The Real Reason SNL Had No Choice But To Fire Adam Sandler
Saturday Night Live has been a staple in comedy for over 40 years. With a long list of heavy hitters that have come through the doors of Studio H at 30 Rock, SNL has maintained a level of success never seen in another sketch comedy show. Though one of it's most successful alumni, Adam Sandler, was fired after just a few short years on the show. Leaving SNL behind, Adam Sandler became one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. But how did Sandler make all this possible?
#adamsandler #saturdaynightlive #nerdstalgic
Written by Chris Teregis
Edited by Dan Smiley
Uh, seriously, you don't understand.
This is not for sale.
No, no.
You don't understand, canteen boy.
I want that canteen.
Man!
This is Adam Sandler.
And as far as Saturday Night Live alumni go,
he's one of the most successful cast members of all time.
During his tenure at Saturday Night Live,
Sandler created some truly memorable and impactful
characters like Opera Man, The Gap Girls, and of course,
the extremely questionable Canteen Boy.
You know, the city's redoing the sidewalks over on River Road.
Yeah.
Well, I leaned over the guardrails
and I wrote in the wet cement, Cheryl Teeks has big boobs.
Audiences really connected with Sandler's aggressive yet
whimsical approach to sketch comedy.
And some of the songs he created during his tenure
went on to become chart-topping singles.
However, Adam Sandler quickly found himself
serving as the canary in the coal mine
for one of the most turbulent periods in the show's history.
Despite his star seemingly being on the rise,
after his fifth season, Adam Sandler was fired from SNL.
Saturday Night Live's hiring of Adam Sandler
came largely at the request of Dennis Miller, who
was at the time serving as Saturday Night Live's lead
anchor for Weekend Update and also head writer of the show.
Sandler was having some small successes
with roles in The Cosby Show as Theo Huxtable's friend Smitty
and starring in the low-budget feature film Going Overboard
alongside Billy Zane and Billy Bob Thornton.
Sandler was really focusing on his career
as a standard comedian at the time.
And after Dennis Miller caught one of his sets in Los Angeles,
he made the recommendation to Lorne Michaels
to bring Sandler on as a writer.
In the world of Saturday Night Live,
there are a couple of different pathways for comedians
to take toward becoming a player on the show.
Some performers get hired as cast members
right out of the gate.
There are usually seasoned veterans
from the nation's leading comedy theaters.
However, some performers get brought in as writers first
and eventually work their way into becoming
a featured player.
Sandler eventually made the cut and worked his way up
to becoming a featured player and was
able to instantly connect with home-viewing audiences.
Adam Sandler's natural way of channeling
testosterone-fueled aggression through a childlike silliness
really seemed to click with people.
And within a year, he became a full-fledged cast member.
Sandler was definitely a unique presence on the show,
to say the least.
Comedy in the 90s was predominantly narrative-based.
There wasn't really any precedent
set for Adam Sandler's childlike absurdity.
And this is how Adam Sandler was able to stand out
from the show's primary cast of performers.
You did it.
How do you feel?
Like I can fly, senor.
However, this irreverent style of comedy can be polarizing,
and a shift in ratings could be easy to pin
on oddball cast members.
In 1995, Saturday Night Live saw the largest ratings
drop in the show's history.
They estimated it was about a 19% decrease in viewership.
And while a decrease in ratings is a very normal thing that
happens on SNL, something this large
demands immediate action from NBC's top brass.
That action is typically a turnover of key staff members
and performers.
When Saturday Night Live brings on new performers,
they typically begin trumpeting their arrival
as loudly as possible across every conceivable media outlet
and parading them around press conferences like horse shows.
This is largely because marketing an all-new cast
of performers is an easy way to stir up
public interest in the show.
Adam Sandler has gone on record to say
that he believes that his firing was due to the people
at the top of the NBC food chain just not liking the cast
and wanting to take the show in a new direction.
While NBC has never really spoken out on the issue,
it's hard to look at what happened at Saturday Night
Live in 1995 without things seeming
like there was some sort of personal vendetta going
on toward the cast and crew.
Adam Sandler and Chris Farley weren't the only casualties
of that season.
