CBS Television was a big part of my childhood—whether it was summer mornings spent playing along with The Price is Right or every afternoon joining my mother to watch the soaps.
circa 2024
So, it always kind of astounds me that CBS Television City is just down the road from me, now that I live in Los Angeles.
I'd been to a TV taping there once (more on that later), but I recently got the chance to tour the television studio a couple of times. (All the photos from this post are from those tours, circa October and November 2023, except where noted.)
Unfortunately, it's because CBS no longer owns the place, having sold it to the investment firm Hackman Capital Partners in 2018.
They've got big plans for the place (a.k.a. "The TVC Project")—so of course they've got to get the community's support. Hence, the recent (and ongoing) open houses.
For now, the production facility still feels very much like a showcase for the history of the Columbia Broadcast System...
...starting in the lobby of The Carol Burnett Artist Entrance, which pays tribute to the legacy of the comedienne and her variety show, which aired on CBS from 1967 to 1978.
For a time, The Carol Burnett Show was my favorite TV show—though surely I'd only seen its reruns in syndication in the late '70s and '80s.
Upon entering, we were brought past the sign for Studio 58 and into Studio 56—the longtime home of The Late Late Show, whether it was hosted by Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, or James Corden.
The studios have gotten renumbered over the years—this one used to be Studio 42, home of The Pat Sajak Show—so it's a little difficult to figure out which shows were where.
But this is definitely the current home of Real Time with Bill Maher—which doesn't air on CBS, but on HBO.
Although the set is totally different now, I somehow recognized the room from when I was in the audience for an episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson back in 2010.
At the time, I had no idea that I was right above the four original CBS Television City soundstages— including the Bob Barker Studio 33, home of The Price is Right for over 50 years until moving to Haven Studios in Glendale in 2023. (Fortunately, those studios will be preserved as part of the new plan. But the wheel from the "Showcase Showdown" was nowhere in sight during my visits.)
I'd always meant to join the audience for—and maybe try to become a contestant on—The Price Is Right. I even signed up for tickets a couple of times, but I never ended up using them. I don't remember why. I regret that.
The Late Late Show with James Corden—which ended its run in 2023—was the last CBS-owned production to be headquartered at Television City. Nowadays, so many productions have moved out that it's quiet enough to bring around these tour groups.
It's hard to tell from the outside street level of Television City—where the architecture designs of William Pereira, Charles Luckman, and Gin Wong dominate the view—but upstairs, it's clear that the last 70 years have created a hodgepodge of additions to the original 1952 structure that were necessary to CBS's growing needs as a production facility.
At 25 acres, the property was huge at the time of its construction—the biggest that had ever been—but over the past few decades, it's been showing its age.
Renovation projects over the years have put band-aids over the space problems, particularly in and around the service and support buildings.
At one point on the tour, we found ourselves walking down an interior hallway that ran alongside a former exterior wall (and windows) of the facility.
Fortunately for looky-loos like me, the tour also included stops in the spaces you never see on screen (including one that displayed a small fragment of an artifact from the short-lived TV show version of Dirty Dancing that aired on CBS in 1988).
We passed the production lighting department...
...stock scenery department, mill room, and more.
Hidden way up top above the drapery department, practically hanging from the ceiling, is an original beaded curtain from one of the Sonny and Cher shows that aired on CBS in the 1970s.
One of the more curious artifacts is a board of reproduced caricatures that once hung on the wall at The Brown Derby restaurant(s?) in Los Angeles, including such celebrities as Carol Burnett, Bette Davis, Bing Crosby (circa 1948), as depicted by artists like Jack Lane. It's not from the Brown Derby sketch on The Carol Burnett Show—but my tour guide didn't know where or what it was from.*
There are so many treasures to behold backstage, too many to identify as we were being ushered quickly through the space...
...but I did stop to gawk at something rolled up from Nikki Newman's house on The Young and the Restless (still airing after 51 years)...
...and storage containers marked "Massimo's House" and "Ridge's House" from The Bold and the Beautiful.
Those childhood soap opera memories run deep.
Whether you're a fan of reality shows like Survivor...
...or sci-fi dramas like Star Trek: The Next Generation...
...you can't deny that CBS has shaped American culture for more than 70 years, with its "eye" logo remaining largely the same since being designed by William Golden and introduced in 1951 (Fortunately, the eyeball tile wall at Television City is slated to remain untouched, despite the upcoming renovations.)
The original plans for the developers' build-out called for building on top of the original Television City—but in consultation with Los Angeles Conservancy, those plans have been revised to incorporate horizontal expansion while maintaining the existing setback and the landmark appearance of the façade, especially along Beverly Boulevard.
The (mostly) low-rise project's master plan architect is the firm known as RIOS, which—together with design architect Foster + Partners—aims to create an all-electric studio and build additional office and retail space (unrelated to the studio production facility) totaling 980,000 square feet.
Translation: "mixed use." That phrase has become something of a profanity among certain groups in LA (not just preservationists, but local communities, too.)
Not surprisingly, not everybody is happy with the project—with one group citing concerns over the massive size (twice the size of the Crypto.com arena?), 24/7 operation of the existing helipad (pictured above), and the fact that it accounts for zero additional housing (something that's actually really needed).
But having some stores and restaurants at street level might actually improve public access points (and "curb appeal") along The Grove Drive and Fairfax Avenue, which seems like a good thing.
The proposal will go before the City Planning Commission's public hearing on September 12—and, if approved, will be completed in 2028.
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*There's an interesting connection between the restaurant and the TV studio regardless, as Brown Derby owner Bob Cobb co-owned the Hollywood Stars, a minor league baseball team that played at Gilmore Field—which CBS Television City was built on top of.
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When I was an older teenager a neighbor took me to the miniature car races as Gilmore Stadium. When the stadium was gone it tried to imitate the success of Farmers Market with a copycat. It was not as successful but the big CBS facility that displaced it probably improved the already successful Farmers Market.
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