NBC Studio Tour

NBC Studio Tour - Behind the Scenes

The NBC Studio Tour was something I've always considered doing on past NYC trips, but always hesitated, wondering if it would really be that cool - now I know - it IS! Roaming around Rockefeller Center, I strolled up to the NBC store and asked about the tour at the counter. The next tour was starting in 10 minutes, so I bought a ticket and got in line.  

The tour started with a short intro movie, explaining how the three founders of NBC started out and how the company became the empire it is today. It was interesting to learn about the history of the station, as well as the history of the famous peakock, which originally was going to be a butterfly.

The tour took off and we headed through the halls of the NBC studios where so many of my favorite actors make some of my favorite shows on television - a pretty cool feeling. The first stop was the studio where Football Night in America is filmed. I stood inside the actual studio as my tour guide explained the tricks of television and how they make the studio appear to be a variety of different locations. This was also once the studio for the Rosie O'Donnell show, and several others. It's really small, but has the ability to lift the cieling 9 floors up and widen for audiences as well. 

The next leg of the tour was by far my favorite part - walking backstage of SNL and seeing the three (much smaller than expected) stages of Saturday Night Live.  They shared really interesting facts about the actors and famous guests, and I learned a lot about the process of the show. A little later on we also saw a video of how the makeup crew creates a head and face mold for every cast member and guest, so they can perfect full head and face masks whenever necessary. Getting an inside look at the process of changing into costumes and hitting timing marks for a completely live show was really interesting.

Some of the other stops on the studio tour were the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the broadcast operations rooms and at the end, the tour group got to film a weather and news program at the high def mini-control studio.  Over all, it's very worth the ticket price (only about $20) and fans of NBC shows like SNL, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, etc. will get a kick out of the offerings at the NBC store as well.