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9 |
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"Hill Valley Brown-Out" is the ninth episode of the second season of Back to the Future: The Animated Series. It first aired on November 21, 1992.
Brief synopsis
After causing another power outage in Hill Valley, thus affecting the upcoming Founder's Day Celebration and angering Clara, Doc offers to fix the town's power plant by increasing its output and producing free electricity... Unfortunately, Doc's upgrades to the system causing everything electrical to turn on (and on and on.) People are unable to turn off lights, lawnmowers, hairdryers, etc... Biff decides to run Doc and his family "outta town." The town residents rally around Biff, who decides to "fix" the power plant. Biff causes everything to explode like fireworks, including street lights, etc... and the residents turn to Doc to shut the system down. Unfortunately, there is no power for the Founder's Day Celebration, which means no rock concerts, no bash-em-up bumper cars, etc... An old man shows up and tells everyone that there was no electricity when the town was first settled. The first Founder's Day was celebrated with horseshoe tossin', quiltin' bees, barn dances and chasin' greased pigs. Everyone decides to celebrate Founder's Day like the original Founders did.
Behind the scenes
- The title is a play on words, referring to both a situation of low electrical power (a "brownout") and the town's determination to drive Doc Brown out of the city.
- Hill Valley Brown-Out differs in significant respects other episodes of the animated series:
- The entire story takes place in the present (1992), although the town's founder has apparently been brought by Clara from the year 1850 in the DeLorean time machine.
- The episode is played more for laughs than for adventure, with comedy drawn from slapstick and mishaps.
- The episode has a "cast of thousands", with the residents of Hill Valley gathering in angry mobs to confront the Brown family at a sports arena, at the elementary school, outside a supermarket, and at the Courthouse Square.
- Biff Tannen turns out to be one of Doc Brown's neighbors, and attempts to bully Doc.
- Doc states out loud that he will go visit "the McFly family", and it appears that the McFly residence is the same as it was in 1985, but Marty is the only one who is at home.
- Biff refers to Biff Tannen Jr., who hitherto had only been mentioned in a draft screenplay, but the younger Tannen is not seen. Biff implies that his son is even more of a bully than he was.
Plot
Dramatis personae
New continuity
New individuals
- Founder of Hill Valley
New events
- Founder's Day Celebration
New locations
- Hill Valley power plant
- Hill Valley sports arena
- Hill Valley elementary school
- Hill Valley supermarket