His laugh would not be big and loud and bold. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Like the next character we’re going to talk about, it would be very silent and understated, but he would still be forced almost against his will to let it out. |
| Jon | Yes. |
| Jon | i |
| Mo | Yeah, for sure. |
| Jon | I hadn’t thought of that before, but that’s and yet just another way that illustrates his character and why that choice was. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. Well, you alluded to it. The next one on our list is ah Biff Tannen in all his incarnations played by Thomas F. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Jon | Wilson. And here’s another character who, like so many on our list, had to play three versions of themselves so far. So far, we have more coming in later movies, but. He had to play the one we knew in 85 and then the younger one, which now he’s not de-aged. |
| Jon | He was aged, was make up for 85. And then he’s the young kid in 55 who’s the team of the, guess he’s the head of the bullies. He’s the main bully. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | He’s the guy that all the his henchmen crowd around. And then he had to play a different version of older Biff when he came back. And this is another character, Thomas F. Wilson, who he’s continued to be on the Back to the Future tour circuit and stuff and conventions. |
| Jon | And he’s very close to it. and when he talks to people about that, he says, well, you know, I was cast as this heavy, but it’s a heavy and a lighthearted comedy. And I like the way that he walks the line of being a bully that you could kind of understand. |
| Jon | You’re not goingnna get behind him, but he’s, there’s something likable in him, even though he’s not showing it. And that’s, that’s a hard thing for an actor to do is to show you something that aren’t, isn’t on the page. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | But I felt that in his portrayal of that, it’s what makes Biff such a strong character. He’s not just one note. He has some layers that he’s kind of showing. |
| George | You know, ah just pointing out the same thing about Leah Thompson with this guy. Second film ever. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| George | Like he had only ever done one other thing that came out that same year. And this is the role that broke him out to Hollywood, obviously. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | And he, he did a lot of other things too. Like John, you and I used to love to play a game on the Amiga called Wing Commander back in the day. |
| Jon | Yes. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| George | And there was one called Wing Commander Prophecy that had a bunch of interstitial video segments shot. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | move that one |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | And he was one of the main characters in those. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | I really liked this guy. He’s done a lot of work since then. um, stuff that you, you might not expect. He was in, um, uh, the heat that comedy with Sandra Bullock and, uh, I forgot the other comedian actresses name. |
| Jon | yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| George | Uh, yeah. |
| Jon | ah I’ve drawn a blank too, but yes, know you’re talking about. |
| George | Uh, he, he’s been in a lot of stuff. He gets a little typecast, but outside of back to the future, my favorite eighties film he was ever in was April fool’s day. I loved that movie and he was so fun in it. |
| Mo | e |
| Jon | Oh, yeah, yeah. Melissa McCarthy, by the way, i just got there. |
| George | Melissa McCarthy. There you go. |
| Jon | It just it was, i was like, I can’t get past it. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | What is it? Yeah. |
| Mo | At our age, that’s the way you have to take the long way around sometimes. |
| Jon | Yeah. it It takes some time. |
| George | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | So, you know, one of the minor characters who was just whenever he was on the screen, just kind of took over the scene was James Tolkien as Mr. Strickland, the principal. |
| George | oh yeah |
| Jon | e |
| Mo | You know, um he was also like in Top Gun. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | He was like he was his commanding officer. i don’t know remember that, you know, but whenever he any scene he was in, he took over the scene like he was just such a big personality for such a small role. |
| Jon | be a slacker. |
| George | he |
| Mo | You know, I thought he just did such a great job of just sort of is in a way he was tying the two times together because he didn’t change. Between the two. |
| George | No, he’s in all three films. |
| Jon | Right? |
| Mo | Yeah, and he’s the same person. |
| Jon | Yeah. And just kind of looks the same. |
| Mo | He even looks the same. You know, but I… |
| Jon | ah Right. Did he ever have hair? They said when he went back to 55. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | You know, so I’d say that. |
| George | he |
| Mo | That was another great job of casting. Hey, do you guys just want to group… |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | You know what really gets me? |
| Mo | Oh. |
| George | If you go, we’re talking about all the casts and not to break in, but just if you go look at Wikipedia on the back to the future page, um, |
| Mo | Hmm? |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | there’s a link that says back to the future characters. |
| Mo | Hmm? |
| George | You click that link. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | It has all the characters in the back to the future franchise, but they’re listed by family. |
| Jon | and Okay. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | like that Because they have the Tannen family and you have the Fly family. |
| George | So there’s like the McFly family, the Tanner family, the Strickland family. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | That’s cool. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | It just cracks me up that how intricate this whole storyline. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | We’re talking about the first movie, but you can’t talk about the others. |
| Jon | Yeah, they’re linked. |
| George | There can’t not talk about the others. |
| Mo | Yeah, really? |
