From left to right: Clara, Verne, Jules, Doc and Marty.
Back to the Future: The Animated Series was an animated series based on the Back to the Future trilogy of feature films. The series lasted two seasons, each lasting 13 episodes, and ran on CBS from September 7, 1991 to November 28, 1992. It repeated on ABC from September 1993 to May 1995. and later repeated on FOX from March 2003 to September 2003. The show focused on Marty McFly and Doc Brown, together with Doc's wife Clara, their sons Jules and Verne, dog Einstein, and Marty's girlfriend Jennifer Parker as they travelled through time using the DeLorean and steam train time machines.
Doc and his family have settled down in 1991 Hill Valley after living in the 1890s, but their time travelling adventures are by no means over. The films' villain Biff Tannen also pops up from time to time. In addition, relatives of both the McFly and Tannen families are plentiful in most of the past or future parallel time zones that the time travellers visit.
Marty McFly and the Brown family.
Mary Steenburgen (Clara) and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff) voiced their characters from the films, and Christopher Lloyd played Doc Brown in live action segments that opened and closed each episode. However, Dan Castellaneta voiced the animated Doc Brown, while David Kaufman voiced Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox's animated character. In addition, Bill Nye performed scientific experiments during live action segments on each episode. The series was executive produced by Bob Gale, co-writer of the first BTTF and writer of BTTF II and BTTF III.
Many fans do not consider the events of the series to be canon with the timeline presented in the original trilogy, with the only exceptions being the birthdates of the main characters and some characters' middle names.[citation needed]
Although this show is no longer being shown on television, nine VHS cassettes and three volumes of the show on laserdisc were released between 1993 and 1994, chronicling 18 of the 26 episodes. The show is not yet available on DVD.
Voice Talents
- David Kaufman - Marty McFly
- Dan Castellaneta - Dr. Emmett Brown
- Christopher Lloyd - Dr. Emmett Brown (live-action segments)
- Mary Steenburgen - Clara Brown
- Joshua Keaton - Jules Brown
- Troy Davidson - Verne Brown
- Cathy Cavadini - Jennifer Parker
- Thomas F. Wilson - Biff Tannen
- Danny Mann - Einstein
- Bill Nye - Himself (The Science Guy)
Brothers
- Joe Alaskey - Sheriff
- Hal Rayle - Additional voices
Episode guide
Below are the episode titles and first transmission dates for all 26 episodes.
Season 1
- 1 "Brothers" (September 7, 1991)
- 2 "A Family Vacation" (September 14, 1991)
- 3 "Forward to the Past" (September 21, 1991)
- 4 "Witchcraft" (September 28, 1991)
- 5 "Roman Holiday" (a.k.a. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Race") (October 5, 1991)
- 6 "Go Fly a Kite" (October 12, 1991)
- 7 "Time Waits for No Frog / Einstein's Adventure" (October 19, 1991)
- 8 "Batter Up" (October 26, 1991)
- 9 "Solar Sailors" (November 2, 1991)
- 10 "Dickens of a Christmas" (November 9, 1991)
- 11 "Gone Fishin'" (November 16, 1991)
- 12 "Retired" (November 23, 1991)
- 13 "Clara's Folks" (November 30, 1991)
Season 2
- 1 "Mac the Black" (September 5, 1992)
- 2 "Put on Your Thinking Caps, Kids! It's Time for Mr. Wisdom!" (September 12, 1992)
- 3 "A Friend In Deed" (September 19, 1992)
- 4 "Marty McFly PFC" (September 26, 1992)
- 5 "Verne's New Friend" (October 3, 1992)
- 6 "Bravelord and the Demon Monstrux" (October 10, 1992)
- 7 "The Money Tree" (October 17, 1992)
- 8 "A Verne by Any Other Name" (October 24, 1992)
- 9 "Hill Valley Brown-Out" (October 31, 1992)
- 10 "My Pop's an Alien" (November 7, 1992)
- 11 "Super Doc" (November 14, 1992)
- 12 "St. Louis Blues" (November 21, 1992)
- 13 "Verne Hatches an Egg" (November 28, 1992)
Notes
- The original DeLorean Time Machine was destroyed in Back to the Future III. Episode 1 ("Brothers") begins with Doc referring to the DeLorean appearing in this series as "the new DeLorean," indicating it as a completely new car rather than the original one repaired.
- In the opening credits for the first season, Doc is seen as starting from August 2, 1991; traveling to May 19, 2015, to pick up Marty (the main character in three BTTF movies and the series); and then back to June 10, 1885 to pick up Clara. From there, the three go to prehistoric times to pick up Jules and Verne, and all five arrive at the Brown home.
- The opening for the second season showed clips from the first season episodes Roman Holiday, Go Fly A Kite, Solar Sailors, Retired, A Family Vacation and Brothers.
- Although Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis have stated, in commentary, their view that a time machine would remain in the same physical location when going forward or backward in time (apparently correcting for the rotation and orbit of Earth), the animated series provided for the DeLorean to travel to a particular location and year, by voice command. Thus, in the first episode, "Brothers", the time circuits are set for February 11, 1864 and to move the time machine from Hill Valley, California, to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- Also in the episode "Brothers", the audience learns the modern origin of the Tannen family's catchphrase insult in a predestination paradox, "Butt head." Biff Tannen's relative Beauregard Tannen, a Confederate officer in the Civil War, called his enemies "buttocks brains" but changed it to "butt head" after being corrected by Verne. That era's Tannen said, "Butt heads... I like the sound of it."
- In a testament to the show's historical accuracy, the episode "Batter Up", aired November 9, 1991, which had Marty, Jules, and Verne travel to Boston to help baseball player "Pee Wee" McFly to improve his game in 1891, did accurately name the Boston team as the "Beaneaters", and even featured scenes involving then-real-life manager Frank Selee. However, in the first episode "Brothers", Doc claims that Babe Ruth was born on February 7, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland whereas the famous ballplayer was actually born on the previous day (February 6, 1895).
- In the episode "Solar Sailors", the Brown family visit 2091, in which they learn that the McFly family legacy has been immortalized in the McFly Space Cruises, in which Marty's great-granddaughter Marta McFly is a Captain. Additionally, aboard Marta McFly's ship there is a Marty McFly impersonator who performs Marty's music in a nostalgia act, hinting that Marty succeeded in becoming a famous rock star.
- Harvey Comics published a series of Back to the Future comic books starting in November 1991. With the cover header reading "The Adventure Has Only Begun!," the first issue featured Doc & Marty in 1927 Chicago.
- In 1991, McDonald's also released four Happy Meal toys, featuring Marty on his hoverboard, Doc in the DeLorean, Verne in his Junkmobile and Einstein in the time train. The junkmobile was glimpsed, briefly, in the episode "A Verne by Any Other Name".
- Both Marty's and Doc's middle names were revealed in the series as Seamus and Lathrop respectively. Marty's middle name comes from his great great grandfather Seamus McFly.
- Jennifer Parker's hair, brown in the films, becomes blonde in the series.
- Marty is the only member of his immediate parallel family to appear in the series.
- David Kaufman, who provided the voice of Marty, currently plays the role of the title character in the Nickelodeon cartoon series Danny Phantom. Dan Castellaneta, who supplied the voice of Doc, is most famous as the voice of Homer Simpson. Josh Keaton, who voiced Jules Brown, currently plays Peter Parker/ Spider-Man in the Spectacular Spider-Man Animated series.
External links
- Official Universal Pictures site advertising the trilogy.
- BTTF.com
- Back to the Future the Animated Series at the Internet Movie Database
v - e - d  | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|