These Mother and Daughter SNL Superfans Describe Their "Surreal" Trip to See the Show
For Sylvia Cerel-Suhl and her daughter, Sara Suhl, this once-in-a-lifetime 30 Rock adventure was decades in the making.
Like anyone who’s entered Saturday Night Live’s annual August ticket lottery, Sylvia Cerel-Suhl answered a question about why she wanted to attend: She's watched SNL since shortly after its 1975 debut, was excited about the upcoming Season 50, and had long shared her passion for the show with her daughter, Sara Suhl.
The Kentucky medical researcher and educator had no idea her entry would inspire the incredible email she received several months later. Yes, Cerel-Suhl and her daughter had been selected to attend Dave Chappelle’s January 18 episode taping — but there was an even bigger, once-in-a-lifetime surprise. As a part of the show’s 50 Days of Fandom campaign celebrating SNL’s 50th anniversary, she and several other lottery entrants would be flown to New York City, put up in a hotel, and given a special tour of Studio 8H.
“So I'm literally zooming around, going ‘Oh my god, oh my god!’” Sylvia told NBC Insider, explaining that she absorbed the news while jumping up and down with excitement outside of a grocery store. “A woman even stopped and said ‘Honey, are you OK?’ And I go, ‘No, it's really good!’” After forwarding the message to Sara, the mother and daughter were soon screaming on the phone together.
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This is a story about the joy of fandom, but it’s also about the power of a well-worded letter (and the fact that they do truly read each and every SNL ticket lottery submission!). “The amazing writer that she is,” Sara, a medical school student currently living in New York City, raved about her mom, adding that the days they spent in 30 Rock were “beyond our expectation.”
It’s not every day you go from watching TODAY on TV to meeting Al Roker in Rockefeller Plaza, which they did at NBC’s invitation (Sylvia called the experience “surreal”). They also took The Tour at NBC Studios, visited Top of the Rock, and popped into Studio 8H, where — after taking in the wall of photos capturing iconic sketches — they got the extremely rare opportunity to go down to the studio floor the day before a show. “It’s kind of busy,” joked Sylvia.
They were allowed to walk through the area where Hosts step through the door and down steps onto the stage. "We were asked,'What do you think's behind that door that you see every week?' And I’d just imagined that it's sets, or dressing rooms. But it's this very, very narrow hallway — like, one person fits through it," Sara recounted.
Sara described the “home base” area as packed with paint cans and cue cards, a scene that was meticulously recreated in the immersive The SNL Experience weeks later.
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They also spotted autographs and thank-you messages that past Hosts had scrawled in the space, “like graffiti on a bathroom wall…by the very famous,” Sylvia joked.
“It was just chill-inducing to imagine walking through the doors and down the stairs of a place that you've watched for years,” Sara continued. “Never in my life did I think that I would be able to do that! It was absolutely amazing.”
The mother and daughter were excited to spot historic costumes behind glass, including one of their favorite characters — Kristen Wiig’s Target Lady — as well as a Prince costume (the artist was impersonated by several cast members over the years; most famously, Fred Armisen). They also had a couple of exciting sightings: Season 50 cast member Sarah Sherman, and creator and Executive Producer Lorne Michaels himself.
“Did she keep her cool? No. But she made a lot of friends,” Sara said of her mother, who indeed remembers the names of every NBC employee she met during their whirlwind trip, as well as those who went on the tour with them.
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Finally, late on Saturday night, Sylvia and Sara settled into their front-row balcony seats to watch Chappelle’s fourth stint as Host in person (their favorite sketch of the night: "Evacuation Alert"). For them, the 90-minute show seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and they especially loved seeing details the camera doesn’t capture, such as cast members laughing at — or even gesturing to — their sketch co-stars while they were out of frame.
"It was amazing to see how kinetic it was: Everything's moving, everyone knows exactly where to go, it's so rapid," Sylvia said. "They were even still painting a set," she added, joking, "Now you know: If you're ever on that show, don't touch the walls!”
Sara's first SNL loves were Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's "Weekend Update" and The Lonely Island — she grew up singing their songs with her brother, including deeper cuts like “Threw It on the Ground.” Her mother Sylvia remembers watching the Coneheads sketches in the days when the only way to catch the show after air was in repeats weeks or even months later.
Sylvia believes that even if you’re not as big a fan of the show as they are, “You have to respect excellence."
"Just to see the way every single person on that team is just excellent at what they do, and they work together so well — live, for an hour and a half, on network television," she said. "Fifty years is incredible, right?"