| George | I should say it’s just, it’s such a great, it’s such a great film. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | nope Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Damn straight. Yep. |
| Mo | um Just want to say, do you guys want to just skip the girlfriend, and older brother, sister, or just say like together because they’re really pretty minor. |
| George | The only thing you might want to talk about the girlfriend is the recasting part. I don’t know if you want to bring that up or not. |
| Jon | That’s your changes. |
| Mo | Yeah. Okay. Do someone want to just run through those or I can just do it real quick or however. |
| Jon | I’m going to get Huey Lewis at the end. Somebody want to do Zemeckis and whoever’s left do those three together. |
| George | Oh. |
| Mo | Yeah. How’s this? I’ll run through the minor people. |
| George | I was going to do Huey Lewis, but that’s fine. |
| Jon | Oh, you want to do it? I’ll i’ll do Zemeckis then. |
| George | only Only because I was a fan, but it don’t matter to me. |
| Mo | Yeah. Okay. |
| Jon | That’s fine. |
| Mo | but I’ll run through the minor folks real quick and then jump over there. |
| Jon | Yeah, I’ll do Zemeckis. Okay, perfect. |
| Mo | So. |
| Jon | Got it. Yep. |
| Mo | you know And they had a lot of like people who were the minor characters and didn’t really have to a whole lot, but you had to see them. But they were important because you saw them change, right? |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | For the most part. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | Like his his brother and sister. |
| Jon | And |
| Mo | like They changed a lot from the time he got back. And that was Mark McClure. |
| Jon | and they’re in the picture. You had to have his siblings in the picture to fade in and out. |
| Mo | yeah, that’s had to have him picture. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | That was Mark McClure and Wendy Jo Sperber. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | I think it was her last name. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | But that was his brother and sister. And the other interesting thing that his girlfriend, ah Claudia Wells, they actually recast her. |
| George | They did. |
| Mo | For the second third movie. |
| Jon | In the second film. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | That’s right. |
| George | Second and third films. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | like Any idea why they did that? |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | I no idea. |
| George | Yeah. Couldn’t come to terms and she was unavailable. |
| Mo | Ah. |
| Jon | Yeah. Double whammy. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | Yeah. I’d heard that too. |
| George | Yep. |
| Mo | I’ll do it. |
| Jon | Yeah. And you know, I never noticed myself when I went to see the second film because they remade the ending scene from the first one for the beginning of the second one with that actress. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | So in my mind, it had been a couple of years. |
| George | With Elizabeth Shue. |
| Jon | So it was a shoot. So I’m like, Oh, it seems fine. It seems a little different, but it seems fine. |
| Mo | yeah Yeah. |
| Jon | i don’t know. |
| Mo | Same person. |
| Jon | You know, cause I didn’t know. didn’t know. |
| George | For me, it was a big deal because honestly, i think the first girlfriend’s actress was far better than the Elizabeth Shue. actress was and I love Elizabeth Shue she’s from Karate Kid and she’s been a lot of other stuff that she the boys a modern you know storyline that she’s been in |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Jon | you know and And it’s unfortunate, too, because the character had more to do in the sequels, but then we had a different actress available to play, so we did… |
| George | uh-huh |
| Jon | Arguably, the better actress wasn’t available to do the better roles, the better parts, you know. It’s too bad. |
| George | And the recasting, and because it was Elizabeth Shue who had a big budget for her um rate at that point, that’s why that character is largely asleep in the second film. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | so They don’t draw attention to it’s a different girl. Yeah. |
| George | they They just couldn’t, you know, they didn’t have the budget. I don’t know why. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | I mean, they just made $400 million, but, you know, whatever. |
| Mo | Yeah, you’d think it’d be not a problem, but… |
| Jon | Right. ah What are they doing with that money? Somebody’s buying jet skis and giving them out. I don’t know what’s going on. |
| George | Zemeckis had to figure out how to shrink people and for his next series, I guess. |
| Jon | He did. That’s right. Well, speaking of Zemeckis, we just mentioned him briefly, but ah yeah we were remiss if we didn’t talk about the director here, ah Robert Zemeckis, who is, he was not, he was the bankable thing after Back the Future for sure, but he and Bob Gale have worked together to produce this, you know, and it’s interesting that this has become such a legacy for him that people keep coming back and saying, Universal says, let’s do more. |
| Jon | Let’s do Back the Future 4. Let’s do a follow-up. |
| Mo | ah |
| Jon | And they both just say, They hold this so dear. They’re like, what we did was a perfect story. It’s done. It’s cohesive to do more would just diminish it. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | And it’s it. It says something to the integrity of the creators to go, man, that’d make me a lot of money, but I don’t need the more money. The art is more important to me. And I’ve always respected that about him. And I’m one of the people that would be the first in line to see a new Back the Future movie. |
| Jon | But he’s probably right. it would probably i would come out of it going, grumble, grumble, grumble. They broke some stuff. You know, this is just somebody with foresight to go, I know how special this is. Let’s not wreck it and leave it alone. So Bob Zemeckis not only did a great job with the film, but as a steward of the franchise, he’s protected it in such a way that has kept it so pristine for us all these decades later. |
