With Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2 just around the corner, cast members are remembering the good times they had making the original in 1996. Christopher McDonald, who played Shooter McGavin, guested on The Rich Eisen Show this week, reminiscing about one celebrity who passed away before getting a chance to reprise his role.
McDonald made a point to be on set when Sandler squared off against iconic game show host Bob Barker. “I was making the deal on the side with the jackass guy,” he told Eisen, “and then I came down and watched the magic happen.”
The Price is Right star was 71 years old when he made Happy Gilmore, more than 40 years older than Sandler, who was in his 20s at the time. Still, says McDonald, Barker didn’t want to sub out when it came time for their fight scene. “Someone was going to come in, but (Barker) said, ‘I’d really like to do my own fighting because I’m a bit of a pugilist.’”
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“He really wanted to do the old doosh, doosh,” says McDonald, imitating the sound of Barker’s furious fists making contact with Sandler’s chin. It wasn’t just throwing left-right combinations — he also threw Sandler to the ground, rolled down a hill, and took a headbutt to the face. “The tumble down the hill — that was the only one when the stunt guy was in it,” McDonald said. “Bob did everything else.”
Performing his own stunts was as easy as pie for Barker. The harder part was convincing him to curse on camera. Producer Jack Giarraputo was tasked with convincing Barker to say “the b-word,” a callback to Sandler taunting him with his own catchphrase: “The price is wrong, bitch.”
At first, Barker said no, he couldn’t say the word on film. But Giarraputo twisted his arm, leading to Barker delivering one of the film’s signature bits of dialogue. Barker gives Happy a few more shots to the breadbasket after kicking his ass, then concludes the bout with, “I think you’ve had enough… bitch.”
“It was so funny,” said McDonald. “I’m so glad he did. It was great. It was the button on the scene.”
Barker must have gotten over his shyness about the B-word, since Drew Carey convinced him to perform the line for a Price Is Right audience after he retired.
Barker, who passed away in 2023, reminisced about the fight with CBS News back in 2013, still proud of kicking Sandler’s butt. “I did Price until 2007, and I didn’t do one show that the audience didn’t want to talk about Happy Gilmore,” he recalled. “They’d say, ‘Could you really whip Adam Sandler? Could you beat Adam Sandler up in real life?’ I’d say, ‘Are you kidding? Adam Sandler couldn’t whip Regis Philbin.’”
