'Back to the Future', Historian, Stephen Clark

0:07Jawad MirOne of the things I always, maybe I looked into it too much, and I wonder if you did too, about Back to the Future. So you know, you look at, you look at the first movie, and when Marty McFly travels back in time to his parents when in the…

0:22Stephen ClarkRight

0:22Jawad Mir... In the '50s, right? Or was it '60s? I can't…

0:25Stephen Clark1955.

0:25Jawad Mir'50, yeah, '55. And if time, and this is like me looking into it way too much. But I know it's a film, right? But from the science perspective, if there… ... Is time traveling, then shouldn't there be another Marty McFly already there when he's traveling back and... You know what I mean?

0:43Stephen ClarkYeah. Yeah, so Bob calls that the ripple effect. The, it... Yeah, so a lot of people say, well, when in Part II, when Marty and Doc leave 1985 and go to 2015, Marty sees himself as an old man. He should not exist in 2015 as an old man because he has skipped those 30 years. But Bob's time travel theory, suggests that is the ripple effect of him having gone there and successfully traveling back to his own time, th… and place in time. So, the fact that we see him as an old man just means that he successfully got back in time w… back to the future, back to his, original timeline, and, that he was able to live through those years to be an old man. So, I don't explain it nearly as well as Bob does so. But, yeah. You would think that, scientifically, and a lot of people bring that up, but, Bob explains it that, the fact that he is seen as an old man means that he successfully does get back to his own timeline and lives out those 30 years to be able to be an old man in 2015…

2:03Jawad MirSure

2:03Stephen Clark... When we see him, so.

2:05Jawad MirWhich one of Back to the Future is your favorite?

2:08Stephen ClarkPeople ask me that all the time. You know…

2:11Jawad MirA tough one, I know.

2:12Stephen ClarkIt is tough. I'm, I like all three of them for different reasons. I mean, the original you can't deny that it, that is, it is almost a perfect movie. But I see them as one long saga. So…

2:26Jawad MirYeah

2:26Stephen Clark... I… it kind of irks me when some of the, channels will air part one and part two, and then not part, not air part three. Or they'll air part three at the beginning, and then part one and then part two like they're doing it ni… 1885 to…

2:44Jawad MirOh

2:44Stephen Clark... 1985, 2015. And I go, "No." But, no, it's one continuous saga for me. And so, you know, if you, if you ask any of the actors, they all have different reasons, you know, which movies they like the... You know, I'm really good friends with Tom Wilson, and Tom, really enjoyed making part three the most, getting to ride, horses and being a cowboy and

3:10Jawad MirSure

3:11Stephen Clark... Just being able to do all the things he did, you know, riding a horse, and learning how to lasso, and, spinning his pistols and, you know, just being a cowboy. And so, each one, each one of them has a different answer, as to which film. You know, if they were in all three of them, they all have a different, love for which one that they like the most. But

3:37Jawad MirYeah

3:37Stephen Clark... But yeah, for me, you know, I think Part II resonates with so many people because of the futuristic elements of it. You know, we're be… we're seven years beyond that year now. That was…... Quite a surreal experience to live to that date and, see how different, the real 2015 turned out than what was, the projected version of that…

4:01Jawad MirYeah

4:01Stephen Clark... In the '80s. But

4:03Jawad MirWell, Jimmy Kimmel did a thing, right? I'm sure you saw the one with, Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox.

4:09Stephen ClarkYes. Oh, yeah.

4:09Jawad MirI think it was October 22nd, 2015 edition.

4:12Stephen ClarkYes.

4:13Jawad MirWhich was cool what you just said. Like, a lot of the inventions that they said that would come out, you know, flying cars, real hoverboards.

4:21Stephen ClarkYeah.

4:22Jawad MirCome back. I really find it fascinating with Back to the Future, all three films, even though, and this is not to say that there wasn't any effort, of course there was, but the fact that it was so cleverly done with limited number of sets, if you think about it…

4:42Stephen ClarkRight

4:43Jawad Mir... Like part three was, you know, just a small town which they probably built, I'm sure.

4:49Stephen ClarkThey did. I mean, it was…

4:50Jawad MirYeah

4:50Stephen Clark... Up in Sonora, California. It was a, it had been used in some other Westerns. They did, it was not, it was already an existing set that had been used in some other films. Oh, I'm drawing a blank on them now, but it, all Western-type films. And they did build the clock tower there, and they, you know, some other things that they had to build. But that set is completely gone. It, burned down in the late '90s.

5:20Jawad MirOh, shoot.

5:21Stephen ClarkYes. We, the Back to the Future sets have, been, harmed by fire and lightning several times, which is interesting that lightning has started…... Several fires. And so, but, you know, there was back, between, be… right after the Back to the Future ride came out, in '91, I remember there was a fire on the back lot in Hollywood…

5:50Jawad MirRight

5:51Stephen Clark... That was start, intentionally started by a disgruntled employee. But since then, you know, in 2008 there was a huge fire right there on that same set where that destroyed a lot of the original recording masters for a lot of recording artists that was stored in a… apparently in not a very safe location, for these digital and analog recordings, but a lot of, recordings were completely lost in the 2008 fire. And part of the, Back to the Future set was, destroyed. The clock tower has never been destroyed entirely, on the original set, but the one out in, Sor… Sonora, California, all of that burned down. It, none of that is there anymore, so.

6:37Jawad MirThat's crazy, man. But, going back to those, you know, if you, obviously there was, the Hill Valley set, like from… ... The first and the second that was a major part for the, both the first and the second films. But, then there was like, the home, the places where they lived, their homes.

6:56Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

6:57Jawad MirYou, right. Was that a real house in the first one?

7:00Stephen ClarkThat is a real house. And so…

7:01Jawad MirIt's still there?

7:02Stephen ClarkYep, it is still there. It's privately owned. I never publish the address. There are other places that do, but I never publicly addre… post anybody's, private, home address. But it is a real house, and, fans almost on a daily basis trek up to, Marty's, the McFly house.

7:25Jawad MirOh, wow

7:25Stephen Clark... Doc Brown's mansion is still there, and then it is a public place. It is the, Gamble House in Pasadena, California. I've been there, and, you can actually go inside that house. And m… all the interior shots from the movie were not shot there, but the exteriors were.

7:42Jawad MirRight.

7:42Stephen ClarkAnd so all that was done on a set. But, lot of locations that you can go to, and I always encourage fans if they're gonna g… if they're gonna go, please be respectful of, the homeowners and the people who actually live there. And, you know, the school, the, Hill Valley High School, is a, is a real high school you can go to. You can't go in, without special permission, but, I have been to that set. We did a, we did a tour back in October of 2015. There was a big fan convention called We're Going Back, and they had arranged a tour of the school, so I've been at the school. Mr. Strickland's house is really right around the corner from the school. You can actually walk past his house. There's just, a lot... You know, you can actually go to the mall, the, Twin Pines Mall. The Lone Pine Mall is actually the, in City of Industry.

8:45Stephen ClarkIt's the…

8:46Jawad MirIs it still there, the mall?

8:47Stephen ClarkIt's still there.

8:48Jawad MirHave they renovated it a lot, or is it still the same?

8:50Stephen ClarkThey, there's been a lot of renovations. JCPenney is no longer the anchor store there. It's something else now, but, it's very recognizable. You can go. I've been to the parking lot and, walked around where, the original time travel experience, experiment happened. And so, and then of course the sets at Universal Studios. But there's, a lot of different locations you can actually go to still today, and they are very recognizable. And fans from all over the world go to a lot of these and, the parking lot tends to have DeLoreans show up in the wee hours of the night. And so, security, will, if you're not careful, will run you out of the parking lot at…

9:35Jawad MirRight

9:35Stephen Clark... The mall. But yeah, it's, that, those are real surreal experiences to be able to go to these locations and, so okay, yeah, this is where the DeLorean traveled through time, or this is where Marty lived, this is where Doc Brown's house was. And so…

9:53Jawad MirYeah

9:54Stephen Clark... Very, really neat. I've not toured them all. California's quite a trek from Alabama. I've been there a few times, but,... Every time I go I n… never have enough time to spend to go do everything that I wanna do, but

10:11Stephen Clark... But I have been on a lot of those original

10:14Jawad MirSure

10:14Stephen Clark... Locations and, o… and on the original backs, back lot.

10:19Jawad MirIn terms of memorabilia, there's been so much, and I'm sure…

10:23Stephen ClarkThere has

10:24Jawad Mir... You know, and I'm sure you know all of them, all of them, you know about all of them, and then you probably own all of them.

10:30Stephen ClarkI've owned a lot of them. I have, I've actually worked on a lot of them, and so that's one of the things that I have enjoyed doing, as a subject matter expert, has been, consulting with a lot of the toy manufacturers. And so

10:45Jawad MirSo let me, let me rephrase the question. What…

10:47Stephen ClarkSure

10:47Jawad Mir... What product do you enjoy as a fan the most that you like, and which one you enjoyed working on the most?