| Mo | Yeah, I mean, he went off to do things, you know, Forrest Gump and contact i mean Castaway. He’s done a whole bunch of great stuff afterwards, but I agree with you. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | It’s like, I can’t see how they could do another movie and just not mess it up. |
| George | Well, so the reason why they can’t is Zemeckis owns the rights and he has said there will never be a remake of Back to the Future. |
| Mo | Well, good for him. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
| Mo | That’s good for him. |
| Jon | Don’t eat it. |
| George | So, yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | I want to point out one last one. I know we’ve gone through all the main talent and everything, but there’s one that ah is near and dear to my heart because I was such a fan during the eighties. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | And he makes just a blink and you miss it kind of appearance in this film. But there were two songs in this movie that were written specifically for the movie by Huey Lewis from Huey Lewis and the news. |
| Mo | and see |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | And of course that’s, uh, |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
| George | Back in Time and Power of Love, which was the big ah hit breakout hit from the film. |
| Mo | Big song. Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | But Huey Lewis himself, part of the whole deal of bringing him in to do these songs, which they wrote very quickly, was getting him a spot in the movie that he really didn’t want to do, but Zemeckis kind of talked him into it. |
| Mo | but Really? |
| George | Yeah, he really didn’t care to be in the film, but they brought him down from San Francisco for the day to shoot this one scene. |
| Jon | He almost isn’t. He’s behind a megaphone. He’s almost not there. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | It’s where Marty is and his band are auditioning for the high school dance and they’re playing the Huey Lewis song as part of their audition. And Huey Lewis, along with a little group of like, i don’t know if they’re adults or school attendees or principals or teachers or whatever, they never really go into it, but he just, they’re all looking at each other, shaking their heads as Marty’s up there playing. |
| George | And then he just stands up and with the megaphone that John mentioned, sorry guys, you’re just too darn loud. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | And |
| Jon | and And isn’t Marty’s band playing his song, right? |
| Mo | Yeah, they are. |
| George | that’s what I, used yeah, that’s what I was just saying. |
| Jon | yeah yeah that this road right right right yeah Yeah, I just forgot that too. |
| George | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | yeah And it had to be years later that somebody told me it was Huey Lewis in there and I had no idea, you know, but then you see him, you’re like, I’ll be damned. |
| George | Oh yeah. No, i yeah. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | Yep. |
| Jon | and And since you mentioned music, We don’t have a section for it, but I want to call out the score for this. Now, of course, we have some pop music in there from Huey Lewis and others, but Alan Silvestri, who did that symphonic score for this thing, just it’s on it’s on par with like a John Williams score in my book. |
| Mo | yeah. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s so iconic and it’s so… |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Sure. |
| Jon | triumphant and it’s just March and it’s just really just awesome stuff. And so i don’t know a lot about Alan Silvestri other than he has a legacy in Hollywood, but his work with back to the future is one of those scores that like a jaws, like a star Wars, it’s just indelibly burned into you know, Hollywood history for music. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | So just one of the random facts, you guys know Billy Zane, the actor he was in? |
| George | Oh, yeah. |
| Mo | ah |
| George | He’s one of the three henchmen. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | he’s one he’s this is his first acting role. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | He’s one of the three guys that gets manure paul piled on him in the back of the car. |
| George | Yep. |
| Jon | ah |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Rubbles reminds me of, ah you know, Alfred Molina, how he got killed in beginning of Raiders. And it was like his first thing on screen, you know? |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. Just a little tiny bit part. then he later went on to do great things, which is wonderful. So, yeah. |
| George | Yep. |
| Jon | So much talent. I mean, we, we didn’t cover everybody. You can’t almost. There’s so much in this, but so much. that We get back. We’re going to talk a little bit about some of our favorite parts and celebrate the storyline of back to future that a lot of it was touched on already, but we’re going to expand on it. Stick around. |
| Jon | Now, this is the part of the show where we will often talk about like, oh, make sure you understand the story beats of Back to the Future and that kind of thing. It almost seems silly at this point to talk about the story beats of Back to the Future. a because we’ve covered many of them going through this. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And b ah this film is so well known that you’re listening to this podcast, you probably know it’s about this young man that outlined, here are the plot points, goes back in time, meets his parents, screws up the future, falls in love with his mom, mom falls in love with him. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | But there’s a facet of this that has become, you know, you hear about and George, you mentioned time travel movies. Maybe this wasn’t the first time travel movie. One of the first that treated it this way in Hollywood, that there’s a funness. |
| Jon | There’s a fun to it. There’s a there’s an adventure to it. But there are so many more since then. And so I want to take a second to talk about the time travel aspect of Back to the Future. So there are different kinds of time travel. |
| Jon | And I even remember in some films, maybe was an Avengers film, we’re like, well, what kind of time travel are we talking about? |
| Mo | Oh, it’s Endgames. |
| Jon | Is this Terminator time travel or back to future time travel? |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | Or, you know, which one was it, Moe? What was it? |
