This article may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (October 2009)

Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy^[1][2] that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era,^[3] and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material."^[4]

United Kingdom[link]

The Official History of London's Comedy Store credits comedian and author Tony Allen^[5] with coining the term, though in his autobiography, the late Malcolm Hardee claims to have coined the term in 1978^[6].

Alternative comedy came to describe an approach to stand-up comedy that was neither racist nor sexist but free-form and devised by the performers themselves. This style won out in a 'civil war' ^[7] against more traditional comedians who had initially played London's Comedy Store, Soho, from its opening in May 1979.

Traditional club comics of the time had been reliant on trite jokes which often targeted women and minority groups.^[8] The alternative that developed was more like comedy's answer to punk.^[9]

Alexi Sayle, the Comedy Store's first MC, provided angry character comedy satirising the left. Fellow-MC Tony Allen broke the taboos of personal and sexual politics while actor Keith Allen confronted audiences in a fearless series of 'put-ons' and was a big influence on the early cabaret scene that was about to emerge.^[10]

From of these onstage battles, Tony Allen and Alexi Sayle founded "Alternative Cabaret",^[11] with other Comedy Store regulars. Their aim was to establish several alternative comedy clubs in London in addition to their flagship venue at The Elgin, Ladbroke Grove, from August 1979. Its core members were Jim Barclay, Andy De La Tour and Pauline Melville, stand ups who shared a background in radical fringe theatre.^[12]

The pair also brought alternative stand up to the Edinburgh Festival for the first time in August 1980^[13] with "Late Night Alternative", at the Heriot Watt Theatre.^[14] Returning with a full show in 1981, 'Alternative Cabaret' was the critical comedy hit of that year.^[8] The Comedy Store now began advertising itself as 'The Home of Alternative Comedy' ^[15] with 'Alternative Cabaret' listed by London's weekly Entertainment Guide, Time Out as its main show.^[16]

Those tours established the idea of running comedy shows in small venues around London, and thus sowed the seeds of the network of pub-based gigs that grew in the capital and across the UK throughout the 1980s.^[7]

The new comedy got its own section, 'Cabaret', in Listings magazines, first in 'City Limits' followed by 'Time Out' on 21 January 1983.^[17] Other organisations, comics and entrepreneurs including, Maria Kempinska's Jongleurs and Roland and Clare Muldoon's CAST/New Variety added more regular venues bringing the number of gigs per week from 24 in '83 to 69 by 1987.^[18]

Just about every major British stand up comedian in the last thirty years started their career in alternative comedy clubs, including Ben Elton, Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Lee Evans, Eddie Izzard, Harry Hill, Peter Kay, Jimmy Carr and Ross Noble.^[19]

Meanwhile, other comics had left the Store with Peter Richardson to form The Comic Strip performing 'Comedy Cabaret' featuring double acts and sketch comedy, at The Boulevard Theatre, Soho in October 1980.

The Comic Strip included Manchester University and Drama School graduates Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and French and Saunders and aimed their talents at television. Ben Elton, who then became The Store's next MC also became co-writer of BBC2's TV hit The Young Ones - as author William Cook noted, "After The Young Ones made him Alternative Comedy's hidden voice, Saturday Live (Channel 4) made him its most visible face."^[5] As 'The Comic Strip Presents..', the team altogether made 42 TV Movies for Channel 4 and the BBC.

If Tony Allen, nicknamed by comics and critics as 'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy'^[8] "was the theory of anarchic comedy" wrote comic Arthur Smith, "then Malcolm Hardee was its cock-eyed embodiment".^[8] Hardee was the much loved MC at the Tunnel Palladium, The Mitre, Deptford 1984-89 whose audience were famous for their vocal participation and wit. There he influenced the early careers of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Simon Day, Chris Lynam, Martin Soan, Harry Enfield and many others to whom he gave their first gigs. He also found fame himself as part of 'The Greatest Show on Legs' which had been started by Martin Soan, his part in the legendary 'The Balloon Dance' as well as his many shows at The Edinburgh Festival.^[20]

Canada[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Toronto has historically been a locus of alternative comedy. The ALTdot COMedy Lounge has been running since the 1980s, and alternative acts that made their start there include The Kids in the Hall, Corky and the Juice Pigs, Jason Rouse, Sean Cullen, Shaun Majumder, The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Ron Sparks, Levi MacDougall, Tim Polley, Harland Williams, The BOOM Show, Asiansploitation, The Sketchersons and many more.

United States[link]

New York City[link]

In New York City, much of what is called alternative or "downtown comedy"^[21] is performed outside of traditional comedy clubs in theaters, such as Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB), Magnet Theater and the Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), as well as cabarets that host comedy only occasionally. The comedians at these shows offer character-based humour or surreal humour as opposed to observations of everyday life or more polemical themes.^[21] In addition, many alternative comics use unusual presentation styles, such as (Demetri Martin, Slovin and Allen) opting to play music, give Powerpoint presentations or act out sketches.^[21] A few alternative comics such as Todd Barry also perform in mainstream comedy venues.

Warren St. John said that the "inspiration" for alternative comedy in New York City is the Upright Citizens Brigade. The group originally formed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Chelsea in 1999.^[21] Four years later, in 2003, several performers at the UCB spun off their own theater, and formed the PIT. St. John also argues that one reason that unusual comics can succeed in New York City is that they don't have to tour part time, as many of them also work as writers on local comedy television shows such as The Daily Show and The David Letterman Show.^[21]

References[link]

William "Bill" Burr (born June 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, radio host and actor.