10:56Stephen ClarkOh, that's a good question. You know, probably the most high profile one that I have worked on was almost a decade ago. It was 13, no, this was in 2013. Let's see if it'll come up. Let me get it…

11:15Jawad MirMove into... There you go. Okay. The Lego one? Yes.

11:17Stephen ClarkThe Lego. So, this came out nine years ago. Bob Gale and I both worked on that together, for l… for the Lego company. I wrote the instruction booklet that's inside of that. The, so, Lego, brought me in, and I did a l… several test runs of putting it together and correcting some of the instructions on how to put it together. But I also wrote a lot of the dialogue, the, just a lot of the material that goes into the booklet.

11:49Jawad MirRight.

11:49Stephen ClarkSo I enjoyed working on that. I did a lot of the promotion with, Nike when the Nike Mags were originally put out in, 2011. So, Nike brought me out to, help promote that on the back lot at Universal Studios, when they raised funds for the Michael J. Fox Foundation on eBay and sold, I think, 1,500, shoes, pairs of shoes, that l… made by Nike to mimic the exact, thing that Michael wore in Part 2. That was a fun promotion to work on. I'm currently working with, a company called Dr. Collector that puts out, prop replicas, and, they're based in Spain. I've, I've worked on a few things with them. I don't have one handy right in front of me. I should have grabbed one, but, I've got, I've actually got the key. So here, I don't know if you can see this. This is actually a…

12:46Jawad MirYep

12:47Stephen Clark... A DeLorean key. And so…

12:49Jawad MirNice

12:49Stephen Clark... One of the concepts I came up with was, making a replica of, Doc Brown's keys for the DeLorean, and so, that's a product that I resell on the website. And, they, you know, they kind of picked my brain, and, "What's something that has never come out before?" And they were coming out with a prop kit, and I don't have the prop kit. I've got a few pieces. So like, the Outatime license plate. Put them... Is that showing? Nope. There we go.

13:17Jawad MirThere you go. That's a perfect spot, yeah.

13:19Stephen ClarkSo they came out with a memories kit that was like a collectible kit that Marty would have collected on his time travel adventures. And so it has a plutonium stick. It has all these, it has the clock tower flyer, a lot of different memorabilia, like a brochure on living in Hill Valley, a lot of things that they put together, and I worked on that, with them. But, they said, "Well, what's something that has never been put out?" And I thought about it, and I thought, "Well, you know, the keys to the Delore… DeLorean would be really cool." And so there's a little name tag that, you do see in the film. Now, the actual keys in the film don't have the key fob, the black end on it, but the real DeLoreans did. So we went with that, and it's just a little…

14:04Jawad MirOh, nice

14:05Stephen Clark... $17 little prop rep… replica that, we sell on the website that,.. That, any time I have worked on a product, I u… I did a lot of, work over two decades ago with Sunstar and Welly, which are both diecast DeLorean, manufacturers. And so I wrote the, verbiage that went on the packaging of both of their products and helped design some of the packaging on those. And so it's fun now, 20 years later, to walk through and, you know, some collectible store and go, "Ah, there's one of the DeLoreans I worked on 20 years ago."

14:43Jawad MirNice

14:44Stephen Clark... And so that's kind of fun, very surreal for me to see those out in the wild. I used to sell them. They're, they're not manufactured anymore, but, some of them are still... I was in, Tennessee a few years ago on a trip with my family and just stumbled into a little gift shop, and they had one of the DeLoreans…

15:02Jawad MirOh, so nice

15:03Stephen Clark... On the shelf, and I go, "Hey." And so, but that's, that's a lot of fun to, be involved at that aspect a… as a fan 'cause a lot of, you know, there's been a lot of materials, a lot of collectibles that have come out that fans would say, "Oh, that is horrible. They messed up Marty's face," or, "It's not accurate. The DeLorean doesn't have the right license plate on it," you know, whatever it may be. And so I've enjoyed being the subject matter expert that some of these companies have con… you know, consulted with, to help them make it accurate. And so I've been very proud to be able to, be that geek that they bring in as a reference guide and say, "H… okay, help us with this. What…"

15:51Jawad MirSure

15:51Stephen Clark... "what tire should be on the DeLorean at this point in the, in the film, or what license plate?" Or... And so I've, I've enjoyed doing that, and so, I'm kind of a silent resource in that area where, people, who got, have these great collectibles on their shelves don't know that, there were earlier editions of that, had the wrong, had a Mr. Fusion that was too big or whatever the case was that had they not come to me, that those things would still be there today. And so I've enjoyed being, kind of the guide to some of these manufacturers on, collectibles. And so, the collectible sto… part of it has been really huge, and so, you know, I've enjoyed collecting, actual props from the films. I only have one that still, I still have in my collection. I used to have a lot, but over years, some of the lean years when Back to the Future was not as popular, I had to sell some of my collection to pay the bills, to keep the website going, and so…

16:54Jawad MirYeah

16:55Stephen Clark... So I used to own all of the original Polaroid continuity shots for all three films…

17:02Jawad MirOh, wow

17:03Stephen Clark... That I got from one of the prop masters. And so, I had to let those go several years ago in one of the lean years that, just had to pay the bills and had to sell those. So the only…

17:15Jawad MirFair enough

17:15Stephen Clark... Prop I still have to this day, and I don't have it here in Alabama, it's actually at the Hollywood Museum right now. There's a Back to the Future Hollywood Museum exhibit of, props and costumes and collectibles, at the Hollywood Museum. And so I've got, a prototype of the 1880… 1885 Hill Valley map that was in the train station in part three. So mine is not the actual map. Mine is a prototype. It's the only one known. There's only two known maps. There was the actual one they used in the film, then my prototype that, doesn't have all the aging on it, and it has... It's missing, the, it... When you see it in the film, there's a dotted line across Shoeshine Ravine. Mine is the earlier edition that is just blank. Actually, mine…

18:06Jawad MirAh

18:06Stephen Clark... I'm sorry. It's reversed. Mine has the dotted line. The original has no line across it because in the film they wanted to show that the bridge is completely gone. And so mine had a dot across it, to show that it was planned and, you know, on film it was gonna c… it was gonna show that it almost looked like it was a real, you know…

18:26Jawad MirYeah

18:26Stephen Clark... Completed line. And so they scrapped that. So I've got the original one that has the dot across the unfinished bridge, and it doesn't have all the aging paint on it, but, That actual prop is actually on display at that exhibit right now for the rest of this year, and probably on into next year. And then I've got a, full-scale Marty McFly, mannequin that is on display there that I commissioned several years ago, that was Marty on part two, riding the hoverboard on the, water in part two.

19:00Jawad MirAh.

19:00Stephen ClarkAnd so, I had, an artist, that actually worked on Jurassic Park, Nick Mara, was a special effects crew member, and he does commissions on, these... You… I'd found out about some of the stuff he did on Jaws and some other things and, commissioned him to build this Marty for me, several years ago. So the Marty McFly that you can see, life size of M… Michael J. Fox, is there, and then that mount. So collectibles like that are things that I like. And I know I've got this filter on, in my office, but I've got, I've got, a full-sized, standee of part two looking at me right now, and a standee of part three over in the corner here.

19:44Jawad MirYou should, you should let us see it. Come on.

19:46Stephen ClarkOh, let me see if, I can do my camera around. I don't know if it... Yeah, so.

19:51Jawad MirOh, nice.

19:52Stephen ClarkAnd it's, there's the part three over in the corner.

19:57Jawad MirCool.

19:58Stephen ClarkBut, I've got a lot of memorabilia in my office. I got a lot of autographs on the, on the walls. I've got a few autographs. There's one, there's one from Tom Wilson to the website.

20:14Jawad MirDo you plan, do you plan on keeping these for, or passing on to the next generation, or selling them, or what's your plan?

20:22Stephen ClarkYou know, I do sell stuff out of my collection from time to time. I'm getting old and so, I'm, I'm, I'm actually looking, at an end game of stepping aside at some point, in the next few years, and letting somebody else run the site at some point. But yeah, you know, 30, I've been doing it 30 years now, and, I'm a grandfather now, and,... I'm, I'm s… I still work. I'm, I'm in a part-time role at the university where I work now, and so

20:58Jawad MirSure

20:59Stephen Clark... Time marches on and s… you know, it's, it's,.. But yeah, you know, my kids are not interested in this and so,... My wife is certainly not interested in it, so, but

21:13Jawad MirFor sure

21:13Stephen Clark... It takes up a lot of the garage, it takes up a lot of the house, and so

21:18Jawad MirTime too, right? So.

