Your Mental Sorbet: Script to Screen: Back to the Future

Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

GREAT SCOTT!!! Here is another "Mental Sorbet". It could mean that blog post inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance, almost as if it were the temporal junction point of the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence.  

Me with the Time Machine.

World of Cinemagic

As you may have noticed from reading this blog, or my BuzzFeed, that I am a huge Back to the Future fan. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this trilogy has stood the test of time (Pun Intended). You can never go wrong with good story telling. The most amazing part to me is that the Back to the Future trilogy now has more fans who were not born when the movies were released and there is more Back to the Future merchandise available now than was available when the movies were new BTTF Time Travel Terminal - Your One-Stop Shop For All Your Back to the Future Collecting Needs. 
Perhaps another reason the movies are popular with the younger set is that Back to the Future is one of the few movie franchise' the show a positive depiction of the future and not the apocalyptic fare that is being offered. People prefer a future with flying cars, Hoverboards and self-tying "Nike Air Mag".

Ruben and Tony Figueroa - August 2001

I've watched all the movies countless times, visited some of the sets and was one of the first hosts at Universal Studios Hollywood's World of Cinemagic featuring The Back to the Future Special Effects Stage.  

I even wrote my own Back to the Future Novel Titled 

Back to the Future - Ripple Effect

There are two Back to the Future documentaries in production. 

Back In Time by Jason Aron

A film about the cultural impact of Back to the Future—30 years later—told from the viewpoint of the DeLorean Time Machine.

The Time Machinists - a documentary about the Back To The Future films includes never before seen interviews & artwork from original BTTF filmmakers like Co-Creator Bob Gale.

Back to Back to the Future
A comic book written by David Guy Levy tells the story of what would happen if the filmmakers of Back to the Future went back in time and made sure Eric Stoltz was never replaced by Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in the popular film series. All proceeds will go to benefit the Young Storytellers Foundation. http://www.givingbacktothefuture.com

 

The Future Is Now - GE ad Published on September 5, 2013

 

So now I give you this week's "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths. 

From UCTV, University of California Television Script to Screen: Back to the Future. Screenwriter and producer Bob Gale joins Christopher Lloyd, who played Dr. Emmett Brown, to share rare insights into the Back to the Future series. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center"

 

Stay Tuned... or should I say,
"See you in the FUTURE"

Tony Figueroa

“It’s the ripple effect!”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tob/22-animated-neon-posters-from-classic-movies-biby

Back To The Future Part II USA Today with my update.

 

 

William Schallert: Next on TVC

Actor William Schallert and comedy writer Bob Mills will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing July 24-30 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Detroit, MI
Wednesday 7/24
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Sunday 7/28
8pm ET, 5pm PT
2am ET, 11pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at WROMRadio.net

WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Vero Beach, FL
Wednesday 7/24
9pm ET, 6pm PT
Click the On Air button at WYYR.com

Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Wednesday 7/24
11pm ET, 8pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks

Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 7/26
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV

Talktainment Radio
Columbus, OH
Thursday 7/25
2am ET, 11pm PT
Friday 7/26
3am ET, Midnight PT
Noon ET, 9am PT
Click on the Listen Live button at TalktainmentRadio.com

KKYT 93.7 FM The Coyote
Ridgecrest, CA
Sunday 7/28
9pm PT
Monday 7/29
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at Coyote395.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KKYT

KHMB Radio 1710 AM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 7/28
9pm PT
Monday 7/29
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
or use the Live365 app on your smartphone and type in KHMB

The Radio Slot Network
San Francisco, CA
Monday 7/29
9pm ET, 6pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com

Passionate World Radio
Ann Arbor, MI
Tuesday 7/30
9:30pm ET, 6:30pm PT
with replays at various times throughout the week at PWRTalkonDemand.com
Click on the Listen Now button at PWRTalk.com

Known to three generations of television viewers for his roles on The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and Get Smart, not to mention more than 100 motion pictures and countless other TV appearances, William Schallert is one of the most prolific character actors in entertainment history.

Before moving into film and television, Bill began his career as a member of the Circle Theater group in Los Angeles, where he worked with such legends as Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Albertson, Kathleen Freeman and Danny Arnold.

Bill is a great raconteur, and he’ll share some memories of his career when he joins us in our second hour.














Comedy writer Bob Mills will join us in our first hour for Part 2 of our conversation about Bob Hope. Bob’s television career included 15 years as a staff writer for Hope beginning in 1977.

Bob’s book, The Laugh Makers, not only provides great insight into Bob Hope, but takes you behind the scenes of the last decades of the network variety show while also paying tribute to the “Gag Men” and “Gag Women” who made it happen.









TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wed and Sun 8pm ET, 5pm PT on WROM Radio
Wed 9pm ET, 6pm PT on WYYR: Yesteryear Radio
Wed 11pm ET, 8pm PT on IndianaTalks.com
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Fri Noon ET, 9am PT on Talktainment Radio
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Midnight ET on KKYT 93.7 FM The Coyote (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Midnight ET on KHMB Radio 1710 AM (Half Moon Bay, Calif.)
Mon 9pm ET, 6pm PT on The Radio Slot Network
Tue 9:30pm ET, 6:30pm PT on Passionate World Radio
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner
and now on your mobile phone via www.stitcher.com/TVConfidential
Follow us online at www.tvconfidential.net
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Dennis Farina

I have a home in Arizona. I go a couple months a year, but basically Chicago is my home

- Dennis Farina

Dennis Farina died today in a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona after suffering a pulmonary embolism.
Farina was born on February 29, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, to Sicilian-American parents Iolanda, a homemaker, and Joseph Farina, a Sicilian immigrant doctor.



