Once meant only for cast and crew, a rare piece of Saturday Night Live merch is now up for grabs to the general public—with a catch.
A year after SNL collaborated with leisurewear brand Tombolo to create a 50th anniversary gift for staffers, NBC is making a variant available to fans at its New York City store.
Based on a staff uniform that SNL’s original costume designer, Franne Lee, created in 1976, the cast-and-crew gifts included custom embroidery with each team member’s positions, such as “Cast” or “Writer.” Staffers continue to be spotted in the uniforms, with Bowen Yang even donning one during his last-ever “Goodnights” as a cast member.
While the staff-exclusive version boasted SNL‘s original title of Saturday Night, the newly available version adds the word “Live” to the logo, which mimics the treble-clef design seen on the back of the show’s Chapman Electra crane.
The fan variant also boasts a “Live Audience” label, where SNL crew/cast titles usually are situated.
Despite that “Live Audience” label, the shirts are available to the general public—but the show certainly isn’t making it easy to buy. While it’s not exclusive to the lucky few fans who manage to catch SNL in-studio, buyers do need to be on the premises of 30 Rock during the show to cop one.
According to NBC, the shirts are only available:
- in-person at The Shop at NBC Studios in New York
- between the hours of 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. ET
- and only on Saturday nights when SNL is taping a new episode.
(That gives SNL die-hards watching at home just 30 minutes to get to Rockefeller Center after an episode wraps!)
The updated “SNL 1976 Shirt” spawned from a larger “SNL x Tombolo” product line that offered several retro-inspired apparel items in honor of the show’s 50th season, designed in collaboration with longtime SNL costume designer Tom Broecker. Unlike the staff uniform, the rest of the items were sold publicly. Those items have now been made available at The Shop at NBC Studios as well, but without a limited window of availability.
The “Live Audience” variant of the SNL x Tombolo shirt is priced at $198, and only available while supplies last.
That’s some elitist BS. There are probably more of us SNL fans outside of the tri-state area who would be able and willing to pay for this online than the smaller number of show attendees . . . too bad.