| Mo | It was Endgames because he was hurt. |
| Jon | Was it in-game? |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | Ant-Man was hurt. |
| Jon | And yeah. |
| Mo | He’s like, you mean Back to the Future lied to me? |
| Jon | Right. So which kind of time travel? And so this, in this kind of time travel, it’s one continuous thing. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | You know, often people will go, well, when you go back in time, you don’t have to worry because you’re creating another like fracture off of the timeline. |
| Mo | A split, yeah. |
| Jon | it’s another existence that can happen. And then you have like the Terminator where you can jump back in time and affect the future immediately. When it back to the future, it kind of somehow affected gradually. Like the longer he stayed in the past, it was slowly. |
| Mo | Mm-hm. It took a while. |
| Jon | Yeah. was slowly changing the future. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | And, At this point, as we speak in 2025, as far as we know, time travel is theoretical, ah unless you’re traveling spat faster than the speed of light, in which case you can only go forward anyway. But… This for me, i want to ask you guys, for me, this was the version of time travel that I always imagined if time travel worked. That you can go, you can change little things. |
| Jon | You have a oh, if you change it wrong, you can kind of go back and tweak it a little bit. Now that it bends a little bit as we go to Back the Future 2 and 3. But what do you think about the time travel here compared to what you think the real, real version of time travel might ever be? |
| Mo | the real time travel. |
| Jon | How does it fit into your head canon? what do you think about it? |
| Mo | I mean, the only thing that got me so much was the whole gradual thing. Like, like it would it would change the future slowly, you know, and and, you know, I mean, yeah, well, otherwise, it wouldn’t work, right? |
| Jon | It’s weird. |
| George | Yeah. So there’s a reason for it. |
| Mo | Because then as soon as he met his mom, it’d be over. |
| George | Well, no, there’s a… |
| Jon | He’d be instantly gone. |
| George | There’s a movie mechanic. |
| Jon | Yeah. There’s a ticking clock, right? |
| Mo | and for sure. |
| George | there so No, not so. He goes back just slightly before the quote inflection point of his mother and his father kissing at the dance. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | Yes. |
| George | So the slow gradual is him getting closer to that inflection point and having not made that moment right up until that moment. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | That’s why they’re slowly disappearing because the closer he gets, the more their existence is fading from his singular timeline. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | That’s why they they do that slow, gradual fade on the photographs, because you notice they start with who? |
| Mo | The oldest, right. |
| George | The oldest brother. |
| Jon | Start with the oldest brother. Yeah. |
| Mo | And they their way down. |
| George | And then they go to the sister and then to Marty last, because that was the progression of their children’s births and everything. |
| Jon | Right. Right. Because he’s the youngest. He’d be the last one to be conceived. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. Mm-hmm. |
| George | ah Not including Jailbird, Joey, right? The uncle ah that we go, that we see. |
| Mo | resistance |
| George | But the whole reason that they did that slow progression was so that they could build up the anticipation of how he needed to correct this. |
| Mo | Oh, sure. |
| George | And he was getting closer and closer to the point where all hope would be lost. |
| Mo | Right. |
| George | So I thought it was a brilliant mechanic myself. |
| Jon | Yeah. But, but how does it compare to your perception of what you think real time travel would but be like? you think it would, do you think it would build up to an inflection point like that? Or do you think as soon as something was changed, it would instantaneously update? What, what have you always imagined? |
| George | So… always imagined is probably not the right way to say it because it’s as I’ve gotten older and tried to learn more things, I’ve changed my mind of course. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Um, but I think if time travel were to be possible, we would probably be living in a more of a multiversal type of thing where all choices are possible and therefore are, um kind of a Schrodinger’s cat kind of situation. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| George | It’s dead and alive at the same time in the box until you open it. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | Um, In that case, I think that what you experience would just be what point you traveled to and the different possibilities and choices you made would fracture off to the different off ramps of the timeline that you knew. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
| George | i don’t think that there would be a mechanic for you to get back to your present. |
| Jon | To yours. Because yours isn’t the way you’re you’ve changed it now. |
| George | agree. |
| Mo | right |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | i I just feel like the the the roadmap GPS would get lost in all the different choices and you’d never be able to find your way home. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Yeah, it definitely hits that whole paradox thing too. It’s like, you know, if he went back there and say he didn’t succeed, well, then he’ never he’d never be born, which means he’d never go back in time and mess it up, right? |
| Jon | Sure. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Right. He could never have gone back in the first place, right? |
| Mo | So it’s, you know, so yeah, with Jerson makes, you know, there in order for this to work, there would have to be some sort of split off, you know? |
| Jon | That’s the problem. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | yeah |
| Mo | um Otherwise, it’s like, yeah, then the whole paradox loop thing happens. And what they say in that movie, they need to get straws and stuff and make maps and draw diagrams to explain it. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. but and And there’s two, like I mentioned before, when Christopher Lloyd, he plays the scene at the Twin Pines Mall, you know, later it changed names, Twin Pines Mall, two times. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | The first time through, he does not have foreknowledge that the Libyans are going to shoot him. |