21:20Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. So a lot of time.

21:22Jawad MirYeah, I can…

21:22Stephen ClarkA lot of time

21:23Jawad Mir... I can, I can imagine. And, you know, talking about memorabilia, one thing I've always find, I'm sure you would do this too from time to time, eBay always was the place to be at to find stuff.

21:34Stephen ClarkRight.

21:34Jawad MirBut now Facebook Marketplace, you know, like I would, if I would go to Facebook Marketplace and type in Back to the Future, you'll find Marty McFly, or Marty McFly's, McFly's jacket, the Lego

21:46Stephen ClarkRight

21:47Jawad Mir... DeLorean, like the different versions of it. So that's, that's a pretty cool place, to buy stuff that is not out there anymore, right? The old stuff.

21:58Stephen ClarkYou know, that's something I've not really looked into. I mean, I'm aware of Facebook Marketplace, but I've never gone on there looking for any collectibles or…

22:05Jawad MirIt's used stuff, right? It's not brand new.

22:07Stephen ClarkYeah. Yeah. Right. Right.

22:07Jawad MirIt's not, like if you're like a hardcore collectible, like, you know, you would probably, do that. One of the things I've noticed, and I don't know if it happens with Back to the Future and what's the license, well, obviously there's a license involved.

22:23Stephen ClarkRight.

22:23Jawad MirI recently discovered this. If you go on Instagram, there is a bunch of Jurassic Park fans… ... That have like ridiculous amount of, memorabilia. So there are these companies based in Europe, Asia, especially I think Japan, which actually make... And remember that com… probably still around, Sideshow Toys? That company?

22:49Stephen ClarkOh, Sideshow, yes. Yeah.

22:50Jawad MirYeah. So they, I remember back in nine… late '90s or early 2000s, they came up with a Jurassic Park, the ending scene where the raptors attack.

22:58Stephen ClarkOkay.

22:59Jawad MirIt's like a small miniature about this high, like…

23:01Stephen ClarkRight. Right

23:01Jawad Mir... But it's done really authentically. So I thought that was the only one that existed. But I discovered other, these guys on Instagram, they have shelves of different scenes from Jurassic Park, and they've been done like really, obviously they must have had license and stuff. I'm wondering why didn't Back to the Future go in that direction? You know, there's so many memorable moments that you could…

23:26Stephen ClarkYeah, you know, initially Universal just did not, license the IP for merchandise back when the films were out. And, there was some, you know, part two came out and there was a remote control DeLorean. I've got one up on the shelf somewhere behind me. The part two had some, memorabilia and, that was licensed. It was not a whole lot. Part one had very little. Part three had very little, but part two had some. When Back to the Future ride came about, obviously they started doing a lot more licensing to have things that you could buy, you know, Marty's, rainbow cap, lots of different th… T-shirts, and stuffed Einstein dogs, and all kinds of things you could buy at the gift shops. Over time, it'll, the Back to the Future IP has become really big in terms of, licensing and it continues.

24:26Stephen ClarkJust two years ago, the 35th anniversary was the biggest year for merchandise ever. There was so many things that came out. NECA came out with their action figures. I've got a few… These are the ones that are about to come out. Doc Brown, let me put it in front of my face.

24:46Jawad MirRight there, yeah. Oh, wow, nice.

24:48Stephen ClarkThis one is only available in Europe right now. It's coming out, soon, and there's a Griff that was only available at Target.

24:59Jawad MirWho is that? Is that

25:00Stephen ClarkA Griff Tannen.

25:01Jawad MirOh, Griff, okay.

25:02Stephen ClarkYeah, it…

25:04Jawad MirOkay

25:04Stephen Clark... Really hard to see with the packaging.

25:06Jawad MirYeah, it's, it's, it's the background. But

25:08Stephen ClarkYeah

25:08Jawad Mir... How much are these going for in Europe, do you know?

25:10Stephen ClarkBetween 33 and $35 each.

25:15Jawad MirThat's not bad

25:15Stephen Clark... So we sell those on the website through backtothefuture.store. And so, NECA came out with a number of those two years ago. Funko came out with a number of Pops. Super 7 came out with some action figures. There was a lot of material, a lot of collectibles that came out two years ago. Playmobil is a company I've worked with. Playmobil came out with a DeLorean.

25:40Jawad MirYep.

25:40Stephen ClarkThey came out with, some play sets. They're, they're st… they've still got some more that are planned, for either later this year or early next year. And so, l… there's a lot of play sets, a lot of collectibles that,.. And that's where a l… that's how a lot of kids are discovering Back to the Future now is that y… going through Walmart and seeing a DeLorean and going, "What's that?"

26:03Jawad MirWell, it…

26:04Stephen ClarkAnd, discovering the toys before they discover the movies.

26:07Jawad MirI… you're absolutely right, because my son, he knows about DeLorean.

26:11Stephen ClarkYeah.

26:12Jawad MirHe, because of Back to the Future. That's the first thing, and he wants to watch, the movies and we're, we're p… probably gonna watch it sometime during Christmas time…

26:22Stephen ClarkYeah

26:23Jawad Mir... When the holidays come in. But yeah, the kids, they know because of the cars. They know about DeLorean, especially boys. You know, boys.

26:31Stephen ClarkEspecially boys, okay.

26:31Jawad MirYeah. And I feel that one thing with the Back to the Future, a lot of stuff that's coming back, right? Like, if you, all the stuff that Spielberg produced in the '80s, they're coming back. Like, Animaniacs came back. I don't know if you remember the…

26:52Stephen ClarkRight. I remember

26:52Jawad Mir... Tiny Toons Adventures are coming back. They're working on, I don't know if it's a series, I read about this a few days, last week. They were, b… they've been trying to make a sequel to Goonies for a long time.

27:05Stephen ClarkRight. I have followed that.

27:06Jawad MirBut now what... Yeah, but now what they're doing is, way back in the late, early 2000s, remember Frame by Frame: Raiders of the Lost Ark came out by a group of fans that got recognized by Lucas…

27:18Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I remember.

27:19Jawad MirYeah.

27:20Stephen ClarkI forgot what it was called, but I remember, I remember that.

27:23Jawad MirI remember, I forget the name too, but, so that idea, they're gonna make a series on Goonies where a group of fans recreate Goonies…

27:31Stephen ClarkOh, okay. Okay

27:31Jawad Mir... Frame by frame. So there's all that stuff happening, right? Is there any kind of... I know the sequels will never happen, neither do I want any kind of sequels…

27:44Stephen ClarkRight

27:44Jawad Mir... Or a remake or anything, but something that re… gives a rebirth to the Back to the Future franchise? I think…

27:52Stephen ClarkWell, the Back to the Future musical. The musical is

27:54Jawad MirOkay

27:55Stephen Clark... Is, it…

27:55Jawad MirLet's talk about that

27:56Stephen Clark... Yeah, so Back to the Future musical debuted in, Manchester, England two years ago. And, just, it was debuting, it had just launched maybe three weeks when COVID hit, and then they had to shut it all down.

28:13Stephen ClarkAnd it moved to London, later that year, and then it had to be shut down again, but it is still in London. So, they are actually getting ready to have a cast change in, a week and a half. There's a new cast getting ready to come on. Mo… most of them are under contract for, I think, two years, and so their contracts are up, and a lot of them are not renewing their contracts, a lot of the actors. But, so they've got a cast change in London.

28:47Jawad MirRight.

28:47Stephen ClarkAt the same time, it is mov… they keep calling it a transfer to the US. It's not transferring, it's just, there's gonna be, a Back to the Future musical on Broadway in 2023. I've got the soundtrack. Let me see if the soundtrack was... Yeah, the soundtrack shows.

29:04Jawad MirOh, nice.

29:06Stephen ClarkSo this, is the score. This is the, soundtrack to the musical in London, and, it's about to come out on LP in a couple more months. But, this is the original cast recording, for the musical. So that is really where a lot of people are getting their Back to the Future kicks right now, is traveling to London and seeing the, musical. And

29:33Jawad MirHave you seen it?

29:33Stephen ClarkI personally have not seen it yet, so I've…

29:35Jawad MirOkay

29:35Stephen Clark... I've not been able to go, and thankfully it's coming to New York City next year, and so I will be seeing it next year for the first time. But, I've been involved with, promotion of it, from this side, through our Twitter account, through the website, and all. I've been promoting it for quite some time, and carrying the soundtrack and some things. Like, there's a new book coming out

30:01Jawad MirOh

30:01Stephen Clark... In October, and so, called Create, I think it's called Creating, the Back to the Future Musical. It's written by Michael Class Dohaun, who wrote, some of the most recent Back to the Future b… reference books. Michael was the unit publicist on part two and part three.

30:20Jawad MirRight.

