Adam Sandler Felt "Hurt" After He and Chris Farley Got Fired From 'SNL'
SNL cast members Chris Farley and Adam Sandler (who is nominated for two 2019 Emmys) were fired from the program in 1995.
Both Chris and Adam went on to star in several comedic films in the late '90s.
From 1991 to 1995, comedians Chris Farley and Adam Sandler had the Saturday Night Live audience in stitches. From fighting over the Zagat's restaurant guide as Bev and Hank to singing about a lunch lady and a lovestruck sloppy joe, the duo seemed unstoppable in the early '90s. That is, until they both got the boot from SNL in the summer of 1995.
Adam has said that he really isn't sure what happened or why longtime producer Lorne Michaels decided to pull the plug on the two. Back then though, the thought of getting fired was daunting to both comedians – Adam was 29, while Chris was 31.
"At the time, I was hurt because I didn't know what else I was going to do," Adam said on The Howard Stern Show in December. "I know it wasn't Lorne [Michaels']'s decision. The NBC head dude, I know he didn't like our gang."
He continued: "I was probably sad into covering up the sadness with being mad and saying 'f--k you blah, blah, blah,'" the Uncut Gems star recalled. "But I remember when I saw Farley and he said, 'Me, too, they don't want me either.' We were both like 'f--k this s--t.' We got mad together, pretended we weren't sad, pretended this was for the best."
Years before Howard asked the Grown Ups actor about his exit from SNL, the Daily Beast also pressed Adam about what happened behind the scenes.
“We kind of quit at the same time as being fired,” the comedian told the outlet in 2014. “It was the end of the run for us. The fact that me and him got fired? Who knows. We were on it for a few years, had our run, and everything happens for a reason. We kind of understood because we did our thing. It hurt a lot at the time because we were young and didn’t know where we were going, but it all worked out.”
Indeed, it did. Their iconic sketches helped propel both of them into the film industry. Adam went on to star in a ton of now-classic movies in the late '90s — Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, to name a few. Meanwhile, Chris (who tragically died in December 1997) starred in comedies of his own, such as Black Sheep and Tommy Boy — both were, ironically, produced by Lorne himself.
Another positive? Chris and Adam's departure led to more hilarious comedians – such as Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, and Cheri Oteri — having their time to shine on the show.
Given Lorne's continued relationship with Adam and Chris in the '90s, it's safe to assume there was no bad blood. The truth was, '94 and '95 were tough years for SNL, as the program allegedly received several negative reviews. What's more, as Vanity Fair points out, poor ratings at the end of the '95 season likely had something to do with the decision. After all, NBC was reportedly threatening to fire Lorne if he didn't shake things up.
The subject of Adam's firing was brought up this year when the Billy Madison star hosted SNL in early May. In his opening monologue, Adam sang that he "never saw it coming" and joked that Lorne never called him back.
“I was fired, I was fired. NBC said that I was done. Then I made over 4 billion dollars at the box office, so I guess you could say I won.”
Hey, he's got a point.
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