Life and career[link]

Burr was born in Canton, Massachusetts. His father was a dentist, and Bill worked as a hygienist for a short time. He began stand-up at age 23 after attending Emerson College, where he majored in Radio. Burr also had a early morning slot on college radio during this period. In 1995, he moved to New York City and lived there for eight months. Burr then moved to Los Angeles, California, where he worked on a number of film and television projects. He returned to New York in 1999 and moved back to Los Angeles in 2008, where he currently resides. Burr stands 5'10" in height, is left handed, and is of German and Irish descent.

He performs over three hundred shows annually, had two movies released in 2006, and has performed on The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. In early 2004, he appeared in two episodes of Chappelle's Show, and in September 2005, his HBO One Night Stand special aired. Along with many other projects, Burr has also been a guest comedian on the Bob and Tom Show as well as on the Opie and Anthony Show on XM Satellite Radio, sometimes sitting in when third member Jim Norton is away. He has also performed on the Comedy Central Presents show.

On December 16, 2006, Burr hosted a three-hour radio show on Opie and Anthony's XM radio channel program The Virus (channel 202) titled "Uninformed with Bill Burr & Joe DeRosa" from 9pm-12am.^[2] The second Uninformed show aired February 10, 2007 from 9pm-12am, and the show has continued to run on an irregular schedule about once a month. Since Burr's move to Los Angeles, it has primarily been a pre-taped show, rather than live. The show's collection of free podcasts can be found at uninformedradio.com.^[3]

In September 2007, Burr signed with Colorado independent label What Are Records?. An expanded version of his 2003 debut album Emotionally Unavailable was released October 16, 2007. Emotionally Unavailable carries content previously available only in Burr’s stand-up shows. It features a completely unedited set with Burr covering topics from rednecks to inadvertent racism to relationship books to crazy people on the subway. The Expanded Edition augments that album with previously unreleased highlights from a different tour - the Houston stop of the I’m Rich Biatch Tour which Bill co-headlined with Chappelle's Show cast mates Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings. Much of the material from this tour later turned up on Burr’s HBO stand-up special.

As with other comics associated with The Opie & Anthony Show, in 2008, Burr's voice was featured in the game Grand Theft Auto IV. In the game, Bill plays Jason Michaels of the biker gang the The Lost MC in the mission "No Love Lost". In 2009, he reprised his role in the game's expansion pack The Lost and Damned.

Burr's most recent special is entitled "Let It Go". It premiered on Comedy Central on September 18, 2010 and was shot at the Fillmore in San Francisco, California.

Bill Burr has been referred to as a "comedian's comedian" by observers of the US stand-up comedy circuit, meaning a comedian whose work is being followed and appreciated by fellow professional comedians.^[4][5] He is a Boston Bruins fan and periodically blogs for NHL.com.

Burr's brother, Robert, is a selectman from Canton, Massachusetts and was briefly a candidate to fill the Massachusetts' vacant seat in the United States Senate after the death of Ted Kennedy in 2009.^[6][7]

Burr appeared in the movie Date Night as Detective Walsh. He also appeared in season 4 of AMC's Breaking Bad as Kuby.^[8]

The Monday Morning Podcast[link]

Since May 2007, Bill Burr has recorded a weekly one-hour podcast, in which he speaks without reservation and off the cuff about his past and recent experiences, going on tour, and sports.^[9] Occasionally, he is joined by his girlfriend Nia Hill, depending on whether she is present in their house or not. Burr also appears as a guest on other comedians' podcasts, such as The Adam Carolla Show,^[10] The Joe Rogan Experience,^[11][12] WTF with Marc Maron,^[13] and Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast.^[14] Burr was also the very first guest on Tom Green's podcast. On April 18, 2011 he guest hosted the Hollywood Babble-On podcast alongside Ralph Garman, taking the place of a sick Kevin Smith.^[15]

Discography[link]

• Emotionally Unavailable (2003) [CD]
• Emotionally Unavailable: Expanded Edition (2007) [CD]
• Why Do I Do This? (2008) [CD/DVD]
• Let It Go (2010) [CD/DVD]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bill Burr

• billburr.com, official website
• Bill Burr at the Internet Movie Database

Alexei David Sayle (born 7 August 1952) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007. In the updated 2010 poll he came 72nd.

Much of Sayle's humour is in the tradition of Spike Milligan and Monty Python, with riffs based on absurd and surreal premises. His act is noted for its cynicism and political awareness, as well as physical comedy.

Personal life[link]

Sayle was born and raised in Anfield, Liverpool, the son of Molly (Malka) Sayle (née Mendelson), a pools clerk, and Joseph Henry Sayle, a railway worker,^[2] both of whom were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Sayle's mother was of Lithuanian Jewish descent,^[3] and some members of his immediate family were very devout Jews, as he mentioned on the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives when he nominated the Palestinian rights advocate, Edward Said on the programme. In the aftermath of the May 1968 French uprising, he joined the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). In later years he has said that, while no longer active in left politics, ‘I still would adhere to those philosophical and economic ideas of Marxism that I got when I was sixteen...it’s seemed to me as true now as it did then...’.^[4] From 1964-1969 he attended Alsop High School in Walton, and was expelled half way through sixth form.^[5] After that, Sayle took a foundation course in art at Southport, before attending Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. He attended Garnett College, Roehampton, a training college for teachers in Further Education.^[6] He has been married to Linda Rawsthorn since 1974.

Career[link]

Stand-up comedy and theatre[link]

When The Comedy Store opened in London in 1979, Sayle responded to an advert for would-be comedians and became its first master of ceremonies. In 1980, comedy producer Martin Lewis saw Sayle perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and became his manager.

