January 9, 2024 • 13 mins
July 3rd, 1985 - a day that a little time travel movie produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Robert Zemeckis called Back to the Future was released to the public. This podcast will dive into the world of BTTF, and discuss the movies, characters, and behind-the-scenes details on one of the greatest trilogies of all time. So buckle in, make sure your flux capacitor is fluxing, and enjoy the 88 mile per hour adventure of the Back to the Future trilogy. Order the "Back from the Future" paperback with expanded material!
Amazon- https://bit.ly/BackFromTheFutureBook
Bookshop- https://bit.ly/BackFromTheFuturebook
Barnes and Noble- https://bit.ly/BackFromtheFutureBook
Mango- https://bit.ly/BackfromTheFutureBook
Chapters indigo- https://bit.ly/BackFromThefutureBook
Back to the Future: The Podcast is produced and presented by Brad Gilmore, and is not affiliated with the Back to the Future franchise. This show is meant for entertainment and documentary purposes only, and does not intend to infringe on any copyrights of Universal Pictures, Back to the Future, or any of its characters, clips or music. Brad Gilmore expresses views and statements which represent that of the hosts and the guests of the program alone. The statements made on this program are in no way intended to represent views of any other organization affiliated with the hosts or guests and in no way represent the views of the sponsors.
Amazon- https://bit.ly/BackFromTheFutureBook
Bookshop- https://bit.ly/BackFromTheFuturebook
Barnes and Noble- https://bit.ly/BackFromtheFutureBook
Mango- https://bit.ly/BackfromTheFutureBook
Chapters indigo- https://bit.ly/BackFromThefutureBook
Back to the Future: The Podcast is produced and presented by Brad Gilmore, and is not affiliated with the Back to the Future franchise. This show is meant for entertainment and documentary purposes only, and does not intend to infringe on any copyrights of Universal Pictures, Back to the Future, or any of its characters, clips or music. Brad Gilmore expresses views and statements which represent that of the hosts and the guests of the program alone. The statements made on this program are in no way intended to represent views of any other organization affiliated with the hosts or guests and in no way represent the views of the sponsors.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, everybody, This is BobGail, co creator Back to the Future,
and you're listening to Brad Gilmore.Stop, Okay, it's mere Marten.
Can't be such a bat to thefuture. Oh. I know he
did send me back to the future, but I'm back. I'm back from
the future. Wait a minute,Wait, by gosh five, are you
(00:27):
telling me that you built the timemachine the way I see it? If
you're gonna build a time machine out, why not doing some style? And
he's joining us right now. I'mso excited to talk to this man.
We're talking to you about the newshow Extended Family, which is every Tuesday
(00:50):
at seven thirty on NBC following NightCourt. The often imitated but never duplicated,
the one and only John Cryer joinsus this morning, John, how
you doing and great? I wasnot aware that I was imitated that much
all the time. All the time, I'm doing the John Cryer impression every
day. It feels like it's oneof your go tos. I get it,
(01:11):
I get it. I totally getit. It's John Crier, Sean
Connery and and and President Bush.Those are my three impressions. I can
do that in your hip pocket,right you know, look, the new
show Extended Family for people who don'tknow, the concept is incredible. It's
(01:32):
you know, about a couple thatthat has an unwdding ceremony, they get
divorced, and then they still chooseto live together and and have this new
concept of nesting. I mean,this is a really interesting concept for a
sitcom. I'm sure there was alot of meat on the bone when you
read the pilot. Well, yeah, I mean, obviously it's very simple
and uh, you know, it'sa simple idea. Obviously it's not for
(01:53):
everybody, but but it was inspiredby the owner of the Boston Celtics did
this when when he married his wife, their ex husband shares an apartment with
them that they keep so the kidsdon't have to go back and forth.
The kids stay in the same apartment. Uh, and they and the parents
go back and forth. And obviously, you know, it's not everybody can
(02:14):
do this, but but it endedup working out great for them, and
they've managed to make this lovely,kind of bizarre friendship out of it.