| George | right |
| Jon | The second time through he does, but if time travel were all contained in one bubble, whatever was going to happen has already happened. In which case he would have already known the Libyans were coming because whatever Marty goes back in time to do will have already happened no matter what, which kind of lends itself to that kind of slightly fractured timeline that you’re talking about. |
| Mo | right |
| Mo | But if he maybe he did know, which is why he befriended Marty in the first place. |
| Jon | In the first place, maybe so, right? |
| Mo | You know, so that’s to make sure. |
| Jon | That’s not that it, it |
| Mo | And he saw the videotape, so he knew what he was supposed say when. So he made sure that he followed that script. |
| Jon | Isn’t it great that 40 years later we can still explore and think about different meanings inside of this film that are so good? |
| Mo | Oh, my God. |
| George | Yeah, God help us if we start talking about Total Recall. |
| Jon | All right. |
| Mo | oh my god |
| Jon | All right. So let’s talk. Speaking of how how good this movie is, how about some favorite scenes? So when you go through a film like this, it’s so difficult to pick a favorite scene. |
| Mo | I had to. |
| Jon | I did, but just because it was one of 20, really. |
| Mo | Yeah. It’s the excitement. |
| Jon | yeah, that’s the assignment. |
| Mo | it |
| Jon | George, how about you? Do you have a particular scene or part of the film, Back to the Future, you enjoy the most? |
| George | Yeah, I mean, the part of the film that I enjoy the most kind of um goes back to what we were just talking about. And it’s it’s the Easter eggs that you find in the movie because of the time travel. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | So like John was just alluding to a second ago. Originally, when Marty is on a skateboard going to meet Doc Brown in the parking lot of the mall, the sign says Twin Pines Mall. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | And it’s very clear. |
| Jon | right |
| George | It’s a white lit up sign with a clock on it that’s counting down to the time that he has to get back to later on in the movie. But then when he does come back for that second run trying to save Doc Brown from the Libyans, it says Lone Pine Mall. |
| George | And there were a whole bunch of little things, not just in this film, but throughout the entire franchise, that you get to see those little Easter eggs of when he goes back in time, how things are changed slightly, but not enough to, you know, just like things on the marquee of the theater, right? |
| Mo | Something changed, yeah. |
| Jon | Tiny adjustments. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Different movie, right? |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | And the bum who’s outside when he does come back, you know, after the lightning bolt strikes the DeLorean, and just all these little… |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | little pockets that Zemeckis sprinkles throughout the frame of the camera without calling dramatic attention to, because so many time travel movies do that so blatantly and poorly that it makes it unenjoyable. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Mo | Oh. Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | And they did that mechanic in this film, whether you like how they do time travel or not is immaterial. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | The way that they handled the subtle changes that their time travel would incur was brilliant. |
| Mo | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. and And I know, you know, this George, you’re kind of, you’re talking around it, but the beauty of that switch from twin pine to lone pines is because Marty literally runs over one of the two pines, like these two treasure pines, a guy has a fence around and they make a big deal out of it. |
| George | Right. Yes. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | And i know, i know, I know you knew that already. He’s didn’t mention it, but he does it not on purpose. That’s the whole butterfly effect. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | I didn’t, I was just running away in my car. I happened to hit a little tree. Look how that rippled over time. It’s it’s beautiful. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Well, and there’s even an allusion to that scene in the parking lot before the Libyans arrive, because Doc Brown is saying, I remember when this was all Peabody’s land, and he wanted to have this crazy dream about breeding pine trees. |
| Jon | Isn’t awesome? |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And one got run over, but not yet. Right. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Hasn’t happened yet. It’s beautiful. |
| George | What about you, John? do you have a favorite scene or part of this movie? |
| Jon | Oh yeah. It was about two hours long and it ran from the opening to closing credits really. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | But you know, it’s funny. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Jon | I will mention there’s one part that I don’t like to rewatch in a film that I consider perfect. There’s a part that. And it’s when he goes ham on his guitar solo and is laying on the floor and writhing, trying to shred his guitar. |
| Mo | And he kicks the speak over. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | It felt like for someone who was already told to be careful in the past by Doc Brown that he wouldn’t go that crazy. It just felt a little out of… out of left field and out of character a little bit. |
| George | hu |
| Jon | So that, it concerns me like, you were making a big, crazy stuff. But I know he also spoke about how he was, oh, I’m never going to get perform in front of people because they turned me down. |
| Jon | I know why he wanted to do it, but it seemed out of character at the time. |
