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Conan O’Brien reflected on working at Saturday Night Live and credited Adam Sandler for making the show more ‘fun’
O’Brien was a writer on the series from 1988 to 1991, while Sandler joined in 1990
O’Brien said he felt like “there was a gun against my head all the time” when he worked on the show
Conan O’Brien had a big wake-up call when Adam Sandler joined Saturday Night Live.
The 62-year-old host opened up about his time on the series on the July 28 episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend with guest (and fellow SNL alum) Andy Samberg. The two discussed some of the pressures of SNL, including the intense pace Samberg, 46, kept up in the years he spent making new digital shorts with The Lonely Island. Samberg was on the series from 2005 to 2012, while O’Brien was a writer on the show from 1988 to 1991.
O’Brien said he related to the Lonely Island song from the SNL 50th celebration, about the anxiety of working on the show. He joked, “No one is supposed to know” about how anxious everyone it, but he “always felt it” as a writer. “I felt like there was a gun against my head all the time. It’s designed that way,” he said.
Samberg said he generally is a “pretty happy” person and joked it was “annoying” of him, but that he’d heard O’Brien’s tenure was when the show was “a little more competitive and kind of grimy.”
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Conan O’Brien (left) and Adam Sandler in 2020
“It was definitely that when I was there,” O’Brien said. “And then I have to credit Sandler.”
O’Brien said that every week, he would worry, “I don’t know if I have anything this week. It’s late. I don’t think I can write comedy.” He would call his girlfriend spiraling that he couldn’t do it, and she’d tell him to quit.
“I was in that state of mind, and I think [Robert] Smigel and [Bob] Odenkirk and Greg Daniels were like, it’s life or death, and it feels like that’s kind of how everyone feels,” he said, referencing other writers during his tenure.
“And then this guy named Adam Sandler showed up one day, and he’s like, ‘Babadoo,’ and he kept talking about, ‘Let’s go get a milkshake.’ ”
“And I just thought, ‘What?’ And he was like, ‘This is so much fun to be at SNL. I love it.’ ” Sandler did silly bits like Opera Man and kept things fun and light, the former TV host remembered.
“He was really happy. And you’re just like, ‘How is this a possibility? You can like this?’ ” O’Brien remembered feeling.
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Adam Sandler as Opera Man on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Samberg said Sandler, 58, was a “huge inspiration” for him, alongside Jim Carrey on In Living Color, and their success helped him realize there was a “path” for him in comedy.
“I think sometimes real silliness used to be discounted somewhat,” O’Brien said, but working with Sandler helped him realize it had real value.
Sandler was ultimately on SNL from 1990 to 1995, and his silly, iconic bits from that time included “The Thanksgiving Song,” “The Chanukah Song” and Under the Desk Man. Yet, Sandler was fired from the show by NBC in 1995, which he sang a song about when he hosted the show in 2019.
https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf
In it, he sang, “I was fired, I was fired. NBC said I was done, but then I made over $4 billion at the box office, so I guess you can say I won.”
Read the original article on People
