Bill Murray hated the early ’90s Saturday Night Live stars, according to Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider claims Bill Murray particularly hated Adam Sandler and Chris Farley when he hosted Saturday Night Live
Aux News Bill Murray
Saturday Night Live’s early ’90s cast produced plenty of stars: Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Julia Sweeney, Tim Meadows, Sarah Silverman, you know the names. But it was also an era dogged by criticism and haunted by those pesky “Saturday Night Dead” accusations. But it’s one thing for the media to feel that way, and quite another for the hate to come from an SNL legend.
According to one of the era’s stars, Rob Schneider, that’s exactly what happened to him and his friends. During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show—of late the place to go for controversial comics to name-drop—Bill Murray can be difficult on set. (Who knew.) “He’s gonna change things. And you’re gonna get—and it’s gonna be great, but you don’t know who you’re gonna get, the nice Bill Murray, or you’re gonna get the tough Bill Murray,” Schneider claims. “He’s super nice to fans, he wasn’t very nice to us. He hated us on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething.”
“You know, now that I’m older–’cause, you know, he hated Chris Farley with a passion. Like he was just seething looking at him,” Schneider recalls. “I don’t know exactly, but I wanna believe that it’s because that Chris thought it was cool to be… [John] Belushi—his friend who he saw die. That he thought it was cool to be that out of control. That’s my interpretation, but I don’t really know. I don’t believe it, I only believe it 50%. He just hated, like, all of us, pretty much. …The least of the hate was to me. I took great pleasure in that he hated me less, because he’s my hero.”
He remembers that Murray beheld Farley with “naked rage,” and that the Caddyshack actor was “nice to every common person” but less so to fellow comedians. Schneider acknowledges that certain comedy legends can simply be personally different than they present professionally: “Steve Martin’s never silly, and I wanted him to be. But like, onstage… he just turns it on, and I was like, ‘I didn’t know you could do that.’”
Returning to Murray, Schneider notes that he “hated Sandler, really hated Sandler too.” Guessing why, he vaguely supposes, “He just wasn’t into that groove of it, you know? And Sandler was just committed to it, you know? And just like… as soon as he would get on, you could see the audience just ate him up, you know? Which also really irritated Al Franken,” he adds, not to let an opportunity to mention the SNL old guard pass. Did anybody like these guys?
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Sure he hated you less, Rob.Sure.
He clearly wasn’t as important. Less “hated me less”, more “noticed me less”.
I imagine Murray was a huge fan of uhh…making copies guy.
We need an independent definition of ‘less’ here. HAHA!
He said that Murray was mean to the comedians, not the “common people.” Makes sense he wouldn’t be mean to Schneider.
He did say that Murray was nice to the fans and that he was a huge fan of Murray’s work. Maybe Murray didn’t realize (or care) that Rob was part of the cast.
When asked Murray said “yeah I hated Chris Farley”. When asked about Rob Schneider he said “who?”
Bill Murray: “Wait, I thought he was some guy repairing the copier — that was a bit?”
This made me snort-laugh.Which is ANOTHER thing you now have, over Rob Schneider.
Honestly, I believe this. Bill Murray’s a huge dick. Rob Schneider is a huge dick. Of course he hated him less.
Game recognizes game. If “The Animal” had come out in 1983 a contingent of middle aged white guys would remember it fondly.
I found that EXTREMELY hard to believe.
I saw you sneak Julia Sweeney in there.
Seth Green was on Good Mythical Morning this week and told a story about how when he was 9, he did a bit on SNL and in the green room, he was sitting on the arm of a couch watching TV with Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray came in and told him he was in his seat, and eventually ended up picking him up and dropping him in a trash can. When he was 9.
I’m laughing that Bill Murray’s seat is on the arm of a couch next to Eddie Murphy.
Who among us hasn’t wanted to pick up Seth Green and drop him in a trash can at some point?
that’s a memory that lasts a lifetime!
Am I bad person if I find that anecdote hilarious?
I left out the best part: he picked Green up by his feet and held him upside down before dropping him into the trash can.
