I don’t know if you knew this, but Back to the Future is kind of a big deal. Its known as a big hit, but that wasn’t a forgone conclusion. Robert Zemeckis was not yet a household name, and while Michael J. Fox was a TV star, translating that to movie stardom was far from guaranteed. Many studios had already passed on the project, and time travel comedies weren’t exactly in demand. But sometimes a movie arrives at exactly the right moment, and this was one of those times. It became one of the highest-grossing films of the year and launched one of the most cherished franchises Hollywood has ever produced.

On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk all about Back to the Future. I start off talking about what its like returning to your hometown after some time has passed. There’s something genuinely disorienting about walking streets you know by heart but finding them subtly wrong. The layout is familiar but the details have shifted. You catch yourself navigating toward a store that closed a decade ago, or slowing down in front of a building that used to mean something. Your feet are in the present but your memory keeps insisting otherwise. It’s about as close to time travel as most of us are ever going to get.

From there I dig into the film itself, starting with how Bob Gale cooked up the idea after stumbling across his father’s old high school yearbook. Seeing it, he wondered whether the two of them would have even gotten along back then. It’s a surprisingly simple premise for a story that became so sprawling. After that I cover the development, the casting situation that saw Eric Stoltz replaced by Fox after weeks of actual filming, the production, the release, and the reception. Which was pretty positive.

The music deserves its own podcast. Alan Silvestri’s score is one of those rare things that makes you feel the emotion of a scene before the actors do anything. And then there’s Huey Lewis and the News, whose contribution to the soundtrack sent “The Power of Love” to number one and functioned almost like an advertisement for the movie playing on every radio station in the country. The two things fed each other in a way that felt effortless but was almost certainly not.

For a while there, the film was a mania. It wasn’t just a movie people saw and enjoyed. It was something they returned to at the theaters, then on home video, then on television. Each new viewing of it reminded people why they loved it in the first place. On this episode I try to trace how that happened.

I first covered the movie on a podcast way back in 2011. This is a re-recorded version that has new material and better equipment. It is also the start of a larger visit to the franchise. I hope you enjoy it.

Grease as a studio movie in the late 1970s was a big swing. Sure it had two big stars in it, but its success entering a crowded summer of movies was not a foregone conclusion. But it turns out it was just what people were craving at the time and the film, much like the stage musical it was based on, was a huge success.

On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk all about Grease. Starting with my first interactions with the film. Like many, I found the songs in the films hard to resist and re-listened to the soundtrack until I had memorized my favorite song, Greased Lightnin’. What I didn’t know about the song, was that it had some adult themes that I was too young too understand. How did my family react, with laughter, of course.

Then I move onto the film going all the way back to its origins as a stage musical. After that, I discuss its development, casting, production, release, reception, and much more. This is a film that not only was big at the box office, but managed to find success in related media. Notably the soundtrack.

The soundtrack for the movie was a big seller and was a major reason for its snowballing success. The movie made you want to buy this infections soundtrack, but then after listening to it, you wanted to re-watch the movie and the studio obliged. Re-releasing the film in theaters, making it an early title on VHS, and getting it on television on a regular basis.

Grease ended up being more than a hit movie. It became something people lived with. It moved easily from theaters to records to home video and television, and each stop fed the next. Over time it stopped feeling like a release and started feeling like a fixture. On this episode, I look at how that happened, how a movie built on nostalgia became part of everyday life, and how a song you could sing without thinking ended up revealing more than you expected when you finally slowed down and listened.

In the late 1960s, the pop culture of the 1950s was still well-remembered, but the United States was going through some major changes. A counter-culture was going mainstream and with it came a rejection of things associated with older generations. Emblematic of this era was Woodstock. This music festival was filled with bands and artists that defined the era. But another act, took to the stage during the festival that didn’t quite fit in, Sha Na Na.

Started as a college performance act, Sha Na Na came to the attention of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix liked their energy and with his urging, the organizers of Woodstock went to see them and invited them for perform. You can see their performance in the Woodstock documentary and some members of the audience look confused, but in the end, Sha Na Na wins them over and you can see why. Their energy and talent was relentless. The music? Timeless.

The group would go onto tour successfully, star in their own TV show, and have a memorable turn in Grease. So they were on the stage, the radio, the small screen and the big screen. Yet now, they are not often talked about, and if they are, its often as a punchline, which is all sorts of wrong.

On this episode, I started talking about how both my parents enjoyed the show and how I remember watching it with them. Then I move onto the group, discussing their creation, membership, rise, and slow fade. I also compare the band to another band I enjoy, DEVO. Its a fun ride about a great act, so I hope after you give this a listen, you revisit or check them out for the first time.