Sayle became the leading performer at The Comic Strip. He appeared on The Comic Strip Album (1981) and recorded Cak! (1982). He also appeared in the stage show, film and comedy album of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1981–82). Sayle's material covered a broad range of topics, but one of his favourite subjects remained politics. His angry persona, coupled with his vociferous delivery, gave immense bite to his material. A typical example of Sayle's humour was his attack on American phrases: "If you travel to the States... they have a lot of different words than like what we use. For instance: they say 'elevator', we say 'lift'; they say 'drapes', we say 'curtains'; they say 'president', we say 'seriously deranged git!'

In 1988, Sayle played the role of Trinculo in Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Jonathan Miller at The Old Vic theatre in London.

Sixteen years on from his last stand-up comedy tour, Sayle returned in 2011 as an MC, compering the middle section of At Last! The 1981 Show, curated by Stewart Lee at the Royal Festival Hall. Although this was mainly a nostalgia night with comedians including Nigel Planer and Norman Lovett revisiting their material from the 1980s, Sayle premiered some new material with a calmer style of delivery than he was previously known for. More recently, in January and February 2012, he compered four nights of stand-up comedy at the Soho Theatre.

Radio[link]

Sayle's early work included several performances for Capital London. In 1981 he wrote and performed the radio series, Alexei Sayle And The Fish People, for which he won a Sony Radio Award. Sayle later released an album based on the show – The Fish People Tapes. He has since contributed to many other radio shows, including writing the five part series, Sorry About Last Night (1999), in which he also played the leading role. On 3 November 2006 he presented Chopwell Soviet, a 30-minute programme on BBC Radio 4 that reviewed the Chopwell miners 80 years after the village of Chopwell became known as Little Moscow.^[7]

Television[link]

Sayle's first high profile television appearances were on Central Independent Television's late-night alternative cabaret show O.T.T. (1982). He left nine weeks into the show's run to tour Australia with The Comic Strip. He played various roles in the situation comedy The Young Ones (1982–1984), along with Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan. In the programme Sayle portrayed several members of an Eastern European family; the Balowskis. In 1985, he appeared in the Doctor Who serial Revelation of the Daleks. In a column for a British tabloid newspaper around the same time, he indicated that he wanted to become the "first Socialist Doctor."^[8] He also appeared in several episodes of The Comic Strip Presents...,between 1985 and 1993, most notably playing the two leading roles in "Didn't You Kill My Brother?" which he co-wrote with David Stafford and Pauline Melville. Sayle has co-written and starred in many other programmes, including three series of Alexei Sayle's Stuff (1988–91), two series of The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1994–95) and one series of Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round (1998).

In 1989, Sayle was awarded an International Emmy for Stuff. In conversation with Mark Thomas on BBC Radio 4's informal chat-show Chain Reaction, Sayle revealed that the first he knew of the award was when he watched Channel 4 News and saw, to his amazement, Benny Hill collecting the award on his behalf. In 1990, Sayle had a fatwa taken out against him by an Muslim cleric from Syria after a mild joke on his BBC comedy show Stuff. This fatwa has never been withdrawn.^[9][10]

He has also provided the voice-over for animations including the character Rubbish the Cat in the children's TV series Rubbish, King of the Jumble (1992–94).^[11] In 1994 he presented the miniseries Drive, which gave advice for safe driving through Sayle's signature form of humour interspersed with serious pieces. In 2008, he wrote and presented Alexei Sayle's Liverpool, a three-part television series in which he reconnected with his hometown. He stated in the programmes that on first hearing that Liverpool was to be awarded the European Capital of Culture, he received much criticism for describing the city as "philistine". He now feels that he does not know whether or not his original statement was true, but as a result of making the series he does now consider Liverpool to be his home, and he has vowed to go back there more often in the future.^[12]

Film[link]

Sayle alternates his comedic work with performances as a character actor ranging from serious (Gorky Park, 1983) to humorous (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1989). He appeared in the 1992 Carry On film, Carry On Columbus along with various modern comedians including Comic Strip founder Peter Richardson, as well as members of the original Carry On team.

Music[link]

Sayle has released five comedy singles with full musical backing. The most successful of these was "'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?" which achieved Top 20 chart success in the UK upon re-release in 1984. Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (who also produced for Madness and Elvis Costello), the record in its 12-inch version achieved notoriety owing to its extensive use of profane language. The two follow up singles, "Didn't You Kill My Brother?", and "Meanwhile", were taken from the album Panic, the cover of which parodies the cover of the Michael Jackson album Off The Wall.

Writing[link]

Sayle has written two short story collections and five novels, including a graphic novel, as well as columns for various publications. His book Great Bus Journeys Of The World, co-written with David Stafford, is mostly a collection of his columns for Time Out and the Sunday Mirror. He was one of eight contributory authors to the BBC Three competition End Of Story, in which members of the public completed the second half of stories written by established authors. The winning entry to Sayle's story, Imitating Katherine Walker, was written by freelance writer Arthur Allan. Sayle's autobiography, focusing on his early life, which he describes as a 'satirical memoir', was published in 2010.

