'Boss of the Carpenters' retires this weekend after 50 years building sets for SNL

Stephen “Demo” DeMaria has been building sets for “Saturday Night Live” since before the show even aired — he helped build seats for the live studio audience ahead of "SNL's" Oct. 11, 1975 premiere.

Over the decades, he ascended the ranks from set builder to “The Boss of The Carpenters,” as the 87-year-old Brooklyn native calls himself. His official title is foreman, and he oversees a team of nearly 50 carpenters who race to build the show’s sets every week. He works for Stiegelbauer Associates, the family-owned scenic shop that has also built sets for the "Today Show" and the "Late Show with Seth Meyers."

But after 50 years building sets for the show, he plans to retire this Saturday – after attending "SNL’s" 50th season wrap party, of course.

“I gotta shake Lorne Michael’s hand,” DeMaria said Monday at Brooklyn Navy Yard-based Stiegelbauer Associates. “He gave me a future for 50 years.”

DeMaria has helped construct sets for every one of the NBC show’s nearly 1,000 episodes over the past five decades. His favorite ones were from the early years.

“I say the first 12 years was the best shows for 'SNL,'” he said as he sat at his desk at Stiegelbauer and glanced up at a photo of John Belushi.

“My favorite sets were the ones with John Belushi, with the restaurant, and Eddie Murphy, with that little apartment he used to come down, open the door,” he said, referencing the “Olympia Restaurant” and “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” sketches.

And although DeMaria was grateful for the career "SNL" had given him, he said he won't miss the hours.

DeMaria gets sketches for the show’s sets around 2 a.m. Thursday and then manages a team who build them, so they can be ready at Rockefeller Plaza's studio 8H before Saturday night.

“ Now I don't have to get up at 4:30, take a shower, this that, get to work and I can just take it easy. Do what I gotta do,” he said.

He might’ve stayed on the job for a few more years if it weren’t for the hours, which require him to drive on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at night. He’s had two close calls, and between those and his decadeslong tenure, he figured now was a good time. And he’s not worried about staying busy in retirement.

“People wanna know, what are you gonna do? I says, I got plenty to do,” he said. He has two children and three grandchildren. The house he built for his family on Staten Island needs care, and he plans to spend even more time looking after his pets, his rescue animals and his garden.

“My wife was into that and I’m trying to keep it up, too,” he said, referencing his wife of 60 years, Patricia DeMaria, who died in 2022.

Nicole Stiegelbauer, his boss and the company’s director of operations, wasn’t sure he’d come back to work after that loss. But then, she also wasn’t shocked when he did.

“He has come here rain, snow, sleet, sickness, health, whatever thing that’s ever happened, he has still managed to come and make sure the office runs the way it’s supposed to,” said Stiegelbauer, whose grandfather hired DeMaria in the ‘60s.

“I’ve known him quite literally my entire life,” she said. “His loyalty to my dad, to the family, to the company, to the work is without doubt unparalleled. They don’t make them like him anymore.”

For her, DeMaria's retirement is bittersweet and disorienting.

“He’s been a fixture in our life and in the business for our family. It won’t be the same without him here every day,” she said.

But DeMaria has no regrets.

“I wouldn't change a bit,” he said of the last half-century. “In fact, if I go out tomorrow, I'll still be the happiest guy around.”