An Alex P. Keaton Christmas in July (in August)

Happy August 1st! And if it's August that must mean it's time for—Christmas in July! That's right, the festivities at the Christmas in July blogfest over at Christmas TV History have been extended into its 32nd day—just in time for my turn to participate. Be sure and stop by the Christmas TV Party and see some of my favorite Christmas movies, and specials. (Hint: one of them stars Michael J. Fox, seen here on the cover of a 1986 Family Ties tie-in book, pictured with future wife Tracy Pollen as Alex P. Keaton's girlfriend, Ellen).  While you are at the Christmas TV History blog check out all the other fine and fascinating participants too. After all, it's never too late for Christmas in July—even if it's August. And for all you Back to the Future fans who wonder what Marty McFly might have looked like two years prior to that infamous year of 1985, no need to find a flux capacitor...just see the image at the bottom of this post from the 1983 Christmas episode of Family Ties (from the must-see Holiday Film Reviews blog).

At Precisely 10:04 p.m....

...the Hill Valley clock tower was struck by lightening on November 12, 1955, in Back to the Future. To celebrate that day (and by the way, check out the time of this post), here's a glimpse of the Hot Wheels Back to the Future DeLorean that was made exclusively for the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con in a limited edition of 500. The model DeLorean was cased in a plutonium container fashioned after the one Doc Brown has in the film, also contains a diorama of Hill Valley town square, complete with courthouse and clock tower. More Back to the Future to come, so be sure and check back...in the future.

Happy November 12 (1955)

As every Back to the Future fan knows, November 12, 1955, is the day on which the clock tower was struck by lightning in Hill Valley, California—and Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) used that (for him) future knowledge to harness the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to send Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back to, well, back to the future. Here for your enjoyment is the flyer from the film, which reproduced the historic Hill Valley Telegraph front page story about the lightning strike on...on what date? I don't know if you can tell from the flyer, but the filmmakers decided not to put a date on the newspaper (even though another use of the newspaper in the film clearly shows the paper prints the date on the front page). Why did the filmmakers decide to replace the date with the words "Published Daily"? My best guess is that this edition wouldn't have published until Monday, November 14 (even if the paper was published on Sunday November 13, the clock tower incident probably happened too late for the story to make a Sunday morning edition) and the filmmakers didn't want to confuse the audience by featuring a date other than November 12...as that's the date the viewer needs to keep in their heads in order to follow the film's story. So Happy November 12...which by the way, in 1955 was also a Saturday, as here in 2011.

October 26, 1985...

...was the date in Back To The Future (1985) on which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidently time-travelled to 1955. In honor of that date's anniversary (and since I completely missed all the fun of the Back to the Future 25th anniversary last year) here's the cover from the 1985 souvenir magazines. The cover art—painted by poster-ace Drew Struzan—is one of the most recognizable (and best) movie posters ever. I have a great affection for movie programs and souvenir magazine and I'll be posting more of them here at Tulgey Wood, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.