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Radio[link]

• Capital London (1979–1981) (various performances)
• Alexei Sayle And The Fish People (1981)
• Lenin of the Rovers (1988)
• Sorry About Last Night (1999)
• Chopwell Soviet (2006)
• Alexei Sayle's Alternative Take (2007)
• Where Did All The Money Go? (2008)
• Migrant Music (2008)

Videos[link]

• The Alexei Sayle Pirate Video (Springtime, 1983)
• Alexei Sayle's Stuff (Paradox, 1995)

DVDs[link]

• Alexei Sayle's Stuff Series One (BBC, 2005)
• Alexei Sayle's Stuff Series Two (BBC, 2006)
• Alexei Sayle's Stuff Series Three (BBC, 2006)

Discography[link]

• Pop-Up Toasters (7" single, Springtime/Island, 1981) (as "Alexei's Midnight Runners")
• Cak! (album – vinyl & cassette, Springtime/Island, 1982)
• Albania! Albania! (Albanixey! Albanixey!) (single, Albaniox, 1982, MOXA-1) (as "The Albanian World Cup Squad")
• 'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (single, Springtime/Island, 1982) (7" IS162, 12" 12IS162)
• The Fish People Tapes (album, Island, 1984)
• Panic (album, CBS, 1985)
• Didn't You Kill My Brother? (single, CBS, 1985) (7" A6553, 12" TA6553)
• Meanwhile (single, CBS, 1986)

Bibliography[link]

• Train To Hell (Methuen, 9 February 1984; hardcover ISBN 0-413-52460-4, paperback ISBN 0-413-52470-1) – novel co-written by David Stafford
• Geoffrey The Tube Train And The Fat Comedian (Methuen, 1987; paperback) – graphic novel
• Alexei Sayle's Great Bus Journeys Of The World (Methuen, October 1989; paperback ISBN 0-413-62670-9) – collected columns from Time Out and the Sunday Mirror
• Barcelona Plates (Sceptre, 17 February 2000; hardback ISBN 0-340-76752-9, paperback ISBN 0-340-76753-7) – short story collection
• The Dog Catcher (Sceptre, 19 July 2001; hardcover ISBN 0-340-81868-9, paperback ISBN 0-340-81944-8) – short story collection
• Overtaken (Sceptre, 1 September 2003; hardcover ISBN 0-340-76768-5) – despite Train To Hell, this was publicised as being Sayle's first novel
• The Weeping Women Hotel (Sceptre, 27 February 2006; hardcover ISBN 0-340-83121-9) – novel
• Mister Roberts (Sceptre, 16 October 2008; hardcover ISBN 0-340-96155-1, paperback ISBN 0-340-96156-2) – Sayle's latest novel
• Stalin Ate My Homework (Sceptre, 2 September 2010; hardcover ISBN 0-340-91957-6, paperback ISBN 0-340-91958-3) – autobiography

Screenplays[link]

• Night Voice (1990)
• 'Itch (1990)
• Sorry About Last Night (1995)
• Lose Weight... Ask Me How (2001)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Alexei Sayle at the Internet Movie Database
• Alexei Sayle at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Alexei Sayle on BBC One's This Week
• Review of The Weeping Women Hotel by Spike Magazine
• Interview with Alexei Sayle by Aly Stoneman, LeftLion Magazine

This film-related article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2009)

Doctor Emmett Lathrop "Doc" Brown, Ph.D. is a fictional character and one of the lead characters in the Back to the Future film trilogy, in which he is the inventor of the first time machine, which he builds out of a DeLorean sports car. The character is memorably played by actor Christopher Lloyd in all three films, as well as in the live action sequences of the animated series. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta in the animated series. The character's appearance and mannerisms are loosely inspired by Leopold Stokowski and Albert Einstein.^[1] In 2008, Dr. Emmett Brown was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time, ranking at #76.^[2]

Character background[link]

According to Back to the Future: The Game, Emmett was born in 1922.^{[episode needed]} He refers to himself as a "student of all sciences", and is shown to be a passionate inventor. Scientists are his role models, as evidenced by the names of his pet dog, whom he calls Copernicus in 1955, and his later dog, whom he calls Einstein in 1985, and the portraits of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein found in his laboratory (which were on a wall in his home in 1955), and his favourite author is Jules Verne. When looking through his ancestral history, he reveals to Marty that his family name was originally von Braun, indicating a German background (and possibly alluding to a relation to the real-life and contemporary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who was brought to America after the Second World War).

His character is one who can be absent-minded at times, and despite being seen around fictional Hill Valley, the setting for all three films, evidence in the three films indicates that he is regarded as strange, eccentric, or crazy. He often enunciates his words with wide-eyed expressions and broad gestures ("Great Scott!" being one of the character's well-known catchphrases), and tends to use large words or phrases over short ones: for instance, referring to a school dance as a "rhythmic ceremonial ritual" in the first film.

The only friends the character is shown to have are Marty, and Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer. The films do not depict how Doc originally met Marty, however production notes and word from creators Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale have stated that they met several years prior to the events of the first film when Marty sneaked into his lab after being warned to stay away from Doc by his parents. Doc was happy to be revered as being cool and hired Marty as his part-time lab assistant.^[3]

Doc has been involved in illegal and criminal enterprises within the scope of the films—albeit as a means to obtain items he could not purchase legally—but shows naïveté over the repercussions of his actions, excitedly telling Marty how he cheated Libyan terrorists out of stolen plutonium, saying "they wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and, in turn, gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts!"

The character begins the trilogy somewhat innocent and very enthusiastic over the possible applications of his discovery, and actively tries to alter the past or future of various principal characters, in efforts to improve their lives. However, events throughout the story, particularly in the second film, bring him to the conclusion that time travel should not be used because of the hazards involved, and that the time machine should be destroyed. In the third film, after realizing he has unwittingly altered history by preventing the death of Clara Clayton in 1885, Doc expresses regret for inventing the time machine at all, remarking that it has "caused nothing but disaster."