30:20Stephen ClarkAnd, he has done, he wrote the original trilogy book back in 1990, and then he's done... I don't think I have his book sitting here where I can reach it. No, I don't. But, his, he's, he's come up, he's written several books. He wrote, you may have seen the, The Spielberg Close Encounters of the Third Kind book that came out a couple years ago, that's the same author.

30:48Jawad MirOh, okay.

30:49Stephen ClarkBig thick reference book on Close Encounters. He's, but he did, back to, the Back to the Future trilogy and then they came out with an updated version of the book a couple years ago, and so, but he has written this one that's on the musical that comes out. I've not seen it yet, but, Michael's a good close friend and, he's, very thorough in, his coverage of things like that. But the Back to the Future musical, it is that, reboot, I guess. It is what people are going to see that honors the first film. It only covers the first film.

31:29Jawad MirOkay.

31:29Stephen ClarkAnd so, there are no intentions of, doing anything beyond, the films. You know, there was a comic book series for a number of years that started in 2015 that ran a few…

31:44Jawad MirI saw it on your website.

31:45Stephen ClarkYeah. It ran through last year. There were some, crossovers with Transformers and some other things. I th… I think the comic book, I don't know of any plans to revive the comic books right now. I think it has run its course for now.

32:01Stephen ClarkBut, there was a number of issues, many issues that I carry, and still have a lot of back issues on, but, IDW was the publisher for those.

32:11Jawad MirSure. What about, an animated series?

32:15Stephen ClarkSo the, there was an animated series in, ear…

32:18Jawad MirLike back in the '90s.

32:19Stephen ClarkYeah.

32:19Jawad MirYeah.

32:19Stephen ClarkBack in the '90s. There was a comic book adaptation of those episodes that ran, was run by, Harvey Comics. But, other than that and the comic book series that was revived in two, 2015, there's nothing really ongoing beyond, the musical. And, I know a lot of people have been to the musical and they, I, and if you just look on Twitter, I mean, there's people daily that go to see it and just rave that it's the best, musical adaptation of a film they've ever seen. It's won all kinds of awards over in the UK and, f… we fully expect it to win, Tony Awards when it comes out over here next year.

33:07Jawad MirYeah.

33:07Stephen ClarkSo.

33:08Jawad MirIt must be really good because in UK, and not to undermine US in any way, the theater work is very much more appreciated than it's done over here. So they, you know, they…

33:20Stephen ClarkYeah

33:20Jawad Mir... They must obviously notice something, not just being Back to the Future fans, so that's exciting. I'm actually, I'm kinda, looking forward to that now. Come, it's coming out summer next year or spring?

33:31Stephen ClarkI do not know the exact dates. I've heard different reports, but, they have not announced yet when…

33:37Jawad MirSure

33:37Stephen Clark... In 2023 it's coming out. But, it is definitely, headed to Broadway in, 2023, and other, markets as well. I know that, there are other countries they plan on, taking it to as well. None of them have been announced yet, but, I know, you know, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis and Alan Silvestri are all behind it. They are all involved with it. And so, you know, Alan Silvestri has been involved with the music behind it. He wrote several new pieces of music specifically.

34:11Jawad MirOh, nice.

34:11Stephen ClarkGlen Ballard is involved with it. There's just a lot of really big names that are involved with the musical and, they've been talking about a Back to the Future musical, the very first time I heard Bob ever say anything about it was back in 2004 at a DeLorean car show, and, he's had it in, the planning stages before he ever publicly said anything about it. But it took…

34:40Jawad MirSure

34:40Stephen Clark... It took whi… it took about 15 years to bring it to the stage and, they wanted to do it right. And so, they're very proud and very pleased with the turnout of how it's, come about. And the actors who portray Marty and Doc and Biff and Lorraine and George, and, Jennifer all are, you know, w… very, hailed on the theater stage. The actor who does George McFly, they say that he steals the show. But, he's, his contract is about up, and so he won't be, at the, London, production much, you know, much more beyond, our discussion today. I think his last day is August 15th. Is that, something like that?

35:30Jawad MirOkay. Okay.

35:31Stephen ClarkSo

35:33Jawad MirWhat…

35:33Stephen ClarkMost of, most of the cast are, moving on to other productions and they're recasting those roles. Roger Bart, who plays Doc Brown, I think he is the only one who is staying on for another, contract. And so

35:48Jawad MirSure

35:49Stephen Clark... They've raved about him. And so you can see some videos on, the Back to the Future Musical website, which is backtothefuturemusical.com.

35:58Jawad MirYeah.

35:59Stephen ClarkI did not run that. That is, that is a production by, the people who run the musical and so I do collaborate with them on promotions from time to time, through Twitter and all, but there's a lot of video out there of, music videos of all the cast. And, it's, I'm, I'm excited about it. I'm very excited to finally get to see it next year, so. I had initial plans to travel to go see it, but, I started learning that they were gonna bring it to Ba… Broadway, so I just kinda put off traveling abroad. And COVID has just not been easy to kinda maneuver around either, so, I've just decided to stay put here in, the US and let them bring it to me instead of me go to them.

36:44Jawad MirYeah, no, I mean, hopefully with things are a little bit easing up with COVID, but I always thought about… and I don't know if it's possible because of the time traveling story. You know, with Indiana Jones, they came out with Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

37:01Stephen ClarkRight.

37:01Jawad MirI don't know if you ever saw it.

37:02Stephen ClarkI did. I did.

37:03Jawad MirYou know, yeah. You know, i… him being young and all that, but with bec… the time factor, you can't do that with Marty McFly if you were to do that.

37:11Stephen ClarkRight.

37:12Jawad MirBut do you see any chance, not, I mean, not, like, next five years, but in 10, 15 years having some sort of a series maybe of, like, brand new…

37:24Stephen ClarkI think, I think anything is, possible. Anything like that, any kind of extension of the, franchise has to have the blessing of Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, and, which the musical did. You know, they were heavily involved, and, they are still, particularly Bob Gale, Bob Gale is called the gatekeeper. He, pretty much everything goes through him for any kind of, big merchandise or any kind of event or, any production like that. So, the Hollywood Bowl is actually doing the Back to the Future, in concert series this weekend. And, I know Alan Silvestri will be there, and probably some of the other cast members will be there as well. I haven't heard, specifics, anybody specifically that's gonna be there. But, that, I actually did that here in Nashville a couple months ago. I had been waiting for it to come to, the southeast.

38:27Stephen ClarkAnd so what the, in concert series is it's, is a, you actually go to a symphony hall and watch the movie on a big screen, but all of the music has been stripped out of the movie, and a big orchestra plays all the music live while you're watching the movie. And…

38:47Jawad MirYeah

38:47Stephen Clark... I had... They started that in 2015, and I just kept missing it every time it would come anywhere near. It was not something that I could get away and go to, but it came to Nashville, Tennessee, a couple months ago, and I got to see it. My wife and I went.

39:02Jawad MirNice.

39:02Stephen ClarkAnd it was quite an experience. I really enjoyed it, and I got to see a few fans from, the South, there in attendance as well. And, but the Hollywood Bowl is actually doing it, in Hollywood this weekend, two nights. And so, I know, Alan Silvestri is supposed to be there, and he wrote…

39:20Jawad MirNice

39:21Stephen Clark... Some new sequences of music for the m… for the concert series. And so there's things like that are approved by Gale and Zemeckis. You know, I say, you know, right now I know of no plans whatsoever that, of extending the series beyond anything like the musical or the concert series. But I, you know, never say ne… never. I know that there's not any plans for any more films.

39:53Jawad MirYeah.

39:54Stephen ClarkYou know, and if somebody came up with a clever idea for a streaming series for, NBC's Peacock, which is part of Universal

40:04Jawad MirYeah

40:05Stephen Clark... If somebody came up with some radical great series or that was a spinoff, you know, I know I would enjoy it. But, I know, Bob and Bob have no plans to allow that to happen anytime s… you know. They say that there can't be any film series, any reboots or remakes or sequels…

40:24Jawad MirYeah

40:24Stephen Clark... In their lifetime. But, you know, for the longest, and you remember my website in the early days, I was a big proponent for Back to the Future IV. I wanted it.

40:36Jawad MirI remember that.

40:37Stephen ClarkBut, over the years, I've come to, respect, and, I respect Bob's, wishes, and so that's not anything that I push for anymore, but, now. But, you know, if they came up with some kind of, great idea, for a series, that was based on, something to do with Back to the Future, I would fully support it, but it would have to be something that had the blessing of Bob and Bob.

41:03Jawad MirYeah.

41:04Stephen ClarkBut

41:06Jawad MirWhat about, Universal, which is the company that did Back to the Future, is coming out with, Jaws and E.T. IMAX release, this month and next month.

41:17Stephen ClarkYeah. I saw that.

