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I ran across some old 35mm backstage pics I took when doing some contract work at Universal Studios Calif in the late 1980s. They had just wrapped Back to the Future 2 and this is the street along Courthouse Square where the DeLorian goes under the lightning wire. I wasn't there during actual filming (it was a closed set off limits) but I grabbed a couple pics before they strike the set. Universal (as most other studios) rent out their stages for smaller productions and I had done contract work on rented space there for something else. I'd ride a studio bicycle around on lunch breaks and check out what was going on around the backlots.

The curved wall at left was the hologram of 'Cubs win the World Series' and on the lower right is the empty painted concrete pond where they filmed the hoverboard sequences over the water. I'm standing right on the corner where Biffs car gets dumped with manure in part 1.

Anyone familiar with the original Twilight Zone may recognize the corner with the clump of grass (center) is right about where the telephone booth was in the pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?" filmed on Courthouse Square in 1959. Twilight Zone S01 E01 - Where Is Everybody - YouTube The building at frame 2:35 is also the corner diner where Marty meets his dad in 1955, the aerobics studio in 1985, and the '80s Cafe in 2015. The theater in frame 3:10 is the same theater as the 1955 Hill Valley ESSEX THEATER showing "Cattle Queen of Montana" with Barbara Stanwick & Ronald Reagan, and then the JAWS 19 hologram in BTTF2 in 2015.

Sadly, just a few years after this was the great backlot fire that destroyed most of the original Courthouse Square perimeter buildings, so much of its original heritage was lost...

Description
I ran across some old 35mm backstage pics I took when doing some contract work at Universal Studios Calif in the late 1980s. They had just wrapped Back to the Future 2 and this is the street along Courthouse Square where the DeLorian goes under the lightning wire. I wasn't there during actual filming (it was a closed set off limits) but I grabbed a couple pics before they strike the set. Universal (as most other studios) rent out their stages for smaller productions and I had done contract work on rented space there for something else. I'd ride a studio bicycle around on lunch breaks and check out what was going on around the backlots.

The curved wall at left was the hologram of 'Cubs win the World Series' and on the lower right is the empty painted concrete pond where they filmed the hoverboard sequences over the water. I'm standing right on the corner where Biffs car gets dumped with manure in part 1.

Anyone familiar with the original Twilight Zone may recognize the corner with the clump of grass (center) is right about where the telephone booth was in the pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?" filmed on Courthouse Square in 1959. Twilight Zone S01 E01 - Where Is Everybody - YouTube The building at frame 2:35 is also the corner diner where Marty meets his dad in 1955, the aerobics studio in 1985, and the '80s Cafe in 2015. The theater in frame 3:10 is the same theater as the 1955 Hill Valley ESSEX THEATER showing "Cattle Queen of Montana" with Barbara Stanwick & Ronald Reagan, and then the JAWS 19 hologram in BTTF2 in 2015.

Sadly, just a few years after this was the great backlot fire that destroyed most of the original Courthouse Square perimeter buildings, so much of its original heritage was lost...