On Friday, it may have been chilly in New York City, but inside the Today studios, it was warm and sunny with a whole lot of Al Roker.
That’s because the famed weather anchor was celebrating 40 years with NBC News, including 22 spent at the morning show. In honor of the incredible milestone—or as the show called Roker’s “Aliversary”—the Today team went above and beyond to celebrate the beloved member of the TV family, including renaming the famous Rockefeller Plaza “Rokerfeller Plaza.”
Fans lined the plaza, holding up signs that spelled out “Happy 40th, Al,” while inside, his colleagues donned matching “Roker 40” T-shirts and offered up bacon roses to the guest of honor.
There was also no shortage of nostalgia as the Today co-anchors and correspondents, including Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager, took viewers down memory lane, revisiting all of Roker’s unforgettable moments on the show over the last two decades.
“He’s been there since we can all remember and he’ll be there long after we’re all gone,” Hoda Kotb quipped.
“He never forgets how lucky he is to do this job, to interview all of our idols, to get to make people laugh and share a little bit of their lives—it’s contagious,” Guthrie added.
And plenty of famous faces—many of which he has interviewed over the years—shared their entertaining well wishes.
“You make Lorne Michaels look like a real part-time employee,” Tina Fey quipped of the longtime SNL showrunner.
“So Al, I got 25 years of doing the Oprah show. I was feeling pretty good with that, thinking that’s a milestone record. And then I hear about you,” Oprah Winfrey said. “Forty years. Four-oh. You win.”
Of course, no celebration is complete without cake—and there was plenty of it as Roker’s wife Deborah Roberts and son Nicholas Roker brought up a multi-tiered NBC-themed rainbow cake.
Roker, growing emotional, weighed in on the moment with words of gratitude.
“Thank you to all of you for putting up with me for all these years,” he told everyone. “I really appreciate all the bad dad jokes. Thank you so much.”
And, in classic Roker fashion, he concluded on the sweetest of notes.
“My dad always said if you can look in in the mirror and say you’ve done your best at the end of the day and you like the people you work with, you’ve had a good day.”
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)