They've remained very close friends. Andthat's really what the what the at the
heart of the show is you know, keeping uh, you know, finding
a weird friendship and having fun withit, you know, that's that's what
(02:37):
that's what we do on the show. Yeah, and you can you see
those dynamics at play between you andand Abigail and Donald Faison, which is
the cast is insane. But letme ask you this though, when you
do read, I'm sure your pitchshows all the time, or at least
that's what I would imagine. Andwhen you read them, do you read
because I heard somebody say one time, when I read a pilot script,
(02:59):
I try to see what the openingof season two is gonna be. Do
you have that to where you cansee, oh, I could see the
progression of this character, or youjust say, look, this is a
really funny concept. I'm sure we'regonna figure this out. You know.
It's a little bit of both.The thing with comedy is you kind of
have to play it as it lays, you know. Like here's an interesting
(03:23):
example in Two and a half Men, And if you watch the pilot of
Two and a half Men, myson Angus's character is a super smart kid.
But then later on they realized thatwhat Angus was amazing at playing at
was kind of a dumb kid.So they kind of changed his character.
(03:43):
And it's interesting because what happens isyou sort of have to have a concept
that's fertile but simple enough, andthen then you just have to roll with
it. Then you have to youknow, once, like the original character
as written for the Boston Celtics ownerwas kind of this rich, kind of
out of touch guy, and andbut once we had the opportunity of having
having Donald's FaZe on, it waslike, oh no, that's not going
(04:05):
to work for Donald Fazon, let'shave let's let's make him a different guy,
you know, And and it's beenyou know, so it's a combination
of both. You kind of haveto have this idea of what is what
the show is going to be,but then when when opportunities present themselves,
you got to roll with them.That makes a lot of sense to me.
I mean you're going with also,you know, following the laugh right,
(04:28):
you know, recognizing what the audienceis reacting the most to, and
then capitalizing on that when you havea dynamic at play though with you and
your character. In Abigail's character,where there are a couple who's divorced,
so once they had this great lovefor each other, obviously that love fizzles
out, but they're still trying tomake it work. Is there anything like
and forgive me if this is likea mundane question, but is there anything
(04:48):
that you and Abigail have to doto create that chemistry or do you just
like you said, you play what'son the page? Mostly? What was
the reason we have Abigail? Uh? You know, besides she's got this
great body of work. I mean, you know, she's mad Men and
Rectify and Suits and Gray's Anatomy andall that stuff. Was that she and
(05:10):
I? When she and I argue, there's something fun about it. Uh.
And we thought, okay, you'regonna have to watch these people argue,
hopefully for years. So who arewho's you know? Are there?
You know there's people you watch andthey argue and it's it's not fun.
It's not fun. But but whenAsgil and I were taking each other to
tax task rather it was it waspretty hilarious. So that was we said,
(05:34):
Okay, that's what works, youknow, and I and I wish
I knew exactly why that worked,but but it didn't. I don't.
It was just it's just her.She's just great. Is there something about
being in a multiicam sitcom environment thatis more conducive for the actor because you
get somewhat of that instant gratification becauseyou have the studio audience in there,
(05:56):
you sort of know when things areworking. Oh yes, that helps so
much. I mean because because I'veshot, you know, single camera comedies
and I've shot multiple camera comedies andyou know they're they're different skills. But
but having an audience there, especiallybecause the writing is written by guy named
Michael Malley, who's who's actually anactor you probably recognize with the song and
(06:19):
he was nominated for Emmys for Gleeand stuff like that, and uh,
but his writing is very fast andvery uh so figuring out where the laps
are going to come is incredibly important. Uh and so so being able to
actually work this out in front ofpeople is just a huge, huge bonus.
(06:43):
Yeah. I can only imagine likejust knowing on the set. I
remember watching like a making of Seinfeldand Larry David. If the joke didn't
work, he'd be right there onthe floor they rewrite it and reshoot it.
And having that that ability to kindof alter the game plan as the
clock is ticking, I wanted toask you though also met the family again.
It's on after Night Court Tuesdays onseven thirty Central on NBC. Lawyer's
(07:05):
Guns and Money is a podcast thatyou narrate and produce. And when when
I read the synopsis for the podcast, I'm like, well, this has
me written all over it. Canyou tell people about this project? Uh?
