In this 80-second video, you’ll see stagehands hastily assembling a set for Saturday Night Live. Early on, they get a 35-second warning and someone says over an intercom, “We’re screwed.” You can listen as they do the final ten-second countdown and people desperately move more furniture into the set, throw pillows in strategic places, and then hold the flat behind Fred Armisen by hand (you can see it wobbling as he starts to talk). Sheer madness, and amazing. This is live TV, folks.
(Via MaximumFun.org.)
Comments (13)
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Truly awesome, and that was some fantastic teamwork!!
Thanks for sharing, Chris.
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 8-27-2010 at 5:23 pm
if only the people in front of the camera was as talented as those guys!
Tim
posted by tim on 8-27-2010 at 6:56 pm
Cool!
posted by Lynnie on 8-27-2010 at 7:50 pm
Any chance of non-hulu footage for us non-USA-ers?
posted by Amanda on 8-27-2010 at 9:12 pm
I had the chance to attend SNL the first time The Rock hosted, back in March 2000. The energy in the room is through the roof. What really surprised me is that the studio is much smaller than you’d think. Watching from home I’d always imagined, for instance, that Weekend Update had its own little section of the studio, but it’s actually a several piece set that they roll in and assemble in front of the area where the SNL band is. They had sets for several sketches set up at the beginning of the show, sometimes with one right in front of the other. When one sketch would end, instead of assembling the next one, they’d just tear the previous one out and be ready to go.
posted by Danny on 8-27-2010 at 9:43 pm
Wow I remember when I saw the set wobbling , and wondered what was up when I watched that episode back when it came on.
posted by Dale on 8-27-2010 at 10:40 pm
You see things like that in live theatre, too. On the one hand, it’s harder in theatre, since it’s usually done in the dark, and while something else is happening, so everyone has to be silent. On the other, in an extreme emergency you can hold the lights for a couple extra seconds, vs the strict deadline of returning from commercial break
posted by Ben on 8-27-2010 at 11:32 pm
I went to NY for the first time in April of this year, and we went on the NBC studio tour. We did not get to see a show, but we did see the studio where SNL is taped. And Danny, you are right. Tiny set for the big things that have come out of it…
posted by old hippy chick on 8-28-2010 at 9:33 am
Years ago I used to work on the stagecrews for Raymond’s Revuebar and the Windmill Theatre in London – downmarket burlesque or upmarket strip, depending on your point of view!
Every night we did two or three shows with around a dozen routines in each.
The sets were of similar complexity to this SNL set. Our shortest change was ten seconds, the longest was thirty!
On the stage well oiled girls, backstage, a well oiled machine! We were proud of how professional we were, even if the show was cheesy.
posted by Old hand on 8-28-2010 at 11:44 am
Stage crews rock!!! (both actual stage and live TV)
posted by Mary on 8-28-2010 at 9:06 pm
It would have been so much more impressive if SNL were funny. It hasn’t been funny in like 20 years…and don’t say Chris Farley or Will Farrell were funny. There hasn’t been a funny cast member since the late 70′s…after that the show should have been cancelled, but Hollywood likes to pat itself on the back….thats the only reason this show is still around, along with all those self-masterbating award shows.
posted by Grant on 8-30-2010 at 6:13 pm
When I took the NBC tour years and years ago- we toured SNL as well. What the tour guide told me is that they have to SNL shows. One in the afternoon, which is the one that tests the skits. The one that is filmed live is the skits that were funny enough to remain.
Lately, that makes me really wonder how bad the ones they left off are if the ones that stayed were the “Funnier” ones.
Sorry guess I’ve been harping on them a lot lately.
posted by MetalRose on 9-2-2010 at 11:21 am
Moments like that are why I got into the TV business. It’s such a rush when stuff like this happens and the viewer at home has no idea what just happened.
Once I did a quick-change of a 2000-watt light for a live production. Within 90 seconds I had a ladder in place, had the bad bulb out (bulb and lighting instrument were *extremely* hot by the way), had the new bulb installed and barn doors back on (those metal flaps that you see on the light) and finished with seconds to go.
Only problem was that the front of the instrument had a big screw that held the lens in place and I didn’t have the time to secure it. So I had to hold that thing closed for three minutes and the only protection I had was a thin cotton glove. That bought me about a minute of protection. The other two minutes was the slow burning of my hand. When we hit the commercial break I just screamed in pain.
Got a nice “atta boy” out of it (and some Neosporin).
Kudos to the NBC crew!
posted by Dave on 9-8-2010 at 9:51 am