NBC Studios Tour

On Monday, my mom and I headed into the city to go on a behind the scenes tour at NBC studios. The tour, which is about an hour and 10 minutes, begins in the NBC Experience Store in 30 Rockefeller Plaza. While on line our tour guides Simon and Marissa handed out lanyard- type things to hold our tickets in, and after we proceeded into the theater. There we saw a video about the history of NBC and about past shows of NBC like Truth or Consequences. After the film we were told that no photography or recording devices were allowed under any circumstances, which was a real shame.

The first thing I saw when we arrived by the studios was the fact that the ceilings were crawling with wires of every color of the rainbow. Hundreds of cables were along the ceilings, while pictures of celebrities that had been there hung on the walls.

First we headed up on the elevators to Brian Williams Studio. Smaller than it seems on television, Williams’ desk is in the shape of an L, so as to have different angles to shoot, thus making the studio seem like it has more than one set. Behind the desk is a long screen, which we were told almost always has pictures of a control room projected onto it.

Next door to Williams’ studio is MSNBC’s, which was moved to New York in 2007. MSNBC, up until then, always came from New Jersey. The anchor desk in that studio is on a revolving circular stage that can rotate 250 degrees, thus providing more sets.

After that we headed to the NFL studio. A few fun facts about this particular studio: the Rosie O’ Donnell Show was shot in that studio for the first 6 years. Caroline Rhea was in there for 6 weeks, and the first episode of Jeopardy! was shot in that studio. In the back of the studio, behind the anchor desk was a set of screens. Our tour guides told us that usually a shot of the ice rink in the plaza is projected onto the screens, to make it look like those in there have a fabulous view. The view does not exist because that particular studio sits in the middle of the building. Tons of secrets like these were uncovered to the lucky tour guests.

While walking to the elevators once again, we were passing a bunch of rooms. Sunday night, when I was looking at buying tickets for the tour, I saw that on the website it said that seeing talent while on the tour is rare, but not impossible. While walking to the elevators, we saw Kathy Lee in hair and makeup.

The last studio we saw was studio 8H, or the SNL studio. When the studio was built, it was the largest studio in Manhattan. Now, it is just the largest in 30 Rock. When we were touring the studio, we saw the Grand Central stage and hundreds of lights and monitors and wires hanging over our heads. We were told that the SNL studio has almost perfect acoustics. Our tour guides also told us that stars like Judy Garland and Elvis Presley would pay out of their own pockets to come practice in that studio before they had shows elsewhere. They also said that if anyone has any talent at all, they will sound good while performing on SNL. If they sound bad, they probably don’t have any talent.

As a conclusion to our tour, everyone was taken to another studio to have their pictures taken. As my mom and I walked in, I sat down on the chair behind the anchor’s desk, and she stood next to me. Two pictures were taken of each group, and each party could view and buy them after the tour.