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Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Happy Gilmore' is back for another round, as are Adam Sandler and his longtime collaborator
When you show up for your first day of college, you never know who your roommate will be. You could be assigned a slovenly party animal who makes your life miserable or a studious bookworm you don't see all semester. Or maybe you share a suite with a young Adam Sandler, before either of your careers have even begun, and together you go on to create some of the most successful and enduring comedies of the last 30 years. That is the improbable but blessedly simple origin story of Tim Herlihy, a onetime business and accounting student turned practicing lawyer, whose screenplay credits for his friend Sandler include 'Billy Madison,' about the endearing layabout; the romantic comedy 'The Wedding Singer'; and 'Happy Gilmore,' about a great (but ill-tempered) hockey player who discovers he's a great (but ill-tempered) golfer. Over a decades-long partnership, Herlihy and Sandler have realized their achievements mostly by following wherever their own goofy muses lead them. But now they are about to try something they've almost never done: a sequel. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which Netflix released on Friday, finds its titular bad boy well into adulthood and more mellowed out. In the star-studded follow-up — whose cast also includes Bad Bunny, Travis Kelce and Benny Safdie — Gilmore is more concerned with the needs of his family and wondering what his legacy will be. Herlihy said the idea of a 'Happy Gilmore' sequel is one that he and Sandler resisted over the years but embraced in 'a weak moment.' 'The reason we made it is the same reason I have a dog,' Herlihy said. 'I'm like, 'No, I'm not getting a dog. No, I'm not getting a dog.' And then one day you're like, 'Well, what if I had a dog?' And then two days later, you have a dog.' As he looks over his career, Herlihy is as surprised as anyone to find himself in a lasting and prolific creative partnership. But he is not too deeply sweating questions about why it works or what it all means. 'It's a fool's errand to try and cultivate a persona,' Herlihy said. 'At a certain point, I'm having the most fun with Adam. I'm doing the best work with Adam. I'm not making compromises with Adam.' Herlihy, 58, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., spoke over lunch earlier this month at a West Village bistro not far from the New York University dormitory where he and Sandler met as freshmen in 1984. As Herlihy recalled their fateful encounter from the day he moved into the dorm, he remembered being impressed by Sandler's apparent self-assurance. 'He seemed to know his way around, and his mother was cleaning the bathroom,' Herlihy said. 'I'm like, they put me with a sophomore?' Sandler, in a video interview, said that Herlihy struck him as similarly confident. 'I said, 'What do you want to do?'' Sandler recalled. 'He goes, 'I think I want to be a billionaire.' Wow — OK. I didn't even think that was possible.' They quickly bonded over their mutual love of movies like 'Caddyshack' and other shared tastes in popular culture. 'I showed up with a Police T-shirt and he had a Rodney Dangerfield T-shirt,' Sandler said. 'We were both the same size, so we traded. I said, 'Can I have that Rodney shirt?' He said, 'If you give me that Police shirt.'' More crucially, when the fledgling Sandler said he was going to start performing stand-up comedy and needed material, Herlihy used a weekend's worth of train rides to and from Poughkeepsie to scribble down some jokes for him. (Today, Herlihy claims not to remember any specific jokes. 'It wasn't the Algonquin Round Table at that point,' he said. 'It's probably even worse than you're imagining.') In the years that followed, as Herlihy attended and graduated from NYU's law school and entered the professional world, he continued to supply Sandler with ideas and material. When Sandler landed at 'Saturday Night Live,' Herlihy helped him devise sketch characters like the slack-jawed Canteen Boy. Together, they wrote the screenplay for what became Sandler's 1995 starring vehicle 'Billy Madison,' trading pages by fax while Herlihy typed late at night on a computer at his law firm. 'Happy Gilmore,' released the following year, was started before 'Billy Madison' was released, but writing a second movie proved no easier for Herlihy and Sandler after having written their first. 'Your first movie, you put your whole heart and soul into, and every joke you ever thought of,' Herlihy explained. 'Then when you have to do another one, you're like, what are we going to do?' Still, Herlihy, who later became an 'SNL' head writer himself, kept going from one Sandler film to the next — 'Happy Gilmore' begat 'The Wedding Singer' which begat 'The Waterboy' — until he looked up and realized he was a motion picture screenwriter. 'Around the time of 'Mr. Deeds,' we started having multiple things happening,' Herlihy said. 