Okay so I’m going to try something a little different
here. In the late 80’s, Steven Spielberg came out with a TV show called Amazing
Stories that seems to ether grab a ton of flack or a ton of love. I never really watched the show, maybe a totally of two episodes of which I couldn’t tell you
a damn thing about. I do remember the show and that opening but not a bit of
memory regarding the episodes. So since Amazing Stories is on Netflix, I’m
going to pick a couple of episodes out of order strictly do to the crew and
actors that appear in that episode.
Go to the Head of the Class: Enjoyable
Season 2, Episode 8 (November 21 1986) 60 mins
The reason why I picked Go to the Head of the Class was
because of the involvement of Christopher Lloyd as Professor B.O. Beanes, Bob
Gale (teleplay), Alan Silvestri (Music) and Robert Zemeckis (Directing). Yes the majority of those who worked on my favorite movie of all-time, Back to the Future.
Right off from the start this has the Zemeckis look. The opening is classic Zemeckis just like Back to the Future, it tells a lot about the character. We start off on the TV that slowly comes out showing our main character’s room filled with pictures of a girl. We start to pan down from a window with a basketball and baseball bat, band posters, stickers, a phone going off and a clock. Our main character (Peter Brand) picks up the phone to find a screaming mother yelling at him about being late for school.
Cut to a shot of Peter Brand jumping out the window running to school, its so McFly like and that is just too damn awesome.
The next scene is where Christopher Lloyd comes into the
story. He plays a teacher who is pretty hard on his students. Seeing a student
crewing gum, he questions the student who quickly swallows the evidence. The
Professor then picks a piece of gum from under the desk of the student, ask what
is this then? The student says thats not the kind I chew, which in a silly way
catches the student in a lie. So he requires the student to swallow the random
piece of gum. I love this scene a lot because Brand is trying to sneak into the
classroom during this time. The way the whole scene flows just reminds me of Back
to the Future, which isn’t a bad thing mind you. Alan Silvestri scores this
episode just like Back to the Future. When Peter falls into the grave around
the 18:20 mark, just listen, it just screams Back to the Future and damn do I loved that. 
Regarding the story it’s definitely not the strongest but
still enjoyable to watch. It’s a revenge plot after Brand and his best friend; Cynthia
Simpson (Mary Stuart Masterson) gets caught with the same paper. Brand takes
the blame and is punished in front of the class by the Professor. So the two decide to cast a
deadly spell on the Professor which doesn’t go to plan. I really enjoyed this episode
mostly because it felt so Back to the Future like. That said Go to the Head of
the Class was still enjoyable to watch especially with Halloween around the
corner.