| George | i I don’t think that’s the motivation there. I took a different part from that scene. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | That’s interesting. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | I feel like that that’s the euphoria that he felt as he saved himself. Because you remember right before that, he’s he’s collapsing, his hand is disappearing, and then boom, as soon as they kiss, he’s like that like reverse film thing where they stand him straight up and he’s all rigid and playing a song. |
| Jon | Certainly. Yep. Yep. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | Yes. And he can play again. |
| George | And then he’s living that euphoria. Imagine You were almost out of existence. |
| Jon | Almost. Yep. Yeah. |
| George | Your parents kissed, you’re back now. That flood of emotion coming out in that guitar solo was how I took that. |
| Jon | Yeah. and I don’t think you’re wrong. I just feel like he’d been careful up to this point of listening to what Doc Brown said. I think he would have tried to restrain himself a little and not keep going. |
| Jon | And maybe that’s why he stopped ultimately, but also the crowd was oh yeah drunk with, with excitement. |
| George | Yeah, I think he was just drunk. |
| Mo | Yeah, I just thought he was just in the moment. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, he was in the moment. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | That’s why I kind took it, too. |
| Jon | But that’s my favorite part. That’s my least favorite part. My favorite part, really. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| George | Right, i was going to say, we’re talking a long time about your least favorite part. |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s kind of that. That was the assignment here. |
| Jon | ah i know my favorite part. And it’s the part that for me sells the rest of the film. The rest of the film will be worthless. I wouldn’t buy into it except The minute that Marty first walks around 1955, around the town walks around the town He’s stumbling through town stunned by what he sees and the way that Michael J. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Jon | Fox portrays that just the slack jawed. And it’s not like caricature. He’s like, oh, my God, this and this, you know, he’s so awestruck, realizing not only a has he genuinely traveled in time, but B, to see his town looking so beautiful and so different. |
| Jon | And so it’s not a fish out of water. |
| Mo | It’s so clean. |
| Jon | It’s a water away from the fish. It’s yeah’s a whole different thing. That scene for me, as I was watching it, I’m like, this for me is what sells the believability of the rest of the film. If he hadn’t nailed that, I don’t think the rest of it would have been as easy for me to suspend disbelief. |
| Jon | But I was there with him. He was the character and he saw this new world. and I’m like, if he feels it, I feel it. I’m with you. This is, this is real. You’re enjoying it. And that’s how he was in that. So I love his first tour around town when he first gets there. |
| Mo | yeah he And he didn’t overact it, too. like yeah That could have so easily been a little too much, which would have ruined it. |
| Jon | No. Yeah. Oh my God. Right. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Something crazy. He’s just truly stunned and awestruck. Yeah. I love that part about it. So that’s, that’s my favorite just because of how it makes the rest of the film so good for me, the way it sets it up. |
| Jon | So Mo, how about you round us out? Can you pick a favorite? |
| Mo | Sure. I mean, you alluded to it earlier, but um it’s when he gets back. gets back to the future, you know, um and he’s sitting there and like he he gets there 10 minutes earlier to save Doc Brown. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Then the car, the car won’t start. |
| Jon | Then the car won’t start. |
| Mo | And the reason why I like that whole part is that it almost makes you think there’s something else controlling things in a way that makes you think like there’s like a fate thing. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. No matter what. |
| Mo | There’s a like yeah yeah, you’re not going to be able to do this, you know. |
| Jon | Yeah. Things are going to happen that way. |
| Mo | And then when he finally gets there and he’s like, oh, I’m too late. And Doc Brown like sits up. And then he says, like, you know, what’s about all this stuff about messing with the future events and he just says, I figured, what the hell? |
| Mo | know, I mean, it’s just like, you know, it was like such a, and he has the taped up. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | He actually taped the letter back together. |
| Jon | Oh, the taped up. |
| Mo | You’re right. |
| Jon | because he ripped it up. |
| George | yeah |
| Jon | And so it’s all taped together and yellowed and oh gorgeous. |
| Mo | And he tapes it back up together so he knows what, you know. And, you know, and when I saw that, I’m like, I can even see him thinking like he saw the video of him getting shot. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | he saw the whole thing, right? |
| Jon | hmm. Yeah, he knows. |
| Mo | And so he’s like, okay, if I just get a vest, those events can still happen. |
| Jon | I won’t mess it up too much. |
| Mo | But I but i by still, I live, right? |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | But those events can still occur. Nothing changes in that, you know. Again, it’s just that that and that that weird kind of almost creepy feeling I got that something else is controlling everything that’s going on. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, and not for nothing. Now, everything that Doc Brown does from this point forward is a break in the timeline because he was supposed to be dead. But forget all that. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah, fa who cares? |
| Jon | Forget all that. We only care about the present, not the future. |
| Mo | That’s the future the future. |
| Jon | That’s right. |
| Mo | The future takes care of itself. |
| Jon | The future somebody else’s problem. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, |
| Jon | being the 40th anniversary, well, just just after the 40th anniversary here earlier this month, it’s probably no surprise with all of the praise we’ve heaped on this film that it has such a lasting legacy. |
