Christmas Vacation Deleted Scenes

I did a filmmaker's tour at Warner Brothers with a buddy with connections. It was my buddy and I, and seven French directors, cameramen and sound guys. I forget exactly when it was, but I'm thinking it was 1989. Christmas Vacation was released on 12/01/89.

They still had some of the outside set from the neighborhood set up on studio property. You could look in and see Christmas decorations in one house. There was a Domino's Pizza sticker on a window. When I saw the movie in the theater, on the DVD and on TV, I never saw the Dominos sticker on any window. Nor did I see ever see the small house we saw with the sticker on. I've always assumed it was something that got cut.

We sat in while they were mixing in the sound for another 1989 release, Lethal Weapon 2. They were mixing in birds chirping and other stuff you don't really end up hearing, to the scene where Mel Gipson jumps on the flatbed tow truck. They didn't have any engines reeving , tires screeching, crashes, much less any dialogue added in so it was kind of boring, but still interesting. I never knew that shot scenes and then added the sound. We got to go in an old intact Foley room and see them the boxes of different things like Styrofoam they used step on to sound like people walking on snow. The ones they actually used then were boring. Just a few reel to reel tape players/recorders and cabinets with thousands of reels of prerecorded sounds filed away, similar to the much smaller setup John Travolta had in Blow Out (1981). Would think they could have millions of sounds a a few laptops these days.

Lethal Weapon 2 tow truck scene on YouTube

Cool trivia:

Christopher Columbus was signed on to direct Christmas Vacation but he and Chase couldn’t stand each other and he eventually left to direct…..Home Alone.