Goodbye NBC Burbank

[TheBigA]

Wow...just watched the final NBC broadcast from 3000 W. Alameda. Or so he said. Lawrence O'Donnell at MSNBC was the one who turned out the lights. Appropriately, his show is called "The Last Word," and he got it. When his show returns next Monday, it will be from a new studio at the NBC Universal lot, just down the road. But the closing of NBC Burbank is the end of a very long chapter. Of course it was home for many years of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and then Jay Leno. One of the side streets is Bob Hope Drive. Next door is Johnny Carson Park. Right across the street, on West Olive, was the Tudor home of Dick Clark Productions. Of course that was sold and moved a few years ago. Burbank isn't the same any more. When I'd go to NBC Burbank, the parking lot was always full. Game show contestants were lined up out in front. Back then it was for Let's Make a Deal. There was a musty smell in the lobby. I can smell it now. The list of shows that were produced there is amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Studios_(Burbank)

So NBC Burbank is gone. Access Hollywood is still there. So is Days Of Our Lives. It's still a series of for-hire studios. They have dreams of expanding the facilities for more production. So much of LA is about creating content, and they need places to create. But it's not the same as when networks created the content they aired, and we watched it every night from beautiful downtown Burbank.

 

[ixnay]

Wow...just watched the final NBC broadcast from 3000 W. Alameda. Or so he said. Lawrence O'Donnell at MSNBC was the one who turned out the lights. Appropriately, his show is called "The Last Word," and he got it. When his show returns next Monday, it will be from a new studio at the NBC Universal lot, just down the road. But the closing of NBC Burbank is the end of a very long chapter. Of course it was home for many years of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and then Jay Leno. One of the side streets is Bob Hope Drive. Next door is Johnny Carson Park. Right across the street, on West Olive, was the Tudor home of Dick Clark Productions. Of course that was sold and moved a few years ago. Burbank isn't the same any more. When I'd go to NBC Burbank, the parking lot was always full. Game show contestants were lined up out in front. Back then it was for Let's Make a Deal. There was a musty smell in the lobby. I can smell it now. The list of shows that were produced there is amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Studios_(Burbank)

So NBC Burbank is gone. Access Hollywood is still there. So is Days Of Our Lives. It's still a series of for-hire studios. They have dreams of expanding the facilities for more production. So much of LA is about creating content, and they need places to create. But it's not the same as when networks created the content they aired, and we watched it every night from beautiful downtown Burbank.

Ah, that famous phrase from Laugh-In (indeed, it was because of Laugh-In that I first heard of Burbank, CA).

Of course, the Mouse and the Wabbit still reside there.

On my Arizona/California vacation in 1981, I visited Universal Studios and gazed upon Burbank and the Valley from up there on the hill (almost got around to taking the NBC tour but didn't [though I did the same at 30 Rock years later]). I agree, without the Peacock, Burbank has been stripped of a *major* part of its identity.

ixnay

 

[crainbebo]

Very very sad. Many shows, including game shows and the Tonight Show were produced right in Burbank. The end of an era.

-crainbebo

 

[grey_dan]

So NBC Burbank is gone. Access Hollywood is still there. So is Days Of Our Lives. It's still a series of for-hire studios. They have dreams of expanding the facilities for more production. So much of LA is about creating content, and they need places to create. But it's not the same as when networks created the content they aired, and we watched it every night from beautiful downtown Burbank.

So I'm a little confused... Is NBC Burbank totally gone? Or are they still shooting Access and Days there? I know they were moving a lot of their shows to Universal, but they were still filming those shows and several Telemundo shows there (and of course, Tonight pre-Fallon).

I have a bit of a sentimental connection as well. I'm a born and raised Midwestern boy. But I got to visit NBC Burbank when I was in SoCal a few years ago. So yeah, I hate to see it go too.

 

[Avid Listener]

So I'm a little confused... Is NBC Burbank totally gone? Or are they still shooting Access and Days there? I know they were moving a lot of their shows to Universal, but they were still filming those shows and several Telemundo shows there (and of course, Tonight pre-Fallon).

The studios are still there. It was just a change of name. Not really a big deal. Networks don't produce as much of their own programming as they used to. So, instead of NBC producing shows there, productions companies will produce shows there for NBC, and other networks.

 

[TheBigA]

Of course, the Mouse and the Wabbit still reside there.

The bad news is the real estate has become very expensive there. The reason Disney and Warner built there is it was in the boonies, and the land was cheap. Now it's pricey, and any expansion by Disney or Warner is done elsewhere. The Universal lot cost is amortized with the theme park.

 

[firepoint525]

Johnny Carson is probably rolling over in his grave now. He probably told enough jokes about just Burbank to easily fill up an entire DVD! I have never been out there, and even I found the jokes funny!

 

[johnnya2k6]

And over the weekend came the very end, as NBC News moved their West Coast bureau from Burbank to the Universal lot (KNBC had already moved sometime earlier).

Last year at this time, BBC News had finished moving their entire operations from Television Centre to New Broadcasting House. A few months prior, the last BBC Newsnight from TV Centre ended with lights out during the credits followed by a sound bite of that very famous question asked by Jeremy Paxman to a politician years ago as the its last words from that famed lot: "Did you threaten to overrule him?"

But even though CBS News moved their bureau from there to Studio City a few years ago, CBS Television City isn't going anywhere.

 

[TheBigA]

But even though CBS News moved their bureau from there to Studio City a few years ago, CBS Television City isn't going anywhere.

They seem to be making a lot of money leasing those studios to other companies, including American Idol.

 

[RadioMan203]

Scott Fybush of Northeast Radio Watch has a great blog entry about this:

Site of the Week 2/14/2014: Last Days of NBC Burbank - courtesy NERW

 

[Markxxx]

Burns and Allen (radio) used to do the same kind of jokes about Glendale...


Gracie) Going home to see George Burns after spending all afternoon at the pictures with Cary Grant, that's like getting off the Super Chief and onto the Glendale bus.

 

[Avid Listener]

Why shouldn't Television follow the same economical models as film? Once upon a time, it was most economical for a movie company or TV network to own lots of production facilities, and to control the production of their product. Times changed, economics changed, and next thing you know they find it's more economical to lease production facilities. Sometimes it's only a matter of creating a separate company to own and operate the facilities, then lease them back as needed. That's not only common in the manufacturing of TV shows, it's common in making many other products. That's why on many movies there are as many as a half-dozen different production company logos before the feature starts. That's why CBS "buys" The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" from World Wide Pants instead of producing it themselves.