Jerry Beck sent me this link. It's a piece about the history of — and sad demise of — NBC's Burbank studios.
In many past messages here, I've written of the joys that I once experienced in that building. I only worked on a few shows taped there — ironically, all but one were shows that aired on other networks but taped at NBC — but I was there a lot. In the early seventies, I trespassed so often that some of the guards would recognize me, figure I worked on some show there, and just nod to me as I walked right past them and went in.
At the time, every studio held something of interest. In Stage 3, I might be able to watch them do scenes for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In or Bob Hope might be in there, doing a sketch and swearing at his longtime cue card man, Barney McNulty. I must have seen him threaten to fire Barney at least a dozen times. Then across the hall, Johnny Carson might be visiting — this is when the Tonight Show was based in New York, as it will soon be again — and that incredible band might be rehearsing.
Elsewhere in the building, I might be able to watch Flip Wilson rehearse or see The Dean Martin Show rehearse without Dean. I did see Dean there for tapings but the rehearsals were fun, too…Dom DeLuise or Lou Jacobi, and sometimes, there'd be Golddiggers. I liked Golddiggers. I spent an afternoon there once with Gene Kelly when he was taping a short-lived series and then I walked with him down the hall to watch him tape some spots with Dean.
I met McLean Stevenson in those hallways once — this is later, after The Tonight Show had relocated here. He was guest-hosting one night and earlier in the day, we got to talking in the halls and he took me into Studio 1, I took a seat all alone in the studio audience and he ran through his monologue for me and I critiqued it for him. Another time, even later, my comedian pal Jeff Altman and I snuck in that studio when no one was around. Jeff stood on Johnny's star and did a monologue utilizing his great Carson impression — the one Letterman always asks him to do when he's on.
So I spent a lot of time in that building. I even picketed it a couple of times.
For a kid who loved television, it was better than Disneyland…and I can't think of a single building in town that would be like that today. Production is more spread out and Security is obsessive. I went over to The Tonight Show for a visit last year and I'll bet I could get into the Pentagon without clearance easier than I was able to get into Leno's studio with clearance. But in the old days, when Johnny was taping, if you knew where you were going and acted like you belonged there, you could just walk in and stand behind Fred DeCordova and the other producers while Mr. Carson did his show.
Sad to see it go away. But in a sense, it already has.