'I think I'm going back to the one-at-a-time thing, more out of laziness than anything else. I can only handle one at a time.' For Herlihy, that portfolio included a sequel to 'Happy Gilmore' after the original — which was a modest $40 million hit in 1996 — went on to become a cult phenomenon. As Christopher McDonald — who has acted in some 200 different films and TV shows but is still recognized as Happy Gilmore's malaprop-spouting nemesis, Shooter McGavin — explained, there's one reason for the film's endurance. 'Television, television, television,' McDonald said. 'It went crazy. People started watching and going, 'Oh my god, get the grandkids in here. This is sick — this is generational.' Everybody laughs, and it still holds up.' But writing 'Happy Gilmore 2' proved as challenging as its predecessor. Herlihy and Sandler spent long days in the lobby of Sandler's production company, Happy Madison, moving index cards around a bulletin board, toying with and tossing out plot points, trying to figure out what could motivate Gilmore to pick up his clubs again at this stage of his life. (This time, he's trying to fulfill the ballet-school dreams of his daughter, played by Sandler's real-life daughter Sunny.) The production also required Herlihy to be on set each day and come up with new lines as needed, as he did way back on the original 'Happy Gilmore.' Julie Bowen, the 'Modern Family' star who plays Gilmore's love interest, Virginia, in both movies, recalled Herlihy as gentle and good-natured on that first film — hardly the type of guy who could have helped conceive a now-famous 'happy place' fantasy sequence that had her toting two pitchers of beer while dressed in white lingerie. 'I never felt objectified or stupid,' Bowen said of that scene. 'I felt like I was part of one of the best jokes ever.' On 'Happy Gilmore 2,' Bowen said she saw Sandler and Herlihy working in even greater synchronicity, scouring every take and every joke to get it just right. 'If they see something not working,' she said, 'they're like, 'Give me a second,' and they'll change it. They don't think that they've written Shakespeare and you can't change a comma. It's, let's do the funniest thing that we can.' Kyle Newacheck, who directed 'Happy Gilmore 2,' said it was both thrilling and intimidating to be working together with Sandler and Herlihy, whose name he recognized from Sandler's films and comedy albums like 'They're All Gonna Laugh at You!' 'You can tell that they go way back,' said Newacheck, who previously directed Sandler in 'Murder Mystery.' 'It's one of those relationships where somebody can move a certain way and you know that they don't particularly like that, or they have another pitch or they think they can beat it.' Newacheck added, 'I got an incredible opportunity to sit there with, arguably, the two people that shaped my comedic membrane, and then to add what I thought could be funny. There's nothing better than saying something that makes them laugh.' As far as Sandler is concerned, there is one straightforward reason why his partnership with Herlihy has lasted all this time: 'He's just a good, good man, funnier than everybody. I love him so much. I love every conversation with him. It's exciting to hear what his thoughts are on whatever's going on.' Going all the way back to their first meeting, Sandler said, 'I was like, boy, this guy's quiet. He doesn't talk very much. And then throughout the year, I was like, he's funnier than everybody.' But from Herlihy's standpoint, the collaboration thrives on contrasts between the two longtime friends. Sandler, he said, is the workaholic of the duo, working with other directors, making dramas and comedies and producing films for other writers and performers. 'The more he's doing on a movie, the more he's happy,' Herlihy said. 'I just like time off.' Herlihy also has a unique tie back to their old stomping grounds at 'SNL': his son Martin, a member of the comedy trio Please Don't Destroy, is a writer and performer there, and they occasionally check in to share stories and advice. When Bad Bunny, who has made multiple appearances on 'SNL,' including as host and musical guest, was being considered for a role in 'Happy Gilmore 2,' he asked Martin about him. 'He said he was really funny, but Martin never says anything bad about anybody,' Herlihy said. (As he was happy to discover, 'Bad Bunny had tremendous capabilities that we were not aware of,' Herlihy said.) Whether his own career is ultimately defined by his close association with Sandler, Herlihy said, will be up to history and out of his hands. But he said such distinctions were unlikely to matter in the long run, pointing to the fact that even though he's a screenwriter, he rarely remembers who wrote the movies he has seen. 'I don't know anybody who wrote the Marx Brothers movies,' he said. 'I don't know who wrote 'Kramer vs. Kramer.'' Then his mind went to an even more absurd and over-the-top scenario. 'What if you're a great movie star, you have a fantastic career, and then when you're 70 years old, you get diarrhea on Sunset Boulevard and then your obituary is 'Diarrhea Actor'?' The bottom line, Herlihy said: 'You have no control over your obituary. Just enjoy your family and have some laughs.'
