We visit locations from Back To The Future
It’s a little shocking, frankly, that we’ve done 61 episodes of Pop Pilgrims without Back To The Future. The film is such an indelible part of pop culture, not to mention a personal favorite of most of the A.V. Club staff, that it’s almost irritating that we didn’t go there immediately back in 2011, when we first visited the Los Angeles area for Pop Pilgrims (especially when we did an entire episode about Nakotomi Plaza but couldn’t get anywhere near it). Josh Modell seems to remember talking about going to Doc Brown’s house, but if he did, nothing came of it.
The idea to go there this time around came from Los Angeles actor and Back To The Future fan Shane Hartline, who’s what’s known as a Fiesta Movement Agent. Ford gave him and 99 other social-media types a car to drive around for eight months and document his experiences with it. We let Shane and a couple other agents suggest locations for three bonus episodes of Pop Pilgrims, which will post sporadically through the fall.
Back To The Future filmed on location all around Los Angeles: The gymnasium from the Enchantment Under The Sea dance is in Hollywood; the high school is in Whittier; Marty’s house is in the valley; Doc’s house(s)—interiors were shot in one, exteriors at another—in Pasadena; the Burger King is in Burbank; and the mall’s all the way over in City Of Industry. Hill Valley’s iconic town square, of course, was on the Universal backlot until it burned down a few years ago. (The studio has since built a replica.)