Back From the Future by Brad Gilnmore

Author:Brad Gilnmore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2021-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Animating

the Future

To this day, animation is the dominant form of entertainment for children of all ages. Prior to the advent of Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube, Saturday morning was for watching large blocks of cartoons. During the late 1980s until today, movie studios looked to profit on big blockbuster films even more by creating animated spin-offs. This led to many questionable series being ordered including RoboCop and Rambo animated series based off their R-rated big screen counterparts and series such as Men in Black, Beetlejuice, and Godzilla which were all mainstays in my animation rotation. But there was one series I discovered as a kid that satiated my time travel taste buds.

After the release of Back to the Future Part III in 1990, Universal Studios was looking to expand the franchise even further. Famously, the Back to the Future creators wore shirts to Part III’s premiere that read “Back to the Future IV” that featured a circle with a line through it around the roman numeral part of the logo. This was the not-quite-so-subtle message to the film studio and the fans of the trilogy to not hold their breath for another movie. However, Universal Studios did not relent on their desire for more Back to the Future related content. The studio asked Bob Gale if he would be interested in doing an animated series for Back to the Future. Gale agreed to do the project as long as two conditions were met. First, Gale said he needed Christopher Lloyd involved in the project (if he was available). Second, he wanted an educational aspect to the series that would teach young kids about history and science.

The latter request was an idea that came to Bob due to his love of a show called Watch Mr. Wizard that Gale watched as a child. Watch Mr. Wizard ran from 1951 to 1965 on NBC and featured science experiments that kids could do at home. The show was watched live by millions of people every week and was eventually revived by Nickelodeon in the 1980s and then dubbed Mr. Wizard’s World. Gale said in “Drawn to the Future,” a featurette on the DVD release of the animated series, that one of the reasons he wanted a Mr. Wizard style segment was because his daughter was two years old at the time, and he was concerned by the lack of educational substance of the shows she would watch growing up.

Both of Gale’s requests were okayed by the studio, and the series was given the green light for 26 episodes of new stories featuring your favorite citizens of Hill Valley, past and present. Gale was then introduced to the man who would write and produce the show with him, John Ludin. Ludin began his career working for the Walt Disney Company. After seeing The Muppet Movie, Ludin was determined to work with Jim Henson, the legendary visionary and creator of the Muppets. Ludin pitched two different projects to Henson. Although the two never worked together on Ludin’s ideas, Henson and Ludin did keep in touch over the years.

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