Before becoming an actor, Farina served 18 years in the Chicago Police Department's burglary division, from 1967 to 1985.

I don't know if I have a technique. I'm just trying to remember the words

- Dennis Farina

Farina began his work in show business working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, which subsequently led to an interest in acting when Mann cast him in a small role in the 1981 film Thief.

Farina proceeded to moonlight as an actor in the Chicago theater scene before Mann chose him for his Crime Story series. Farina played the mobster Albert Lombard in Michael Mann's other television show, Miami Vice.

Two of his most well-known movie characters are Jimmy Serrano, the mob boss from Midnight Run, and Ray "Bones" Barboni, a rival criminal of Chili Palmer's in Get Shorty. He also played FBI Agent Jack Crawford in the first Hannibal Lecter crime film, Michael Mann's Manhunter.
Other movies in Farina's filmography include Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (as Army Lieutenant Colonel Walter Anderson), Striking Distance, Another Stakeout, Little Big League, Snatch, The Mod Squad, Big Trouble and Out of Sight. He co-starred with Bette Midler in the romantic comedy That Old Feeling.
Farina demonstrated quite a flair for comedy. He won an American Comedy Award for his performance in Get Shorty and starred in a television sitcom, In-Laws, from 2002-03. He had a comic role opposite Ed Harris and Helen Hunt in the HBO production of Empire Falls in 2005 and opposite Alan Rickman in 2008's Bottle Shock.
In early 2005, Farina provided the voice of aging boxer-turned-superhero Wildcat on Justice League Unlimited.

The producers of the long-running television series Law & Order hired Farina as Det. Joe Fontana after the retirement of Jerry Orbach's character Lennie Briscoe. Farina stayed with the show for two years, but his character was not as popular with viewers as Orbach's Lennie Briscoe had been. As a result, in May 2006, it was announced that Farina was leaving Law & Order to pursue other projects, including 2007's You Kill Me opposite Ben Kingsley and 2008's What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.
His role of Detective Lt. Mike Torello on Crime Story was as a Chicago police officer, who was later seconded to the U.S. Justice Department. Farina's Law & Order character, Joe Fontana, worked for Chicago Homicide before his transfer to the NYPD. As is common on Law & Order, Fontana shared a number of other characteristics with the actor who played him: they hailed from the same Chicago neighborhood, attended the same parochial school, and had the same tastes in both clothes and music.

In October 2008, Farina became the new host of Unsolved Mysteries when it returned to television with a new five-season, 175-episode run on Spike TV. Farina replaced Robert Stack, who had hosted the series for its entire original 15-year run before his death in 2003. The series would include re-edited segments from previous incarnations on NBC, CBS, and Lifetime (all originally hosted by Stack) as well as several new original stories.
Farina played the title role in a 2011 independent film, The Last Rites of Joe May, written and directed by Joe Maggio, shot on location in Chicago.

He co-starred in the 2012 HBO horse-race gambling series Luck, with Dustin Hoffman, directed by Michael Mann. He also had a recurring guest role in 2013 in the television comedy series New Girl.

I learned a long time ago: You're in the entertainment business. You're not in the reality business. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other

- Dennis Farina 

Good Night Mr. Farina

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: July 2013 PART III

Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

CLICK HERE for a list of Stations

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

July 27, 2003

Bob Hope dies at age 100 in Toluca Lake, California. Known for entertaining American servicemen and women for more than five decades, Hope had a career that spanned the whole range of 20th century entertainment, from vaudeville to Broadway musicals to radio, television and movies.

He was born Leslie Townes Hope, the fifth of seven sons, on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England. In 1907, Hope’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he began his entertainment career as a dancer and vaudeville performer. During the 1930s, he appeared in Broadway musicals, along with such performers as Fanny Brice and Ethel Merman. In 1934, Hope wed the nightclub singer Dolores Reade; the marriage would endure until his death. In 1938, Hope, who became known for his snappy one-liners, rose to national fame with his own radio show on NBC and his first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.

In 1940, Hope co-starred in the box-office hit Road to Singapore with Bing Crosby. The film, about a pair of singing, wisecracking con men, was the first of seven “Road” movies the pair would make. Hope appeared in more than 50 feature films during his career. He hosted the Academy Awards 18 times, although he never won an Oscar himself, an occurrence he turned into a long-running joke. However, he did receive five special awards from the Academy, including two honorary Oscars. Hope was also a top entertainer on TV and from 1959 to 1996 he made 284 “Bob Hope specials” for NBC.
Starting with World War II, Hope began entertaining American troops at military bases around the world. His USO tours traveled to military bases during times of war (Vietnam, the Persian Gulf), as well as times of peace. He was so beloved for his work with the military for more than half a century that Congress passed a resolution in 1997 making Hope an honorary veteran. It was one of the countless honors that Hope received throughout his career. In 1998, he was granted honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa