Back to the Future: Made today.

[Mr. Adventure]

I hear that a lot but as a teen in the 80s no one I knew thought a lot about nuclear annihilation. I certainly never felt like it was in any way imminent, MAD seemed like a good enough deterrent. Maybe it's an age gap thing?

 

[Corran Horn]

I hear that a lot but as a teen in the 80s no one I knew thought a lot about nuclear annihilation. I certainly never felt like it was in any way imminent, MAD seemed like a good enough deterrent. Maybe it's an age gap thing?

As a younger kid (b. 1977) I certainly trusted Reagan to provide and somewhat saw the Soviets as 'the enemy' - mostly due to things like Rocky IV and Red Dawn. Years later walking around Moscow it was quite interesting.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

I would hardly call Heart a girl-band. For one thing, they can actually SING and PLAY. Plus, there are three guys in the band the last time I checked...

Agreed. They are a real rock band that just happens to have two female singers; they are not in the same genre as The Go-Gos or the Spice Girls.

The Go-Gos played their own instruments, wrote their own music and weren't some corporate assembled product. They were a real band, just like the Bangles.

Touche. I should not have lumped the Go-Gos in with the Spice Girls.

 

[marillion]

But this is what BTTF did. The fifties was the fifties as seen in Happy Days, not a realistic portrayal of the period.

It may have been exaggerated to a degree or two but I think it tried to do it an as "realistic" a way as possible. They didn't make the 1950s a complete farce of the time, like HTTM did with the 1980s.

I don't know... I was a teen in the 80's (Class of '88 represent!!) and a lot of what I remember from HTTM was pretty accurate... The first time I used a cell phone (1989) I immediately called a buddy and geeked over the fact that I was in a car. ON A PHONE!!!

The bigger picture of HTTM, which I think some people overlooked, is that it was a send up (not an outright farce) of the low budget 80s T & A movies like Ski Patrol, HOTS, etc etc... I find it kind of funny that John Cusack was in a movie that poked fun at the kind of movies he used to be in (albeit his were better)...

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I hear that a lot but as a teen in the 80s no one I knew thought a lot about nuclear annihilation. I certainly never felt like it was in any way imminent, MAD seemed like a good enough deterrent. Maybe it's an age gap thing?

As a younger kid (b. 1977) I certainly trusted Reagan to provide and somewhat saw the Soviets as 'the enemy' - mostly due to things like Rocky IV and Red Dawn. Years later walking around Moscow it was quite interesting.

Didn't Rocky IV end with a kind of we aren't so different after all thing?

 

[sojourner]

Class of 87 here. If we survived to 2015 I had hoped we would have done much more space travel wise, and while I didn't expect flying cars, I thought most airliners would be supersonic by now.

 

[theenglish]

But this is what BTTF did. The fifties was the fifties as seen in Happy Days, not a realistic portrayal of the period.

It may have been exaggerated to a degree or two but I think it tried to do it an as "realistic" a way as possible. They didn't make the 1950s a complete farce of the time, like HTTM did with the 1980s.

No, it was entirely exaggerated, like all the time periods in the movies. People in the 80s had this idealistic idea of what the fifties was and BTTF played up all the stereotypes. That was the joke. It was never meant to be realistic--if you want to capture the spirit of the original that is the approach to take.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Girl-bands" also were around before 1985. The Go-Gos, Heart, The Bangles.

The Go-Gos and the Bangles weren't "girl bands" in the same vein as the Spice Girls. They were bands who members were females but also bands in the sense they played instruments and sang. They weren't four or five singers with a backing band.

Does it really matter in the end? There were women fronted acts as early as the 1950's or even earlier. The Supremes is a good example.

But the Supremes also actually had talent (as did many of the other singing groups of their age). Contrast this with today, where 'boy bands' and (to a lesser extent) 'girl bands' are prepackaged products who have NO actual talent but are chosen only because of looks and the ability to lip-sync.

 

[Taylirious]

It would not be like the original and be 'Back To The Future' in name only. Oh well.

 

[Nerys Myk]

"Girl-bands" also were around before 1985. The Go-Gos, Heart, The Bangles.

The Go-Gos and the Bangles weren't "girl bands" in the same vein as the Spice Girls. They were bands who members were females but also bands in the sense they played instruments and sang. They weren't four or five singers with a backing band.

Does it really matter in the end? There were women fronted acts as early as the 1950's or even earlier. The Supremes is a good example.

Because they're two different things. The Go-Gos were a band made up of women. They wrote the songs, sang them and played the instruments. They weren't just the frontwomen. The Supremes were a group of female singers backed by a band that was probably comprised of men.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The Go-Gos and the Bangles weren't "girl bands" in the same vein as the Spice Girls. They were bands who members were females but also bands in the sense they played instruments and sang. They weren't four or five singers with a backing band.

