What Adam Sandler's Last Episode As An SNL Cast Member Was Like
Few comedians on "Saturday Night Live" achieved the kind of success that Adam Sandler enjoyed after joining the NBC sketch show's cast in 1991. After being promoted from a writing position, Sandler didn't make a huge impression during his first season but exploded in popularity after the introduction of his character Opera Man the following year. His tenure on the show has remained one of the most memorable — as well as one of the most controversial — of the show's history.
As time went on, the comedian gained somewhat of a bad reputation in the halls of 30 Rock. Disliked by NBC executives, he became known as part of the Bad Boys of "Saturday Night Live" alongside fellow performers like Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Chris Rock.
Ultimately, Sandler's time on "Saturday Night Live" came to a swift end, and though it seemed like his sketch comedy days were over, he eventually surpassed expectations and returned to Studio 8H for a victory lap years later. From his final episode as a cast member to his (hopefully not the last) time hosting the show, let's take a closer look at the circumstances surrounding Sandler's goodbyes to "Saturday Night Live."
Sandler's final episode came during a low point in the show's history
It's easy to look back on Adam Sandler's era of "Saturday Night Live" with nostalgia-tinted glasses, but at the time it was a difficult period for the show. In March of 1995, a New York magazine article following the show behind the scenes, titled "Comedy Isn't Funny," was critical of the cast's behavior during production as well as the show's overall decline in quality. A decline in ratings mixed with tensions off-camera between cast and crew put the show's survival in jeopardy.
At one point in the article, it's described that the Thursday rehearsal for Saturday's show was delayed so Sandler could film a birthday video greeting for Steven Spielberg, particularly frustrating fellow cast members. Elsewhere, cast member Ellen Cleghorne criticized the show's lack of black writers, while Lorne Michaels also hired established comedians like Chris Elliot and Michael McKean to assist in the show's quality.
By the time the Season 20 finale came in the spring of 1995, the show had already taken some big hits. Long-time cast members like Mike Myers and Al Franken had already departed mid-season, while newcomer Janeane Garofalo quit before it was over due to a lack of screen time. As the show wrapped up its 20th season with an episode hosted by David Duchovny, it would become a time capsule for "Saturday Night Live" in 1995 before some big changes happened between seasons.
Zagat's featured Farley and Sandler at their best
Though many considered "Saturday Night Live" to be below average quality during Season 20, there were sometimes sketches that stood out from the rest. This was especially the case when Adam Sandler teamed with Chris Farley, as the two comedians' real-life friendship was visible on-screen. No more apparent is this than the recurring "Zagat's" sketch, which the duo reprised for what would become their final "Saturday Night Live" episode together.
In the "Zagat's" sketch, Sandler and Farley play Hank and Beverly Gelfand, a married couple who are complete opposites. While Farley's Beverly excitedly reads out restaurant recommendations from the titular guidebook to her husband, Sandler's Hank retorts with increasingly miserable asides. For the Season 20 finale, the two are eventually joined by Beverly's sister Pauline, played by Duchovny, who joins them to create even more chaos for Sandler's character.
Like previous iterations of the "Zagat's" sketch, this final version featuring Sandler and Farley is a perfect showcase of the duo's on-screen chemistry. It was later included in "The Best of Adam Sandler," a DVD release compiling many of Sandler's greatest moments throughout his tenure on the show. Sadly, the sketch was one of the few highlights from the Season 20 finale.
Much of Sandler's final episode as a cast member hasn't aged well
It's no surprise that many jokes and sketches that aired on "Saturday Night Live" throughout the 1990s have aged poorly when looked back on in 2023. The Season 20 finale and Adam Sandler played a key role in some of these tasteless sketches. The episode was far from the worst the show could do at the time, as Sandler also famously starred in a "Canteen Boy" sketch with Alec Baldwin that resulted in backlash from audiences at home.
Throughout the David Duchovny episode, Sandler made several appearances that likely wouldn't go over well with modern-day "Saturday Night Live" audiences. In one parody of the talk show "Ricki Lake," Sandler appears as a hermaphrodite, and the in-sketch talk show audience acts disgusted by him, which is pretty out of line with today's accepted gender norms.
Another poorly-aged sketch from earlier in the episode is the game show "You Think You're Better Than Me?" hosted by Kevin Nealon, who plays an aggressive dock worker. Throughout the game, it is established that Sandler's character cannot read, and the joke is hammered into the ground. Overall, the entire sketch seems to imply that working-class individuals are less educated, which is likely something you wouldn't find happening on "Saturday Night Live" these days.
The Bad Boys of SNL get bloody for the show's final sketch
Oftentimes, the last sketch of the night in "Saturday Night Live" happens to be the most bizarre or out-there sketch of the entire episode. Referred to as ten-to-ones for airing during the last ten minutes of the show, these sketches can often be hit or miss — and sometimes both. With the Season 20 finale hosted by David Duchovny, the ten-to-one goes entirely to the Bad Boys, featuring Sandler, Farley, Tim Meadows, Norm MacDonald, and Jay Mohr as five friends viewing a polar bear exhibit at the zoo.
