dpHenry Winkler revealed that a shoutout in a Saturday Night Live song led to his friendship with Adam Sandler and a subsequent role in The Waterboy.
Winkler played Coach Klein in the 1998 comedy film, several years after he called Sandler to thank him for giving his Happy Days character, Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, a shoutout in the 1994 SNL sketch that featured him singing “The Chanukah Song.”
Speaking with People TV’s Couch Surfing, Winkler, 80, explained, “So I call Adam because I’m in ‘The Chanukah Song.’ And I thank him for putting me in ‘The Chanukah Song.’ Adam loves sports, he loves football. [The Waterboy] is one of his favorite movies, I think, that he’s ever made. It is also one of his most popular. So many college football players have told me that as they’re going to the game on the bus, the coach plays The Waterboy for them.”
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In Sandler’s famous 1994 SNL Weekend Update bit, he introduced a new holiday song for all the “Jewish kids” after noting the only song they had to sing during the holidays was “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.”
In his song, Sandler named a list of Jewish celebrities, starting with, “David Lee Roth lights the menorah.” He added, “Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli? Bowzer from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzarelli.”
In The Waterboy, Winkler’s college football coach character recruits the team waterboy (played by Sandler) to play on his struggling team.
The Happy Days actor once shared details about his unexpected casting in The Waterboy.
“I called Adam a few years before to thank him for putting me in ‘The Chanukah Song,'” he told Forbes in 2019. “And then, all of a sudden, I got picked to be the coach. And I didn’t have to audition. So the man is brilliant.”
While he didn’t audition, Winkler went to unexpected lengths to help Sandler during filming.
“I did [The] Waterboy,” he told the Let’s Talk Off-Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast. “[Sandler] called me up in the middle of the night. He said, ‘Henry, I need a favor. My actor didn’t show up. I need you to drive right now to the park.’ It’s in L.A.; it is now 11:30 at night. I go, and I say, ‘Okay.’ I shave. I drive. I go. I sit. I get makeup until 3:30 in the morning.”
“Do you know what I got?” Winkler added. “A cookie. I didn’t even get to keep my wardrobe.”
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This story was originally published by Parade on Sep 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