However, after being left behind in 1885 when Marty departs in the DeLorean for 1985, Doc starts a family with Clara. He creates another time machine and builds it into a steam locomotive, which he uses to transport his family to 1985 (to collect his dog, Einstein) after having traveled to an unspecified point further in the future (presumably 2015 in order to give the locomotive a hover conversion akin to the DeLorean and to show his wife and children society beyond their natural years, which is also reinforced by Doc's answer to Marty's question if he is going "back to the future", and Brown answered in the negative, stating they have "already been there!"). The trilogy ends with Doc and his family departing 1985.

[edit] Events from Back to the Future series

[edit] Back to the Future

On Saturday, November 5, 1955, Doc came up with the idea of the flux capacitor (which is what makes time travel possible) after slipping off his toilet while standing on it to hang a clock and bumping his head on the edge of the sink. The idea came to him in a vision he had after being knocked out. The time machine project suffered a setback on Wednesday, August 1, 1962 when Doc's mansion at 1640 Riverside (later John F. Kennedy) Drive burnt down.

In the original movie, after the fire Doc moved into his former garage (which was down the hill from the mansion and was not affected by the blaze), addressed as 1646 Riverside Drive. There were rumors that he had deliberately burnt it down to claim the insurance money to fund the time machine. Whether or not that was the case, Doc still had to use up most of his family's fortune to fund the creation of his time machine. Doc moved to his garage and sold the rest of his estate to developers, but he was soon back on track. On Monday, May 23, 1983, he was commended and given a civic award for unspecified reasons. Another indicator of Doc's moneymaking could have been a large truck he owned which was advertised as "Dr. E. Brown 24-Hour Scientific Services". This truck may simply have been used to transport cumbersome materials, however it also suggests Brown offered himself as a contractor to those in need of technical and scientific help in order to make money to defray the cost of building the time machine.

Doc finally finished installing his time machine into a DeLorean sports car in 1985, using plutonium to power the time circuits and the flux capacitor, and was apparently killed by the group of Libyan terrorists who had given it to him as they wanted a nuclear weapon in return, but Doc, in an act of either extreme courage or extreme foolhardiness, merely gave them "a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts."

Marty, who had witnessed the first time travel experiment, was accidentally sent back to 1955, where he tried to warn the 1955 version of Doc about the terrorists. Doc did not want to know too much about his own future and ripped up the warning letter Marty had written him. Doc successfully sent Marty back to the future by harnessing the energy from a bolt of lightning as it struck the Hill Valley clock tower on Saturday, November 12, 1955 at 10:04 pm. Sometime after these events, one can surmise, Doc decided to take the risk, taped together Marty's warning letter, and discovered the truth about that night in 1985. When 1985 rolled around again, it turned out the Doc wore a bulletproof vest for protection, apparently modified to resist rifle fire. After dropping Marty home, Doc went 30 years into the future. He went to October 21, 2015 and while he was there, he observed a chain of disastrous incidents that destroy Marty's life, and then skipped back in time to find the origin, tying it to a specific incident in 2015 that occurred between Marty's son, Marty Jr. and Biff's grandson, Griff. While there, he got an "all natural overhaul" to his body which added 30 or 40 years to his life and made him look younger, just like back in 1955. (This had little effect on his appearance, and was written into the script to allow the actor not to wear "old" makeup through the second and third films). He also got the DeLorean hover-converted and installed a "Mr. Fusion". The Mr. Fusion reactor eliminated the need for plutonium, and allowed the time machine to operate off ordinary household garbage. Afterward, Doc returned to 1985 to pick up Marty (and Jennifer, who happened to be there) to take them to 2015.

[edit] Back to the Future Part II

Doc had discovered that Marty's son, Marty Jr, was to go to jail for committing a crime, an event which would end up destroying the McFly family. Doc devises a plan for Marty to pose as Marty, Jr. (since the father-son resemblance was uncanny), as well as to prevent the crime from occurring. Doc then discovered that Marty had bought a sports almanac to take back to 1985 with him. Doc lectured Marty about how he had not invented the time machine for financial gain (though, ironically, he had mentioned in the first movie that he would go ahead in time 25 years and one of the things he would do is find out the next 25 World Series winners. Even so, it is never said that he would use it for gambling, or any other profitable trick.) Unknown to Doc or Marty, a now-elderly Biff Tannen overheard the conversation and later stole the DeLorean and the Almanac while Doc and Marty were rescuing 1985 Jennifer from the future McFly family house. Later in the film, it is revealed that Biff went back to November 12, 1955 and gave the Almanac to his 1955 teenaged self. On their way back to the DeLorean Doc had become convinced of the profound hazards involved in time travel and decided once they return to 1985, he would destroy the time machine, as time travel is just too dangerous to be used.

Doc, Marty, and Jennifer arrived back in 1985 only to discover that history had been altered. Biff's wealth had led to a total alteration of Hill Valley to Biff's wishes and supposed alterations to the entire world's history (such as Richard Nixon still being in office and the Vietnam War still being fought in 1985). In this version of history, Doc has been committed to an insane asylum since 1983 (he was committed on the same day he won his award in the "proper" history). It is speculated that since Biff was warned by his older self upon delivery of the almanac that a "crazy, wild-eyed old man who claims to be a scientist" would ask about it someday, Biff was the one who had Doc committed, but no concrete evidence is provided in the film. It is also possible that Doc actually went insane due to the changes in the timeline, which only he would be aware of and be unable to reconcile with how he knew history should have unfolded.

