NEW YORK (AP) – Tune in NBC any Saturday at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, and, whether live or a repeat, you know what you’ll find. It’s been that way since October 1975 and, having just wrapped 40 years on the air, “Saturday Night Live” is long overdue for a fitting shrine.
Now it has one. “Saturday Night Live: The Exhibition” has just opened in (where else) New York, and it’s a riches-filled destination for the program’s three generations of fans – those, that is, who can cover the rich admission ($29 for adults, $26 for children under 12).
Located on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue a dozen blocks south of “SNL”’s home at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the exhibition is a satisfyingly immersive experience, steering visitors step by step, room to room, through the improbable yet tried-and-true process of putting together each show in just six days.
“We’ve taken a little bit of 30 Rock – places on the eighth and ninth and 17th floors that the public never gets to see – and brought it here,” says Mark Lach, the exhibition’s creative director.
The tour nears its end in a mock-up of the TV control room, just before ushering visitors into a downsized version of fabled Studio 8H for a cleverly staged eight-minute simulation of being at a live broadcast as hosted by “SNL” alum Tina Fey, who declares from a video screen, “I’m where most actresses my age end up – on display in a museum exhibit.”