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Happy Gilmore' became a cult comedy. 29 years later, Adam Sandler is swinging again
NEW YORK (AP) — 'Happy Gilmore' was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. 'Why don't you bring a friend?' his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who'd later turn professional. 'He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far,' Sandler recalls. 'So when I started becoming a comedian and me and (Tim) Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality.' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following 'Billy Madison.' Sandler was just exiting 'Saturday Night Live.' Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the 'Herlihy Boy' sketch.) 'We had just done our first movie, 'Billy Madison,' and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie,' says Herlihy. 'So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. 'A hop, skip and a hit,' as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like 'Are you too good for your home?' plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, 'Happy Gilmore' didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. 'A one-joke 'Caddyshack' for the blitzed and jaded,' wrote EW. 'To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly,' wrote The New York Times. ''Happy Gilmore' tells the story of a violent sociopath,' wrote Roger Ebert. He called it 'the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes.' 'Happy Gilmore' was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the U.S. and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. 'I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie,' says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in 'Uncut Gems.' 'It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies.' Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which Netflix will debut Friday, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the summer. Avoiding a comedy sequel curse Sandler was well aware of the checkered history of comedy sequels. Movies like 'Zoolander 2' and 'Anchorman 2' have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, 'Caddyshack' — so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy — spawned 1988's woebegone 'Caddyshack II.' 'If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that,'' Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. 'There was no moment we went 'Aha.' It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out.' In 'Happy Gilmore 2,' co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. 'We thought it could be fun to write something like that' says Sandler. 'It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business.' Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since 'Happy Gilmore.' Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. 'We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man,'' Sandler says. 'We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone.' 'It made a little more sense than 'Billy Madison,'' says Herlihy, 'but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing.' A supporting cast of PGA winners Cameos, of course, were a major part of 'Happy Gilmore.' (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try 'the Happy Gilmore.' 'I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5% thinking, 'Maybe this will work,'' says Herlihy, laughing. 'I played with Bryson (DeChambeau) like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous,' adds Sandler. 'He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'' It's possible that 'the Happy Gilmore' will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. 'When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not,'' Sandler remembers. 'Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard. It gives you more momentum. You turn your hips faster. Maybe it's a good thing.'' Solve the daily Crossword
Chicago Tribune
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
‘Happy Gilmore' became a cult comedy. 29 years later, Adam Sandler is swinging again
NEW YORK — 'Happy Gilmore' was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. 'Why don't you bring a friend?' his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who'd later turn professional. 'He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far,' Sandler recalls. 'So when I started becoming a comedian and me and (Tim) Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality.' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following 'Billy Madison.' Sandler was just exiting 'Saturday Night Live.' Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the 'Herlihy Boy' sketch.) 'We had just done our first movie, 'Billy Madison,' and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie,' says Herlihy. 'So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. 'A hop, skip and a hit,' as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like 'Are you too good for your home?' plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, 'Happy Gilmore' didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. 'A one-joke 'Caddyshack' for the blitzed and jaded,' wrote EW. 'To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly,' wrote The New York Times. ''Happy Gilmore' tells the story of a violent sociopath,' wrote Roger Ebert. He called it 'the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes.' 'Happy Gilmore' was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the U.S. and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. 'I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie,' says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in 'Uncut Gems.' 'It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies.' Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which Netflix will debut Friday, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the summer. Sandler was well aware of the checkered history of comedy sequels. Movies like 'Zoolander 2' and 'Anchorman 2' have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, 'Caddyshack' — so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy — spawned 1988's woebegone 'Caddyshack II.' 'If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that,'' Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. 'There was no moment we went 'Aha.' It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out.' In 'Happy Gilmore 2,' co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. 'We thought it could be fun to write something like that' says Sandler. 'It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business.' Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since 'Happy Gilmore.' Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. 'We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man,'' Sandler says. 'We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone.' 'It made a little more sense than 'Billy Madison,'' says Herlihy, 'but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing.' Cameos, of course, were a major part of 'Happy Gilmore.' (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try 'the Happy Gilmore.' 'I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5% thinking, 'Maybe this will work,'' says Herlihy, laughing. 'I played with Bryson (DeChambeau) like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous,' adds Sandler. 'He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'' It's possible that 'the Happy Gilmore' will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. 'When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not,'' Sandler remembers. 'Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard. It gives you more momentum. You turn your hips faster. Maybe it's a good thing.''
