I’m grumpy about some television news today. Too grumpy to share it with you in my own words, so here, from Dateline Hollywood:
The Price Is Right is on the move. The popular CBS game show, produced by Fremantle, is leaving Television City, the Los Angeles studio complex where it has taped since its 1972 launch. The daytime staple will relocate to Haven Studios, a new facility in Glendale, CA in which Fremantle is the investor with a long-term lease. Hackman Capital Partners, which bought Television City for $750 million from CBS Corp. in 2019, is planning a $1.25 billion renovation of the complex, which in addition to The Price Is Right has been housing CBS’ The Late Late Show With James Corden, which is ending this spring; The Young and the Restless; as well as Dancing With the Stars, American Idol and Real Time With Bill Maher, which are solidifying moving arrangements. (Dancing is yet to be renewed for another season.)
For the record, I could give a rat’s ass what happens to all those shows mentioned at the end. But–but–“The Price Is Right”! America’s favorite show with the chance to win a new car, or a trip somewhere, or a Libman Wonder Mop! Okay, I don’t think they award those anymore. But you get the idea.
This whole thing started with Hackman Partners–and has there ever been a more perfect name for a company that’s hacking apart into splinters the history of television? After all, CBS Television City in Hollywood (which is how it should always be called) was, tied with NBC’s Burbank lot, the greatest home base for classic television moments. Jack Benny did years of his weekly series there back when everything was live. Red Skelton was a fixture there for nearly two decades. The Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett, Sonny and Cher, All In The Family, eventually opening up to other networks’ projects. And in addition to “The Price Is Right”, Television City was home to Gene Rayburn’s rowdy bunch on “Match Game”, Dick Clark’s “$25,000″ and (in syndication) $100,000 Pyramid”, plus “Tattletales”, “The New Card Sharks”, the CBS era of “Family Feud”, “Press Your Luck” and many more.
I was lucky enough to see three television broadcasts recorded at CBS Television City. My friend Pat Adriance and I saw “The Price Is Right” in person over twenty years ago. Ol’ Bob Barker was still WGMC (you know what that means if you watched the above video). And the fantastic Rod Roddy was still in booming voice. And! The CBS eye curtains! Were eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeverywhere! I probably saw the CBS eye curtains from birth, with my folks watching Carol Burnett and the folks asking questions from the audience having the network logo patterned behind them. I saw the eye every time I got to watch “The Price Is Right” behind the great Johnny Olson….then Rod…
My friends Dangerous Dave and Professor Dustin joined me for a taping of Drew Carey’s “Price Is Right” several years back. We had a blast. Drew was funny during the breaks and this was before they completely gave up on taping the show “to time.” Bob Barker was used to live radio and television–he did years of “Truth Or Consequences” live coast-to-coast on NBC every weekday. So he taped “The Price Is Right” live-to-tape, meaning if the commercial break was going to be 90 seconds, the crew would time him back in exactly 90 seconds. In this way Barker could keep a running time of the show…the wheel spin was a good indicator of how Bob felt the timing was going. If he felt things were on time he would do his usual spiel on the rules of the wheel. And if he felt the show was ahead of time he’d ask the contestants about their hometown or almost always talk to a solder or sailor about their enlistment.
However! If Bob felt the show was running late, you’d hear Johnny or Rob say “And now here’s Bob BARK-er with our Showcase Showdown!” Cut to Bob: “Beth, spin that wheel!” Drew’s team gave up on that, and the show from what I hear (and see when I watch) is now heavily edited in post-production.
The other show I saw taped at Television City was an episode of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. This was cool because it took us to a whole other area of Television City…with huge pictures of Carol Burnett and the Smothers Brothers and Sonny and Cher….and then there we were…stage 40 or 50-something. The show taping was, in comparison to others, kind of a snooze. The Ferguson show chose to tape the whole thing out of whack…they taped a piece that would run midway through the show. Then they taped a piece sort of promoting or teasing that other piece. Then they brought Harry Shearer out for about a four minute interview. Then they brought some singer out to do an interview which would air with his song performance, which he had taped earlier that afternoon. It was such a jumble compared to the smoothly edited show I’d seen on TV.
Nevertheless, every experience I had at Television City was like removing the picture tube and walking into your television set. Seeing the pages in their red outfits….the giant building with the CBS eye…it all made me feel like I was in TV Land.
But CBS, or Paramount, or whoever is willing to call themselves the owner of the company, thought Television City was just a building. So now “The Price Is Right” will be taped in a nondescript facility in Glendale, California. (Glendale, incidentally, is 15 miles from a typical touristy spot like Hollywood and Highland. So tourists should be able to get there in three-and-a-half hours.)
Just kidding, California.
Sort of.
Oh, by the way. Wikipedia reminds us:
During the April 9, 1998, episode of The Price Is Right (which was commemorated as its 5000th episode), CBS dedicated Studio 33 the Bob Barker Studio in honor of the show’s longtime host and executive producer.
Yep. Studio 33 is…now WAS….The Bob Barker Studio. A mention of that has opened every episode since his studio was dedicated in 1998:
So now what? “From the place where we moved the plaque that used to be in Studio 33, which MEANT SOMETHING, and now coming to you from Television Utility Space in Glendale it’s The Price Is Right!”
I know this kind of stuff only grinds my personal gears. But ahhhh…those magic words before my favorite game shows, and all the great variety entertainers I have grown up to appreciate…
“From Television City in Hollywood! It’s five floors of office space!” doesn’t quite have the same ring.
Here are some photos I took of Television City on my visits. I wish I had had someone get a picture of me in front of the building. I always forget that part.
