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Back to the Future
"Biff to the Future" Part 2
Back to the Future: Biff to the Future #2
IDW
Story by Bob Gale and Derek Fridolfs
Art by Alan Robinson
Inks by Alan Robinson & Jaime Castro
Colors by Maria Santaolalla
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Cover A by Alan Robinson
February 2017 |
Biff to Hollywood!
Notes from the Back to the Future chronology
This issue opens on April 4, 1960.
Didja Know?
Biff to the Future was a six-issue comic
book mini-series published by IDW in 2017. It tells the story of
the alternate timeline created when Old Biff from 2015 gave his
teen self in 1955 the 2000 edition of Gray's Sports Almanac,
resulting in the dark 1985 discovered by Doc and Marty in
Back to the Future Part II.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Charlton Heston
Biff Tannen
"Jeeves" (Wilton bartender)
Bernie Kessoff (dies in this issue)
Pierre LeFontaine
Marilyn Monroe
Deke Dirken
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (mentioned only)
George McFly
Lorraine McFly
Biff's chauffer (unnamed)
John Wayne
Andrew V. McLaglen
Maureen O'Hara
Ronald Reagan
Didja Notice?
Though it doesn't quite say so (for copyright reasons), this
issue opens at the 32nd Annual
Academy Awards. The 32nd
Awards ceremony took place on April 4, 1960 as seen here. It
was held at the RKO
Pantages Theatre (not RKO Hollywood
Theatre as seen here, though it was known informally as the
Hollywood Pantages).
The Awards after-party is shown held at the Beverly Wilton.
This is a stand-in for real world
Beverly Hilton hotel.
On page 1, a reporter states that Ben-Hur won an
unprecedented 11 trophies at the awards show. This is true,
including Best Picture.
Charlton Heston (1923-2008) won the award for Best Actor
that year in Ben-Hur as stated here. On page 3,
Biff steals Heston's spotlight at the party and refers to
him as Noah "in that Twelve Commanders flick." This
is another of Biff's bunglings of common terms and phrases. Heston
played Moses, not Noah, in a the 1956 film The Ten
Commandments.
On page 4, Biff refers to the bartender at the Wilton party
as Jeeves.
This refers to the fictional valet Reginald Jeeves who
appeared in novels and short stories written by British
author P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975), also appearing in radio,
films, and television. The stories were so popular that the
name "Jeeves" has come to associated with any valet or
butler.
After opening a film studio
(Tannen Pictures) with producer Bernie Kessoff, the alleged
plan is to make The Biff Tannen Story or a movie
starring John Wayne.
John Wayne (1907-1979), also known as "the Duke", was a
popular American actor, especially known for his roles as
tough American cowboys and soldiers.
Poolside at the Beverly Wilton,
Biff meets Marilyn Monroe and tells her he's seen her in
magazines like Oh LàLà. This is a fictitious adult
magazine, a copy of which was seen in Biff's possession in
Back to the Future Part II.
On page 8, Bernie hires some actresses for Tannen
Pictures under contract
before
Warner Brothers could.
On page 10, the copy of the Hill Valley Telegram
with the "Biffo Box Office" headline has the date of
November 6, 1955, even though the scene takes place in 1960!
For some reason, this mini-series constantly uses that date
on every issue of the Hill Valley Telegram!
On page 10, notice that Lorraine is pregnant with her husband
George's baby. It must be her oldest son, Doug McFly.
In panel 2 of page 10, George appears to be watching The
Twilight Zone on television while Lorraine prepares
dinner (the door floating through space on the TV screen was
part of the series' opening sequence, though not until the
1963 season). The Twilight Zone aired 1959-1964.
Page 10 reveals that the McFly's street address is 9303 Lyon
Drive. We saw the 9303 house number in
Back to the Future,
but this is the first mention of the street name (though we
knew it was in the Lyon Estates tract).
The one and only film produced by Tannen
Pictures is Dreams of
a Madman starring Rock Hudson, Judy Garland, Harpo
Marx, and Boris Karloff. These were all real world actors.
The film, of course, is fake. After the film bombs and is
called one of the worst movies ever made, Marilyn leaves
Biff.
On page 14, Biff tells Bernie that Marilyn took the last
taxi out of Dodge. Biff is mixing his aphorisms, part "last
flight out of..." and "get the hell out of Dodge."
On page 15, Biff tracks down John Wayne
at a movie shoot on location. It appears to be a western
film directed by a man named Andy. This and the costumes
worn by Wayne and his female co-star suggest it is the 1963
film McLintock! That would make the director Andrew
V. McLaglen and Wayne's female co-star Maureen O'Hara.
Biff tells Wayne he wants him to star in the next
Tannen Pictures film, The Legend of "Mad Dog" Tannen. "Mad
Dog" Tannen, of course, is Biff's ancestor of the wild west
seen in
Back to the Future Part III.
On page 16, the line Wayne delivers after decking Biff,
"Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning," is a
line from McLintock!
Also on page 16, Biff's put-down by the Duke makes it to the
cover of the Daily Scandal. This is a fictitious
tabloid newspaper.
On page 17, the actor Biff meets at the
bar after his altercation with John Wayne is Ronald Reagan
(1911-2004), who would go on to a political career and even
become President of the United States in our timeline. In
the alternate Biff-dominated timeline, Richard Nixon remains
president somehow for four terms and planning to run for a
fifth in the alternate 1985 of
Back to the Future Part II.
The Reagan films Biff mentions are 1951's
Bedtime for Bonzo (with the chimp) and 1954's
Cattle Queen of Montana. Biff's parting quote to Reagan
"Lose one for the Gripper," was really "Win one for the
Gipper" from Reagan's 1940 sports film, Knute Rockne,
All American.
On page 20, the
Los
Angeles Times has the headline announcing Bernie's
death. The date on the paper is August 6, 1962. In reality,
this is the date the Times had the headline about
Marilyn Monroe's death. It's possible Marilyn did not die in
the Biff timeline!
The Times banner also has "KTTV (Channel
11)" on it. This was a local Los Angeles television station
owned by the parent company of the Times at the
time. KTTV
is currently the west coast flagship station of the Fox
Network.
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