The lobby of the tower on the plaza, the elevator up, then the studio: the home base stage, the band stand, the cameras, the bleachers, the cue cards, the works on every set wall.
Studio 8H was built in 1933 as the largest radio studio in the world, and Arturo Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra there from 1937 to 1954. Saturday Night Live first aired from the studio on October 11, 1975, created by Lorne Michaels, with George Carlin as the first host. The show has broadcast live from the same room ever since.
Source · NBC, Saturday Night Live ↗
The art deco lobby with its dark marble and gold leaf ceiling, the studio floor with its brick home base arch and the musical guest stage, the boom cameras and the applause sign, the steep audience bleachers, the cue card easel. Mood: eleven thirty saturday. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.