BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Michael Stiegelbauer has been building sets for "Saturday Night Live" since the show's debut in 1975. First with his father, who was head of scenic design at NBC. Then 15 years later, with his own design company, Stiegelbauer Associates, when NBC contracted out the work.

Stiegelbauer outbid his competitors.

"They didn’t understand the show. They couldn’t understand. Nobody would understand the show what goes on," Stiegelbauer said.

What goes on is a frenzy of construction. The show sends Stiegelbauer 10 to 15 different set designs Thursday mornings and his team of 50 builders immediately go to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, trying to complete them for rehersals at Rockefeller Center later that day.

"It’s a rush. It’s an adrenaline rush the whole time, beginning to end," Stiegelbauer said.

"Our carpenters get here roughly around six and start pulling out wings and walls and pieces and things that we can pre-use from other shows and then they break down into the sets like the one standing behind me," said Stiegelbauer and Associates Inc. Creative Director Nicole Stiegelbauer.

The warehouse is packed with items for SNL’s 22-show season. Fireplaces, doors and windows, airline seats, a spiral staircase, game-show buzzers, even cars. But the writers may request one in particular.

“We have to bring it in here. They have to saw it half and then they have to remove all the parts of it that make it flammable or dangerous," Nicole Stiegelbauer said.

To make sure everything is transportable the company uses a replica of the Rockefeller Center elevators to see if the sets fit.

On a typical week about about 10 truckloads head over to 30 Rock, most on Thursdays. The rest moves out on Fridays.

Still, there can be last minute script-changes. Even on Saturdays.

"Sometimes sets come back and we redo them. Sometimes it’s all new sets and we have to start from scratch. But everything is out the door here by 8 o’clock Friday night unless there a massive changes and then we will come in and do whatever they need," said Nicole Stiegelbauer.

The Steigelbauers say they watch on Saturday night to see their creations come to life, all live from New York.