15 Trivia Tidbits About ‘Uncle Buck’
It’s the movie that turned writer/director John Hughes’ go-to guy, John Candy, into America’s favorite on-screen uncle and made everyone take full notice of Macaulay Culkin’s acting chops. It’s Uncle Buck, the comedy classic that warmed audiences’ hearts like a piping hot pair of socks fresh from the microwave. And so, please enjoy the following trivia tidbits about the movie featuring drunk clowns getting punched in the face and just the most amazing pancakes...
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[s While filming the scene where Culkin’s character Miles patrols the front door as Buck’s girlfriend Chanice arrives, Hughes reportedly got the idea to write a movie about a resourceful kid who needs to protect his family home from two idiot burglars. In 1991, India got a Malayalam-language remake of the movie that saw Buck get turned into a character named Charlie Chacko, who is asthmatic, likes rabbits and enjoys playing the piano while sloshingly drunk. Actor Mike Starr (who played Pooter the Clown) told Cracked that he not only felt awkward filming the scene in a high-end Chicago neighborhood looking like John Wayne Gacy but that there was way more to it than what ended up in the movie. “In the movie, all you see is him punching me,” Starr recalled, “but there was originally a fight where we were on the front lawn, and he was beating me with my big shoe.” Universal Pictures The initial artwork for the VHS covers saw Uncle Buck knocking on the door with the entire Russell family standing on the other side. The marketing department, however, decided to remove the older family members, leaving just the two young kids because they wanted to target a younger audience. Well, at least some of it. A very short screen test is online that features the two actors doing the famous “Questions” scene, and it’s as delightful as the one in the movie. Hughes had initially considered DeVito for the part of the clown-punching, hatchet-loving Buck Russell. While DeVito is a magnificent actor and always a treat to watch, it would’ve been a wildly different movie with him at the helm. This scene, for instance, would probably have read more comical than intimidating if it had featured the 4-foot-10 actor. The 10-minute-plus long scene is entirely unedited, with no color correction done, and features Buck and his gambling buddies in the Russell’s living room playing everything from Pictionary Junior to a round of Musical Chairs (for money, of course). While it’s as raw as they come, it’s also an excellent example of how Hughes allowed his cast to play and experiment with their given scenes. Jay Underwood, the young fella who played Tia’s douchey boyfriend and sickly thorn in Uncle Buck’s side, continued doing small parts in movies and shows like The X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager. But he also became a pastor in 2005, and his last credited film was the 2019 movie Surge of Dawn, featuring a gay superhero and his vampire sidekick who fight alongside each other for God. During the scene where Uncle Buck confronts Maizy’s school principal, there’s a cut to his niece in her classroom telling her teacher that Buck had microwaved her socks and that their dog threw up on the couch for an hour. Next to her sits Anna Chlumsky, who, along with Culkin, would make audiences everywhere ugly cry two years later. In a Vanity Fair interview, Amy Madigan (who played Chanice Kobolowski) said that it was difficult keeping it straight while acting opposite ad-libbing master Candy. “He was the king of ad-libs. He and John Hughes had worked together before, so they had a really neat shorthand,” Madigan remembered. “It was sometimes all I could do to keep a straight face since he was just so hilarious. You would be doing a close-up, so the other actors are off camera, and he would just throw this stuff at you to crack you up.” The school scenes were shot in a vacant school, with Jean Louisa Kelly, Macaulay Culkin and Gaby Hoffmann all getting a classroom each where they could sit with their tutors and do their schoolwork in between shoots. That’s what happens when your set is also Ad-Lib City. Hats Off Entertainment explored the full script as well as unearthed footage that ended up on the cutting room floor in the video below. In 1990, CBS tried to find success with an Uncle Buck TV show starring Kevin Meaney, which ultimately failed when critics bashed it, and no one watched. In 2016, there was another attempt by ABC starring Mike Epps, but the show was canceled after only eight episodes. It’s been debated why exactly Buck Russell is so reviled by his brother and sister-in-law to the point that he’s been dramatically cropped out of all family photos. A fan theory tries to explain this by suggesting that Buck has ties to organized crime, which would make sense since Hughes himself has said that Buck has “gangster buddies.” It would also explain both his propensity for violence and his family’s reluctance to have him around. “I always describe him closest to Uncle Buck,” Jennifer Candy told the Toronto Sun. “He was very serious, stern, tough love, but he knew how to have a good time.”The Macaulay Culkin Scene That Inspired John Hughes to Write ‘Home Alone’
There’s an Indian Remake Called ‘Uncle Bun’
The Clown Scene Was Originally Longer — And More Violent
The Movie Cover Was Changed After Its Home Video Release
The Screen Test Between Candy and Culkin Still Exists
Danny DeVito Was Originally Going to Play Uncle Buck
The Deleted Scene Where Uncle Buck Plays ‘Pictionary Junior’ With His Buddies
The Guy Who Played Bug Is Now a Pastor
Culkin’s Future ‘My Girl’ Co-Star Has a Cameo in the Movie
Not Surprisingly, Candy Made His Co-Stars Laugh Constantly
The Kids Were Studying On Set During Filming
The Original Cut Was Three Hours Long
It’s Been Turned Into a TV Series Twice
The Fan Theory That Explains Uncle Buck
Candy’s Daughter Says He Was a Lot Like Uncle Buck
