Dad Shows Exclusive: Randy Newman’s Kid Eric Newman Reacts to Getting a Shoutout From Adam Sandler at 'SNL50'
Newman is a former 'SNL' intern and co-creator of Netflix’s 'Zero Day'
Adam Sandler’s “50 Years” tribute song during the SNL50 anniversary special featured a section where he listed off children of famous people who supposedly worked as interns on Saturday Night Live. “50 years of asking an intern to pick up your laundry at 2:30 a.m not realizing that the intern was Martin Scorsese's kid or Nora Ephron's kid or Randy Newman's kid or whoever Lorne had dinner with on Wednesday night's kid,” the Sandman sang.
I can’t find any documentation online that any of Scorsese or Ephron’s kids were interns at SNL, but Randy Newman’s definitely was. That would be Eric Newman, who worked at SNL and Lorne Michaels’ company Broadway Video early in his career. Newman went on to become a hitmaking writer and producer whose credits include Narcos, Griselda, and the new Netflix limited series Zero Day, a Dad Shows-certified thriller that stars Robert De Niro as a former POTUS trying to unravel a sinister conspiracy.
I interviewed Newman on Tuesday (Check out the full interview about Zero Day on Parade), and I asked him, How did it feel to get a shoutout from Adam Sandler in the SNL special?
He answered:
It felt great. I went to the show. It's a giant thing, as you can imagine. I was looking for Adam afterwards, but there were so many people that it was hard to find anyone. But I finally ran into him at the party. He saw me and beelined over. I was there at that time, you know, '95,6,7, with him, and Chris Farley, who I was really close with, and Spade. And it was great. [Attending the special] was a surprisingly emotional experience for me, because it was my first job here in New York. I think it was Season 18 or 19, which, you know, you look back and think, we're at 50 now. It's never going to happen again like that. There's never going to be another cultural institution that was that important to that many people for that long. So yeah, I loved it. My phone just started lighting up in the show, as I was sitting in my seat. It was pretty cool.
That's cool that you were there. It must have been surreal.
It really was. If you're comfortable being the 800th most important person in a room, which I am, it's a good place to be. And I've always, since I worked for him, been in awe of Lorne. So it was fun.
Cool guy. Lots of energy. I enjoyed talking to him. It was a big week of parties for him, because he also went to the Zero Day premiere, which I wish I could have gone to. It looks like it was my kind of party. All my guys were there. Check out this power trio.
I spent so much time writing about Zero Day this week for TV Guide and Parade — and SNL for TheWrap — that didn’t have much time to devote to Dad Shows. But if you want to know my thoughts about Zero Day, Robert De Niro’s first-ever TV series and one of the biggest Dad Shows of the year, check out my review on TV Guide. It has a daffy plot and even daffier centrist politics, but it’s fun.
Zero Day is a perfect example of a Netflix "gourmet cheeseburger." It's an expensive, well-made, enjoyable product that isn't as serious as it seems. It has the aesthetics of a weighty political drama with the soul of an airport paperback. It's like a high-end version of Designated Survivor. If your expectations are set at "fun," not "important" or "great," you will have a good time.