In the sketch, Mohr jumps into the polar bear enclosure and ends up brutally slaughtered, spraying blood all over his four friends, who react nonchalantly to their friend being murdered. One by one, the rest of the friends join them as MacDonald plays the straight-man until deciding to hell with it and jumping in anyway. The sketch ironically ends with Duchovny addressing future hosts of the show to warn them of the people they have to deal with all week.
Though the sketch has a middling reaction from the audience, it makes for an apt ending to this controversial era of "Saturday Night Live." Despite poor writing and an unimpressed audience, these five friends can't help but break during the sketch, appreciating the opportunity they all had to work with each other on the show.
Sandler was fired alongside Chris Farley in 1995
Following the decline in ratings and poor reception to Season 20 of "Saturday Night Live," the show faced one of the biggest cast member exoduses in its entire history. David Duchovny's episode ended up being the curtain call for Sandler, Farley, Nealon, Cleghorne, Elliot, McKean, Mohr, Laura Kightlinger, and Morwenna Banks. In the huge cast shakeup between seasons, Season 21 would add many future stars, including Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond.
Unfortunately, the departure of Sandler and Farley wasn't mutual, as the two were fired on the order of NBC executives who didn't like them. Sandler later described learning about his firing from his manager Sandy Wernick, telling Howard Stern years later, "I'm not good at saying goodbye. They had to get rid of me sometime." Sandler learned soon after that Farley had also been fired, and recalled being bitter about having to leave, though nowadays he realizes the decision wasn't up to "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels.
Although Sandler would quickly move on from "Saturday Night Live" to pursue a movie career, Chris Farley returned three seasons later in 1997 to host the show. However, the episode ended up being a tragic moment in the show's history, as Farley passed away only six weeks later.
He quickly became one of the biggest movie stars to come from SNL
Although he was disappointed about it at the time, Adam Sandler's firing from "Saturday Night Live" ended up being a blessing in disguise. The same year, 1995, he starred in "Billy Madison," which he co-wrote with "Saturday Night Live" collaborator Tim Herlihy. The film was moderately successful and eventually became a cult classic. In the late '90s, Sandler followed up "Billy Madison" with more films that slowly became commercial hits, including "Happy Gilmore," "The Waterboy," and "The Wedding Singer," the latter of which was his first of three rom-com co-starring Drew Barrymore.
As the 2000s rolled around, Sandler quickly became one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, churning out box office hits like "Anger Management," "50 First Dates," "Click," and "Grown Ups." Along the way, Sandler proved that alongside his usual raunchy, slapstick comedy, he was also capable of dramatic prowess with films like "Punch-Drunk Love," "Funny People," and more recently, dramas like "Uncut Gems" and "Hustle."
However, Sandler was still not immune to criticism in this era of his career, either. Many of the films he's starred in over the years have received a poor critical reception, including "Jack and Jill," "Pixels," and "That's My Boy." Although his more recently acclaimed films and return to stand-up comedy have restored Sandler's goodwill with audiences, the comedian still carried on the negative reaction to his sense of humor from his "Saturday Night Live" days.
Over the years, Sandler's cameos on the show were rare
Even though Adam Sandler was doing perfectly fine after getting fired from "Saturday Night Live," the comedian never forgot about his roots. There were a few instances over the years of Sandler making cameos on "Saturday Night Live" as well, the first of which occurred only a year after he was fired. In 1996, Sandler appeared on "Weekend Update" to perform a song, and then again in 2002 to perform "The Chanukah Song" for the episode's cold open.
More significantly, Sandler made appearances during the 25th and 40th anniversary specials commemorating the legacy of "Saturday Night Live." The 25th anniversary special, which aired in 1999, featured Sandler in one segment, where he introduces writers Jim Downey, Robert Smigel, and Tim Herlihy on stage to give him jokes to say, which end up being underwhelming and humiliating for Sandler to say out loud.
For the 40th anniversary special in 2015, Sandler appeared in a much bigger capacity. Alongside a reprisal of Opera Man during a segment focusing on musical sketches, Sandler also teamed up with Andy Samberg for a Digital Short called "That's When You Break!" paying tribute to moments where cast members, such as themselves, broke during sketches.
Sandler has regrets about his time on Saturday Night Live
The passage of time often brings maturity, which has certainly been the case for Adam Sandler as the years went on after his firing from "Saturday Night Live." Alongside his cameo appearances, Sandler softened towards the NBC show, losing the bitterness he had towards the network for firing him and Farley in the mid-'90s. However, Sandler attributes his attitude at the time to ego, telling AARP in 2022, "I didn't always see clearly then. I wanted to be a big comedian like Eddie Murphy, like Rodney Dangerfield."
For a long time, Sandler's mixed feelings towards the show also prevented him from hosting. During an appearance on Norm MacDonald's podcast, he scoffed at the suggestion of returning to host the show, believing himself to be too old. Around the same time, Sandler also began to understand that his and Farley's firing was somewhat meant to be, as their time on the show had naturally come to an end.