Lawyer's Guns and Money was this crazystory that that that came across my
transom. A guy named Jack Bryan, who made a wonderful documentary called Active
(07:25):
Measures If you ever get a chance, uh, brought me this this true
story about this young public defender inMiami, never tried a felony case before
his first sell any cases. Thisthis whack job who says that, uh,
he's he's working for the c Ia secretly uh of you know,
secretly transporting guns, you know,and everybody's I yet sure you are,
(07:45):
sir. And he hands the guya phone number, says you don't believe
me, call this number. Andhe calls the number and it's the White
House. And this guy ended upuncovering this huge secret war in Central America
that the Reagan administration was trying tocover up. And I remember this,
this whole scandal from when I wasa kid, you know, I was
(08:07):
in my early twenties when when itall broke. But there was so much
more to the story. And whatwas hilarious was it's this insane, crazy,
funny story. And so I gotto uh so when you know,
and a lot of it has onlyreally come out now because you know,
a lot of stuff takes a longtime, uh to to for this information
(08:30):
to come out. So we've beenuh so we recorded this podcast about the
story of this this young public defender, and uh you know, it turned
out to be a really terrific podcast. Wow, man, I cannot wait
to check that out. That asLawyer's Guns and Money. You're you're doing
a little bit of everything, JohnQuarr but here but here's you know,
why I said you're often imitated,always duplicated, or never duplicated is for
(08:52):
this reason. So I'm a I'ma massive, you know, a comic
book fan. I've always have been. And I'm not sure if you're aware
of this, but there is apretty strong debate on the internets of who
is the best lex luthor of alltime. Now, a lot of people
say, you know, you automaticallyhave to give it up for Gene Hackman.
And Gene Hackman was great. Butthe real argument between fans of this
(09:13):
generation, or at least my generation, is is it Crier, is it
Rosenbaum? Where do you sit onthis? Because your your Lex Luthor was
so like when I would read LexLuthor as a kid in the comics,
when I saw you in the inthe you know, in the in the
Aero Verse or you know those seriesof shows that you were a part of,
I was like, this is whoI read on the page as a
kid, you know, more thanGene Hackman, more than Michael Rosenbaum,
(09:37):
who were both great. You kindof for me brought Lex Luthor the most
to life off the page. Well, thank you. I you know,
that's really kind of you say.It meant a lot to me because I
was a comic book fan and youknow, was had delved deeply into the
lore of it, and you know, and grew up with with Hackman and
uh and love Rosenbaum. You know, the just being mentioned in their company
(10:01):
is amazing. Uh So I Iyou know that that's where I'm at.
But uh, but for me,it's tough because Michael Rosenbaum on on Smallville.
Uh, you know, they theygot so far into that character and
they created all this this amazing backstoryfor him and they and they created this
amazing relationship. But you know thatthat's the you know, is sort of
(10:24):
descended from the super Boy line ofcomics. And uh and you know,
for me, that's that was thedefinitive Lex Luthor for me, for was
was Rosenbaum. So uh, youknow, I I but again, and
and one thing that was very coolwas that the Supergirl producers when they asked
me to do this, you know, we we didn't get for you know,
(10:46):
when we're in talking about it,it took a while before we realized,
oh, yeah, this is ouropportunity to do the comics version of
Lex Luthor that hasn't been on screen. You know. So that's so so
you know, when we got theopportunity to do that, we said,
oh, okay, that's what we'regoing to do. Well, y'all nailed
it. I mean absolutely, you'remy favorite Lex Luthor. I mean,
(11:07):
and again, everybody does a greatjob at it, and Michael and Gene,
but like I said, reading itfrom the pages to the screen,
I felt like you were the mosttrue to the character. And again,
congratulations on that. Congratulations on extendedfamily as well as the lawyer's guns and
money. Before I let you go, I would be remiss to not ask
you about this because my favorite movieof all time is Back to the Future.
(11:28):
You almost I think we're in Backto the Future. You read or
you auditioned for the script, butyou said it was a different Back to
the Future what you read. Iwould love to know what the difference was.
