BY RANDY WEST
It's a sad ghost town with Warner Bros. about to move in...
Since this property opened 70 years ago as NBC, it has never been so empty. This is where Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, Dinah Shore, Steve Allen, Redd Foxx, Flip Wilson and other stars, as well as hundreds of their guest stars worked.
This prestige midway parking area was never empty. Likewise for the lot at Studios 2 and 4 where the large casts of the soap operas parked. Where are the game show hosts? And their contestants? How about the local news anchors?
On the hundreds of days I worked on this lot, the old NBC, I never ever saw a sight like this. It's a sad reminder that the TV business has changed. It's not a problem, as evolution is inevitable and there is now more great television than there has ever been.
There are 600 shows feeding the new distribution channels, with dozens of fantastic dramas of all genres. It's a new golden era, and there's no turning back for the sake of nostalgia.
But I can still hear echos of the laughter and applause that leaked out of the studios while walking the hallways in this once magnificent facility. And I wish I could again feel the thrill of working here, when it still had a connection to the TV I knew as a kid when I was full of passion for a chance to play in this sandbox.
Wouldn’t this also have something to do with the writers’ strike?
Posted by: Lawrence Goldman | June 20, 2023 at 06:57 AM