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Description
I ran across some old 35mm backstage pics I took when doing some contract work at Universal Studios California in the late 1980s. They had just wrapped Back to the Future 2 and this is the street along the far righthand side of Courthouse Square. 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 so I'd ride a studio bicycle around on lunch breaks and check out what was going on around the studio backlots.

I wasn't there during actual Back to the Future2 filming (it was a closed set off limits) but I grabbed a couple pics before they strike the set. This is the futuristic car ramp that the flying cars would drive up and into the flying traffic that was later optically added to the film. This is just to the right of the Courthouse Bldg (opposite side from the street the DeLorean goes under the lightning wire). The plywood car ramp was only built up to the first landing and then abruptly ends under the ring. The rest of the ramp & the flying cars were added optically to the film print later. The two narrow 'eyebrow windows' in the brick wall are the right-side return wall of the courthouse.

I walked around to the back side (lower right where the old car is parked) and leaning up against the ramp you can see the giant BIFF electric light sign that was used on the rooftop set when Biff confronts Marty. Everything is made of plywood and aged to look like concrete and metals.

It was great to see everything in person before it got torn down and Courthouse Square returned to its generic "small town USA" look.

Sadly, just a few years after this was the great Universal 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 California in the late 1980s. They had just wrapped Back to the Future 2 and this is the street along the far righthand side of Courthouse Square. 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 so I'd ride a studio bicycle around on lunch breaks and check out what was going on around the studio backlots.

I wasn't there during actual Back to the Future2 filming (it was a closed set off limits) but I grabbed a couple pics before they strike the set. This is the futuristic car ramp that the flying cars would drive up and into the flying traffic that was later optically added to the film. This is just to the right of the Courthouse Bldg (opposite side from the street the DeLorean goes under the lightning wire). The plywood car ramp was only built up to the first landing and then abruptly ends under the ring. The rest of the ramp & the flying cars were added optically to the film print later. The two narrow 'eyebrow windows' in the brick wall are the right-side return wall of the courthouse.

I walked around to the back side (lower right where the old car is parked) and leaning up against the ramp you can see the giant BIFF electric light sign that was used on the rooftop set when Biff confronts Marty. Everything is made of plywood and aged to look like concrete and metals.

It was great to see everything in person before it got torn down and Courthouse Square returned to its generic "small town USA" look.

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