41:18Jawad MirHow about Back to the Future in IMAX would be quite a... But the problem with that is it's three movies, right? So how do you do that?

41:25Stephen ClarkYeah.

41:25Jawad MirIs there any plans for that? Because that would be…

41:27Stephen ClarkI've not heard of any plans. I would not be s… surprised. I mean, they would have to, strike a new, master for IMAX use. I don't think any of the things that they've got now could play on IMAX to take advantage of the IMAX cameras, but, and projection. But, I don't know anything that would prevent them from doing that. I just don't know of any plans that Universal or Amblin has for that, so.

41:55Jawad MirRight. Steven, I, if you don't mi… do you, do you have to go, or you have some time right now?

42:00Stephen ClarkNo, we're good. We're good.

42:01Jawad MirOkay. So I just had a couple of more questions, and I want to bug you again because I, silly me, didn't press the record button.

42:09Stephen ClarkThat's okay.

42:10Jawad MirYeah, I just have, like, three questions from the beginning that I would like to do again, if that's okay.

42:15Stephen ClarkOkay, sure. Sure.

42:16Jawad MirYeah. But, what, do you... S… so there's, obviously there's a whole series that I don't know if you... I saw the episode of Movies That Made Us. Were you in it?

42:29Stephen ClarkYeah.

42:30Jawad MirWere you in it?

42:30Stephen ClarkI'm n… I am not in that particular one.

42:32Jawad MirYeah.

42:32Stephen ClarkI was aware of it. There's been a lot of things like that, so, you know, there's several documentaries. I am in one of the documentaries called

42:42Jawad MirBack in Time, right?

42:43Stephen Clark... Back in Time.

42:43Jawad MirYeah.

42:44Stephen ClarkSo that one, that one, occasionally runs on Hulu and Netflix. It was available on, Blu-ray and DVD. I've, I've got some old, I st… I've got a large stash of the Blu-rays if anybody wanted to buy it. On physical disc I've got it, but, it does stream from time to time on Hulu and Netflix.

43:04Jawad MirYeah.

43:05Stephen ClarkI've been involved in a lot of different documentaries, mostly behind the scenes, but I have appeared, I did appear on the Back in Time one.

43:14Jawad MirSure.

43:14Stephen ClarkBut, I was, working with, I can't remember if it was that particular one, The Movies That Made Us. There was another one, the one on Discovery that, Christopher Lloyd, was in search of the screen-used DeLoreans that came out. They kind of helped launch Discovery+. I guess it was last year. It was a four-part series, and so I was involved with that particular one. You know, not from a credited standpoint or anything, but, I was working with a production company on that particular, documentary. And if you haven't seen that one, that one is really hilarious.

43:55Jawad MirWhat is it called?

43:56Stephen ClarkIt's, it's called, Back, Expedition Back to the Future.

44:01Jawad MirYeah, I recognize that.

44:01Stephen ClarkSo it's, it's, Josh, and I'm, I'm drawing a blank on his name, that does the whole Expedition series on Discovery. When they, launched Discovery+ streaming series, streaming service, they ran that. And so a lot of the, props and costumes…

44:22Jawad MirJosh Gates

44:23Stephen Clark... That were... I'm sorry?

44:24Jawad MirJosh Gates. Sorry, I interrupted.

44:25Stephen ClarkYes, Josh Gates.

44:26Jawad MirYeah.

44:26Stephen ClarkSo Josh, did a four-part series on Discovery+ in search of the, screen-used DeLoreans. And so a lot of my friends, that I know, from, this whole ex… e… whole experience and this whole, expedition of mine, Bob, Bill and Patrick Shea, who live in, up in the Boston area, they own a lot of the screen-used DeLoreans, and vehicles, and props, and costumes, and some of the props and costumes that I previously owned are now in their collection. But, Christopher Lloyd, and Bob Gale, and a lot of the cast were involved in that. But, it was primarily Christopher Lloyd, and Josh Gates in search of the screen-used DeLoreans. And so it was this…

45:18Jawad MirI'll check it out

45:19Stephen Clark... Four episode series, and it is probably one of the... It's probably the funniest thing Christopher Lloyd has done in 25 years. It is absolutely hysterical, and is v… very well written and, acted. And, but, and but, and again, I know a lot of these folks, and so when they show up on screen, James Tolkan is there, and Don Fullilove, and so many others are. But, it's just, it's just a very funny

45:47Jawad MirSure

45:47Stephen Clark... Sketch series that they did. And, you get to see a lot of the co… props and costumes. So I was involved with some of that on behind the scenes and helping connect them, he… helping the, production company at, Discovery get connected with a lot of the collectors, and a lot of the fans, and where some of these, pieces were, and they shot a lot of different things.

46:12Jawad MirSure.

46:12Stephen ClarkAnd so, I don't like seeing my face on, I'm not, I'm not even enjoying seeing my face right now. But, I like, I like being the puppeteer behind the curtain…

46:23Jawad MirYeah

46:23Stephen Clark... Pulling the strings.

46:24Jawad MirWell…

46:24Stephen ClarkAnd so I'm more a behind the scenes kind of guy instead of being the guy out front.

46:28Jawad MirYeah. It's, it's fascinating, and I don't want to go into too much of this because there's so much stuff out there already, that how the film had a different name before. Was it…

46:37Stephen ClarkRight

46:37Jawad Mir... Something From Outer Space, what was it called?

46:39Stephen ClarkWell, the

46:42Jawad MirUniversal proposed that idea. I know.

46:44Stephen ClarkYeah.

46:44Jawad MirYeah.

46:45Stephen ClarkIt was one of the guy, head honchos at MCA Universal, did not like the name Back to the Future, and, from the earliest script, it had always had the name Back to the Future.

46:59Jawad MirYeah.

47:00Stephen ClarkAnd once they got in production, he did not like the name Back to the Future. He wanted the name to be changed to Spaceman From Pluto.

47:11Jawad MirPluto, yeah.

47:12Stephen ClarkAnd, that was actually on a comic book, and, you see at, you know, at the very first scene in, 1955 when the DeLorean crashes into the barn, and the young boy…

47:24Jawad MirYeah

47:24Stephen Clark... And the farmers come out and start shooting at, the spaceman in the, spaceship. And, it says, Spaceman From Pluto on the comic book. And he liked that…

47:35Jawad MirRight

47:35Stephen Clark... As a title and wanted it changed. And so, Bob and Bob, were ne… you know, they were full in production at the time, and they went to Spielberg and said…

47:47Jawad MirYeah

47:47Stephen Clark... "We don't know what to do here. He wants us to change the name." And, Spielberg said, "Hey, I know exactly what to do." So Spielberg wrote up a memo and replied back to Sid and said, "Hey, thank you for that joke you sent us. We l… we loved, we all laughed so much, so that was just so funny. Thank you. We needed our, you know, our spirits lifted and everything." And he, they said the word was that he was too embarrassed to go back to say that he was serious about it, and so he let it drop, and they got to keep the name Back to the Future, so.

48:20Jawad MirYeah. No, I know that story, but I just wanted to sort of me… have that mentioned for the

48:26Stephen ClarkYeah

48:26Jawad Mir... The audience

48:26Stephen ClarkAnd it's in, Michael Crichton's book. You can actually see the…

48:29Jawad MirYeah

48:30Stephen Clark... The memo that was sent from Universal to them. You can actually see that actual memo.

48:37Jawad MirIt's, it's great that how Spielberg tackled that, right? Like, anybody else would've been like…

48:41Stephen ClarkYeah

48:41Jawad Mir... "Well, we're not doing this," you know? There'd be, like, a big fight. But I guess he's, he had that, intuition to do that.

48:48Stephen ClarkYeah.

48:48Jawad MirSo let me, let me just go back to three questions. You don't have to go into super detail with them.

48:53Stephen ClarkOkay

48:54Jawad Mir... You don't have to repeat it the same way. So just kind of, what, your s… your story of how you got involved in Back to the Future.

49:05Stephen ClarkOkay, so, my story goes back to, being just a fan from day one, watching the film at the theater and enjoying, you know, a good popcorn ex… adventure, at the theater, but I was not really,.. Nothing really clicked with me until a year later when, Starlog Magazine did a story on Back to the Future w… as it was coming out on VHS. And so…

49:35Jawad MirRight

49:35Stephen Clark... Bruce Gordon's article, his essay called The Other Marty McFly, was a story that I just by chance caught, thumbing through a magazine in my local bookstore, Starlog Magazine 108…

49:54Jawad MirYep

49:54Stephen Clark... From

49:54Jawad MirI remember that

49:55Stephen Clark... July of, 1986. And, it blew my mind because it mentioned several things in there that I did not m… I did not notice the f… the two times that I had seen Back to the Future in theaters. And so I had to rush out and go rent Back to the Future. You know, this was back before, sell through video. And so, to own a copy of Back to the Future was, it was $79.95 and, so most people didn't buy movies back then.