Doc and Marty headed back to 1955 to correct the timeline, and while Marty tracked down Biff to get the almanac from him, Doc attempted to make repairs to the time circuits, which had developed a fault and kept re-setting the Destination Time setting to January 1, 1885. When Doc discovered Marty had got the Almanac, he orderd Marty to destroy it. Using matches from "Biff's Pleasure Palace," Marty burned the almanac in front of the same billboard he used to hide the time machine in the first movie. He also accidentally switched on the time circuits, which was set at 1885. Their mission of stealing the almanac and setting history straight was accomplished. However this success was quickly followed by Doc, in the DeLorean, being sent back to 1885 when a bolt of lightning struck the DeLorean, causing a gigawatt overload. Once in 1885, Doc set himself up as a blacksmith while trying to fix the DeLorean, but had to give up as suitable parts to repair the DeLorean's destroyed microchip would not be invented until 1947 (the actual date of the invention of the transistor.) He buried the DeLorean in the abandoned Delgado Mine on the outskirts of town and wrote a letter to Marty to be delivered just minutes after the DeLorean was struck by lightning. The letter was held by Western Union for the next 70 years, 2 months and 12 days, and given to Marty in 1955.

It also appears that Doc has made other travels to different time periods before coming back for Marty in 1985 because he has a suitcase full of vintage money for, as he calls it, "all monetary possibilities."

[edit] Back to the Future Part III

Marty received the letter and ran to the 1955 Doc, who had just sent the younger Marty back to the future. He initially disbelieved that Marty had returned, but eventually came to his senses. Marty and Doc uncovered the DeLorean and repaired it, but Marty discovered that on September 7, 1885 (one week after he wrote the letter), Doc would be murdered by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Biff's great-grandfather. Marty headed back to September 2, 1885, the day after Doc wrote the letter and five days before Doc's death, to save his friend.

Marty located Doc, and once again Doc had to make repairs to the time machine after it ran out of gas (hard to come by in 1885 since cars wouldn't exist in the United States until 23 years later) when its fuel line was ruptured. While making a plan to use a train to push the DeLorean to 88 mph, Doc saved a teacher, Clara Clayton, from falling into a ravine after a snake spooked her horses. The ravine was, in the proper timeline, called Clayton Ravine after Clara fell into it. They fell in love at first sight, much to the despair of Marty who saw Clara as a distraction. Doc and Clara danced at the town festival on September 5, where Marty managed to save Doc from being shot early by Buford Tannen (It is also possible that this was supposed to have been the fatal event - Tannen told the Doc that the last man shot with the gun took two days to die along with that with his small gun, he predicted Doc would be dead by suppertime Monday). Doc and Clara also had their first kiss that night.

Later, Doc realized he would have to leave Clara behind when he went back to the future with Marty on Monday. He said goodbye to her and told her the truth about where he came from. Naturally, she did not believe him and slapped him. Broken-hearted, Doc went to have a glass of whisky at the Palace Saloon, where Marty found him next morning (Monday) with the same glass of whisky. After drinking the whisky, he immediately fell down drunk. Marty and Chester the bartender managed to revive Doc with an extremely spicy concoction called "wake-up juice" which included tabasco sauce, and afterwards Doc and Marty hijacked a train to use to push the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour (141 km/h). Clara reappeared, having seen Doc's train model plan and realized Doc was telling the truth, but nearly fell off the train. Doc managed to save her, with help from Marty's hoverboard (a piece of technology from 2015), but decided to stay behind with Clara in 1885 (or that he realized he had not enough time to get in the time machine and attempting to do so might strand Marty in 1885 as well). Marty managed to get home, but the time machine was destroyed less than a minute after his arrival by a modern locomotive plowing through it, meaning he could not go back to rescue Doc and Clara from the past.

Over the next 10 years, Doc and Clara married (they marry on December 15, 1885 according to the animated series episode, "Solar Sailors") and had two sons, Jules and Verne, named after their favorite author. Doc also built a new time machine, this time using a steam locomotive. The Brown family take off to visit the future (to get the train hover-converted) and then back to 1985 to pick up Einstein (his dog), and visit Marty and Jennifer (when and where Marty thought he would never see Doc again due to the time machine being destroyed), before heading off to times unknown.

[edit] Back to the Future: The Ride

Although Back to the Future: The Ride is not taken as canon by some,^{[citation needed]} it reveals that the Brown family eventually moved back to the 20th century and that by 1991, Doc had set up the Institute of Future Technology. He modified a time-traveling DeLorean to seat eight, which comes in handy after Biff steals the time machine again and the audience, in their own time-traveling DeLorean, must help Doc chase Biff through time. The ride was featured at Universal Studios in Hollywood, Florida and Japan. The Florida and Hollywood versions closed in March and September 2007 respectively and were both replaced with The Simpsons Ride, which opened in May 2008. The Hollywood ride has since also been replaced with The Simpsons Ride.

[edit] Back to the Future: The Animated Series

This series starts in 1991 after the events from Part III and the Ride, where Doc, Clara, Jules and Verne now live in a farmhouse outside Hill Valley with Einstein the dog. The family, along with Marty, have traveled through time in both the train time machine and a rebuilt and improved DeLorean (which looks the same externally as before it was rebuilt, but is drastically different inside).

The Simpsons Ride[link]

In The Simpsons Ride, in a tribute to the ride it replaced, Back to the Future: The Ride, Emmett Brown has a brief cameo voiced over by Christopher Lloyd. It should be noted that in the animated series of Back to the Future, Brown was voiced by Dan Castellaneta, also the voice of the Simpson family patriarch Homer Simpson.

