{"id":22328,"date":"2025-07-26T00:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T00:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22328\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T00:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T00:07:11","slug":"adam-sandlers-writing-partner-is-his-secret-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22328\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Sandler’s Writing Partner Is His Secret Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe release of \u201cHappy Gilmore 2<\/a>,\u201d the Netflix sequel to the 1996 comedy hit, is just days away. While Hollywood hot shots might be sweating audience awareness polls or gauging social media chatter, Tim Herlihy<\/a> \u2014 who co-wrote both films with star Adam Sandler<\/a> \u2014 has a more pressing concern: catching up with yard work at his quiet Connecticut home.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou might not know Herlihy\u2019s name, but you\u2019ve laughed at his jokes. His movies with Sandler, often featuring characters in various states of arrested development, have topped $3 billion at the box office. Think classics like \u201cBilly Madison\u201d and \u201cThe Wedding Singer.\u201d The pair pivoted to streaming in 2015, with Sandler\u2019s Happy Madison Productions signing a megadeal with Netflix that\u2019s led to such films as \u201cThe Ridiculous 6\u201d and \u201cHubie Halloween.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHappy Gilmore 2\u201d is poised to be one of summer\u2019s biggest comedies. The first film stars Sandler as a foul-tempered hockey player who invades the snobbish world of pro golf. \u201cHappy Gilmore\u201d was a fixture on cable, where it became quotable fodder for sports fans and millennial comedy nerds. The sequel finds Gilmore in need of a comeback, finding help along the way from pals played by Ben Stiller, Margaret Qualley and Bad Bunny.<\/p>\n

\n\tHerlihy has co-written 13 Sandler films and executive produced several more. He says the pair click because they push to find what\u2019s funny. Their writing process is surprisingly nuts-and-bolts, from the early development of a project (\u201cWe\u2019re both kind of fishing around in the dark. \u2026 We take a lot of breaks because it\u2019s hard\u201d) to the \u201crapid fire\u201d dialogue writing. The goal, ultimately, is to make each other laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as perfection, so when you want to revisit something, it\u2019s not like \u2018This stinks.\u2019 It\u2019s \u2018I know it can be better because everything can be better,\u2019\u201d Herlihy says. \u201cEven the script of \u2018The Godfather\u2019 could have been even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir collaboration goes back to their days at NYU, when the roommates would kick around ideas for Sandler\u2019s stand-up act. Though Herlihy became an accountant and an attorney, he moonlighted as a writer on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d starting in 1994 and rising to head writer and producer by the time he left in 1999.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe duo decided to revisit \u201cHappy Gilmore\u201d after decades of fans clamoring for another chapter \u2014 but only if they could do something unique.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSometimes you see a sequel and it just feels like new characters doing the same story,\u201d Herlihy says. \u201cWe wanted to do the opposite: our characters that we love, but a bunch of different stuff happens. They would have matured and been on the journey we all are on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne aspect of the movie that brings Herlihy particular pleasure is that it co-stars his son Martin Herlihy, who joined \u201cSNL\u201d in 2021 as a writer and cast member.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFriends and family are packed into these movies from the get-go, and I\u2019m glad my son now is on that list,\u201d Herlihy says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut even happier news? As our interview wraps, it looks like rain is on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI might get out of more yard work,\u201d he says optimistically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The release of \u201cHappy Gilmore 2,\u201d the Netflix sequel to the 1996 comedy hit, is just days away.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19754,64,63,134,17788,344,22516],"class_list":["post-22328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adam-sandler","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-happy-gilmore-2","tag-movies","tag-tim-herlihy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}