50:25Jawad MirBecause it…

50:26Stephen ClarkThey rented them

50:27Jawad Mir... Yeah, I remember even when the DVDs used to come out on VHS, first it would come out for rent. I mean, even now with iTunes, like, you know, first it would come out with rent.

50:34Stephen ClarkRight.

50:34Jawad MirAnd you can't buy something for, like, at least six, seven months, right?

50:38Stephen ClarkRight.

50:39Jawad MirLike, now the time window is so small. Back then it used to be almost a year.

50:43Stephen ClarkYes. Yeah. So it was…

50:44Jawad MirA while

50:45Stephen Clark... It was, it was a long time before most people could afford to buy a copy of Back to the Future. So I went out and rented it and sat down with my then, fiance, frame by frame, trying to catch all these details with, you know, the clock tower ledge being broken at the end of the movie, but not broken at the beginning of the movie. And, but particularly this fleeting glimpse of, a person in the background at the beginning of the parking lot scene with, the DeLorean traveling through time. It was, the theory was in this article was that it was Marty from, the end of the film…

51:27Jawad MirOh

51:27Stephen Clark... Arriving, at the beginning and, even though no time travel had taken place yet. But that was not Bob Gale's, plan, it was just a crew member or somebody, walking in the distance. But you can actually see some movement at the moment Doc Brown throws his pistol to the ground and holds his hands up not to be shot, you can see somebody in the background walking. And so that, the crux of that article was that was Marty McFly. And so that's what kind of s… kickstarted me off into this genre and, wanting to be, read everything and consume everything that I could. You know, this was before the internet. You know, back in those days we didn't have, email and we didn't have any way to, consume anything, from our favorite films other than,.. Do you remember E! Entertainment, television?

52:21Jawad MirYeah.

52:21Stephen ClarkBut before it…

52:22Jawad MirYeah

52:22Stephen Clark... But before it was called E, it was called Movie Time.

52:25Jawad MirYeah.

52:25Stephen ClarkAnd it was a channel that just showed trailers to upcoming movies 24 hours a day, and had some movie news and things like that from time to... So it was catching, Movie Time and Starlog and maybe a few other magazines, and that's how we got our information. I discovered, working, before I worked in higher ed, I discovered a BBS. You remember the old, bulletin board systems that you could go on?

52:53Jawad MirOh, yes. Yes.

52:55Stephen ClarkAnd, CompuServe and things like that. So, I met some people during the, time that parts two and part three was coming out just by chance, and I'm, I'm still connected with a few of those people today, which was, it... Really interesting. But, that's how we kind of consumed, leaks and, things about our upcoming movies we wanted to... We couldn't wait to see. So, you know, Back to the Future and part, parts two and part three were filmed, consecutively back to back. It was, they were in production for, both movies for 11 months. And so most people didn't know when part two came out that it was a cliffhanger, and, me included. I knew that part three was coming, but I didn't know part two ended on a cliffhanger. And so when part two ended on a clif… cliffhanger and we saw the trailer for part three, I thought, "Oh my goodness. How am I gonna survive for another six months for part three to come out?"

53:58Stephen ClarkAnd…

53:58Jawad MirReally? They came out six months apart? I didn't know that.

54:00Stephen ClarkThey came out six po… six months apart. So part two came out in November of '89 and part three came out in May of '90. So, part two came out on VHS the day before part three came out in theaters.

54:14Jawad MirAh.

54:15Stephen ClarkAnd so…

54:16Jawad MirThat's a smart marketing tactic.

54:17Stephen ClarkYeah. So yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, for me, following that progression, but then going to Universal Studios Florida and riding on the Back to the Future, the ride, that's what really kicked it up a notch. And, you know, I've mentioned to you before that, I came from that experience wanting video footage from the Back to the Future ride to come o… for me personally, that was my Back to…

54:42Jawad MirRight

54:42Stephen Clark... The Future part four. And so, many cold calls to Universal Studios, over the, course of the year in 1992 w… led me to meet my, Bob Gale, be transferred to his office, 'cause he was still working on the Back to the Future cartoon series, on the back lot at that time. And so, I met Bob Gale almost 30 years ago. It'll be, October would be 30 years ago, that I met him. And so, I've been, friends with Bob ever since, and been working with him on different capacities, different projects, different toys, and, just different little projects over the years. And, he's a really close friend.

55:31Jawad MirAnd then you started the website, in the '90s, right? That's around the same time that you were doing the magazine, right?

55:35Stephen ClarkSo yeah, so I started the website, well, Bob's, Bob's assistant in '92 introduced me to a gentleman who lived in California who had just started a, an unofficial fan magazine, a fan club, and he was only, like, two issues in when I hooked up with him. And, he and I, joined forces in the late '90s, late '92, and started publishing what was called the Hill Valley Telegraph. It was a, kind of a fan zine that we... I took over all the publishing. He was doing it on a typewriter, and I was, I'm a computer guy, I'm an old school programmer, and I was doing a lot of desktop publishing at the time. And so, I took over all the publishing of that little newsletter that we mailed out to about 500 people at the peak of that.

56:27Jawad MirWow.

56:28Stephen ClarkWe interviewed, all the cast and crew and, Michael J. Fox, and Lea Thompson, and Tom Wilson, and Bob Gale, and Neil Canton, and just a lot of different people. What's interesting, I look back in those days, I met Peyton Reed. Peyton Reed is the director of all three Ant-Man movies and several other, big, Hollywood movies. I interviewed Peyton, back in the '90s 'cause he worked on the Back to the Future ride and the Back to the Future animated series. So Peyton got his, start, on doing documentaries and working on some of these things and these TV shows in the, '90s. He also directed the, he directed the first season of the Back to the Future animated series. He also directed the, entire, first season of, the Weird Al Yankovic Show. And so, I've known Peyton for a very long time, and so thrilled to see him be so successful with the Marvel series that he's now…

57:30Jawad MirThat's cool

57:30Stephen Clark... Doing with Ant-Man. But yeah, I started doing the w… website, you know, after about three years of doing the newsletter because it was a lot easier to, publish m… news. And I did a website, that kind of morphed from just a dial-up, internet account to a website that was unofficial, to now the official website that Universal recognizes as the official website for the IP. And, y… every time, every five years when there's new product to come out, from, the home video wing, I get to promote that through the website.

58:10Jawad MirThat's so cool, man.

58:12Stephen ClarkSo it's, it's

58:13Jawad MirThat's so cool

58:14Stephen Clark... I don't know, I don't know what you call me. I'm, you know, I, it's, you know…... I'm just this guy that, started out as a fan, and now I'm doing all this official stuff for the same IP that I've been a fan of for 37 years. But I don't know that there's any kind of, official title, or what you'd call that.

58:34Jawad MirI… ... I would call it a very unique title that doesn't exist…... Because it is. Like, you know, if you think about it, like, when we started back in the late '90s with the websites, you know, it's on Spielberg and DreamWorks and you and Back to the Future, it's, if you th… like, I remember, I'm probably the same thing with you, like, that was a li… like, aside from school, that was my life.

58:56Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

58:56Jawad MirLike, that's it. Like, that's, that's all I did. Even during my university breaks, like, if I had, like, a three-hour break, I would literally be in the lab updating…... Updating.

59:07Stephen ClarkYep.

59:07Jawad MirYou know? And it's not something that is around anymore because back then hosting wasn't cheap. Like, to have your own…

59:15Stephen ClarkNo, it was not.

59:16Jawad MirI remember I used to pay, I had a dedicated server, I used to pay about 400 bucks a month.

59:22Stephen ClarkYep. I did too.

59:23Jawad MirRight? And now it's, like, not even anything close to that.

59:27Stephen ClarkNo. Yeah. I, that's what, I told you earlier about me having to sell some of my props and collections because of…

59:34Jawad MirYeah

59:35Stephen Clark... The server cost, to have a dedicated server, and I did that as well. It was astronomical. And, high speed internet to, my house here in Alabama was not cheap…

59:46Jawad MirYeah

59:46Stephen Clark... Either. I had satellite, was the best I could get for the longest until AT&T came out with U-verse and dropped it tremendously down. But I would…

59:55Jawad MirDude, I…

59:56Stephen ClarkThose days were…

59:57Jawad MirI…

59:57Stephen Clark... Very expensive

59:58Jawad Mir... Yeah, I made a d… I made a decent amount of money because of the server cost and everything. You know, there were ads and there was, like, Amazon, but it wasn't that great. But I remember they were... Remember AI, Spielberg's film, Artificial Intelligence?

1:00:11Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

1:00:11Jawad MirYeah.

