On the 6th of January Girl Scout troop 80228 stepped into NBC Studios in New York to take a tour of the building.

Taking a train to the New York Penn Station, the troop ate lunch, and then headed out and were put into pairs, a good idea, but was never-the-less ineffective. While they were walking, they spotted a protest near by. The protesting crowd chanted after the leader, “BULL RIDING IS ANIMAL CRUELTY!” Ironically, the troop was actually planning to see the same bull riding show that was happening after the tour, but the protest spooked them out of it.  

On the way, the group noticed that they could see inside of Good Morning America, if somewhat blurry. They talked about seeing that too, but soon they spied the grand entrance of NBC Studios. They entered through revolving doors and almost ran into a wall, but they soon found their way into the back of the gift shop to the start of the tour. After signing themselves in by first and last names, going through security much like one would in an airport, and started the tour.

There were only two rules you had to follow, besides some obvious ones. One was that no drinks, even water, were permitted during the tour, or must be kept shut and away during the tour. Second was that absolutely no pictures could be taken anywhere, because of the amount of copyright material in there. Then the actual tour started, with a great staircase. Then they came into a room known as the Peacock Room, where anyone performing would sit. Then our tour guide showed them the main room on this floor, which had the same design since the 1950’s, except that the pictures that were originally there were now screens. At the time of the tour, the screens showed the original pictures, but they were informed that usually they were pictures of the hosts.

Then the tour guides took the troop to what was once the largest set room ever; now, not so much. The troops tour guide told them that this was where the audience was seated, and it could fit up to over 300 people. There are a row of seats under the audience, but they are extremely exclusive. Their tour guides told them even they (the tour guides) weren’t allowed down there, only the high executives and family of the crew were allowed. We saw where performers performed and the tour guide told them that the performers could do whatever they wanted but there were two conditions. One was that they could only use that space, and that they could use whatever materials they wanted, but the performers had to pay for it; NBC was not paying for them. One guide mentioned that people like Adele only had a microphone and a spotlight so she had maybe under $500 worth of materials, but maybe people like Katy Perry had gone full-out and her cost was sky-high. They also told the group that this is where many skits took place, and during commercial breaks where you see the crew setting things up, that’s actually happening, not fake.

After that, they all left to see another studio where they got to see what happens outside of the camera. There were automated robots that took clips, and there was a small back room which is where they stood. There was a long camera that somewhat resembled a giraffe. Their second tour guide also showed the troop what the news host saw, because the table he sat at showed 4 sites, like on an iPad. This was to know if any other live channels were or were not covering events. Then they headed to where all the magic happened. Their tour guide showed them the designers studio, and where artists recorded their songs, which was cool.

Then they made a mock live TV show, with WMS students Candace Pinto, Amanda Del Monte, and Alyssa Antrovich as the Host, Announcer and Guest star respectively, with Claire Ortega, Vanessa Pinto, Victoria Liska, Yila Thuman and Haniya Qureshi as the band. Teresa Antrovich was the sound booth operator. It was funny, and the desk Candace Pinto sat in what happened to be Jimmy Fallon’s old desk.

Next, they went to see Jimmy Fallon’s studio, but before that they spotted some strange Muppet’s pipes and wrench. Next to the Muppet wrench, there was a plaque that basically said that four people were here and got bored so they painted on the pipes, which were displayed behind a glass covering. So it became Muppet pipes, with a bonus Muppet wrench if they needed to take the pipes out.

After that they went to Jimmy Fallon’s studio, and it was “SO much cooler in real life!” remarked Candace Pinto. It had “Ferrari leather red seats” at least according their tour guide, and you could see everything from where they stood. To test the echo for the troop, the tour guides asked them to yell,”Hey Jimmy!” which they did, and there was absolutely no echo. The guides told them this was to help Jimmy make sure that the last laugh was the very last, and that the laughs were real, not canned or fake.

Finally, the troop went to the location where all shows are streamed, and the guides told them how they were sent to different areas at different times because of different time zones. This was also where they created the ads. They mentioned that it was crammed to the point that the employees of NBC had to stand still during the Super Bowl.

Then they headed down and rated the tour. They left off in the gift shop, and then took the train back to Woodbridge.