Nowadays, Sandler has been more appreciative of his time on "Saturday Night Live," choosing to focus on the good aspects. Over the years, Sandler has even remained close and continues working with many of the friends he made at "Saturday Night Live," including Rob Schneider, David Spade, Chris Rock, and, prior to his passing in 2021, Norm MacDonald.
His hosting debut in 2019 came with bittersweet feelings
Although Sandler expressed hesitance towards hosting "Saturday Night Live" in the past, he changed his mind and decided to accept the invitation in 2019 during the show's 44th season. "Saturday Night Live" fans of all ages highly anticipated the episode's airing, considering that Sandler had not hosted since his firing in 1995. During the opening monologue, Sandler pulled a bold move and serenaded the audience with a song about how he was fired from "Saturday Night Live," inviting Chris Rock on stage to join him.
The episode certainly felt like a homecoming for Sandler, who reprised Opera Man once again during "Weekend Update." He also got to face impressions of himself in the sketch "Sandler Family Reunion," where other cast members play the Sandler family while accusing the comedian of using them as inspirations for his movie characters like Little Nicky, Bobby Boucher, and Chubbs.
Aside from homages to Sandler's past, the comedian also featured in sketches that have had their own life among current-day "Saturday Night Live" audiences. The meme-worthy "Romano Tours" features Sandler as a man promoting tours of Italy who advises unhappy people that his tours will not improve their lives or mood in any way. "Rectix" also finds Sandler as an older man giving advice to his son about erectile dysfunction with a pill that may be a cover-up for something more kinky in the bedroom.
Sandler paid tribute to Farley at the end of the night
Easily the most memorable moment of Adam Sandler's "Saturday Night Live" hosting debut came during the end of the show. In a spot usually reserved for the wacky ten-to-one sketches, Sandler stood on stage alone with a guitar singing a song dedicated to none other than his friend Chris Farley. The song originally made its debut in Sandler's stand-up routine, appearing as the climax of his Netflix special "100% Fresh" in 2018. However, performing it in Studio 8H was a much different experience for the comedian.
After the show ended, Sandler described the rehearsal process of "Farley's Song" as difficult, considering he had to perform it next to a slideshow of Farley's personal photos and highlights from the NBC sketch show. As he described on the "Dan Patrick Show," "I was like, 'Oh man, I got to prepare for this — for the show — to try not to break down." Not only did Sandler make it through, but the song remains one of the most heartfelt moments of the show's entire run.
Even Jimmy Fallon, who cameoed during the episode in "Sandler Family Reunion," spoke about watching the moment in person on "The Tonight Show" the following week. Particularly, after seeing the show's current cast react to the song, Fallon commented, "You don't realize it when you're there on 'Saturday Night Live' for whatever seasons you are there ... you hang out more than your family."
Television critics praised Sandler's triumphant return to SNL
Fortunately, it wasn't just the in-studio audience who were touched watching Adam Sandler return to "Saturday Night Live" after 24 years. The episode was a high point of the already-strong Season 44, which had also featured strong episodes hosted by John Mulaney, Halsey, Emma Stone, and Sandra Oh. The A.V. Club credited the episode for feeling like a welcome return to goofy comedy for Sandler, while The New York Times said, "'S.N.L.' largely set aside its divisive political pantomimes in favor of more absurdist sketches, and ended on a surprisingly touching note."
Even Seth Rogen, who previously starred alongside Sandler in "Funny People," was starstruck at a joke Opera Man made during his "Weekend Update" appearance, which was written by a returning Robert Smigel. For Sandler, however, the entire episode was special mostly because his daughters finally got to see him do the job he loved so much, signing off the goodnights with, "To my wife and kids, I'm glad you got to witness that because I loved it here."
Now that the Band-Aid has been ripped off for Sandler returning to the show, the comedian is ready to do it again. While promoting his 2022 film "Hustle" on the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Sandler revealed he's eager to host the show again and has been in talks with Lorne Michaels about finding the right time.
His most recent appearances were also musical
It's a good thing Adam Sandler got his "Saturday Night Live" hosting debut out of the way, as less than a year later the world underwent a massive change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After worldwide lockdown forced "Saturday Night Live" to halt production, the cast and crew reunited over Zoom to create three "SNL At Home" episodes, with cast members self-producing sketches in quarantine, roping in talent like Brad Pitt, Paul Rudd, and Kristen Wiig for cameos.
Among those cameos was Sandler, who teamed up with Pete Davidson for the song "Stuck in the House" about adhering to quarantine guidelines. Sandler's family cameos in the video, as does a socially-distanced Rob Schneider. Entertainment Weekly called the song an "instant classic" after its premiere, and it was later made available to stream on services like Spotify and Apple Music.
During the "SNL At Home" era, Sandler also made a more serious cameo, paying tribute to Hal Wilner, the music producer at "Saturday Night Live" who passed away from COVID. The tribute recruited Sandler along with many other former co-workers, including Bill Hader, Ana Gasteyer, Fred Armisen, and Maya Rudolph, to speak about the impact Wilner had on them as co-workers. It was another moment where "Saturday Night Live" cast members and veterans, including Adam Sandler, could come together to pay tribute to someone who helped make so many people laugh over the years.