1:00:12Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:00:12Jawad MirSo it didn't do well at the movie theater, and when it came out, I just as a fan went on eBay and I bought these, Japanese poster books of AI. Like, they were, like, 10 pages and it was about yea big…

1:00:25Stephen ClarkYeah

1:00:25Jawad Mir... And it was all Japanese written on. And I bought, like, several of them, just not with any kind of business thing in my mind.

1:00:32Stephen ClarkRight.

1:00:33Jawad MirWhen the movie came out on DVD in October or November, I just put it up on eBay, and I spent, like, 20 bucks on each of them. And they each got sold for about 1,000 bucks.

1:00:43Stephen ClarkOh, wow.

1:00:44Jawad MirI wasn't expecting that. Right? So there's all that kind of stuff that you have to do. And going on to the next two more questions, buddy, we'll talk about the resonation, like, how do people, why do people resonate with today, and the ride experience. So we have about 10 minutes before my camera runs out of memory card, so let's just do…

1:01:04Stephen ClarkOkay

1:01:04Jawad Mir... Five minutes. If you can, that'd be great.

1:01:06Stephen ClarkOkay. Okay So, why it resonates with, audiences today, I mean, I, it, bottom line is it's the story. People want to, people love the adventure of seeing their parents back when, they were in high school and, you know, all of the actors involved, the writers, the story is just, it's a solid story. You know, back when it was in theaters, everybody loved Michael J. Fox 'cause he was, you know, he was on television, you know, e… on NBC every week. He was a household name. Everybody loved Michael, and still do to this day. And, just, it was just one of these... It was lightning in a bottle. I mean, it was literally, all these different elements came together for, the story, the production, the car, the actors. I mean, everything all together, and it's just one of those things that everybody just, they love today, they love, just every aspect of it.

1:02:14Stephen ClarkSo…

1:02:14Jawad MirYeah. And I think also, like you said, story, and unfortunately, I don't know, maybe our parents' generation said the same thing when we were growing up, but I find it's a little bit different now. Story is, like, a back... Is something that's focused in the end…

1:02:32Stephen ClarkYeah

1:02:32Jawad Mir... As opposed to…

1:02:33Stephen ClarkYeah. I know, I…

1:02:34Jawad Mir... Not, like, you know, you…

1:02:35Stephen ClarkWi… wi… with some exceptions. I mean, one of the things I'm

1:02:39Jawad MirYeah

1:02:39Stephen Clark... Following, I'm one of these who never watched Breaking Bad.

1:02:45Jawad MirOh.

1:02:45Stephen ClarkBut I've been watching Better Call Saul, and it's just about to come to an end, and

1:02:50Jawad MirI saw the last ep… latest episode last night.

1:02:52Stephen ClarkYeah. So it is, I mean, I've... That is, you know, that is really good writing. And…

1:02:59Jawad Mir100%

1:03:00Stephen Clark... Hav… having all the same people involved for both series, and so, I'm, I'm kind of watching it in, chronological order. So once Break… once, Better Call Saul ends in a couple of weeks, then I'll start watching Breaking Bad.

1:03:15Jawad MirOh, you haven't seen Breaking Bad yet?

1:03:17Stephen ClarkI've not seen Breaking Bad.

1:03:18Jawad MirOkay.

1:03:18Stephen ClarkI've seen a few episodes out of order years ago, but I did not follow it, so, but, you know, story is everything. And Back to the Future…

1:03:26Jawad MirOh, God

1:03:26Stephen Clark... Back to the Future…

1:03:27Jawad MirDude

1:03:28Stephen Clark... Is so tightly woven together with a continuous story throughout all three films. We talked, about family. Family is key. It's so important.

1:03:38Jawad MirYes.

1:03:38Stephen ClarkFriendship is so important, and it's just, it's just everybody can resonate with family and friends, and it's just a, it's just this tightly knit, story in this little fictional town of Hill Valley that, we all have grown to love, and, the characters involved. And

1:04:00Jawad MirYeah

1:04:00Stephen Clark... You know, for me, it's such a surreal thing now. I'll tell you this, try to m… make it real quick. Several years ago, for the 20th anniversary of Back to the Future, we did a screening in Hollywood at the Arclight.

1:04:15Stephen ClarkAnd, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson and Claudia Wells and Tom Wilson, several of us were there for, that screening, and, I was promoting it from here in Alabama on bttf.com and sold out two s… two screenings of it. We had to, they had to, do a second one because it was so popular. But, being there with them for that event and sitting in the audience with... I s… I sat with Tom Wilson. We're real close friends. I sat in the audience with Tom Wilson watching Back to the Future, watching him perform, and he's sitting right here beside me. That is such a surreal, experience. A year later, I did the very same thing with Christopher Lloyd, seeing, parts two and three, at, the Chinese Theatre, Mann's Chinese Theatre there.

1:05:08Jawad MirYeah, the Chinese Mann's Theatre. Yeah.

1:05:09Stephen ClarkAnd so, we did a, we called it the double back screening. It was back to back screenings of parts two and part three, and Chris wanted to sit in the audience, and he sat one row behind me. And, he, I knew a lot of stories about part three from Tom, and so, Tom's favorite that he filmed was part three, and he had told me all these things behind the scenes that, jokes and, you know, things that he used to cut up with Chris Lloyd. And so I kind of sat with my eyes and was watching Chris Lloyd enjoy part three and grinning and laughing out loud to things that I knew happened bes… behind the scenes on a particular scene with him…

1:05:53Jawad MirAh

1:05:53Stephen Clark... Tom Wilson. And so…

1:05:54Jawad MirThat's interesting.

1:05:55Stephen ClarkAnd so it's just kind of those kinds of... But it's, for me as a fan to be able to get this relationship with the cast and the crew and go on this long adventure with them, and to have these surreal event, experiences at, screenings and, Comic-Cons and, location events and things like that, it's just, I can't d… I can't describe it. It's, I... Words don't adequately describe, the joy it brings for somebody like me, but…

1:06:28Jawad MirNo, I'm sure, man. I completely, I completely get it. And going back to what you were saying about story, I hadn't seen Breaking Bad for, when it came out, and I saw it three years ago, and I was like... And then I saw Better Call Saul, and then I saw Breaking Bad again whenever I'm traveling.

1:06:46Stephen ClarkOh, wow.

1:06:47Jawad MirLike, if I'm sitting on the plane and, just because it's, the writing and the way it's shot, I mean, you can literally watch those two shows and learn so much about…

1:06:57Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. Oh, yeah

1:06:58Jawad Mir... The art of storytelling, right? And that's what's, with the exception of some cases, yeah, that's what's missing nowadays, like, that story of, you know, like, The Goonies, Poltergeist

1:07:09Stephen ClarkYeah

1:07:09Jawad Mir... Even movies like Beverly Hills Cops and all this stuff in the '90s and the '80s that came out, they were just about people. And the way you remember a great story is if the characters are written really well. Which is the case in Back to the Future.

1:07:23Stephen ClarkOh, yes. Yeah.

1:07:23Jawad MirBecause people, when you start calling Michael J. Fox Marty Philip McFly or Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, then you know you got the characters nailed down, right?

1:07:32Stephen ClarkYeah. Yeah.

1:07:32Jawad MirSo but I generally miss that. That's why a lot of watch... I watch a lot of old stuff now, and I'm probably gonna watch Back to the Future. I'm gonna order the 4K…, and watch it again.

1:07:42Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:07:42Jawad MirIt's been a while. So one more thing, about the rides. You know, they closed, back... There was some... I visited Universal Studios in 2001. And I visited, all the rides, like Ja… I went mainly for Jurassic Park, but I went to Ja… I don't think Jaws was open at the time. No, it wasn't. Jurassic Park, Backdraft, but the two that resonated with me the most were ET, which they shut down, and Back to the Future was my best experience.

1:08:10Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:08:10Jawad MirW… why did that happen, and do you think there's any plans for opening it? Because it was... Even to this day, if you put that in a park, I think it beats all the rollercoaster rides, to be honest with you.

1:08:21Stephen ClarkOh, I agree. I mean, you know, there's been rumors over the years of, them bringing something, Back to the Future back. Yeah. Down in Orlando, Universal's about to open another park. It's called, Epic Universe.

1:08:35Stephen ClarkI think it opens in 2025, but, they have not announced all of the, attractions for that park yet. So, you know, deep down I have my fingers crossed that there's gonna be something Back to the Future there, but I'm not, I'm not in the... I'm not privy to anything that's coming there. But no, you know, I think over time, Universal had... There was just a regime change, a leadership change at the parks, and, they just came in and evaluated, what attractions at that time were getting the most footwork and butts in the seats. And, you know, I think it'd been a while since Back to the Future had any kind of refurbish. I know the last time before they closed them in tw… 2007, I had been there in 2006.

1:09:25Jawad MirSure.

