Baby Steps — Exploring the Production of Baby's Day Out

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Shortly after I released my video on the lost version of John Hughes’ Planes, Trains & Automobiles in November 2020, I received an unexpected message from someone who had worked with Hughes on Baby’s Day Out back in 1994. He told me that John had once mentioned they’d shot so much footage for the motel sequences in Planes, Trains that those scenes alone could’ve been their own movie.

I was immediately captivated by the story — so much so that I initially failed to register the sender’s name: Brian Haley. In fact, I even replied asking who he played in the movie.
That was embarrassing for a few reasons. First, I was a huge fan of Baby’s Day Out as a kid. Dare I say, it might have even been my first favorite movie — my VHS copy got more playtime than just about anything else I owned. But the second reason was even worse: Brian’s character, Veeko, had always been my favorite.

When I finally realized my mistake, I quickly apologized, and our conversation soon shifted from Planes, Trains & Automobiles to Baby’s Day Out. That exchange kicked off a near five-year quest to explore the inception, production, and legacy of the film. The challenge was figuring out how to say something new about a movie that has already been dissected countless times on YouTube — and to do so while still acknowledging its flaws.

I soon realized that Brian’s perspective would be the key to making this video, since he was actually there to see it all happen. Still, I didn’t want to rush into asking for an interview, so we stayed in touch while I got busy with other projects. I never stopped thinking about making a video on this movie though. Then, earlier this summer, I finally decided to jump back into my research, and soon discovered so many interesting factoids about the movie that I had never known. Once I had gathered enough research to map out where Brian's perspective would fit best, I finally asked for an interview — and he kindly agreed.

Through Brian’s incredible anecdotes and the archival material I managed to uncover, what began as a simple look back at one of John Hughes’ lesser-known comedies evolved into a full exploration of how Baby’s Day Out got lost in the shadow of Home Alone and never really got a fair shot. As someone who loved it as a kid, revisiting it through adult eyes made me appreciate it in an entirely new way.
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Baby’s Day Out may never be considered one of John Hughes’ great successes, but the story behind it — and the people who made it — deserve to be remembered with a little more empathy than they usually get. For me, this project wasn’t just about reassessing a movie; it was about rediscovering the kind of wonder that first made me fall in love with movies in the first place.