<P> Writer and producer Bob Gale conceived Back to the Future after he visited his parents in St. Louis, Missouri after the release of Used Cars . Searching their basement, Gale found his father's high school yearbook and discovered he was president of his graduating class . Gale had not known the president of his own graduating class, and wondered whether he would have been friends with his father if they went to high school together . When he returned to California, Gale told director Robert Zemeckis about the idea . Zemeckis thought of a mother claiming she never kissed a boy at school when, in fact, she had been promiscuous . The two took the project to Columbia Pictures, and made a development deal for a script in September 1980 . </P> <P> Zemeckis and Gale set the story in 1955 because a 17 - year - old traveling to meet his parents at the same age arithmetically required the script to travel to that decade . The era also marked the rise of teenagers as an important cultural element, the birth of rock n' roll, and suburban expansion, which flavored the story . In an early script, the time machine was a refrigerator, and Marty would need the power of an atomic explosion at the Nevada Test Site to return home . Zemeckis was concerned that children would accidentally lock themselves in refrigerators, and felt it was more useful if the time machine were mobile . The DeLorean DMC - 12 was chosen because its design made the gag about the family of farmers mistaking it for a flying saucer believable . Zemeckis and Gale found it difficult to create a believable friendship between Marty and Brown before they created the giant guitar amplifier, and only resolved his Oedipal relationship with Marty's mother when they wrote the line "It's like I'm kissing my brother ." Biff Tannen was named after studio executive Ned Tanen, who behaved aggressively toward Zemeckis and Gale during a script meeting for I Wanna Hold Your Hand . </P> <P> The first draft of Back to the Future was finished in February 1981 and presented to Columbia, who put the film in turnaround . "They thought it was a really nice, cute, warm film, but not sexual enough," Gale said . "They suggested that we take it to Disney, but we decided to see if any other of the major studios wanted a piece of us ." Every major film studio rejected the script for the next four years, while Back to the Future went through two more drafts . During the early 1980s, popular teen comedies (such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Porky's) were risqué and adult - aimed, so the script was rejected for being too light . Gale and Zemeckis finally pitched Back to the Future to Disney, but they felt the story of a mother falling in love with her son was not appropriate for a family film under the Disney name . </P> <P> The two were tempted to ally themselves with Steven Spielberg, who produced Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, which were both box office bombs . Zemeckis and Gale initially had shown the screenplay to Spielberg, who had "loved" it . Spielberg, however, was absent from the project during development because Zemeckis felt if he produced another flop under him, he would never be able to make another film . Gale said "we were afraid that we would get the reputation that we were two guys who could only get a job because we were pals with Steven Spielberg ." Zemeckis chose to direct Romancing the Stone instead, which was a box office success . Now a high - profile director, Zemeckis reapproached Spielberg with the concept . Agreeing to produce Back to the Future, Spielberg set the project up at his production company, Amblin Entertainment, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall joining Spielberg as executive producers on the film . </P>

When did marty mcfly go to the past