Yes, the Back of the Futurethat I read was an earlier draft
of it that had a very differentending. It had a whole the time
(11:50):
machine was not a DeLorean, ithad a secret formula that it turns out
that the secret formula was Coca cola. And actually you can find a PDF
of this script floating around. Youjust have to you have to do some
searches. It also had a wholedifferent final sequence where because it needed enough
(12:11):
power, instead of getting power froma lightning bolt, it needed power from
a nuclear explosion. So it wasMarty sneaking onto a nuclear test site in
nineteen fifty five and waiting for thebomb to go off. And actually there's
a whole sequence in there where hehides a refrigerator that that Spielberg borrowed later
(12:33):
for Crystal Skull for Indiana Jones andthe Crystal Skull. So yeah, it's
so interesting to read it because becauseit's a really fun script, you can
see why Spielberg wanted to do it. But you're like, wow, they
made a bunch of changes and theyreally nuts with this thing. This isn't
the movie I read for well.John Cryer again extended family congratulations on the
(12:56):
show is so much fun to watch. I really encourage everyone to alright and
check it out and check out lawyers, guns and money of the accomplable.
John Crier, thank you so muchfor joining us this morning. Thank you,
thank you so much. Fun
Hi, everybody, This is BobGail, co creator Back to the Future,
and you're listening to Brad Gilmore.Stop, Okay, it's mere Marten.
Can't be such a bat to thefuture. Oh. I know he
did send me back to the future, but I'm back. I'm back from
the future. Wait a minute,Wait, by gosh five, are you
(00:27):
telling me that you built the timemachine the way I see it? If
you're gonna build a time machine out, why not doing some style? And
he's joining us right now. I'mso excited to talk to this man.
We're talking to you about the newshow Extended Family, which is every Tuesday
(00:50):
at seven thirty on NBC following NightCourt. The often imitated but never duplicated,
the one and only John Cryer joinsus this morning, John, how
you doing and great? I wasnot aware that I was imitated that much
all the time. All the time, I'm doing the John Cryer impression every
day. It feels like it's oneof your go tos. I get it,
(01:11):
I get it. I totally getit. It's John Crier, Sean
Connery and and and President Bush.Those are my three impressions. I can
do that in your hip pocket,right you know, look, the new
show Extended Family for people who don'tknow, the concept is incredible. It's
(01:32):
you know, about a couple thatthat has an unwdding ceremony, they get
divorced, and then they still chooseto live together and and have this new
concept of nesting. I mean,this is a really interesting concept for a
sitcom. I'm sure there was alot of meat on the bone when you
read the pilot. Well, yeah, I mean, obviously it's very simple
and uh, you know, it'sa simple idea. Obviously it's not for
(01:53):
everybody, but but it was inspiredby the owner of the Boston Celtics did
this when when he married his wife, their ex husband shares an apartment with
them that they keep so the kidsdon't have to go back and forth.
The kids stay in the same apartment. Uh, and they and the parents
go back and forth. And obviously, you know, it's not everybody can
(02:14):
do this, but but it endedup working out great for them, and
they've managed to make this lovely,kind of bizarre friendship out of it.
They've remained very close friends. Andthat's really what the what the at the
heart of the show is you know, keeping uh, you know, finding
a weird friendship and having fun withit, you know, that's that's what
(02:37):
that's what we do on the show. Yeah, and you can you see
those dynamics at play between you andand Abigail and Donald Faison, which is
the cast is insane. But letme ask you this though, when you
do read, I'm sure your pitchshows all the time, or at least
that's what I would imagine. Andwhen you read them, do you read
because I heard somebody say one time, when I read a pilot script,
(02:59):
I try to see what the openingof season two is gonna be. Do
you have that to where you cansee, oh, I could see the
progression of this character, or youjust say, look, this is a
really funny concept. I'm sure we'regonna figure this out. You know.
It's a little bit of both.The thing with comedy is you kind of
have to play it as it lays, you know. Like here's an interesting
(03:23):
example in Two and a half Men, And if you watch the pilot of
Two and a half Men, myson Angus's character is a super smart kid.
But then later on they realized thatwhat Angus was amazing at playing at
was kind of a dumb kid.So they kind of changed his character.