In the cameo, Professor Frink, Doc's colleague as it is revealed in the ride, is shocked to discover that Doc's Institute has been turned into Krustyland, a theme park built by Krusty the Clown. So, he drives a DeLorean time machine back in time to save the institute, where, two years earlier, Doc is about to sign a contract with a banker, named Mr. Freidman, to save the Institute. However, as Doc is about to sign, Frink drives the DeLorean into the banker. Doc becomes upset at Frink, and complains that he has to sell his Institute to "that mercenary clown", who happens to be Krusty. Krusty then appears and puts a Krustyland sign in front of the Institute, and Frink complains that he created a time paradox. Doc asks Krusty if there's anything he can do for him, to which Krusty responds he can sell tickets at the front gate if he "gets a haircut". Doc says it takes him three hours a day "Just to get it like this!". It is then presumed that the Institute of Future Technology became Krustyland.

Back to the Future: The Game[link]

Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Dr. Brown in Telltale Games' Back to the Future: The Game. As of July 2011, five episodes have been released. Set 6 months after the end of Part III, Marty is missing Doc as the bank sells his belongings. Suddenly, the DeLorean arrives and Marty finds he is imprisoned in 1931, destined to be gunned down by a mob. By collaborating with a younger Emmett Brown, (voiced by James Arnold Taylor), Marty is able to rescue Doc, as well as ensure the safety of his grandfather, Arthur McFly. However, their meddling inadvertently changes the future of Young Emmett, and Marty winds up in an alternate 1986 ruled over by Doc, who is now Hill Valley's First Citizen. Marty is able to convince Doc to go back to 1931 and try to fix the timeline, but in 1931 Doc changes his mind and attempts to stop Marty from fixing it. The original timeline was restored, however, and he was erased from existence, but later events cause the entire city of Hill Valley to be erased, back in 1876. Marty and Doc fix the timeline once more, but upon returning to 1986 three alternate versions of Marty appear.

In other media[link]

Doc is a playable character in the first level of the video game of Back to the Future Part III. In the game, he must ride his horse to prevent Clara Clayton from falling into the ravine, using a pistol to fend off enemies.

In 2011 American Singer Britney Spears joked that Dr. Emmett Brown was her favorite scientist for "I Am FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll".

Doc Brown has made several non-canon appearances. Lloyd first reprised the role for the 1985 Huey Lewis & The News "The Power of Love" video. In the mid-2000s, Lloyd reprised the role of Brown in commercials for satellite giant DirecTV, in newly-filmed footage interspersed with clips from the first Back to the Future film. In one variation of the commercials, Lloyd runs down the fiery trail left by the Delorean in a scene taken directly from the film, while in a newly-recorded voiceover Lloyd hails the service as being "TV from outer space!" In 2011 Lloyd appears as Brown in commercials for the Argentine Electronics Store Garbarino and for Nike.

In September of that year, Lloyd reprised the role for an eBay charity auction promotion. Nike had produced 1500 reproductions of the 'futuristic' trainers Doc gave Marty McFly in 2015 (Back to the Future Part II), with all net proceeds from the auction going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for research into Parkinson's disease.

Back to the Future Part III footage of Lloyd was incorporated into the 1990 ZZ Top "Doubleback" video.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Emmett Brown

• Emmett Brown at the Internet Movie Database

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from 3 stage shows and a 6-episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three and 2 live tours of the UK, as well as 2 live shows in the United States.

History[link]

Fielding first met Barratt after seeing him perform his solo stand-up routine at the Hellfire Comedy Club in the Wycombe Swan Theatre.^[1] The pair soon found that they shared comic interests, formed a double act, and "decided to be the new Goodies".^[2] After their first performance together at a bar in London in April 1998, Barratt and Fielding developed their zookeeper characters--Howard Moon and Vince Noir, respectively--in a series of sketches for Paramount Comedy’s Unnatural Acts. Here they also met American Rich Fulcher, who became Bob Fossil. Fielding’s friend Dave Brown and Fielding's brother Michael also became regular collaborators. Richard Ayoade was another original cast member, playing adventurer Dixon Bainbridge, but Matt Berry replaced him in the first television series, since Ayoade was under contract with Channel 4.^[3] Ayoade returned in the second and third series as a belligerent shaman named Saboo.

According to Michael Fielding, the name "Mighty Boosh" was originally a phrase used by a Spanish friend to describe the curly hair that Michael had as a child.^[4]

The Boosh produced 3 stage shows--The Mighty Boosh (1998), Arctic Boosh (1999) and Autoboosh (2000)--all of which were taken to the Edinburgh Fringe. With the success of Autoboosh, a radio series was commissioned by the BBC. Produced by Danny Wallace, The Boosh was first broadcast in 2001 on BBC London Live, later transferring to BBC Radio 4, from which the team were given a half-hour television pilot of the same name.

The first 8-part series, directed by Paul King, was then commissioned for BBC Three and broadcast in 2004, with a second of 6 episodes the next year. The second series moved away from the zoo setting to show Howard, Vince, Naboo the shaman and Bollo the talking ape living in a flat in Dalston.^[5] In 2006, the Boosh returned to theatre with The Mighty Boosh Live, which featured a new story entitled "The Ruby of Kukundu".

After two years away from television, the Boosh returned in November 2007. Set in Naboo’s second-hand shop below the flat, the third series drew approximately 1 million viewers with its first episode,^[6] and in light of its success, BBC Three broadcast an entire night of The Mighty Boosh on 22 March 2008, which included a new documentary and 6 of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from all 3 series.

Main Cast[link]

• Julian Barratt as Howard Moon
• Noel Fielding as Vince Noir
• Michael Fielding as Naboo
• Dave Brown as Bollo
• Rich Fulcher as Bob Fossil

Note: The cast members also play smaller roles throughout the series, the roles listed above are their most frequently appearing characters. For a full list of characters, see the List of The Mighty Boosh characters.

