Just thought I'd start a couple new topics, since the board has picked up a bit! :)

Recently "Moosey" (george_mcfly_au/Anonymoose) and I were talking about this on AIM. What do you think George's life was like up to 1955?

(This would all be the same in the TP/LP/A-timelines, since it didn't split until November 5th, 1955.)

There's a strong possibility he could've at least made a few friends, but it seemed he didn't have any. Though, I suppose, Lou, Goldie, and fellow Cafe-goers, as well as maybe classmates like Lester would be closest.

Since we know he actually is, deep down, more outgoing and creative than his nerdy personality would lead you to believe. That and simply shy with girls (then again, we all are! Myself included, LOL!!).

I could maybe see little George trying to make friends, but the consistent bullying from Biff and others could've long driven him into his shell by the time he was 17. :(

^ Sounds like me now.

What puzzled me is did he have any brothers, sisters or relatives. Did he join the NAVY, ARMY, whatever? My father had a brother who died whilst in the NAVY. Cause of death was due to a boiler explosion. His body was recovered and was burned so badly that the coffin wasn't even opened at all. True story. It was on the USS King.

I would guess that he doesn't have many friends.

For a start, he's really shy generally - not just with girls - so making friends would be a bit difficult for him. Also, the fact that he's so creative, and likes "Science Fiction Theater" suggests that he's happy to spend time inside his own head. I imagine he doesn't really feel the need for friends.

The fact that his main interest is science suggest to me that he's a thinking person, not an emotive person. He strikes me as someone who wouldn't be that interested in relationships (both with girls or with friends). Or at least, not until he is in a relationship with Lorraine and sees how good they can be.

And there ends my diagnosis. Nurse! Send in the next patient!

I think the novel says that even George's parents found him a little bit strange, so no doubt lots of people did as well. I think it was as much to do with people staying away from George as it is him staying away from them.

I agree here. I think he wanted a "real friend" but was too nervous to make any. Perhaps he had friends in the past who let him down or stopped being friends with him because he was too nerdy? This might make him reluctant to make new friends in case they do it as well. I can see poor George being trapped like this for years.

Maybe Biff bullied any friends George had, and they stopped being his friend just to stop Biff bullying them?

I don't think he did have any siblings - the novel makes no mention of them, and it goes into quite a bit of detail about the Baines and McFly families. The general consensus is that George was an only child, which could also explain his loneliness.

Actually, the part where George's parents think him strange is when George was trying out "positive thinking" -- the start of Chapter 10 details his efforts a year earlier to use the idealogy expressed by the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People." People thought the poor guy was a creep.

Also from the novel, we know George had at least one grade-school friend. George thinks about his own lack of grit a lot, and he remembers an incident where a grade-school bully had punched his friend Billy Stockhausen. So maybe he had friends in grade school, but as he grew older and people grew more cliquish, he lost them. :( :george:

Ya know, spose this is a little odd of a suggestion but speaking from first hand experience, it seems a little familar to me... has anyone ever really considered that George might have a form of autism?

It would explain his intraverted personality, shyness, lack of social aptitude and some of the things that he does that he is compelled to do... like watch Science Fiction Theater for example (anyone remember in Rainman where Raymond Babbitt was compelled to watch Wapner?)

Also that line in 3, "Lorraine, have you seen my glasses? I can't go without my glasses" does seem to highlight certain things that George needs to have on him... but then again his eyesight could also be to blame though.

But anyway, that was just a suggestion... what do you all reckon?

As a big fan of George, I've wondered about this a lot (since I like to write BTTF fanfics about the characters pasts and all.

One thing I always thought was George seemed to be the kind who lacked a mother, a reason he was so inept and shy around girls. Of course the novel goes into his home life and mentions his parents, but I kinda take it with a grain of salt (it'd ruin a perfectly good story of mine! :P)

But then weirdly enough, when it came to giving George a friend when he was younger, I made that friend a girl. A rather tomboyish girl, but a girl nonetheless, so I don't know what I was thinking there.