(03:43):
And it's interesting because what happens isyou sort of have to have a concept
that's fertile but simple enough, andthen then you just have to roll with
it. Then you have to youknow, once, like the original character
as written for the Boston Celtics ownerwas kind of this rich, kind of
out of touch guy, and andbut once we had the opportunity of having
having Donald's FaZe on, it waslike, oh no, that's not going
(04:05):
to work for Donald Fazon, let'shave let's let's make him a different guy,
you know, And and it's beenyou know, so it's a combination
of both. You kind of haveto have this idea of what is what
the show is going to be,but then when when opportunities present themselves,
you got to roll with them.That makes a lot of sense to me.
I mean you're going with also,you know, following the laugh right,
(04:28):
you know, recognizing what the audienceis reacting the most to, and
then capitalizing on that when you havea dynamic at play though with you and
your character. In Abigail's character,where there are a couple who's divorced,
so once they had this great lovefor each other, obviously that love fizzles
out, but they're still trying tomake it work. Is there anything like
and forgive me if this is likea mundane question, but is there anything
(04:48):
that you and Abigail have to doto create that chemistry or do you just
like you said, you play what'son the page? Mostly? What was
the reason we have Abigail? Uh? You know, besides she's got this
great body of work. I mean, you know, she's mad Men and
Rectify and Suits and Gray's Anatomy andall that stuff. Was that she and
(05:10):
I? When she and I argue, there's something fun about it. Uh.
And we thought, okay, you'regonna have to watch these people argue,
hopefully for years. So who arewho's you know? Are there?
You know there's people you watch andthey argue and it's it's not fun.
It's not fun. But but whenAsgil and I were taking each other to
tax task rather it was it waspretty hilarious. So that was we said,
(05:34):
Okay, that's what works, youknow, and I and I wish
I knew exactly why that worked,but but it didn't. I don't.
It was just it's just her.She's just great. Is there something about
being in a multiicam sitcom environment thatis more conducive for the actor because you
get somewhat of that instant gratification becauseyou have the studio audience in there,
(05:56):
you sort of know when things areworking. Oh yes, that helps so
much. I mean because because I'veshot, you know, single camera comedies
and I've shot multiple camera comedies andyou know they're they're different skills. But
but having an audience there, especiallybecause the writing is written by guy named
Michael Malley, who's who's actually anactor you probably recognize with the song and
(06:19):
he was nominated for Emmys for Gleeand stuff like that, and uh,
but his writing is very fast andvery uh so figuring out where the laps
are going to come is incredibly important. Uh and so so being able to
actually work this out in front ofpeople is just a huge, huge bonus.
(06:43):
Yeah. I can only imagine likejust knowing on the set. I
remember watching like a making of Seinfeldand Larry David. If the joke didn't
work, he'd be right there onthe floor they rewrite it and reshoot it.
And having that that ability to kindof alter the game plan as the
clock is ticking, I wanted toask you though also met the family again.
It's on after Night Court Tuesdays onseven thirty Central on NBC. Lawyer's
(07:05):
Guns and Money is a podcast thatyou narrate and produce. And when when
I read the synopsis for the podcast, I'm like, well, this has
me written all over it. Canyou tell people about this project? Uh?
Lawyer's Guns and Money was this crazystory that that that came across my
transom. A guy named Jack Bryan, who made a wonderful documentary called Active
(07:25):
Measures If you ever get a chance, uh, brought me this this true
story about this young public defender inMiami, never tried a felony case before
his first sell any cases. Thisthis whack job who says that, uh,
he's he's working for the c Ia secretly uh of you know,
secretly transporting guns, you know,and everybody's I yet sure you are,
(07:45):
sir. And he hands the guya phone number, says you don't believe
me, call this number. Andhe calls the number and it's the White
House. And this guy ended upuncovering this huge secret war in Central America
that the Reagan administration was trying tocover up. And I remember this,
this whole scandal from when I wasa kid, you know, I was
(08:07):
in my early twenties when when itall broke. But there was so much
more to the story. And whatwas hilarious was it's this insane, crazy,
funny story. And so I gotto uh so when you know,
and a lot of it has onlyreally come out now because you know,
a lot of stuff takes a longtime, uh to to for this information
(08:30):
to come out. So we've beenuh so we recorded this podcast about the
story of this this young public defender, and uh you know, it turned
out to be a really terrific podcast. Wow, man, I cannot wait
to check that out. That asLawyer's Guns and Money. You're you're doing
a little bit of everything, JohnQuarr but here but here's you know,
why I said you're often imitated,always duplicated, or never duplicated is for
(08:52):
this reason. So I'm a I'ma massive, you know, a comic
book fan. I've always have been. And I'm not sure if you're aware
of this, but there is apretty strong debate on the internets of who
is the best lex luthor of alltime. Now, a lot of people
say, you know, you automaticallyhave to give it up for Gene Hackman.
