Just a few clarifying remarks:
Any jet with reversers (not all have them) can back up under its own power. Yes, FOD is an issue, but mainly the restriction is from throwing pebbles and junk against glass windows on the terminal, or at other things/people that wouldn’t appreciate it. It’s also noisier. So, the practice is OK at some airports and some terminals, but not others.
Yes, tail-mounted engines have less of a FOD problem than wing-mounted ones, being further from the ground, but that’s true whether or not you’re using thrust backup.
It also cuts into engine life, which for most parts is measured in cycles (idle-max-idle throttle excursions). It also matters that the engines are reingesting some of their own exhaust gases, reheating them further, and making the metal parts hotter than they’re comfortable at. The moving parts in the reverser also get worn down faster. Some airlines ban the practice, even if it’s OK by the airport’s rules, because of higher maintenance costs.
Dr. Lao is right about the time used to hook up the tug sometimes being the deciding factor.
The C-17 can actually taxi backwards slightly uphill. To do that, it has reversers on the core as well as the fan. Part of the reason reverse thrust is not as high as forward thrust is that, on airliners, only the fan flow is reversed, and has to fight the forward core thrust.
Any newer prop aircraft with variable pitch (at least the ones I know of) has a reverse-thrust setting on the blades and can taxi in reverse that way.
Venkman may be thinking of the way to back up a B-17, which did not have a reverse setting on the props (I don’t think) but did have a taildragger gear layout, with the mains on the inboard nacelles. The trick was to lock the brake on one side, go to full thrust on the outboard engine on that side with the others at idle, pivoting the aircraft around that wheel. The other side would then actually move backward. After a bit, do the same on the other side, and the plane would actually “walk” backward, although at some cost to tire and brake wear and to the pilot’s relations with his crew chief.