CBS Television City

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"Television City" redirects here. For the proposal for a Television City in New York City, see Trump Place.
CBS Television City is also the name for a research facility and merchandise store at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
CBS Television City in Los Angeles
CBS Television City in Los Angeles

CBS Television City is a television studio located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles' West Side at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Beverly and Fairfax Avenue. It is one of two CBS studios in the area—the other is CBS Studio Center, located in the Studio City section of the San Fernando Valley, which houses additional production facilities and the network's Los Angeles local television operations.

Since Television City opened in 1952, numerous TV shows have been taped or filmed at the facility, including several not actually broadcast on CBS. During the opening & closing credits of many of the shows taped here, a voice-over announces the phrase, "From Television City in Hollywood".

[edit] History

Television City opened its doors on November 15, 1952; it was built on the site of a former football field and racetrack, Gilmore Stadium. Before the stadium, it was an oil field.

Gilmore Stadium was part of a sports/entertainment complex that included Gilmore Field and the Pan Pacific Auditorium. The stadiums and auditorium were built on what was once 287 unincorporated acres known as Gilmore Island, and the fortune that led to their construction had origins similar to a television sitcom plot.

Arthur Fremont Gilmore brought his family to Los Angeles from Illinois in 1874, started a dairy business and eventually made enough money to buy part of Rancho La Brea, roughly bounded by Beverly Boulevard, 3rd Street, Fairfax and La Brea avenues. By the late 1930s, the Gilmore company had built both the football stadium and the baseball park. Gilmore sold the stadium to CBS in 1950, and that year's Turkey Night Grand Prix midget race (now held at Irwindale Speedway) was the last race run on its track. Two years later, CBS built Television City on the site. After the Hollywood Stars transfered out of the city in 1958, the ballpark was razed and that property also became part of the Television City complex.

The stark modern architecture at CBS Television City consists of black and white planes meeting at razor-sharp corners, with accents of dazzling red, the work of Pereira & Luckman of Los Angeles. The studio facility was built to handle the larger production needs for the network, most of which took place at the rather cramped Columbia Square.

The building initially held four soundstages (Studios 31, 33, 41 and 43), but a renovation in the late 1980s added four new soundstages plus additional office space and technical facilities such as editing rooms and storage. Another renovation added two studios in what had been rehearsal halls in the original building.

Studio 43 was equipped with RCA TK-40A color cameras in 1954, with cables allowing any of the original four studios to use those cameras. In 1956, Studio 41 was equipped with RCA TK-41's. However, CBS color broadcasts decreased in frequency until late 1963, when the 1964 production of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" was recorded. CBS programs were generally in black and white until Norelco PC-60's were installed starting in 1964.[1]

Its most famous soundstage is The Bob Barker Studio, Studio 33, which is the current home of the long-running CBS game show, The Price is Right, the syndicated game show Family Feud (making its third appearance, 1988-95, 1999-2000 were the others) the HBO late night series, Real Time With Bill Maher. This soundstage recently broadcast an episode of the Australian chat show Rove Live live via satellite to Australia.

This soundstage was also the home of The Carol Burnett Show in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as notable game shows, Match Game (the 1970s - 1980s Gene Rayburn hosted version & 1998 version), Hollywood Squares (hosted by Tom Bergeron), Bullseye, and the 1980s revival of Card Sharks. In March 1998, on the 5000th episode of The Price is Right (actually the 5133rd episode), CBS named studio 33 as The Bob Barker Studio in honor of the show's longtime host and executive producer.

When sitcoms were increasingly taped in front of a studio audience in the 1970s, many shows were recorded on soundstages at CBS Television City, such as All in the Family, Maude, and Good Times. The ABC sitcoms Three's Company, and Welcome Back, Kotter was also taped at CBS Television City.

CBS Television City is also home to CBS' visual effects studio, CBS Digital. "Television City" is a registered trademark of CBS for its TV production facilities.

[edit] "From Television City in Hollywood..."

These are shows that originated from this historic television studio. Almost every show taped here used the title line in the opening announcement. All shows aired on CBS unless noted:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Reitan, Ed. "Early Color Television Studio Facilities". Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
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