Theatre[link]

Original stage shows[link]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh (1998)

The Boosh, then consisting of only Barratt and Fielding, conceived The Mighty Boosh whilst working on Stewart Lee's Edinburgh Festival show King Dong vs. Moby Dick in which they played a giant penis and a whale respectively.

In 1998, they took The Mighty Boosh to the Edinburgh Festival, recruiting fellow comedian Rich Fulcher, whom the pair had met while working on Unnatural Acts. The show won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. During their residency at North London's Hen and Chickens Theatre the following year, they built up a cult following, introducing new characters whilst developing old ones.

[edit] Arctic Boosh (1999)

In 1999, the Boosh returned to the Edinburgh Festival with a new show, Arctic Boosh, with Dave Brown acting as choreographer and photographer, as well as playing a variety of characters. Arctic Boosh sold out every night and was nominated for the Perrier Award.

[edit] Autoboosh (2000)

In 2000, the Boosh premiered their third stage show, Autoboosh, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, adding Fielding's younger brother Michael to the cast. Autoboosh won the festival's Barry Award.

Nationwide tours[link]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh Live (2006)

The Boosh returned to the stage in 2006, touring the UK for the first time. Though drawing heavily from their earlier material, the main story combined these elements into a new narrative. A recording of this show at the Brixton Academy was later released on DVD, before being broadcast on BBC Three on Boxing Day, 2007.

[edit] Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour (2008/09)

The Boosh toured the UK and Ireland for a second time from September 2008 to February 2009. The show featured characters from all three series as well as the Boosh Band.

They made appearances throughout the UK after their live shows, at after-parties held in different places in each city. The events were called "Outrage", after the catchphrase by Tony Harrison.

Radio[link]

[edit] The Boosh (2001)

From the success of Autoboosh, the BBC commissioned a 6-part radio series for the Boosh. In October 2001 The Boosh radio series, produced by Danny Wallace, was broadcast on BBC London Live, then BBC Radio 4, and later on BBC 7. The show focuses on the adventures of a pair of zookeepers at "Bob Fossil's Funworld": socially awkward, jazz enthusiast Howard TJ Moon, and ultra-vain, fashion-obsessed Vince Noir. This also included voices from Lee Mack also, playing such characters as the Plumber or the Gardener.

Further appearances[link]

The Mighty Boosh returned to radio on 22 October 2004, in a one-off comedy special for The Breezeblock, a show on BBC Radio 1.^[7] Instead of the plot driven nature of their own series, this show featured improvised conversational comedy with Barratt, Fielding and Fulcher, combined with the show's usual mix of electronic music.

On 15 November 2007, as part of the publicity for the premier of their third series the same day, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding returned to Radio 1, this time on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge.^[8]

Television[link]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh (2004–07)

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)

In May 2004, after the success of a Boosh pilot, Steve Coogan's company, Baby Cow Productions, produced the first television series of The Mighty Boosh for BBC Three, before it moved to BBC Two in November that same year. Though each episode invariably starts and ends in Dixon Bainbridge’s dilapidated zoo, the "Zooniverse", the characters of Vince and Howard often depart for other locations, such as the Arctic tundra and limbo.

A second series, shown in July 2005, saw Howard and Vince sharing Naboo's flat in Dalston with previously minor characters Naboo and his familiar, Bollo, a gorilla living at the "Zooniverse". This series had an even looser setting as the 4 characters leave the confines of the flat in every episode, travelling in their van to a variety of surrealistic environments, including Naboo's home planet "Xooberon".

Series three started in November 2007, still set in Dalston, but this time the foursome are selling 'Bits & Bobs' in their shop, the Nabootique. Their adventures and outings in this series focused more on the involvement of new characters (e.g. Sammy the Crab, or Lester Corncrake etc.) rather than just the two of them.

Although BBC America originally aired only series 1 in the U.S (all episodes in their entirety), The Mighty Boosh began airing in North America on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block (with up to 6 minutes cut from each episode), starting 29 March 2009 with the third series.^[9]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh Night

On 22 March 2008, BBC Three broadcast a whole night of The Mighty Boosh from 9.05 pm, starting with a new documentary entitled The Mighty Boosh: A Journey Through Time and Space, documenting the history of the Boosh from their first amateur performances to their then-upcoming 2008 tour. This was followed by six of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from the three series: "Party", "The Power of the Crimp", "The Nightmare of Milky Joe", "The Priest and the Beast", "The Legend of Old Gregg", and "Tundra". The pair also appeared in live links throughout the night, in a similar style to the openings of Series 1 episodes. On 23 December 2008, BBC3 held a Merry Booshmas Party featuring the entire series 3 as well as a broadcast of The Mighty Boosh Live.^[10]

Film[link]

On 8 February 2012, Noel Fielding said that he and Barratt had discussed plans to make a Mighty Boosh film, whilst sledging.^[11]

Festival[link]

On 5 July 2008, the Boosh held their own festival in the Hop Farm in Kent. It featured musical acts, Robots in Disguise, The Charlatans, The Kills, Gary Numan, and The Mighty Boosh Band, as well as comedy acts Frankie Boyle and Ross Noble.

Media[link]

Audio CDs[link]

According to an official MySpace page for PieFace Records (the fictitious music label mentioned throughout the series), Barratt and Fielding are to release an album of music from the show, "along with extras, versions, remixes and rare unreleased stuff all to be released later in the year on their own label--this one".^[12] In interviews since, The Mighty Boosh have confirmed they will be releasing an album of their music.^[13] On the 21 October^[when?] episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Fielding stated that the Boosh have recorded an album, but don't know when it will be released.

DVDs[link]