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- Conan O'Brien Says Adam Sandler Saved 'SNL' From Feeling Like 'Life or Death' and Brought Fun Back: 'This Is a Possibility? You Can Like' Working Here?</p>
<p>Zack SharfAugust 1, 2025 at 12:05 AM</p>
<p>Conan O'Brien told fellow "Saturday Night Live" alum Andy Samberg during a chat on the "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" podcast that Adam Sandler more or less saved the NBC sketch comedy series from sinking into behind-the-scenes despair in the early 1990s. O'Brien was a writer on "SNL" from 1998 to 1991. Sandler joined as a cast member in 1991 and stayed on the show through 1995.</p>
<p>"I was in that state of mind, and I think, you know, [Robert] Smigel and [Bob] Odenkirk and Greg Daniels were like, 'It's life or death,'" O'Brien said (via Entertainment Weekly). "And it feels like that's kind of how everyone feels."</p>
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<p>But Sandler's vibe was notably different. "He was like, 'This is so much fun to be at 'SNL. Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. Yippee!'" O'Brien remembered. "And he had that, 'I'm going to do Opera Man. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. This is great, guys!' I was like, 'This is a possibility? You can like this?'"</p>
<p>O'Brien admitted last year that he regretted how intense he was during his "SNL" days. It seems like Sandler did not have this problem.</p>
<p>"I was way too intense, and I think I robbed myself of some fun that I could have had," O'Brien said at the time. "I did have a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I could have maybe written there a little longer if I didn't make it such a grind for myself."</p>
<p>"I burnt out. I burnt out. And [Lorne Michaels] could not have been nicer," O'Brien added about his "SNL" experience. "This was a couple years before he contacted me about the late night show. But I was burnt out and I was like, 'I've got to go,' and that's when I went to 'The Simpsons.'"</p>
<p>Odenkirk, a writer on the show from 1987 to 1991, shared similar thoughts as O'Brien during an interview with EW earlier this moth, saying: "I was too hard on the show. I had a lot of attitude when I got hired there, like, 'This show could be better, this show could be 'Monty Python,' this should be more cutting edge, this should be more dangerous.' And I was frustrated by it not representing purely my point of view. I wanted it to be me, my show."</p>
<p>Watch O'Brien and Samberg's full podcast episode in the video below.</p>
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