{"id":2124,"date":"2015-10-16T14:58:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T14:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/blog\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2015-12-11T17:00:42","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T17:00:42","slug":"going-back-to-%e2%80%98back-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2124","title":{"rendered":"Going back to \u2018Back To The Future’ with Michael J. Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Back-to-the-Future-One<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 As “Back to the Future” marks its 30th anniversary, here’s a version of a story I wrote in 1985 for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.<\/p>\n

In 1984, Canadian actor Michael J. Fox (pictured with Christopher Lloyd) was starring in a struggling US TV sitcom titled \u201cFamily Ties\u201d and taking what movie roles he could get including a cheap exploitation picture called \u201cTeen Wolf\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was busy on that film on a street in Los Angeles when some location scouts came by to check out\u00a0the same place. Fox\u00a0told me back then: \u201cWe\u2019re in the trenches, so to speak, trying to knock out this very low-budget movie, trying to do the best we can, and here are these guys from some big Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis film. We\u2019re all sitting around with big saucer eyes, going \u2018Jeez, wouldn\u2019t it be nice \u2026 \u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Suddenly, everything changed. Half-hour comedies were not big on US TV in those days, so few expected that \u201cThe Cosby Show\u201d would rocket to No. 1 and turn the industry around. NBC scheduled it on Thursday evenings ahead of \u201cFamily Ties\u201d and after two seasons, Fox\u2019s show turned into a massive hit.<\/p>\n

Spielberg and Zemeckis began to make their big film, a futuristic comedy about the past called \u201cBack to the Future\u201d with Eric Stolz\u00a0as boyish time-traveller Marty McFly.<\/p>\n

Stolz\u00a0had become a star opposite Cher in \u201cThe Mask\u201d\u00a0but\u00a0Zemeckis told me that he came to the awful realisation that \u201cI had made a very serious casting error\u201d. He faced\u00a0what he said\u00a0was \u201cthe worst possible disaster outside of having an actor die\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"backtothefuture<\/a>Suddenly, Stolz was out, and the director needed a replacement fast. Busy with \u201cFamily Ties\u201d, Fox went one Friday afternoon to visit the series\u2019 producer Gary David Goldberg.<\/p>\n

The young actor told me, \u201cGary said, \u2018I\u2019ve been looking for you all over.\u2019 I thought he wanted to talk about another project we\u2019d been kicking around. I got up to his office and he handed me a script: \u2018Back to the Future\u2019. He said, \u2018I just got a call from Steven Spielberg. They want you to start Monday. I said, \u2018Wait a minute, they\u2019ve already got a guy.\u2019 Gary explained that they had creative differences \u2014 which is all I\u2019ve ever known about that \u2014 and they wanted me. I said, \u2018No, no way. I don\u2019t want to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course he didn\u2019t. In the middle of the night, he phoned Goldberg: \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta phone Spielberg. Don\u2019t let him change his mind.\u201d On the Monday, after a full day on \u201cFamily Ties\u201d, Fox reported for work on \u201cBack to the Future\u201d.<\/p>\n

It would be like that for seven weeks. By the end, Fox\u2019s driver would practically tuck him in at night and arrive in the morning to throw him into the shower. \u201cIt got kind of surrealistic,\u201d Fox admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack To The Future\u201d was a smash hit in 1985 and generated $381 million in theatres worldwide. The 1989 sequel took $331 million and the third one in 1990 made $245 million.<\/p>\n

Fox went on to make pictures such as \u201cBright Lights, Big City\u201d and \u201cCasualties of War\u201d and then returned to TV in 1996 in the hit series \u201cSpin City”. In 1998, he announced he was suffering from Parkinson\u2019s disease but he has continued his career on series including “Boston Legal”, “Rescue Me”, “The Michael J. Fox Show” and “The Good Wife”.<\/p>\n

Back in 1985, Zemeckis said Fox\u2019s energy and professionalism saved \u201cBack yo the Future\u201d. He called Fox \u201cthe Jimmy Cagney of the Eighties. We know he\u2019s a TV star, but he turned in a wonderfully measured film performance \u2014now he\u2019s a movie star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which pleased the youthful, 5ft 5inch actor no end. \u201cIf people say I remind them of Cagney or Mickey Rooney, obviously I\u2019m very flattered. But I like it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are enough guys trying real hard to be Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino. I\u2019ll be the guy who\u2019s maybe like Cagney. I like that great line in \u2018My Favourite Year\u2019 when Peter O\u2019Toole says, \u2018I\u2019m not an actor. I\u2019m a movie star!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Universal Pictures has\u00a0\u201cBack to the Future\u201d and its two sequels on \u00a0Blu-ray Disc. The franchise\u00a0made close to $1 billion at the box office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 As “Back to the Future” marks its 30th anniversary, here’s a version of a story I wrote in 1985 for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. In 1984, Canadian actor Michael J. Fox (pictured with Christopher … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1263,2257],"tags":[44,389,3558,564,669,975,1031,1130],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","tag-back-to-the-future-michael-j-fox","tag-bill-cosby","tag-christopher-lloyd","tag-eric-stolz","tag-james-cagney","tag-peter-otoole","tag-robert-zemeckis","tag-steven-spielberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2124"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8297,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions\/8297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}