In 2019, Adam Sandler returned to the Saturday Night Live stage. For longtime fans, the significance wasn't simply that Sandler was hosting. It was that he was coming home. Sandler had joined SNL as a writer in 1990 before becoming a cast member. During the early 1990s, he became known for characters, musical comedy and sketches that helped define that generation of the show. Then, in 1995, Sandler left SNL. Decades passed. His career moved far beyond Studio 8H. He became one of Hollywood's most recognizable comedy stars, built a huge film career and developed an audience that had grown up watching the material he had created during his SNL years. But he had never hosted the show. That changed on May 4, 2019. When NBC announced that Sandler would finally host, it immediately became a reunion for viewers who remembered him from the 1990s. There was something almost circular about the story. The young comedian who had once stood on the SNL stage trying to establish himself was now returning as the established star. But Sandler's return wasn't simply nostalgia. The show gave him an opportunity to acknowledge the past, reconnect with former colleagues and introduce himself to a newer generation of SNL viewers who had grown up watching his movies instead of his original sketches.