This popped up on my Facebook feed today, the 45th anniversary of the launch of MTV. As someone who witnessed the birth of MTV, the coolest thing in its time, I got a kick out of analyzing this.
A few observations:
Rod Stewart was the first artist to be shown twice (#3 "She Won't Dance with Me" and #15 "Sailing"). He was seen twice more in the first 50 (#26 "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and #37 "Passion").
Other artists featured more than once in the first 50 videos: Pat Benatar, The Who, Cliff Richard, Pretenders, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Split Enz, Iron Maiden, and Lee Ritenour. Stevie Nicks appeared twice, once with Fleetwood Mac and once with Tom Petty.
The fact that so many artists appear more than once probably says a lot about how few were doing music videos at the time. Soon, it became pretty much standard to do a video for songs being released as singles.
One artist notably missing is Michael Jackson. In fact, in its early days MTV received a lot of criticism for how few black artists were featured. Ironically, Jackson would add to his legendary musical status with some of the most popular music videos of the era, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and of course, "Thriller".
Happy birthday, MTV! You were such a big part of what made life so wonderful in the glorious 1980's.
This slim (150 pages) volume is a brief but exciting memoir of how Michael J. Fox famously juggled two full-time acting jobs and ended up as the star of one of the most beloved films of all time. By day he portrayed Alex P. Keaton on the hit TV show Family Ties, while by night he was Marty McFly, the time-traveling teen of Back to the Future.
Fox goes briefly into how his early Canadian acting success led him to Los Angeles at the age of eighteen and how a few years later, when he was on the verge of having to give up on Hollywood and return to Canada, he scored the role that made him famous. Family Ties was filming its third season when his boss, the show's creator, Gary David Goldberg, refused to make him available for BTTF because Fox couldn't be spared...without informing Fox of the offer. Some months later the film's producers tried again when Eric Stoltz as Marty wasn't working out. This time Goldberg was ready to work with them and a crazy plan to replace Stoltz and reshoot the film with Fox while he continued his work on Family Ties was hatched.
Fox was twenty-three at the time, so a lot of what got him through the punishing schedule was both youthful energy and an intense dedication to both projects. A driver would pick him up in the morning and deliver him to Paramount for Family Ties. Once he was done for the day, another driver would pick him up at Paramount and deliver him to Universal Studios (or filming locations, including the Puente Hills Mall) where he would work through most of the night. His driver would then drop him off at home for a few hours sleep, then it was rinse and repeat.
Some interesting points:
Per Lea Thompson, Stoltz viewed Marty's return to 1985 as having a tragic quality - although things had turned out so much better for his family, there was now an entire, revised family history that Marty had no memory of. Interesting take, but the Bobs (writer Bob Gale and writer/director Bob Zemeckis) wanted a comedy, not a tragedy. Fox had high praise for Thompson in their first scene together, the one where Marty wakes up in 1955 and meets his mother as a teenager, especially because of how well she adjusted to the difference between how he played the role compared to Stoltz.
Crispin Glover had made a guest appearance in an earlier episode of Family Ties. He played one of two friends who take Alex out to celebrate his eighteenth birthday. Fox has high praise for Glover's comedic ability.
Because of how he was thrown into production without any rehearsal time with his castmates, Fox says he didn't really get to know Christopher Lloyd until the sequel, making the onscreen bond between Marty and Doc Brown all the more impressive.
The story of how Fox's stunt double got his job on the film is insane. It sounds like something out of a movie. Just read the book.
The guitar Fox played in the "Johnny B. Good" performance at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance went missing and hasn't been seen since. Fox estimates that if it were to resurface, it "...could easily fetch in excess of seven figures."
In preparation for the book Fox contacted Eric Stoltz, who has always maintained complete silence on the subject of his tenure as Marty McFly. The two got together and seem to have bonded, although at Stoltz's request whatever was discussed about the film stays private. I would love for Stoltz to someday write a book about his BTTF experience - I don't know if it's a sore spot he won't revisit, but if he did I would buy that book.
Any awkwardness in this meeting was immediately dispelled by Eric's grace. He entered with a smile, and we quickly acknowledged that neither of us had an issue with the other. What transpired on Back to the Future had not made us enemies or fated rivals; we were just two dedicated actors who had poured equal amounts of energy into the same role.
I had a blast. Basically, this is a show created by people who love the film for people who love the film, and that includes me.