He was dropped due to being hit in the balls. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 9 year old, that’d make you drop anything.
In the same story, Green claims that when Murray had him in the air, Green was flailing his arms and hit Murray in the balls, which is the point when Murray dropped him.
This does not make me like Bill Murray any less.
Now I like Bill Murray even more.
I feel like Bill Murray has been a well known asshole for, what, decades now?
He’s always gotten away with it by just going with “mercurial” to describe his personality.
He’s famously dickish and famously nice. People are often more than one thing.
That’s true! We can all be dickish and nice at some points.Screaming at coworkers numerous times over the course of your career definitely puts a person more in the ‘asshole’ category though.
Eh. I’ll allow once every ten years. Once every two if any of the coworkers are Chevy Chase or Rob Schneider.
I gotta admit that medium talent burn is amazing.
His observation that he’s nice to everyone else but especially dickish to other performers seems about right. My sister waited on him at a diner when he was filming Rushmore and she said he was nice and dropped a $100 tip on a plate of steak and eggs. Had another friend that worked as a PA on set and also said he was super charming to everyone.
Yup and this is why attempts to cancel him via actor sob stories will never work on me.
He’s an asshole to celebrities but great to fans and regular people who randomly run into him. He rules.
Everybody hates Rob Schneider so
In hindsight Bill was onto something hating Rob Schneider 30 years before the rest of the thinking world.
“During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show—of late the place to go for controversial comics to name-drop—Bill Murray can be difficult on set.”Cool word blobAlso very cool Kinja word blob quote rearrangement
After that late-80s-very-early-90s cast (and writers) left, there was dearth a talent. I think Sandler and Farley could be funny, but the material they were working with was just downright poopy. Please excuse my vulgarity. Even Schneider could be amusing, again, with good material.I think out of all the people mentioned in this article, Sandler and Franken would be the ones OK to “hang out with,” and I’m not even a big Sandler fan. He just seems more normal than your average actor.
Yeah this was obvious when he ghosted the Oscars because he didn’t win. Or I remember the press tours for The Razor’s Edge and holy crap, was he trying hard to be taken seriously.
One of those names is not like the other
“Saturday Night Live’s early ’90s cast produced plenty of stars: Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Julia Sweeney, Tim Meadows, Sarah Silverman, you know the names.”How dare you, madam.
Somebody else made this point—but the best part of that episode is Dave’s SEG when he says “Bill……I stole your cane….”
See also: when he spends an entire episode refusing to share his fantasies with Lisa only her for her to storm off and for him to reveal to Beth that annoying Lisa is his turn-on. I love the episodes that reveal Dave to be just as much of a weirdo as everyone else.
Pure Evil is by far my favorite Dave episode.
Somebody else made this point—-but the best part of that episode is Dave’s SEG when he says “Bill……I stole your cane….”
Okay, but second best is Bill’s “…this one displeases me…”
I have adopted Bill’s line in my everyday speech. “This. This I like. This I keep.”
Bill…
What’s wrong Dave…don’t you like my caaane?
I came for Newsradio references and I was rewarded richly…
I see Hartman as more of a “late 1980s” SNL product, even though his time on the show went well into the ‘90s.
Yep, along with Dana Carvey.
Hartman started in the late 80s era, and was still around for part of the 90s, but didn’t originate in the 90s cast like the listed people did. He was like a remaining old great among also-rans.
According to the author, “Saturday Night Live’s early ’90s cast produced plenty of stars” like . . . Julia Sweeney. We now know that Carr comes from an alternate dimension, where It’s Pat: The Movie was a runaway, generation-defining hit.
Come on now, It’s Pat has grossed . . . roughly 5% of another hot 1994 release, Car 54, Where Are You?
Well, Car 54 did have Buster Poindexter and John C McGinley…TBH I would watch a whole movie of his character from Platoon, all nervy and gum-chewing. “I gotta bad feelin on this one, alright? I mean, I gotta bad feelin”
I have to think that inclusion either had to be a joke, or Mary Kate actually hasn’t heard of any of those people and was just picking names off an old cast list.