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
‘Happy Gilmore' became a cult comedy. 29 years later, Adam Sandler is swinging again
NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — 'Happy Gilmore' was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. 'Why don't you bring a friend?' his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who'd later turn professional. 'He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far,' Sandler recalls. 'So when I started becoming a comedian and me and (Tim) Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality.' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following 'Billy Madison.' Sandler was just exiting 'Saturday Night Live.' Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the 'Herlihy Boy' sketch.) 'We had just done our first movie, 'Billy Madison,' and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie,' says Herlihy. 'So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. 'A hop, skip and a hit,' as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like 'Are you too good for your home?' plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, 'Happy Gilmore' didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. 'A one-joke 'Caddyshack' for the blitzed and jaded,' wrote EW. 'To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly,' wrote The New York Times. ''Happy Gilmore' tells the story of a violent sociopath,' wrote Roger Ebert. He called it 'the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes.' 'Happy Gilmore' was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the U.S. and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. 'I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie,' says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in 'Uncut Gems.' 'It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies.' Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which Netflix will debut Friday, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the summer. Sandler was well aware of the checkered history of comedy sequels. Movies like 'Zoolander 2' and 'Anchorman 2' have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, 'Caddyshack' — so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy — spawned 1988's woebegone 'Caddyshack II.' 'If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that,'' Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. 'There was no moment we went 'Aha.' It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out.' In 'Happy Gilmore 2,' co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. 'We thought it could be fun to write something like that' says Sandler. 'It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business.' Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since 'Happy Gilmore.' Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. 'We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man,'' Sandler says. 'We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone.' 'It made a little more sense than 'Billy Madison,'' says Herlihy, 'but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing.' Cameos, of course, were a major part of 'Happy Gilmore.' (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try 'the Happy Gilmore.' 'I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5% thinking, 'Maybe this will work,'' says Herlihy, laughing. 'I played with Bryson (DeChambeau) like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous,' adds Sandler. 'He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'' It's possible that 'the Happy Gilmore' will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. 'When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not,'' Sandler remembers. 'Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard. It gives you more momentum. You turn your hips faster. Maybe it's a good thing.''
San Francisco Chronicle
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Happy Gilmore' became a cult comedy. 29 years later, Adam Sandler is swinging again
NEW YORK (AP) — 'Happy Gilmore' was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. 'Why don't you bring a friend?' his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who'd later turn professional. 'He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far,' Sandler recalls. 'So when I started becoming a comedian and me and (Tim) Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality.' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following 'Billy Madison.' Sandler was just exiting 'Saturday Night Live.' Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the 'Herlihy Boy' sketch.) 'We had just done our first movie, 'Billy Madison,' and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie,' says Herlihy. 'So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. 'A hop, skip and a hit,' as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like 'Are you too good for your home?' plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, 'Happy Gilmore' didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. 'A one-joke 'Caddyshack' for the blitzed and jaded,' wrote EW. 'To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly,' wrote The New York Times. ''Happy Gilmore' tells the story of a violent sociopath,' wrote Roger Ebert. He called it 'the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes.' 'Happy Gilmore' was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the U.S. and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. 'I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie,' says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in 'Uncut Gems.' 'It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies.' Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which Netflix will debut Friday, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the summer. Avoiding a comedy sequel curse Sandler was well aware of the checkered history of comedy sequels. Movies like 'Zoolander 2' and 'Anchorman 2' have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, 'Caddyshack' — so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy — spawned 1988's woebegone 'Caddyshack II.' 'If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that,'' Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. 'There was no moment we went 'Aha.' It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out.' In 'Happy Gilmore 2,' co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. 'We thought it could be fun to write something like that' says Sandler. 'It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business.' Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since 'Happy Gilmore.' Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. 'We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man,'' Sandler says. 'We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone.' 'It made a little more sense than 'Billy Madison,'' says Herlihy, 'but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing.' A supporting cast of PGA winners Cameos, of course, were a major part of 'Happy Gilmore.' (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try 'the Happy Gilmore.' 'I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5% thinking, 'Maybe this will work,'' says Herlihy, laughing. 'I played with Bryson (DeChambeau) like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous,' adds Sandler. 'He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'' It's possible that 'the Happy Gilmore' will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. 'When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not,'' Sandler remembers. 'Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard. It gives you more momentum. You turn your hips faster. Maybe it's a good thing.''