But yeah, I see George as being on his own in high school, he doesn't sit with anyone at lunch for example, consumed by his writing, which I'm sure would make him look pretty strange. Kids might have though he was doing homework! And he obviously gets teased a lot, he doesn't trust Marty at first and probably has acquantices more than friends. I'm sure for example Lester/Wallet Guy would probably let George sit next to hin in class, but wouldn't hang out with him outside of it.

I must say though, it's quite sad to think of poor little George trying to make friends, and failing. :(

And it's interesting that you brought up the autism thing Delorean Crazy, there was a thread on the bttf.com board that wondered if Doc had Asperger's Syndrome (which is a lot like autism but people who have it are more communitive and interested in interacting with society-apparently I have it midly), and I posted a reply about why I thought George had it. Don't remember if anyone agreed with me, but yeah I thought of it myself.

But seeing as he's my favourite character I may just be projecting on him :P, but who knows!

:george:

(PS. Thanks for making this thread Spotty, don't see much George-centric stuff about, I'm just surprised it took me so long to spot it...ah well, I'm here now.)

Yeah I was going to refer to that topic in my post but I wasn't sure if anyone remembered it, it was a way long time ago eh? I remember I posted something along the lines of it being possible that Doc had it because of his savant abilities in Science, especially as its coming more and more common. Also makes you think, that they could easily both have it, diagnosis wouldn't have been around for it even in 1985... Asperger's was only really stuck on the DSM IV list in '94.

Interesting topic that one and this, kudos Spotty for coming up with this topic as well. :)

Just before I leave, now here's a question I hope is on topic and will get people wondering. If we're talking about George's character and character changes, what do you think would George's life have been like if Biff Tannen never lived in Hill Valley? We know that without the threat of Biff in LP 1985 he's very confident and successful? What do you all reckon?

I dont think George would have had any friends aswell cause he liked to stay home and watch his SCI FI and wright his storys rather than go out and do things.
:88: :happydoc:

that may be true, but perhaps he is content to write his stories and all becasue after biff's bullyign of him and any friends he tried to make, he turned to them as a place to go to get away from biff, and it grew into an obsession.

BUMP.

I always saw poor George as always being like he is. The novel says that his father Arthur never really encouraged George to do anything, and if we assume this happened in the films ("off camera" of course!) it could explain a lot about why George is the way he is.

Maybe he didn't have much social interaction at a young age? His parents might have kept him indoors all the time (they could have been over protective, or maybe Arthur would say things like "If you go outside, you might hurt your head, or fall over, or..... and the last thing you need is headaches!"). As such George spent a lot of time by himself and when he started school, he found it hard to interact with other people.

I can imagine George with a few friends at a younger age, but over the years they stopped being friends with him, or drifted apart - Biff may have had something to do with this, or perhaps it was just a natural thing. If we take the Billy Stockhausen story from the novel as canon, then maybe Billy refused to be friends with George after George failed to help him, and that may have meant more people drifting away from him and ignoring him.

Perhaps this is the reason George prefers to write his stories and watch his science fiction - they are what makes him happy, they won't bully him or taunt him, they won't let him down. He might be too scared to show someone his stories in case they laugh, and his stories would no longer be the safe haven they were before.

On the other hand, he may have been very outgoing at 5, but then Biff stepped in and started bullying him, causing the outgoing George to retreat into himself.

I'll stop now, before I feel even more sorry for poor George. :(

A question occurs: it's probably safe to say that most people at HVHS regarded George as starnge, a loner etc by 1955. Do you think some people might have regarded "Calvin" as strange because he not only sat with George at lunch, but kept "following him round" and actually became a friend to him?

Oddly enough, it almost seems like George subconciously wants to be friends with Biff and his gang, since he laughs at their jokes and must evidently do a good job on the homework he does for Biff. This is further evidenced by the fact that LP George hired Biff to clean the cars even after all the bullying Biff had given him. Maybe he hired Biff in order to establish the friendship with Biff he always wanted.

