Adam Sandler Looks Back at Old Days

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday August 08, 2002 01:00 PM EDT

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"Saturday Night Live" gets the once-over one more time in a new book by James Andrew Miller and Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales, "'Live from New York,' An Uncensored History of 'Saturday Night Live,'" which is excerpted in the new Vanity Fair. Just about all the survivors of the 27-year-old show are interviewed about their time spent on the NBC show, including Adam Sandler, 35, who recalls, "Nothing was better than having a read-through (of the script). You stayed up all Tuesday night -- all of us did that -- and then we'd do the read-through and you wouldn't know what was getting on the show, but you'd have an hour or so while those guys (Chris Rock, Chris Farley and David Spade) were figuring it out. So we'd all go to (the restaurant) China Regency up on 55th, and we'd eat and watch Farley eat more than us. Farley was so happy; I think we went there because they had a lazy Susan. It was easier that way." Less easy was the show's relationship with one of its first stars, Chevy Chase, now 58, whose displays of arrogance are remarked upon by several generations of cast members. "The worst host was Chevy Chase," says Will Ferrell, 35. "I don't know if he was on something or what, if he took too many back pills that day or something, but he was just kind of going around the room and systematically riffing." Ferrell said Chase's playful remarks started with the men and then moved on to the women, to whom Chase made crude sexual requests. Referring to the show's producer, Lorne Michaels, 57, Ferrell said, "I've never seen Lorne more embarrassed and red."