I don’t know, I would still call her a star, her one woman shows were amazing. Granted, she never reached superstar status or became a movie star, but if you haven’t seen some of those shows, they’re great, worth a watch for sure.
She didn’t become a movie star, tv star, headlining stand-up, or behind-the-scenes power after SNL. Not a star.
Hey, now, she was great as the junk yard manager in Pulp Fiction!
I don’t know. I mean, she was a character, but that’s not the same thing as having character.
Glad I wasn’t the only one
Also, I know Sarah Silverman was on the show briefly, but I do not know many people who associate her with SNL. So I would say that is a bit of a stretch.
I do, her one season on SNL was my introduction to her. She didn’t get to do much outside a pretty good Update segment, which is the best place for standup cast members to just do their material. I hadn’t realized she didn’t return the next season and I realized months later, “Hey, what happened to that girl?” She also tells a lot of SNL stories.
Yeah, I picked up on that too, but, outside of Meadows’s excellent career as a character actor and Silverman’s brief aughties shine, none of those listed have created much beyond their SNL caricatures, which were often the same basic caricature from sketch to sketch and movie to movie. If Farley had lived and gotten away from that crew, I think he could have had a solid career. He was always best in sketches where those guys played a minor role or weren’t on screen. Murray belongs in the rarified air of SNL alums who were actually good actors with range; none of that early-90s crew can claim such. Murray, Martin, Fey, Wiig, Poehler, Sudekis, Forte, Parnell, Armison, and, the most talented cast member ever, Hader, are among the few to ever eclipse their sketch work after leaving. The first two seasons of “Documentary Now,” which heavily featured Armison and Hader, will remain must-rewatch comedy for me. Could you imagine anyone from the early-90s list having the comic subtely and dramatic depth to pull off “Ted Lasso?” Parnell is a top-tier character actor and voice talent. This list could go on and on and on…I initially dismissed Andy Samburg outside of the show when he was going stuff like “Hot Rod;” he seemed to be the follow-on to Fallon: an attempt to recreate the lack of magic from the immatude dreck of the early-90s. I didn’t watch “Brooklyn 9-9″ for ages because of this; when I finally did, my opinon of Sandburg flipped. “Pop Star” is also genuinely hilarious and a fairly sharp satire. Even Ferrell has had moments of greatness (Ashley Schaefer on “Eastbown and Down” is his best), and his “bro comedies”- “Old School,” “Talledega Nights,” and “Step Brothers”- are still better than Sandler, Spade, and Schneider’s hopelessly dated attempts at the same genre, which were almost universally panned by critics.Sorry for the essay, to both myself and any readers, but I’m oddly passionate about advocating for the 2000s cast whenever folks try to assert that the immature 90s bros were legitimately funny talent.
Maybe he hated Rob Schneider because he just wasn’t very funny.
That cast had its moments – but you could fill two “best of” DVDs with them and be left with hours upon hours of unfunny shit. But that’s pretty much every episode of SNL, isn’t it?
Bill….makin’ copies…
I’ll take a best of Hader, and the first volume of Will Ferrell was pretty good.
If you can convince Lorne that the “gay beer commercial” pre-tape they always play on compilations of that era was never funny, we could probably save money and just do the one dvd.
This feels like an invitation to pile onto Rob Schneider, and while it’s tempting, I’m going to say a couple nice things about him instead because I hate internet pile ons:
1) I rewatched a bunch of old 90’s SNLs, and Rob Schneider may not be one of the funniest SNL cast members, but he’s one of the most valuable and wildly underrated at that. He was a really deceptively versatile sketch comedy performer, and I felt like every sketch he was in was noticeably improved by his presence, whatever his role.2) He keeps Adam Sandler’s dress shirts so crisp and clean, it’s incredible. In fact, his whole deal with Adam’s laundry is nothing less than impressive: the sorting, the folding, the ironing, he’s got it the fuck DOWN.
Early 90s SNL was pretty interesting in that you had a late 80s old guard, which included Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, the bigoted blonde actress who I won’t mention by name, and Mike Myers, mingled with the new guard of more “wacky” actors like Farley, Sandler, Schneider et al. But they still seemed to jell really well in sketches.