Mike Myers left the show mid-season,
presumably to focus on his film career
after the success of Wayne's World 1 and 2.
Janine Garofalo left the show after just four episodes
of being on the cast, citing homophobia and sexism
as her reasons for leaving.
After Stuart Saves His Family flopped in the box office,
Al Franken left the show and went into politics.
And these are just the performers
who left for definitive reasons.
1995 also saw the dismissal and or resignation
of the following performers.
Kevin Nealon, Ellen Cleghorn, Michael McKean, Jay Moore,
Chris Elliott, Morwena Banks, and Tim Meadows.
However, Meadows would have his termination reversed
and remained a cast member for seven more seasons.
Never in the entirety of SNL's history
has a turnover of this magnitude taken place.
Some of the cast knew that their time was up at SNL,
but some were completely surprised by it.
Sandler didn't find out about his termination
through traditional means, but rather
through an awkward conversation with his manager.
During a meeting, Adam Sandler was outlining his plans
with his manager, which included what he thought
he was going to do on the show.
And his manager said something to the effect of,
what if you don't go back next year?
To which Sandler remarked that he still
had a lot to do on the show and that he wasn't quite done yet.
He also told his manager that he would think about it,
to which his manager responded, I
think you've thought about it.
When Saturday Night Live dismisses performers,
it seldom explains itself.
They break things off fast and clean.
Behind the security of what we can only assume
is an ironclad non-disclosure agreement.
Saturday Night Live was Adam Sandler's only gig at the time,
so he really didn't have an idea of what to do with himself.
However, Saturday Night Live has a way
of giving, even to the performers
that it ends up terminating.
While getting let go from Saturday Night Live undoubtedly
stung, it opened the doors for Adam Sandler
to become one of the most successful cast members to date.
His breakout film Billy Madison was largely panned by critics,
but it achieved enough cult status
to warrant Sandler another leading role
with Happy Gilmore, which ended up becoming a colossal success.
After that, the ball kept rolling for Adam Sandler.
It's about time.
It is about time.
I mean, I just couldn't get the ball in the hole.
The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy
were both released in 1998, just three years
after Sandler had left Saturday Night Live,
and both became the number one movie in America.
To this day, Adam Sandler's films
have grossed a little over $3 billion
at the box office, making him the highest earning Saturday
Night Live alumni in movie history,
if you don't count Robert Downey Jr.
I'm the best.
It's hard to believe, but that's more
than Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, or Kristen Wiig.
Sandler has also held roles to a high degree
of critical acclaim.
His performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love
earned the actor a Golden Globe nomination,
and his performance in Uncut Gems
earned the actor an Independent Spirit Award.
These are all things that Adam Sandler addressed
when he returned to host Saturday Night Live for the first
time in 25 years, back on May 4, 2019,
when he played I Was Fired during his opening monologue.
Adam Sandler's firing from Saturday Night Live
may have come as a bit of a shock to him
and his fans back in 1995.
But as the saying goes, sometimes when a door closes,
a window opens.
Adam Sandler was able to turn his firing
into a career of making the movies he loves to make
and hiring his best friends to work on them with him.
While the movies he produces all vary in quality,
there is something to be said about what Adam Sandler has
accomplished for himself.
Isn't this the goal for us all?
To be able to do the things we love to do
with the people we care about.
Who wants to see a double slap?
The journey to get to SNL is a long and arduous climb
through this nation's varying proving grounds.
Performers work and study tirelessly
trying to develop characters, bits,
and routines that will land them one of the few coveted spots
on SNL's cast.
And for many of them, SNL is often the goal.
Getting fired from Saturday Night Live
could easily be interpreted as being
the end of someone's career.
But it often isn't.
Saturday Night Live granted Adam Sandler enough recognition
for someone to take a chance on him
by greenlighting Billy Madison.
Now you're all in big, big trouble.
And he never stopped pushing.
Adam Sandler's firing from Saturday Night Live
is a testament to the chaotic nature of how Hollywood works.
You could be down on your luck in 1995,
but in three years later, you can go on
to star in two of the most popular movies in America,
cementing yourself as a household name.
And hey, that's it for this one, folks.
Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section
below.
And thanks for watching Nerdstalgic.