The cast was terrific. I always wonder what it's like for a relatively unknown actor to have to take on an iconic role associated with a famous actor, but Caden Brauch was a terrific Marty McFly. He had the same youthful energy and excitement Michael J. Fox brought to the film role. Burke Swanson was a hilarious George McFly. When he came out at the end as the successful version of George, he looked almost identical to Crispin Glover in the film. Zan Berube had a terrific energy as Lorraine, and Don Stephenson was appropriately bonkers as Doc Brown. Ethan Rogers was a hilarious and imposing Biff Tannen (his bio in the program describes him as "much nicer in person" than Biff). The role of Goldie Wilson is beefed up in the show and Cartreze Tucker did a wonderful job, especially in one song where he really got to show off his amazing singing voice. And of course, it was a kick to see the DeLorean, kitted out as the unlikely time machine.
The songs are all original, except when "Johnny B. Goode" is performed at the dance, and at the end of the show, when the cast performs "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time". A lot of work goes into this show, and they use a lot of projection for locations and to give the DeLorean the appearance of speeding up to the crucial speed of 88 miles per hour. And yes, O'Reilly Auto Parts still lists the flux capacitor on their website. It was a total nostalgia fest for the 1980's, including era fashion and hair, as well as costumes duplicated from the original film.
I didn't get a picture of it when I was leaving (because I was driving), but there was a DeLorean in the parking garage with the license place TIMELESS (I can't remember the exact abbreviation as I passed it quickly). So cool.
Back to the Future: The Musical is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. It's playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts through January 5 before heading to San Diego and the rest of its North American tour.
Now I just need to find a real time machine so I can go back to the 80's and stay there.
Many, many years ago I was at work and my Mom called to inform me that a movie was being filmed at night at the Puente Hills Mall. A huge chunk of my teen and early adult years were spent at that mall. It's in the City of Industry, adjacent to Hacienda Heights, where we'd moved to just before I started high school. Back then, the mall was the hangout.
The area never really had the cache or excitement of some other Southern California neighborhoods, so I assumed and opined that it was probably some crappy B-movie. A real movie could command a more popular mall in a more desirable location, or so I assumed.
I couldn't have been more wrong. What was being filmed were scenes from a movie that would become a classic: Back to the Future. The humble Puente Hills Mall had been tapped to portray Hill Valley's Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall and it's been beloved by BTTF fans ever since.
In recent years Puente Hills had become a ghost mall. Many tenants left, although there was no explanation of why the mall was being abandoned or what plans were for its future. That is, until now, as Los Angeles Magazine reports: The 'Back to the Future' Mall Sells for Redevelopment.
It seems what the future holds for Puente Hills is still a mystery, but with this sale the mall is one step closer to its next phase, whatever that turns out to be.
Also, I had no idea people did this. So cool. Wonder if this year will be their final get together.
I just stumbled across this on Deadline. It's the trailer for a documentary on actor Michael J. Fox, focusing on his rise to stardom and his decades-long battle with Parkinson's disease. This came as a complete surprise to me - I hadn't heard anything about this film before, but apparently it screened at Sundance and is being released in May.
I remember Fox's Family Ties/Back to the Future days and the stratospheric superstardom that followed. I also remember the day I was sitting at my desk at one of the many crappy, low-paying, soul-sucking jobs that I had over the years and my Mom calling to tell me that someone was making a movie at the local mall in City of Industry where I had spent a chunk of my teens and early twenties. My response was that if they were filming there, it was probably a low-budget piece of crap. I couldn't have been more wrong. The Puente Hills Mall, which is still in operation, would soon become better known to moviegoers as the Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall in Hill Valley, home to Marty McFly.
Back to the Future was released in 1985 and Fox, already popular on the sitcom Family Ties, skyrocketed to the top of Hollywood. But only a few years later he would start to experience symptoms that eventually led to a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. Since revealing the diagnosis, which he kept secret for a number of years, Fox has been a huge advocate for fighting the disease.
As much as I respect Fox for not hiding himself and his condition over the years, it's been hard to watch him deteriorate from the energetic, beloved screen presence to what his disease has done to him. I still haven't been able to watch his acceptance speech from a few months back when he was presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award a few months back, soon after pictures and video of his reunion with Christopher Lloyd at Comic Con revealed him to appear to be in really rough shape, and even after being told the Hersholt speech was funny and entertaining and worth watching. It may be selfish, but I'd like my mental image of him to be from the Marty McFly era and not the undeserving victim of a devastating disease.
I will, however, try to watch this documentary because it does look good, and maybe it will be reassuring to see that Fox has fought the good fight with a hugely positive attitude and an amazing family to support him. In the trailer he states, "I'm a tough son-of-a-bitch." Not a description that I, as a fan, would ever have associated with the hugely appealing 1980's star he was, but it sounds like it's a quality that has provided him with the fortitude to not let Parkinson's prevent him from having a meaningful life both on and off screen.