And Gene Hackman was great. Butthe real argument between fans of this
(09:13):
generation, or at least my generation, is is it Crier, is it
Rosenbaum? Where do you sit onthis? Because your your Lex Luthor was
so like when I would read LexLuthor as a kid in the comics,
when I saw you in the inthe you know, in the in the
Aero Verse or you know those seriesof shows that you were a part of,
I was like, this is whoI read on the page as a
kid, you know, more thanGene Hackman, more than Michael Rosenbaum,
(09:37):
who were both great. You kindof for me brought Lex Luthor the most
to life off the page. Well, thank you. I you know,
that's really kind of you say.It meant a lot to me because I
was a comic book fan and youknow, was had delved deeply into the
lore of it, and you know, and grew up with with Hackman and
uh and love Rosenbaum. You know, the just being mentioned in their company
(10:01):
is amazing. Uh So I Iyou know that that's where I'm at.
But uh, but for me,it's tough because Michael Rosenbaum on on Smallville.
Uh, you know, they theygot so far into that character and
they created all this this amazing backstoryfor him and they and they created this
amazing relationship. But you know thatthat's the you know, is sort of
(10:24):
descended from the super Boy line ofcomics. And uh and you know,
for me, that's that was thedefinitive Lex Luthor for me, for was
was Rosenbaum. So uh, youknow, I I but again, and
and one thing that was very coolwas that the Supergirl producers when they asked
me to do this, you know, we we didn't get for you know,
(10:46):
when we're in talking about it,it took a while before we realized,
oh, yeah, this is ouropportunity to do the comics version of
Lex Luthor that hasn't been on screen. You know. So that's so so
you know, when we got theopportunity to do that, we said,
oh, okay, that's what we'regoing to do. Well, y'all nailed
it. I mean absolutely, you'remy favorite Lex Luthor. I mean,
(11:07):
and again, everybody does a greatjob at it, and Michael and Gene,
but like I said, reading itfrom the pages to the screen,
I felt like you were the mosttrue to the character. And again,
congratulations on that. Congratulations on extendedfamily as well as the lawyer's guns and
money. Before I let you go, I would be remiss to not ask
you about this because my favorite movieof all time is Back to the Future.
(11:28):
You almost I think we're in Backto the Future. You read or
you auditioned for the script, butyou said it was a different Back to
the Future what you read. Iwould love to know what the difference was.
Yes, the Back of the Futurethat I read was an earlier draft
of it that had a very differentending. It had a whole the time
(11:50):
machine was not a DeLorean, ithad a secret formula that it turns out
that the secret formula was Coca cola. And actually you can find a PDF
of this script floating around. Youjust have to you have to do some
searches. It also had a wholedifferent final sequence where because it needed enough
(12:11):
power, instead of getting power froma lightning bolt, it needed power from
a nuclear explosion. So it wasMarty sneaking onto a nuclear test site in
nineteen fifty five and waiting for thebomb to go off. And actually there's
a whole sequence in there where hehides a refrigerator that that Spielberg borrowed later
(12:33):
for Crystal Skull for Indiana Jones andthe Crystal Skull. So yeah, it's
so interesting to read it because becauseit's a really fun script, you can
see why Spielberg wanted to do it. But you're like, wow, they
made a bunch of changes and theyreally nuts with this thing. This isn't
the movie I read for well.John Cryer again extended family congratulations on the
(12:56):
show is so much fun to watch. I really encourage everyone to alright and
check it out and check out lawyers, guns and money of the accomplable.
John Crier, thank you so muchfor joining us this morning. Thank you,
thank you so much. Fun
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