| Jon | Now, of course, you’re going well, sure, there were two sequels, John, the Back to the Future 2 and 3 we talked about, which interestingly were shot back to back. They were planned together. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | They were shot at the same time. I’ve often criticized the second one because it feels like a two-hour preview for the third one. I know one of my good friends argues all the time with me, it’s the best of the three. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | I’m I’m like, I don’t know about that, but. |
| Mo | No. |
| Jon | a Great series of films. And especially ah like last episode, you were talking about the squid game mode where like the first season was great. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | and The second season was okay. And the third season kind of wrapped it up. I look at the three episodes of back to the future. I call them episodes or movies as being, you know, the first one was kind of self-contained with a little Easter egg at the end and leave you somewhere. And then two and three are very much more intertwined as they go, you know, to the future and then far in the past and in the wild west. |
| Jon | And all of those have become, know, baked into and the reasons Zemeckis and Gale say we’re not doing any more of them because you know those three things together are damn near the perfect trilogy why would you wreck it by redoing it or adding something to it and of course merchandising action figures and toys and underoos and ah you know those sorts of things but one of the big things that I know that we focus on a lot here at GXG is the games it’s been put in so many different games and |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | Yeah. So the games that I knew it for the most were the pinball machines. So I know it’s had a lot of video games and whatnot, Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga. |
| Mo | e |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | um There was even a Telltale’s game in the early life of that production company. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | There a couple, actually. There were a couple. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Um, but the pinball machines are where my heart kind of lies. So data East, they were really big in pinball IP stuff in the like eighties and nineties. And this one was released in 1990. |
| George | They also did a RoboCop machine and a few others. Uh, but this back to the future pinball machine, um, that was data East, which is now owned by Stern. It’s a very, very fun game. I rarely get to see it because, |
| George | People who own the game don’t tend to bring it to conventions or sell it very often because it’s so popular. |
| Jon | Oh, |
| George | um What’s really interesting, it’s got a song in it performed by ZZ Top. So, yeah. |
| Jon | the pinball. |
| George | Yeah. Yeah, it’s got the two songs by Huey Lewis, but it’s also got Double Back from ZZ Top in it. |
| Jon | Oh. |
| George | So pretty cool. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | Very cool. |
| George | um And then, of course, Zen Studios has released a virtual pinball version of it as part of their Universal Movies Pack back in Pinball FX3. So the current version is Pinball FX, which is also the name of the first version of the system. |
| George | But then there was Pinball FX2, then Pinball FX3, which is where… the Back to the Future table was originally released. So I love those systems. |
| Jon | it. got it |
| George | They’re a lot of fun. And especially, you know, anytime you get to play pinball about an IP that you love as much as we do Back to the Future, they there’s no getting around how good that is. |
| Jon | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. Another thing talked about all the marketing and merchandising, not surprising. Look, if if Rambo can have an animated TV series, certainly Back to the Future can have an animated TV series. |
| Jon | And and we did. So we had a Back to the Future. Maybe I’ve seen this once or twice from 91, ran two seasons from 91 through 93. |
| Mo | Yeah, I don’t remember it. |
| Jon | Back to the Future animated series. that, uh, so i think I had like, uh, I’m looking here, 26 episodes is all it had. So two, like 13 episode seasons, maybe, uh, it’s not all the original sound talent is not all the original people, but it’s still the back the future created by Gail and Zemeckis. |
| Jon | So it was further adventures of doc and Marty turned into this animated series. And while I want to go back and look at that, I understand there’s a more modern animated series that also has its roots in back to the future. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | Oh, absolutely. i mean, Rick and Morty is almost directly from that because um the person who created Rick and Morty, ah Justin Roiland, he made this short before Rick and Morty came out called The Adventures of Doc and Marty. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. Yep. |
| Mo | which he was spoofing Back to the Future. |
| Jon | Okay. There you go. |
| Mo | um And then from there, he just took those two characters because in Rick and Morty, there’s the doctor, Rick, the mad scientist, teenage sidekick. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Morty, which is not far from Marty, you know, as far as even names. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | And they even said that there was, um they did like a live action thing of Rick and Morty and Christopher Lloyd played Doc. |
| Jon | I saw that. |
| Mo | play that ah which they said was because they kind of bring the whole thing full circle but he said the only the difference is they’re messing with time they’re messing with the multiverse right that’s like kind the difference between Rick and Morty but um but yeah he said that is a direct influence and without that then the show probably wouldn’t have come out |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. And |
| Jon | they explore that same kind of odd, like, why are these two guys together? Like there’s a reason, at least to Rick and Morty, right? |
| Mo | mm-hmm this is grandson this is grandson yeah |
| Jon | It’s his grand uncle, his grandfather, his grandfather. Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a reason for it there where there’s no reason really back to the future. Yeah. |
| George | You know, another thing that Back to the Future has spawned is a theme park ride, a series of them at a whole bunch of the different Universal parks. |
| Jon | That’s right. |