1:09:25Stephen ClarkAnd, there was a tear in one of the screens, and it was just... It had just run down. They had allowed it to, dissipate, and, they just decided that, they would close the Back to the Future ride and… ... Retrofit it for something else, and they brought in, 20th Century Fox's, Simpsons. And, you know, it's still got the same, mechanics, behind it. They just reprogrammed the vehicles and filmed. And there's actually an homage to Back to the Future in the Simpsons attraction. Now, Doc Brown…

1:10:00Jawad MirOh

1:10:01Stephen Clark... Is actually in... Doc Brown, voiced by Christopher Lloyd, is actually in the Simpsons, attraction at, in the pre-show. And he talks about things had gotten bad and he had to sell, the, his, garage, and I think his, had to sell the DeLorean and all that. And so, to fund…

1:10:20Jawad MirOoh

1:10:20Stephen Clark... Some, other time travel experience, experiments. But, you know, it's just, it was just, I... It was just business. Universal just decided to

1:10:30Jawad MirYeah

1:10:30Stephen Clark... Close those, attractions at all three of the Back to the Future parks. And, two of, both of them were do… were closed in 2007, in the US, and the last one…

1:10:41Jawad MirSure

1:10:41Stephen Clark... I think in 2010 or 2011 in, Japan. But, now they are opening a, an escape room in CityWalk in, Universal Orlando later this year. They…

1:10:56Jawad MirOh, cool

1:10:56Stephen Clark... Have not released any details about it. They did,.. There've been a lot of rumors about it, and I've been hearing. I know a few em… employees who work at the parks, and they were telling me things, that they're, they're hear… hearing Back to the Future was, making a comeback. But, it's an escape room that, I think it... And I don't know enough about it at this point. I, they've only announced that the, that there's a Jurassic World and Back to the Future escape room. I don't know…

1:11:20Jawad MirTwo separate

1:11:21Stephen Clark... If it's two separate escape rooms or one together. I'm not exactly…

1:11:24Jawad MirRight

1:11:24Stephen Clark... Sure what. But, I'm hopeful that they're, got the right people working on the Back to the Future…

1:11:32Jawad MirYeah

1:11:32Stephen Clark... Side of the house on that to make that something that'll last several years. But, who knows? If that's popular enough, that could certainly, spawn Universal to rethink that and, maybe bring a new ride at some point back. I mean…

1:11:49Jawad MirSure

1:11:49Stephen Clark... Whether it's a rollercoaster or a, or another, simulator ride or what have you. I mean, I would love…

1:11:57Jawad MirImagine

1:11:58Stephen Clark... It's good for my business when Back to the Future is thriving at the theme parks. But

1:12:03Jawad MirBut imagine if they had a rollercoaster in the shape of DeLorean.

1:12:07Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. And I've seen some concepts, some, fan concepts of that stuff before. There's,.. I think it would be, I think it would be well, welcomed. It's just, you know, theme parks are made to make money, and

1:12:23Jawad MirOh, yeah. No, absolutely

1:12:23Stephen Clark... They have to, they have to keep their attractions, on the cutting edge. And

1:12:29Jawad MirSure

1:12:30Stephen Clark... Back to the Future was cutting edge when it came out in 1991, but, you know, 15 years later it was no longer considered cutting edge anymore. And so they just decided to repurpose that building with something else. And…

1:12:44Jawad MirYeah. I miss, I absolutely miss Back to the Future ride. Right?

1:12:47Stephen ClarkOh, I do too. I do too.

1:12:48Jawad MirYou know, you sit in, two or three rows of, seats, and they have a gigantic screen, and you literally…

1:12:54Stephen ClarkYeah

1:12:54Jawad Mir... Feel like you're in that moment.

1:12:56Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:12:57Jawad MirThe DeLorean going…

1:12:57Stephen ClarkThey called it R… They actually marketed it, called Ride the Movies, and so it really was…

1:13:02Jawad MirYes

1:13:02Stephen Clark... One of those where you could ride the movie, and it really felt like you were part of that attraction. You were part of Hill Valley, and getting to travel, to 2015 and back to, the time of the dinosaurs. It was, it was quite a... It was ahead of its time at the time, and I wish…

1:13:18Jawad MirOh, for sure

1:13:19Stephen Clark... I wish that the parks would bring something back because Back to the Future is just as popular as ever now. And

1:13:26Jawad MirI agree, man. And one last question, Steven.

1:13:29Stephen ClarkSure. Sure.

1:13:31Jawad MirI mean, Robert Zemeckis is a genius filmmaker. Like, aside from…

1:13:36Stephen ClarkHe is. He is

1:13:36Jawad Mir... Spielberg, and I think he's really up there for me the way... I actually, I loved Back to the Future films, but for me, when you sort of, you know, he became a totally different filmmaker. I shouldn't say totally different filmmaker, but he took on something different. When Spielberg did Schindler's List…

1:13:56Jawad Mir... He did, I think, a year later, Forrest Gump. And then he did Contact, which is one of my favorite movies.

1:14:02Stephen ClarkOh, yeah. I love Contact.

1:14:04Jawad MirAll right. What do you, what do you pr… like, well, the most of his, like, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Or Cast Away, What Lies Beneath.

1:14:13Stephen ClarkI, yeah, so many of those. Funny you mention that. Death Becomes Her was on just last night.

1:14:20Jawad MirYes.

1:14:20Stephen ClarkAnd it had been years since I've watched Death Becomes Her, and that was the movie that he did right after the Back to the Future trilogy, so that was the first one…

1:14:28Jawad MirYes

1:14:28Stephen Clark... He did.

1:14:29Jawad Mir1991.

1:14:30Stephen ClarkAnd, yes, and so, I really enjoyed that. But, Forrest Gump is one of those anytime it's on, I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna watch it. Contact is another one of those. I love Contact. I tell you one that, does not get enough, love from audiences, and did not at the time, and still to this day, is What Lies Beneath.

1:14:53Jawad MirI agree.

1:14:54Stephen ClarkWhat Lies Beneath is a fantastic thriller with Harrison Ford.

1:15:00Jawad MirEspecially... Yeah, especially the ending sequence in the washroom.

1:15:04Stephen ClarkOh, yeah.

1:15:05Jawad MirW… the way, like, the, like, one shot, like, the camera goes around in a circle.

1:15:10Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:15:10Jawad MirAnd it was like Psycho. It was literally...

1:15:12Stephen ClarkYes. Yes

1:15:12Jawad MirAnd then how the camera was underneath the floor when, I think it was Michelle Pfeiffer…

1:15:17Stephen ClarkYes

1:15:17Jawad Mir... Or Harrison Ford characters fall on the ground, you see their perspective from underground.

1:15:21Stephen ClarkYes. Very nice.

1:15:22Jawad MirI mean, yes. A lot of people complain that, and I talked about this to Kasim Gaines, the guy who wrote the book about…

1:15:28Stephen ClarkI know Kasim.

1:15:30Jawad MirYeah. A lot of people complained about the fact that how Cast Away and What Lies Beneath, they came out the same year, summer and winter.

1:15:37Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:15:37Jawad MirThe trailers gave away everything. And when they questioned, when they, when they questioned Robert Zemeckis, and I was, I had an issue with that too, because they did. But when they questioned Robert Zemeckis and he explained it, I'm like, "Okay, it makes sense." He's like, "The reason people go to movies is they wanna know what's in the movies before they go there."

1:15:57Stephen ClarkYeah.

1:15:58Jawad MirKinda like when you read a news headline, right?

1:16:00Stephen ClarkRight.

1:16:00Jawad MirAnd actually, he was right because Cast Away made a killer amount of money, and What Lies Beneath did really well too. But anyways, fantastic, man. Thank you so much for your time, for being here.

1:16:12Stephen ClarkOh, you're welcome. You're welcome.

1:16:13Jawad MirThis was really cool. I really enjoyed it. I'll be in touch…

1:16:16Stephen ClarkI, me too. I'm glad we finally got to speak in person and, see each other face to face. This has been... I wish you all the l… best of luck with your new podcast and your new ventures, and the films that you're working on. I'd, I'd like to do this another time and learn about your story sometime.

1:16:33Jawad MirYeah, man. Absolutely. 25 years later, and we finally meet.

1:16:36Stephen ClarkYeah. I figure i… it'd been long enough. We had to make this happen today.

1:16:42Jawad MirAll right, man. Thanks so much again, buddy. Well, I'll be in touch with you.

1:16:45Stephen ClarkYou're welcome.

1:16:45Jawad MirAll right.

1:16:46Stephen ClarkSounds good. Thank you so much.

1:16:47Jawad MirYeah.

1:16:47Stephen ClarkTake care.

1:16:48Jawad MirAll right. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for watching and listening. Don't forget to subscribe, like, share, and comment, and do come back for another episode. Until then, have a great day.