In Back To The Future, Doc creates a time machine only wanting to uncover more about the past and the future. When showing Marty the time traveling DeLorean a lot goes wrong, in the end Doc is shot down by Libyan terrorists, therefore, Marty is forced to get into the Delorean and race away. Once Marty hits 88 miles per hour the DeLorean takes him back in time, November 5, 1955 to be exact.
When Marty gets to 1955 he finds his way to a diner, it is in this diner that he meets his teenage dad, George. Marty, not knowing that the boy sitting next to him is his father until after a confrontation with Biff (a bully at the school). George and Marty talk for just a few moments until Marty is distracted, once Marty turns around he finds an empty seat. Quickly looking around Marty sees George riding off on his bike. Wanting to talk with George Marty chases him for a short distance and then loses him. Soon after Marty finds George's bike near a tree, looking up Marty sees George in the tree with binoculars, after putting two and two together he figures his dad is a peeping tom. George looses his balance and falls out of the tree in front of Lorraine's dads car, Marty pushes George out of the way saving him but in the end only to be hit by the car himself. Marty is brought inside and wakes up to his teenage mother, Lorraine, taking care of him.
While at dinner Sam Baines (Lorraine's Father) is called into the kitchen by his wife Stella saying, "Sam stop fiddling with that thing and come in here and eat your dinner". Shortly after saying this we see Sam come flying into the frame with a television set that already appears to be turned on. Sam excitedly says, "Ho, Ho, Ho, look at it roll. Now we can watch Jackie Gleason while we eat". The television is set at the one end of the table where everyone around it can be entertained while they eat. We can see that Marty, the two older children and the parents are glued to the screen while they enjoy dinner, Lorraine on the other hand cant take her eyes off of Marty. During their dinner Lorraine says to Marty, "It's our first television set, Dad just picked it up today. Do you have a Television?" This being their first television Lorraine is the only one whom is not fascinated by it, she'd rather stare at Marty. Marty not thinking replies to Lorraine's question saing, "Well yeah you know we have... two of 'em". Milton, the older boy at the table, looks at Marty and excitedly says, "Wow! You must be rich" where the mom quickly replies, "Oh, honey he's teasing nobody has two television sets". From this scene we can conclude that in the 50's it was rare to have television set. According to hypertextbook.com 65% of the population in 1955 had only one television set while 2% of the population had two or more sets, therefore, concluding the fact that having two television sets in 1955 was fascinating to a younger child but to an adult the comment came across as a joke.
After making comments on having two televisions Marty continues to shove his foot further down his throat by saying, " Hey, hey, I've seen this one. This is a classic, this is where Ralph dresses up as a man from space". Bewildered, Milton looks at Marty and says, "What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new". Blowing off the comment Marty says, "Yeah well I saw it on a re... rerun". Confused, Milton asks, "What's a rerun?" Marty realizing what he just said replies with, "You'll find out". From this portion of the scene we find out that in the 50's there was no such thing as a rerun, many shows were often performed live. According to Wikipedia.com, the Jackie Gleason Show was performed live in front of a theater audience, and the show first aired in 1952, therefore, we can also conclude that this performance was not a rerun.
The Jackie Gleason Show:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/TamaraTamazashvili.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jackie_Gleason_Show
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