NBC Studios

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NBC Studios was also a previous name for NBC's production and syndication division, which is now NBC Universal Television.

NBC Studios are the two television studio facilities belonging to the National Broadcasting Company, with one of them being located inside the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City, and the other located in Burbank, California, just outside of Los Angeles. A third NBC production facility, the NBC Tower, is located in Chicago, Illinois. NBC Studios was also the name of the network's production arm (previously NBC Productions), before it was incorporated into the television operations of Universal Pictures, forming the NBC Universal Television Studio.

Contents 1 The New York Studios 2 The Burbank Studios 3 NBC Tower 4 References

[edit] The New York Studios

Located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (on 49th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and its local owned & operated television station, WNBC (Channel 4).

The first NBC Radio City Studios began operating in the early 1930s, and tours of the studios began in 1933.

Because of the preponderance of radio studios, that section of the Rockefeller Center complex became known as Radio City (and gave its name to Radio City Music Hall). Even into the present decade, tickets for shows based at 30 Rock bear the legend "Radio City."

Among the shows produced there are/were:

• Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993-present)
• Late Night with David Letterman (1982-93)
• Live at Five (1980-present)
• NBC Nightly News
• Saturday Night Live (1975-present)
• The Phil Donahue Show (1985-96)
• Concentration (daytime version, 1958-73)
• The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1995-2002)
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962-72, moved to Burbank in 1972)

Some other New York originated programs were produced elsewhere in New York City, including:

• Colonial Theater*, 1887 Broadway at 62nd Street (original version of The Price is Right hosted by Bill Cullen, 1953-63; Colgate Comedy Hour)
• Hudson Theater, 141 W. 44th Street (Tonight hosted by Steve Allen, 1954-57).
• Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 W. 54th Street at Sixth Avenue (The Perry Como Show, Concentration primetime 1961)).
• 67th Street Studios, 101 W. 67th Street (the Home show with Arlene Francis 1954-57, Concentration primetime 1958), now demolished and the site of the Millennium Tower.
• Century Theater, 232 Seventh Avenue at 59th Street (Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, 1954-57).
• Brooklyn Studios* (now JC Studios), 1268 E. 14th Street in Midwood, Brooklyn (many 1950s color "Spectaculars" such as Peter Pan; it is also where the soap opera Another World was produced from 1964 until its cancellation in 1999).
• International Theater, 5 Columbus Circle (Admiral Broadway Review 1949), demolished 1954.
• Ambassador Theater, 215 W. 49th Street.
• Center Theater, 1236 Sixth Avenue at 49th Street (Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle; Your Show of Shows, 1950-54), demolished 1954.
• Uptown Studios (now Metropolis Studios), 105 E. 106th Street at Park Avenue.
• New Amsterdam Roof Theater, 214 W. 42nd Street.

*Equipped for color production.

These facilities are no longer used by NBC.

[edit] The Burbank Studios

NBC's West Coast production center is located at 3000 West Alameda Avenue in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, just a few miles northeast of the Hollywood area. Dedicated on March 27, 1955, this facility was known back then as NBC Color City, as the studio was equipped exclusively for color broadcasting. In fact, it was the first major color television studio in the country to be built from the ground up. Today, it houses the network's local owned & operated station, KNBC (Channel 4), the network's Los Angeles bureau, as well as the Telemundo network's local owned & operated station, KVEA (Channel 52), and two other local stations. The studios of Warner Bros. and The Walt Disney Company are located in the same neighborhood in Burbank. NBC Studios-Burbank was responsible for producing some of the best remembered game and variety shows of the 1960's, '70s and '80s, and it rivals CBS Television City as the premier television production facility on the West Coast. Programs produced here over the years include:

• Access Hollywood (1996-present)
• Blockbusters (1980-1982, 1987)
• Bullseye (1980-1982; first six months originated from here)
• Card Sharks (1978-81)
• Chain Reaction (1980)
• Classic Concentration (1987-91)
• Days of Our Lives (1965-present)
• Designing Women (aired on CBS, 1986-93; originated from here, 1986-1987)
• Ellen DeGeneres (2003-present)
• Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special (1968)
• An Evening With Fred Astaire (1958)
• The Facts of Life (aired on NBC, 1979-88; originated from here, 1987-1988)
• Family Feud (current syndicated version originated from here, 1999-2003)
• Frank Sinatra A Man and His Music (1965)
• Go (1983-1984)
• High Rollers (1974-76 and 1978-80)
• Hollywood Squares (original version hosted by Peter Marshall, 1966-80, and briefly the John Davidson version in 1986)
• Hot Potato (1984)
• John Davidson Show (1980-1981)
• Last Call with Carson Daly (2002-present)
• Password Plus (1979-82)
• Super Password (1984-89)
• Punky Brewster (1984-88; aired on NBC from 1984-86; originated from here throughout its run)
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968-73)
• Sale of the Century (1983-89)
• Sanford & Son (1972-77)
• Santa Barbara (1984-93)
• Scrabble (1984-90 and 1993)
• Supermarket Sweep (aired on Lifetime, 1990-98 & on PAX later "i", 2000-2004; originated from here 2000-2004)
• The Dean Martin Show (1965-74)
• The Don Rickles Show (1968-69)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (aired on NBC, 1990-96; originated from here 1993-96)
• The Gong Show (1976-80)
• The Midnight Special (1972-83)
• The Nat King Cole Show (1956-57)
• The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (1966)
• The Tonight Show (1972-present)
• To Tell The Truth (1990-91 on NBC; syndication 2000-02)
• Twenty One (2000)
• Wheel of Fortune (1975-89)
• You Bet Your Life/The Groucho Show (1955-61)

It is one of the few television-specific studio facilities in Hollywood that offers tours to the general public.

[edit] NBC Tower

The network's Chicago-based studio center is located at 454 North Columbus Drive in downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile area. This building opened in 1989, after the network moved its offices and its owned and operated station, WMAQ-TV (Channel 5) from the Merchandise Mart building, where it had been based since the 1940s. WMAQ and NBC are the primary tenants of this building, along with Telemundo's Chicago-based owned & operated station WSNS (Channel 44), but there are other companies that conduct business here, including CBS Radio's WSCR-AM (670), which was WMAQ's sister station as WMAQ-AM (which had also been in the Tower from 1990-2000 before their conversion to WSCR; WSCR moved to the Tower and WMAQ's former studios in 2004).

In addition to housing these entities, the studios were/are home to the following shows:

• The Jenny Jones Show (1991-2003)
• The Jerry Springer Show (1991-present; has originated from here since 1993)
• Judge Mathis (1999-present)

[edit] References

• NBC Television Network
• NBC Universal
• NBC Tower