Universal Studios devastated by fire

[Sue]

Here’s a bit of sad news. Universal Studios just had a major fire this morning. It looks like they lost a film vault containing the originals of thousands of movies and TV shows. Also many of our childhood memories are now lost. The clock tower from Back to the Future, the New York set. The King Kong ride. And I cannot yet tell you if any of the original cars from Back to the Future, or our hero, KITT have been lost. But our heartfelt sympathy goes out to NBC and Universal today.

http://www.knbc.com/news/16449640/detai ... =mainclick
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24916515/

[Lost Knight]

I heard about this as well, but on the bright side, firefighters were able to save a lot of film and tapes while the building was still on fire. Universal has never treated their old props with much respect, however. They cannibalize, destroy, or simply leave cars out to rot in parking lots like some of the original K.I.T.T. cars and the Back To the Future DeLorean. I believe it's the sixth fire they've had there since the 1930s. You would think by now that they would have taken steps to protect their studios/vaults a little better with buildings better built to not catch fire as easily.

[justinbrueningnet]

I heard about this early this morning but wasnt able to catch what they were saying on the news....I heard it was an explosion at 4am that started everything...

Thankfully, in the first link they say they have duplicates of everything..so nothing has really been lost forever...

[Knight Racer]

I was just watching back to the future a few hundred times on hbo this month and last.I wish i could have gotten a copy of that image they were holding at the end of the 3rd movie where both Doc Brown and Marty were in front of that clock that was destroyed.It was a part of our childhood history just as much as kitt was.I still remember the cartoon i used to watch when I was a kid.

[PHOENIXZERO]

They didn't lose anything from the film vault from what I heard it was just a back-up vault, so nothing irreplaceable was really lost and thankfully no one was seriously hurt or killed. If they want they can rebuild the things that burned down either to look the exact same way or something new with much improved protection from this sort of thing.

[Sue]

I walked over there and was talking with a guard, he says a lot of on-camera cars were lost, they just couldn’t move them in time. I can’t really remember what cars were on display out there so this is all speculation. I think perhaps a Delorean and something from firefly. But it’s true they leave them open to the elements and they were in pretty sad shape to begin with. He said the Earthquake ride and the King Kong ride are gone. The film vault is gone, but he believed they had backup copies of things. It looks to me from pictures that they will be able to rebuild the clock tower if they want to. Most of these sets are fake facades anyway, so yes I imagine they will rebuild very quickly. Here is a pic. from the internet that shows some cars sitting outside nearby the King Kong ride.

universal cars.jpg (45.19 KiB) Viewed 6530 times

Again, this is all speculation. The guard wasn’t sure of what cars were lost.

[neps]

I was going through the forums on BTTF.com, and they have a discussion going on about the fire. They found some imagery that suggests the Clocktower is still standing. The map here also suggests this to be true (http://www.thestudiotour.com/ush/backlo ... 2008.shtml)

The same commenters also say that the BTTF cars you have shown above were a bit away from the fire, so hopefully they were spared. Hopefully too most of the cars nearby were just generic staff cars and not anything of filmed importance.

[DJGM]

Parts of the BTTF "Hill Valley" set were used in some episodes of KR weren't they?
"A Nice Indecent Little Town" from season 1 and "Sky Knight" from season 4 IIRC.

[Sue]

I was going through the forums on BTTF.com, and they have a discussion going on about the fire. They found some imagery that suggests the Clocktower is still standing. The map here also suggests this to be true (http://www.thestudiotour.com/ush/backlo ... 2008.shtml)

The same commenters also say that the BTTF cars you have shown above were a bit away from the fire, so hopefully they were spared. Hopefully too most of the cars nearby were just generic staff cars and not anything of filmed importance.

Other Forums Neil! Why you know there’s only one! Here is an exclusive interview for you. This is Eliot Sekuler, Vice President of Universal Studios Media Relations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-OCtuhLGE&fmt=6

[neps]

Wow Sue, thats awesome! Excellent work and thanks so much!