Does it really matter in the end? There were women fronted acts as early as the 1950's or even earlier. The Supremes is a good example.

But the Supremes also actually had talent (as did many of the other singing groups of their age). Contrast this with today, where 'boy bands' and (to a lesser extent) 'girl bands' are prepackaged products who have NO actual talent but are chosen only because of looks and the ability to lip-sync.

True enough, I guess, although they did start out lip-synching (something which was pretty common back then) before it was noticed they could actually sing

Because they're two different things. The Go-Gos were a band made up of women. They wrote the songs, sang them and played the instruments. They weren't just the frontwomen. The Supremes were a group of female singers backed by a band that was probably comprised of men.

Oh, I know the difference. I'm just wondering if in really matters it the 'would-be' context of the OP. I see it more as an evolution in what was made possible over time. Seeing that women fronted bands are much more prevalent now, it seems logical to have a band like the Go-Gos be in the spotlight. And The Supremes were pretty much the Spice Girls of their day, minus a few technical details. Again, it goes back to cultural shifts and how things were perceived.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Does it really matter in the end? There were women fronted acts as early as the 1950's or even earlier. The Supremes is a good example.

But the Supremes also actually had talent (as did many of the other singing groups of their age). Contrast this with today, where 'boy bands' and (to a lesser extent) 'girl bands' are prepackaged products who have NO actual talent but are chosen only because of looks and the ability to lip-sync.

True enough, I guess, although they did start out lip-synching (something which was pretty common back then) before it was noticed they could actually sing

I know lip syncing was common for TV appearances, but was it common for a concert?

 

[RandyS]

I hear that a lot but as a teen in the 80s no one I knew thought a lot about nuclear annihilation. I certainly never felt like it was in any way imminent, MAD seemed like a good enough deterrent. Maybe it's an age gap thing?

I was also a teen in the 80's, and I remember hearing a few adults discussing the possibility of nuclear war on occasion. Although not as often as I heard them discussing it as a young child in the mid to late 70's, so I don't know about it being an age gap thing.

It would even come up in school every now and then.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Did any of you other teens in the 80s watch The Day After when it was originally broadcast?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Did any of you other teens in the 80s watch The Day After when it was originally broadcast?

This 80s twenty-something did.

 

[Corran Horn]

I hear that a lot but as a teen in the 80s no one I knew thought a lot about nuclear annihilation. I certainly never felt like it was in any way imminent, MAD seemed like a good enough deterrent. Maybe it's an age gap thing?

As a younger kid (b. 1977) I certainly trusted Reagan to provide and somewhat saw the Soviets as 'the enemy' - mostly due to things like Rocky IV and Red Dawn. Years later walking around Moscow it was quite interesting.

Didn't Rocky IV end with a kind of we aren't so different after all thing?

Yeah, but the crux of the movie was 'us' vs. 'them' to a point.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You think The Day After was badass? Try Threads.

 

[sojourner]

Did any of you other teens in the 80s watch The Day After when it was originally broadcast?

Yep, and then discussed it in Civics class the next day.

 

[Owain Taggart]

But the Supremes also actually had talent (as did many of the other singing groups of their age). Contrast this with today, where 'boy bands' and (to a lesser extent) 'girl bands' are prepackaged products who have NO actual talent but are chosen only because of looks and the ability to lip-sync.

True enough, I guess, although they did start out lip-synching (something which was pretty common back then) before it was noticed they could actually sing

I know lip syncing was common for TV appearances, but was it common for a concert?

Not sure, but that's a good question. Might have been more common than we realize. As for the Supremes, according to Wikipedia, a guitarist was hired which allowed them to sing live as opposed to lip-synching which helped to differentiate them from the pack in Detroit, which tells me that it was common to do it in concert at the time.

 

[GalaxyX]

If it was made today JJ Abrams or Michael Bay would be directing it, and Orci/Kurtsman would write it. The cast would be

Shia LeBeouf as Marty McFly
Megan Fox as Jennifer
Benedict Cumberbatch as Biff
Kristen Stewart as Loraine McFly (both versions)
Elijah Wood or Seth Green as George McFly (both versions) (I suppose you could use someone like the guy from Kick-Ass for George, I'm not too sure about who to put in this role to be honest)
Harrison Ford as Doc Brown

The story would have lots of explosions, sex/offensive jokes, Megan Fox being a moron and Shia LeBeouf making you wish he'd just fail and never exist. Cumberbatch would play Biff as a sneaky and clever mind games kind of bully. Overall, it would be poorly done and not match the awesomeness of the original movies.

Also, instead of a deLorean the time machine would be whatever car the car company sponsor wants, and it would be powered by energy drinks.

Epic!