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Happy Gilmore
original movie poster
Directed by	Dennis Dugan
Produced by	Robert Simonds
Written by	Tim Herlihy Adam Sandler
Starring	Adam Sandler Carl Weathers Julie Bowen Allen Covert Frances Bay Christopher McDonald
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date(s)	February 16, 1996
Running time	92 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
IMDb profile

Happy Gilmore is a 1996 sports comedy film starring Adam Sandler, Carl Weathers, Julie Bowen, Allen Covert, Frances Bay and Christopher McDonald. Bob Barker, Robert Smigel, Kevin Nealon, Joe Flaherty, Lee Trevino, Richard Kiel, Mark Lye and Ben Stiller have cameos.

Happy (Adam Sandler) is an aspiring ice hockey player who masters a powerful slapshot that his father taught him as a child. However, his aggression and poor skating ability render it impossible for him to make any hockey team. His grandmother (Frances Bay), with whom he's lived almost all his life due to an unfortunate hockey related incident which killed his father, has not paid taxes on her home for several years. As such, she owes $275,000 to the IRS and the house that Happy's grandfather "built with his bare hands" is about to be repossessed. Due to a series of events that lead Happy to believe in his own ability to use his powerful slapshot in the game of golf, he joins the PGA Tournament in order to win enough money to buy back his grandmother's house from the government.

Aspiring PGA Tournament winner Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) sees Gilmore as a threat, and tries to thwart any attempt of his to steal his thunder. Although his golf game and his manners on the green aren't rounded- his long shot is excellent but he has trouble when it comes to putting-, Happy is guided by one-handed golf coach Chubbs Peterson (Carl Weathers) and the tournament PR head (Julie Bowen), who help him in finding his own way to win tournaments with a cooler head. Although his time on the course is jeopardised when he goaded into attacking another golfer, Happy manages to make some extra money by signing an endorsement deal with Subway, thus earning the $275,000 he needs to buy back his grandmother's house. Unfortunatley, at the auction, he is outbid by Shooter McGavin, who offers Happy the house under the terms that he in exchange quits the tournament. Happy is persuaded to continue with the tournament by the notion that his grandmother would rather see him succeed than have the house. Shooter agrees to give Happy the house if he beats him in the tour championship.

With some help from Chubbs and some lessons at the nearby Crazy Goly course, Happy improves his putting skills, but Chubbs subsequently dies in an accident. Determined to win the game for Chubbs, Happy goes head-to-head with Shooter, and- despite Shooter's attempts at sabotage, such as having a deranged fan drive onto the course and topple a TV tower in front of the last hole- wins the championship, becoming a pro golfer and in turn getting his grandmother's house back.

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• The golfer who continuously shakes his head in dismay during the film is Lee Trevino. His only spoken line is: "Grizzly Adams did have a beard."
• The final scene, where Happy sees the ghosts of 3 people waving to him, is a parody on the ending of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
• Verne Lundquist, who plays the Golf Channel commentator in the film, is a hole announcer for the The Masters Tournament, one of the major PGA tournaments, on CBS.
• PGA Golfer Mark Lye makes a cameo appearance during a cocktail party scene talking to Shooter McGavin and Happy Gilmore about The Tour Championship.
• Bob Barker credits his appearance in this movie for revitalizing interest (especially among college students) in his game show The Price Is Right (with perhaps, the oft repeated saying "The price is wrong, bitch"). He thinks a younger generation (college students in particular) of viewers saw his performance in the movie, in which he is paired up with Gilmore in a celebrity tournament and ends up winning a fist-fight against the exuberant player after finishing in last place. His use of the phrases "I think you've had enough" and "No? Now you've had enough...Bitch." are oft-repeated in his game show, in a differing context, of course. Barker accepted the role after he found out he was going to win the fight.^{[citation needed]}
• During a 2007 CBS prime-time special honoring Barker's 50th anniversary in television, the clip of the fight from the movie was played. Afterward, Sandler made a surprise appearance to thank Barker and read a poem in his honor.
• NHL star Joe Sakic makes a cameo appearance as a player at the hockey tryouts.
• Richard Kiel has trouble standing (due to his acromegaly and also due to his sense of balance being affected by a head injury sustained in a car accident in 1992), so he had to use a cane in most scenes. However, in two scenes, he could not use the cane because of the "tough-guy" circumstances. In one scene, he simply leaned upon an extra as he was being shot. In the other, the scene calls for him to run after Christopher McDonald. However, since he could not, he was placed upon a cart and wheeled. He was then shot only from the waist-up and moved his arms in a running-like fashion.^{[citation needed]}
• The love interest of Happy Gilmore in this film has the same initials of the love interest of Billy Madison (Billy Madison), Bobby Boucher (The Waterboy) and Nicky (Little Nicky). Virginia Venit is the love interest in this film whilst Veronica Vaughn is the love interest in Billy Madison, Vicki Vallencourt is Bobby Boucher's love interest in The Waterboy and Valerie Veran is Nicky's girlfriend in Little Nicky.
• The line "Nice Shooting Soldier!", spoken by the annoying fan (played by Joe Flaherty), is a line spoken in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Sterling Hayden's character General Jack Ripper.
• In many broadcast versions of the film, the "Subway" logo appearing on Sandler's shirt during the closing scenes is edited out. The commercial shoot, however, remains in the film. Some of the other corporate logos in these versions have also been edited out or censored -- one example includes a logo for AT&T on Happy's caddie's apron during an AT&T-sponsored tournament, which was covered with a blue dot on a USA Network telecast of the film. These logo removals or censorship are due to various broadcasters' policies against unpaid advertising plugs on television programming.

• In the scene where Happy's putt stops and rolls back into the hole, the grooves in the ground used to guide the ball are visible
• In the scene where the television tower falls onto the green on the 18th hole, a few people can already be seen sprawled on the grass just before the tower falls.
• The VW Bug is shown already crashed into the TV tower in a scene before the actual crash scene. Likewise, the car explodes from the front during the crash, even though the VW Bug has the engine in the rear.
• At the hockey try-outs, the coaches are shown standing behind the glass right after Happy shatters it with his slap shot.
• At the hockey try-outs,before Happy hits the shatters the glass with the puck the window is already cracked when he goes to hit it.
• When Happy throws the IRS agent through his Grandmas door and down her front stairs, his kneepads are clearly visible through his pants.

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Happy Gilmore

• Happy Gilmore at the Internet Movie Database