CBS Studio Center

CBS Studio Center is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley owned by ViacomCBS and currently under common ownership with Paramount Pictures Studios. The lot has 18 sound stages from 7,000 to 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2), 220,000 square feet (20,000 m2) of office space, and 223 dressing rooms. It is the headquarters of CBS Television Studios but is not open to the public for tours. The triangular site is bisected by the Los Angeles River.

CBS Studio Center
CBS Studio Center, Soundstage 2 in Los Angeles
Alternative namesRadford Studio Center
General information
TypeTelevision studios
LocationStudio City, Los Angeles
Address4024 Radford Avenue
Studio City, California 91604
Coordinates34.144692°N 118.391008°W / 34.144692; -118.391008
InauguratedMay 1928
OwnerViacomCBS
Design and construction
ArchitectMack Sennett
Website
www.cbssc.com

The company also previously had ownership of two other studios in the area: CBS Television City and Columbia Square.

History

Mack Sennett, a silent film producer and director, came to the San Fernando Valley and opened his new movie studio at this location (at what is now Ventura Boulevard and Radford Avenue) in May 1928. He previously operated a smaller studio on Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park (then called Edendale) where he produced films featuring the Keystone Kops, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields, and Fatty Arbuckle.

After creating the Studio City lot, Sennett in five years was forced to file bankruptcy and the studio lot was sold off to another film company, Mascot Pictures. Mascot, which specialized in serials, renamed the studio after itself. By 1935, another film company, Monogram Pictures, along with Mascot and Consolidated Film Corporation merged to form Republic Pictures Corporation. The studio lot was renamed Republic Studios. The new studio specialized in B-movies, including many Westerns starring the likes of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John Wayne, all of whom got their first breaks with Republic. In the 1950s, Republic leased studio space to Revue Productions, which filmed many early television series on the lot (including early episodes of Leave It To Beaver) before Revue's owner, MCA acquired Universal Pictures and moved Revue's television production to Universal City. Also, Four Star Productions leased the lot for many of its series like The Rifleman, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, and The Big Valley.

Republic Pictures ceased production in 1958 and Victor M. Carter became its president in 1959. Carter built Republic into a diversified business with foci outside of the television and film business, and so began leasing its lot to CBS. In 1963, CBS Television became the primary lessee of the lot. Almost immediately after leasing the Republic Pictures lot, CBS began to place their network-produced filmed shows there, including Gunsmoke, My Three Sons, and Gilligan's Island. (The Wild Wild West followed in 1965). The Gilligan's Island lagoon was located at the northwestern edge of the lot; it was paved over in the mid-1990s to make room for a new parking structure.

While under lease, the facility was renamed the CBS Studio Center. The network finally purchased the 70-acre lot outright from Republic in February 1967, for $9.5 million. That same month, Republic also sold off its film library. CBS built new sound stages, office buildings, and technical facilities. To make up for these investments, CBS began to rent out its studio lot for independent producers, and the newly created MTM Enterprises (headed by actress Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker) became the Studio Center's primary tenant, beginning in 1970.

Moore's memorable sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show began filming here in 1970, along with its spinoffs Rhoda, Phyllis, and Lou Grant. In July 1982, CBS formed a partnership with 20th Century Fox to share ownership of the Studio Center, thus once again renaming, this time as CBS/Fox Studios. However, that relationship was short-lived as Fox sold its interest of the Studio Center to MTM, and it became CBS-MTM Studios. In March 1992, the studio once again became CBS Studio Center, when MTM (which was later bought by 20th Century Fox's parent company, News Corporation) sold back its interest in the studio lot to CBS.

From 1991 to 1996, American Gladiators was videotaped at CBS Studio Center. The original "Gladiator Arena" (Stage 3) remains preserved in its original form in its original location, with tours and group events available.

Today, the studio is one of the most active in the city for producing sitcoms. It is also the base for "Semester in L.A.", a six-week course by Columbia College Chicago.[1]

Since 2007, the Studio Center serves as the home to CBS's Los Angeles flagship TV station KCBS-TV, along with sister station KCAL-TV, as they vacated Columbia Square to move into a newly built, digitally-enhanced office and studio facility located where the house for the CBS reality series Big Brother once stood. It enables the stations to broadcast their local news in High Definition. The CBS Studio City Broadcast Center also houses the Los Angeles bureau of CBS News, which is shared with the KCBS/KCAL local newsroom; on August 3, 2011, Scott Pelley anchored that evening's edition of the CBS Evening News from the newsroom.[2]

In 2008, Entertainment Tonight and The Insider moved from Paramount lot to the Studio Center, as CBS took over ownership of the series after their de-merger from Viacom.

Backlot

CBS Studio Center has three backlot areas. The first is the New York Street. During the filming of Seinfeld in the mid-1990s, a New York Street was built to facilitate the filming of exterior shots.[3]

The second area is the Central Park area. It features an area with grass, trees, paths, and can also be filled with water to create a pond or swamp.[4]

The third area is the Residential Street. Actually made up of two streets, this area features a number of houses which can be used for a variety of productions. The largest house is currently used on the ABC sitcom American Housewife.

News tenants

Television shows

Theatrical films

References
  1. "Columbia College Loses Head of Semester In L.A. Instructor". Awn.com. 2003-12-27. Retrieved 2015-01-28.
  2. "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley Comes to Los Angeles". Losangeles.cbslocal.com. Retrieved 2015-01-28.
  3. https://sites.google.com/site/seinfeldfilmlocations/other_locations. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. http://www.cbssc.com/backlot.htm. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. "History - CBS Studio". CBS Studio Center. 2017. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  6. "TVTickets.com- Roseanne". Audiences Unlimited, Inc. 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2017-08-31.

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