Synopsis

An animated series for television based on the Back to the Future trilogy of feature films. Based on the highly successful Back to the Future movie trilogy, this series is set, um, "after" the events of the last film, as the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown in their DeLorean time machine continue. Joining the ride is Clara, (Doc's wife from Back To The Future Part III,) Jules and Verne… (their sons) Einstein the dog and Jennifer (Marty's girlfriend). And apparently there's a Tannen in every time as relatives of Biff keep popping up, and creating conflict. Mary Steenburgen and Tom Wilson reprise their roles from the movies. During live portions of the show, Christopher Lloyd reprised his role as Doc Brown and was joined by Bill Nye, who conducted experiments that were used in the show.

The most successful comedies at the time, such as Animal House (1978), Porky's (1981), and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), featured sexual and bawdy elements; Back to the Future was considered too tame in comparison.

Reasons given included the concept being unappealing to contemporary rebellious youth and the failures of other time travel films, such as The Final Countdown (1980) and Time Bandits (1981).

The only supporter of the project was Spielberg, but with their previous collaborations considered relative failures, Gale and Zemeckis feared another misstep would suggest they could get work only through being friends with Spielberg.

Zemeckis accepted the next project offered to him, Romancing the Stone (1984).

Spielberg disliked Price because he had rejected E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and demanded his involvement in Back to the Future be minimal.

Price's successor at Columbia, Guy McElwaine, was developing a satire of the Universal-owned noir film Double Indemnity (1944) called Big Trouble (1986).