CBS Television City

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Television City opened its doors on November 15, 1952; it was built on the site of a former racetrack , the former home of the Pacific Coast League baseball team Hollywood Stars (Gilmore Field), and before that, it was an oil field.

Gilmore Field was part of a sports complex that included Gilmore Stadium 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. 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.

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.

CBS programs were generally in black and white until the fall of 1965, with the exception of a few specials produced at NBC studios and Red Skelton's weekly programs (which were taped at another Los Angeles studio that Skelton had purchased, during the early 1960s).

Television City finally began taping programs in RCA's compatible color in the fall of 1965 and by the following year all programs were in color.

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 sitcom Three's Company 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.

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:

The ($10,000/$25,000/$100,000) Pyramid (1973; 1982-88; 1991-1992; taped at Studios 31 & 33)
Alice (1976-85; pilot only; remaining episodes were taped in Burbank, California)
All in the Family (1971-79; first six seasons were taped here; remaining seasons taped at now-defunct Metromedia Square)
The Amanda Show (airs on Nickelodeon, taped it's first season here, the remaining seasons taped at the Sunset Gower Studios)
Amateur's Guide To Love (1972; taped at Studio 43)
American Idol (2002-present; airs on the Fox network)
Archie Bunker's Place (Taped here from 1979-82, and at Universal City Studios from 1982-1983)
Are You Kidding? (1990 Primetime Special; taped at Studio 31)
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (2007-present)
Art Linkletter's House Party (1952-69)
Beat the Clock (1979-1980; taped at Studio 31)
Bedroom Buddies (Syndicated 1990; Taped at Studio 42)
Blackout (1988; taped in Studio 33)
The Bold and the Beautiful (1987-present; studio 31)
Body Language (1984-86; taped in Studio 33)
Bullseye (1980-82 taped at Studio 33; first six months originated from NBC Studios in Burbank)
The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show (1950-58)
Can You Top This? (Syndicated 1970; Taped at Studio 33)
Card Sharks (1986-89 on CBS, 1986-87 on syndication, taped in Studio 33)
The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978; taped in Studio 33)
The Celebrity Game (1964-1968; Taped at Studio 41)
Child's Play (1982-83; taped in Studio 33)
Contraption (aired on the Disney Channel 1983-1989; taped in Studio 31)
Crosswits (syndicated 1986-87; taped in studio 33)
Dancing with the Stars (2005-present; airs on ABC; taped in Studio 43)
Deal or No Deal (early episodes taped in Studio 46; 2005, airs on NBC)
Dennis Miller Live (1994-2002; aired on HBO; studio 33)
Dinah! (daytime talk show starring Dinah Shore; syndicated; studio 31)
Don Adam's Screen Test (syndicated 1975-76; studio 31)
Don't Forget the Lyrics! (2007-present)
Double Dare (1976-77; taped in studio 33)
Double Exposure (1961; taped at Studio 43)
Earn Your Vacation (1954; taped at Studio 41)
The Ed Sullivan Show (West Coast shows)
The Edsel Show (1957)
Face the Facts (1961; taped at Studio 43)
Family Feud (three times, all in Studio 33: 1988-95, 1999-2000, 2007-Present (syndicated); aired on CBS 1988-93)
Follow the Leader (1953; taped at Studio 33)
The Game Game (syndicated, 1969-1970; taped at Studio 43)
Gambit (1972-76 in Studio 41 and 43)
Gameshow Marathon (2006; taped at Studio 46)
The Gong Show (syndicated 1988-1989; taped at Studio 41)
Good Times (first two seasons, 1974-75, were taped here; aired on CBS, 1974-79)
Greed (1999-2000)
High Rollers (syndicated, 1987-88; taped at Studio 41)
The Hollywood Game (1992; taped at Studio 33)
Hollywood Squares (1965 pilot, originally shot for CBS, was taped here; aired in syndication, 1998-2004; taped in studio 33)
Hollywood's Talking (1973; taped at studio 31)
The Jack Benny Program (1950-65)
The Jeffersons (first season, 1975, was taped here, taped at Metromedia from fall 1975-1982, and at Universal City Studios from 1982-1985; aired on CBS, 1975-85, did not use the opening spiel)