Of course, I realize I'm wrong and that the real reason George did all that stuff was to avoid getting beat up (or in the case of LP 1985 George, to have the thrill of bossing around his former bully.) , but its interesting to think about.

Also, although 1955 George may not have friends, he does seem to have at least one admirer. I am refering to the girl who said "have you ever thought about running for class president?" I mean, do you think she said that just because she saw George deck Biff? Why would punching Biff make George a good leader? Instead, I think that that girl probably admired George from afar, but never bothered suggesting he run for class pres because she new he lacked the courage to actually do it. But once she saw that George had gained more confidence, she approached him about it. Thats my theory, anyway.

Interesting theory. You say later on that George just does that stuff to avoid a beating, but that doesn't explain why he laughs at Match's joke in the diner, since attention is away from him.

It could be that Biff and his gang are the only ones to give George any kind of attention at all, and George needs the attention, even though - in a twisted way - it is almost entirely negative.

George McFly, Private Investigator...that would explain his peeping, wouldn't it?;)

matty

"...Hey, dad! George! Hey, you on the bike!..."

Yep, George had friends. In 1950, he nearly stood up for his best friend, Billy Stockhausen, who was getting bullied. I think he was also pretty good friends with Lester the Wallet Guy. I don't like to think that George had no friends whatsoever. George was a likable person, and even the nerdiest kids can make a few friends.

He's very similar in personality to Archie Feld, Crispin's character of High School USA - and the group of outcasts (Jay-Jay Manners himself wasn't so much an outcast, but he didn't mind hanging around with them) number to about seven. In my fanfic universe, Billy and Lester are his closest friends - but I think there are other people in school, too, who try to be nice to everyone. I'll probably introduce some of them in The New Boy In Town, my hole-filler project for next month. It covers what happened between November 5-11. November 12 won't be covered, as that day was already covered in A Day of Cosmic Significance.

BTW, I never really read the novels - but, from what I understand, the novel doesn't really mention if Billy Stockhausen was still George's friend by 1955. Fom that, I guess one might assume that weren't. Apparently, nothing was really mentioned about George's friends - or the lack thereof. Even though, I guess it was mentioned that the advice he gained from How To Win Friends And Influence People made many decide to avoid him.

I would guess, though, that George maybe didn't start lacking confidence (or being bullied) until he failed to defend his friend at the age of 12. I guess the novel seems to suggest it was a bully other than Biff who punched Billy - but, in my fanfic universe, I said it was Biff. I think up until he was 12, there were maybe people who viewed him as being eccentric - but that he wasn't a victim of bullying.

If George, Billy, and Lester were all considered eccentric - that would explain how they all became victims of bullying at around the same time, other than just by virtue of being Billy's friends. I guess one might believe that Billy refused to be George's friend after having failed to defend him, as the novel stated that George has hated himself for it since - but it could also just simply be a case of self-depracation.

Even if George didn't have any true friends by 1955, I'm sure he'd still have friendly acquaintences. There ae probably a few kids who try to be friendly to everyone - maybe including that girl who suggested that George run for class president.

If anyone has read the novel, you can feel fee to correct me if I'm wrong. I've borrowed a few things from the novel to integrate into my fanfic universe - but, for the most part, I pretty much disregard a lot of things from the novel. Like, for example, George's parents are Arthur and Sylvia. But Arthur never enlisted in WW1, as I had him a bit younger - thus, he would've been way too young to enlist. I had him be 17 in 1925. I guess the novels also mention a little about Doc's college education - as well as his job as a college professor. I had him teaching thid grade students, though.

In the novel, Arthur was actually sent home before he could fire his first shot, because he was too young.

That's what I've heard. I'm sure he was well over ten in the novel, though - which is how old he would be in my fanfic universe, as soon as WW1 ended.