Audience Seating @ Studio 33?

[gaubster2]

Did the audience for other shows (like Match Game, Bullseye, Carol Burnett Show, etc.) @ Studio 33 have to stand in line outside before being let in the back of the studio?  If you had tickets to a taping, did you gather in a group on the benches (as if you were a contestant on TPIR) and wait to be led in?  How did that whole process work?

Chris

[Steve McClellan]

[quote name=\'gaubster2\' date=\'Dec 28 2004, 01:02 PM\']did you gather in a group on the benches (as if you were a contestant on TPIR)
[/quote]
Sort of.

TPIR: Wait in line outside gate. Get number. Leave. Come back. Wait on benches. Get number. Leave. Come back. Wait on benches. Be interviewed. Wait on other benches. Be led into Bob Barker Studio.

H2: Wait on benches (the same ones as the first set of TPIR benches). Be led into Bob Barker Studio.

[cmjb13]

People used to sit on the benches right near the studio entrance for Dennis Miller.

I would guess it's the same for Bill Maher since he also tapes in 33.

Squares also had people sitting on the benches near the studio entrance as well.

[mystery7]

Didn't Bullseye tape in Studio 31 while it was at CBS?

[JasonA1]

Didn't Bullseye tape in Studio 31 while it was at CBS?

Perhaps for some of the time, but a number of Celeb shows aired on GSN feature the familiar stage lip and lighted "Bullseye" signs where the TPIR signs normally are.

-Jason

[sshuffield70]

Probably the best known of those being the ones with Harvey Korman as "Carol Burnett" also taped there.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'gaubster2\' date=\'Dec 28 2004, 04:02 PM\']Did the audience for other shows (like Match Game, Bullseye, Carol Burnett Show, etc.) @ Studio 33 have to stand in line outside before being let in the back of the studio?  If you had tickets to a taping, did you gather in a group on the benches (as if you were a contestant on TPIR) and wait to be led in?  How did that whole process work?

[snapback]68892[/snapback]

[/quote]


it is my assumption, based on the number of times that I have gone to see tapings of various shows, that unlike your 100-screen movie megaplexes, arenas and Broadway shows who allow you to come in anytime to sit in your assigned or non-assigned seat of choice, most, if not TV shows bring people in all at the same time -- at least as far back as the 80s.

Main reason is that getting into most of these studios involves going through a maze of hallways and in some cases, elevators (see 30 Rock) to get to your seats and if people just filed in whenever they got there, I'm sure there would be some who would be mesmerised at some of the things they pass en route to the stage, and these studios just don't have the manpower to man posts every 10 or 20 feet to keep people on the right track.

Now for you old timers, when seeing a show in NYC in the 50's or 60's for example, when people would dress up for the occasion as if it *were* a Broadway show, was the wait-in-line-to-be-seated process the same when seeing game shows in the old theatres of NYC, like the Sullivan, Elysse, etc..., or did they allow for enter-as-you-arrive since people were more orderly back then???

[tvrandywest]

Now picture the relatively short wait for most shows, and the lifetime of foreplay for TPiR WITHOUT the benches!

Yes, the benches are relatively new in relation to the age of TV City. An offhand guess would put their addition somewhere in the late 80s. Before then folks just stood for hours or sat on the ground (which was the norm for every show in New York).

Why not accommodate people with benches everywhere? In New York the real estate is so valuable, indoors and out, it precludes the luxury of seating a few hundred people. With a couple of exceptions, such as limited seating at ABC Prospect and at one entrance at KTLA/Tribune, in LA it was believed benches would encourage the homeless to access and sleep on the property. That was before security began to tighten and the perimeter fence was added around the entire TV City property, the guard station added at the audience entrance on Fairfax, and the main entrance on Beverly Blvd being totally closed off from accessibility.

At NBC Burbank the earliest arrivals at Studios 1 and 3 can sit on a short stone wall that encloses a planter; only Karen Carpenter would be thin enough to lay down there. A couple of dozen can sit at the entrances to Studios 2, 4, 9 and 11.  Similarly, it's primarily SRO at Las Palmas and the other major facilities that I'm familiar with.

The words a warm-up hates hearing from a producer: "We're running late; go work the line so we don't lose the audience". Yech.  ;-)


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[bricon]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Dec 29 2004, 10:35 AM\']... limited seating at ABC Prospect...
[/quote]
For those so inclined, that area can be seen here.

At NBC Burbank...a couple of dozen can sit at the entrances to Studios 2, 4, 9 and 11. 

Whatever they spent in the late 1980's to build the audience foyers outside NBC studios 2 and 4 may seem now like money wasted, as those two studios have been dedicated to Days Of Our Lives since around 1990, with I believe only one audience show being done there since that time (Sunday Best- studio 4).  

Randy, do you know if the space has been converted into support areas of any kind?

[uncamark]

Back when I saw a Harvey Korman/Tim Conway industrial taping for the Schenley liquor company at TV City back in 1979 (yeah, it was weird), the seating area was in place, with covered benches, vending machines and a gift shop that wasn't open the day I was there.  Don't know now exactly where it was in the building or the studio number we were in (it was on the second floor and I think it was the same one where "TTD" was taped).

At NBC Burbank outside of Studio 1 for Carson, outside the Warners studios in Burbank for "Alice" (with a warmup guy named Marc Summers) and at CBS Studio Center for "WKRP," we stood outside.  On the sidewalk on Radford Avenue in the case of "'KRP."

[chris319]

You couldn't let the TPIR audience into the studio at any old time because they have this little thing they do called a rehearsal where the actual prizes used on the show are displayed. Plus, you don't really want people roaming around the studio at will. There's no place to buy Milk Duds in 33 like there is in a movie theater.

[tvrandywest]

... limited seating at ABC Prospect...

For those so inclined, that area can be seen here.

Wow, that brings back memories. The area looks much the same as it did in the 80s, except the posters for the ABC-owner water park ("Weekie-Wackie" or somesuch) are long gone.



At NBC Burbank...a couple of dozen can sit at the entrances to Studios 2, 4, 9 and 11.  

Whatever they spent in the late 1980's to build the audience foyers outside NBC studios 2 and 4 may seem now like money wasted, as those two studios have been dedicated to Days Of Our Lives since around 1990, with I believe only one audience show being done there since that time (Sunday Best- studio 4).

Randy, do you know if the space has been converted into support areas of any kind?

Yep, the lobby area for one has been converted to a gym to keep the hunks hunky. The other is the schoolroom for when child actors appear on the show.


Randy
tvrandywest.com