The Joker's Wild (aired on CBS 1972-75; was taped here at Studio 31 1972-75 and again in 1990 at Studio 33)
The Judy Garland Show (1963-64 in Studio 43)
The Larry Elder Show (taped in Studio 31; aired in syndication, 2004-2005)
Late Show with David Letterman (Los Angeles tapings in 1994 and 1995; studio 36)
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (1995-present)
Married with Children (aired on FOX, 1987-1997) (the show taped episodes here from 1993-1997 at Studio 33, First 7 seasons taped at the ABC Television Center, Sunset Gower Studios, and now-defunct Metromedia Square)
Masters Of The Maze (1994-96; taped at Studio 31) (aired on Family Channel)
Match Game (1973-82 and 1998-99; aired on CBS 1973-79 and sydication 1979-1982; taped in Studio 33)
Maude (1972-78)
The Merv Griffin Show (1969-72)
The Mike Douglas Show (syndicated, 1961-82; taped here from 1976-82)
Morris Cerullo Help Line (airs on Ion; tapes at Studio 33)
Night Games (1991-1992; taped at Studio 42)
No Relation (aired on FX 1996-1998; taped at Studio 33)
Now You See It (1974-75; 1985 (Pilot); 1989; taped at Studio 33)
One Day at a Time (1975, pilot and one episode)
Password (West Coast shows while New York studio was being converted to color; was taped at Studio 33)
The Pat Sajak Show (1989-90 in Studio 56)
Pet Star (aired on Animal Planet 2003-2005)
Pictionary (syndicated, 1997-98, taped in Studio 33)
Playhouse 90 (1956-61)
Politically Incorrect (taped at Studio 41; aired on Comedy Central 1994-97; and later ABC 1997-2002)
Press Your Luck (1983-86; taped in Studio 41, various episodes in Studio 33)
The Price is Right (1972-present aired on CBS, 1972-1980 (syndicated), 1985-1986 (syndicated) and 1994-1995 (syndicated); taped in Studio 33 since 1972, which was renamed the Bob Barker Studio in 1998)
Real Time with Bill Maher (2003-present, airs on HBO)
The Red Skelton Show (1953-70)
Rock Star: INXS (2005), Rock Star: Supernova (2006)
Rodeo Drive (aired on Lifetime, 1990)
The Roseanne Show (1998-2000)
Show Me the Money (2006; aired on ABC)
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-70)
So You Think You Can Dance (2005-present; airs on the Fox network)
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971-74)
Survivor Finale (airs on the CBS network)
Tattletales (1974-78 in studio 41; 1982-84 in studios 31 and 43)
That's My Line (Goodson-Todman reality show; summer 1980 and 1981; studio 33)
Three's Company (studio 31; aired on ABC, 1977-84, second through sixth seasons [1977-1982] shot at CBS while the first, seventh and eighth seasons [1977, 1982-1984] were shot at Metromedia square; the pilot was shot at ABC Television Center)
Tic-Tac-Dough (Aired on CBS briefly in 1978; taped in Studio 31 from 1978-1980; remaining seasons from KCOP's Chris Craft Studios)
Tony Orlando and Dawn (1974 - 1976)
The Twilight Zone (original version aired 1959-64; six episodes from the second season (1960-61) were produced here)
The Tyra Banks Show (syndication; 2005-2007 at Studio 56); tapes in New York as of season 3
Video Village (studio 43; 1961 - 1962; the show moved to Hollywood from New York and Monty Hall took over as emcee from Jack Narz; Heatter-Quigley Productions)
Welcome Back, Kotter (taped in 1975, PILOT and few episodes at Studio 41) (remaining episodes taped at the ABC Television Center and now-defunct Metromedia Square)
Wheel of Fortune (taped from 1989-95 in Studio 33; daytime version aired on CBS, 1989-91 and NBC 1991; also aired in syndication)
Whew! (1979-1980 at Studio 33)
Win, Lose or Draw (aired on NBC, 1987-89, and in syndication, 1987-90, taped at Studios 33 & 41)
The Wizard (2007 in Studio 56 with Craig Ferguson)
The Young & The Restless (1973-present taped in studio 41)
Your Surprise Package (1961 - 1962; daytime game show with George Fenneman; studio 43)

CBS Television City is also the name for a research facility and merchandise store, operated by CBS, located in the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.
The facility doubled as the fictional "City of Broadcasting" in the 1996 film, That Thing You Do!, which was taped in Studio 33.
Screeching Weasel released a 1998 album entitled Television City Dream