| George | So um I didn’t experience the ride at the original park. It was originally opened in Universal Orlando, Florida. oddly enough living in Florida I never went to Universal Studios when I was younger we always went to Disney but I never got a chance to do Back to the Future of the Ride as it was called I didn’t get to do it until much later when I was in my late 20s early 30s when I had moved out to California and did at the Hollywood Studios with my future wife Back to the Future Wife or whatever |
| Jon | Oh. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | you |
| George | ah And um it only it only lasted in those two places, well, only, I say. So from 91 to 2007 in Orlando, 93 to 2007 in Hollywood. |
| George | But then it also had one, had an instance in Universal Studios Japan. And one, oddly enough, started in 2001, but lasted all way until 2016. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | it had a instance in universal studios japan and that went obviously oddly enough started in two thousand and one but lasted all the way till two thousand and sixteen |
| Mo | wow |
| George | So the Japanese must have really loved the ride. It’s a very fun roller coaster simulator kind of ride. You go back and you go through the different parts of the town. Doc Brown is controlling the DeLorean with the remote control. |
| Jon | Yeah. yeah |
| George | It’s just a fun ride. um I’m really sad that it’s gone, but I understand they got to make way for new stuff. um But yeah, I kind of wish that that was still around. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. And there was most recently just in the last two or three years, there was even a live theatrical stage production of back to the future. |
| Mo | Really? |
| George | Oh, well. |
| Mo | Was any good? |
| Jon | Now, of course, yes, it was really, I’ve not seen it. I’ve no people who have seen it. They have a DeLorean on stage. Now it’s a mock-up, you know, mock-up DeLorean, but they said, we can’t do the show without the DeLorean. We need it as part of integral thing. |
| Jon | And it has with lighting effects and everything. You get the impression of your traveling through time with a DeLorean, ah Of course, it’s recast. It’s a musical to some degree, but it follows. It has little twists to the story, but it also follows the story largely. |
| Jon | um it’s It’s effectively a retelling of the first film, to the best of my knowledge. I’ve asked people not to tell me too much about it because it’s one of those that when it tours, I want to see it. And i don’t want to be spoiled of it, but it got very good reviews. And it’s and It has the blessing of, of course, the creators, Gail and Zemeckis, which means that they respected like, oh, a live production, a presentation of it, a different angle we can see. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | So that’s one of those things on my bucket list now that when that thing starts touring, I want to go see it. |
| Mo | ah Okay. |
| Mo | Now, I don’t know if you guys, ah you guys know Ready Player One, the movie, right? |
| Jon | Of course. |
| George | Of course. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. The original, when it first came out as a book, ah the novel, there was actually a hidden game in it. Like a hidden puzzle was in the actual, in the book. |
| Jon | And the book. |
| Jon | Oh, really? |
| Mo | And if you won, you won a DeLorean from Back to the Future. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | He had two. The author had two. |
| Jon | Wow. |
| George | Oh, wow. |
| Mo | And if you found it, somebody found it like really fast, apparently. |
| Jon | Really? |
| Mo | But but there were clues and it was only in the printed version of the book. |
| Jon | Oh. |
| Mo | It was only place he got it because it had something to do with the way the page number. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | It was it like a whole thing. |
| Jon | Oh, really? i had no idea. |
| Mo | But yeah, was actually was a puzzle in the book itself. |
| Jon | That’s cool. |
| Jon | That makes sense. That’s what that story was about, was finding secrets inside of other creative art. |
| Mo | It was the 80s. Yep. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah, man. All right. You guys ready to enter our three of talking about back to the future? There’s so much more we could say. |
| Mo | Yeah, I know. |
| Jon | There’s so much more love to heap on it. I thought at least when we’re talking planning episodes, being the 40th anniversary, we should devote some time to it And there’s so much more we could say. Maybe we get to 45. We’ll talk some more perhaps, but ah it’s a good place to put a pin in. |
| Jon | We’ve talked about back to the future. |
| Mo | since |
| Jon | So beloved, maybe a perfect film right up there. Certainly. And a Gen X staple, as you said several times, George. |
| Mo | Absolutely. |
| Jon | So good. Had a great time talking with you guys about it. Before we get out of this episode, I do want to take a second to thank another brand new Patreon supporter who joined us over at patreon.com slash Gen X Grown Up, Andy G. He did just what we say every episode. If you want to support what we do, make sure we keep doing it. |
| Jon | Head over to patreon.com slash Gen X Grown Up. |
| Mo | That’s awesome. |
| Jon | Open up your heart and wallet. For as little as dollar a month, you can become a supporter of what we do here. ah You can ask questions directly of us that will answer here on the show. It gives you set sp status. It gets you elevated status over on our Discord server, gets you a badge and recognition, and you get our heartfelt thanks, of course. So thank you, Andy. You’re joining a roster of amazing folks who already support us, and we love that you do. |
| Jon | That then, we’ll wrap it up for this Backtrack edition of the Gen Grown Up podcast. Don’t worry, we’ll have another one coming your way in a couple of weeks. New edition, the standard edition of our show, and a new standard edition of our show hitting next week. Until then, i am John George. Thank you so much for being here, man. |
| George | Yes, sir. |
| Jon | Mo, you know I appreciate you. |
| Mo | Always fun, man. |
| Jon | Fourth listener, we all three of us appreciate you most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye. |
| George | See you guys. |
| Mo | Take care, everybody. |
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