Victoria jackson.
Battle of the network stupid hats.
Oh, not that Jim Norton. (Why would it be, I suppose.)
You use my proper title, you little bollocks!
Dare I take a guess that little Rob isn’t exactly the most reliable witness?
I think he’s just in the midst of his “Pay attention to me!” publicity tour.
I don’t know if he outright hated that cast, but I could see him being “above it all”. 1993 Was when Groundhog Day came out, and that was Murray at his peak dickness.
He’s an anti-vaxxer who invoked the Nuremburg trials to defend his stance, so…(Don’t get me wrong; it’s becoming pretty obvious that Murray was no saint behind the scenes, but at best, this is two people who can’t be trusted arguing with each other. Or it would be, if Murray would stoop to a response.)
It doesn’t sound like Schneider is trying to start anything. He was asked a question and gave a pretty diplomatic answer. Is saying Murray is a dick starting something or is like saying the sky is blue?
I mean…and here’s the thing, though: neither Adam Sandler nor Chris Farley were (or are, in Sandler’s case) particularly funny.
They kind of owned SNL when they were there. Plus, they played off each other incredibly well.
Farley was funny in that when he went for a bit he jumped in head first. His physical comedy is still outstanding especially since there are very few comedians even doing anything like that any more.
Chris Farley was incredibly funny, but setting that aside, I’m not sure “I don’t fund that person professionally amusing” is really a sufficient justification for “I’m going to be a huge dick to my coworker.”
Was. And that’s a matter of opinion, so your comment is pointless.
It’s almost like humor is subjective or something.
Bill Murray hates everyone.
I’ll feel a lot better once Mary Gross weighs in on this.
Not to give Rob Schneider more credence than he deserves, but based on a lot of stories heard, this was a pretty toxic era for SNL cast members where there were very cliquey groups competing with each other for air time. I’m kind of surprised Mike Meyers was never brought up, since I think he has the biggest reputation for being unpleasant to work with.
But it was also an era dogged by criticism and haunted by those pesky “Saturday Night Dead” accusations. Really? I think of it as one the show’s strongest eras. You’re talking Hartman/Carvey times. So much great stuff.
She’s conflating it all into one big weird soup. The Hartman/Carvey times were 86-93, and those were generally fantastic, wonderful years. The 93-94 season was noticeably lesser quality than the years preceding it (the hit/miss ratio was a lot more balanced), and the 94-95 season was pretty much savaged in the press. As a result of that season, NBC basically ordered Lorne Michaels to fire most of the cast and rebuild, which begat the Ferrell/Hammond/Oteri era.
Which is about when I tuned out and never really came back.
Which then beget the second golden era: Hader, Poehler, Fey, Forte, Wiig, Sudekis, Samburg, Armison, and the inevitable rise of Parnell. I was a huge fan of the Ferrell era, and I felt it started to fall off when Fallon hit the scene, but I’m glad I eventually went back to enjoy the most talented cast SNL has ever had.
Yyeah, it’s weird that the Ferrell era lost a couple steps when they got rid of Jim Brewer, of all people. I’m assuming that was coincidence.
To be fair, Farley did suck and Sandler is awful. That whole era from Season 16 to 20 was a sophomoric mess.
Rob Schneider’s suddenly credible here when he can contribute to the AV Club’s Bill Murray take down efforts.
Oh and what does the Great Bill Murray like?
How do we know this story is true? Because Bill Murray has never cameo’d in one of Adam Sandler’s films.
That was the cast that made things a lousy frat style environment for Michael McKean, Janeane Garofalo, Ellen Cleghorn, Chris Elliot and others. So maybe Bill had a point.
God, Rob Schneider is really the worst of the worst, isn’t he? Zero self-awareness.
The most damning Bill Murray accusation of all: He hated Chris Farley more than Rob Schneider.
the Caddyshack actor was “nice to every common person” but less so to fellow comediansAnd this is why Bill Murray rules. Great to people on the street and fans, trolls the fuck out of other celebrities.
No one mentioned David spade with this group.
Or so the Germans would have us believe.