tour of CBS television city/Price is Right?

[mlh1981]

Is there any sort of deal/package where you can take a tour of the CBS studios, and in that, tour the Price is Right set?  Go backstage, spin the wheel, check out things that otherwise you normally would/wouldn't get to see?  If there isn't, do you think such a tour would be feasible for the near future?  I think it would be a great idea

[TVC]

CBS once offered public tours of Television City -- but no longer.

The same is true of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. I was among a small group of people who were given a private tour of that amazing place in the mid-1970s. The employee who showed us around explained that the Network discontinued public tours after a lady pressed the stop button on a two-inch VTR that was playing All in the Family to the Eastern and Central time zones!

[ILoveBonusGame]

Doesn't NBC still offer studio tours in both their Burbank and New York facilities? Possibly CBS wants to keep some of their techniques under wraps, compared to NBC who possibly doesn't feel threatened giving public tours.

[Axl]

ILoveBonusGame wrote:
Doesn't NBC still offer studio tours in both their Burbank and New York facilities? Possibly CBS wants to keep some of their techniques under wraps...

Yes, NBC still gives tours, but I don't think the reluctance of CBS is due to any trade secrets.  (They all buy stuff from the same vendors, pretty much, so there's not really anything to hide.)


NBC has designed their facilities to be fairly tour-friendly, due to a relatively large amount of space in the GE Building and the fact that Rockefeller Center is already a tourist attraction.

At CBS (New York, at least), space is a lot more limited.  While I don't know if the story that was related to TVC is true or not, New York master control is VERY cramped (there's a video of it somewhere on YouTube), so it wouldn't surprise me if someone actually did bump into a piece of equipment.  NBC, on the other hand, has a large plate glass window in the entry hallway of the 5th floor that allows people to see master control without actually being close to it.

[MissesJanice]

I always thought as part of Bobs last primetime show make it a 2 hour event, the first hour would follow Price staffers as they prep for the show, bits of rehearsal, staff talking about placement of prizes, Bob and Rich getting ready. And then the second hour flow right into the actual show for Bobs last primetime special.

[mlh1981]

Even something as simple as letting people hang around studio 33 after the show would be cool.  I mean, I'm sure there is some sort of excellent reason why they don't allow this, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head.  Let people spin the big wheel, or even just get up on stage and gawk

[Axl]

mlh1981 wrote:
I mean, I'm sure there is some sort of excellent reason why they don't allow this, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

Probably because it would be really annoying.  I've worked in places where tour groups and whatnot could stand around and watch us, and you feel like a zoo animal.  Besides, they'd have to use at least a couple of pages for crowd control... a waste of money as far as they're concerned.

[mlh1981]

Yeah, Axl, guess that would make sense.  Thanks for the reply!  I can see how something like this would be tedious for CBS to deal with

[COINBOYNYC]

mlh1981 wrote:
Even something as simple as letting people hang around studio 33 after the show would be cool . . . Let people spin the big wheel, or even just get up on stage and gawk

For one thing, there would be insurance/liability concerns.  What if someone were to get hurt while attempting to spin the big wheel, for example?  After all, we've seen contestants take a tumble during the Showcase Showdown.  

Also, there are security concerns.  Unless the group was closely monitored and kept together, someone could easily wander off into places they're not supposed to be.

Also...

Axl wrote:
. . . it would be really annoying.  I've worked in places where tour groups and whatnot could stand around and watch us, and you feel like a zoo animal.

That's another point.  CBS Televison City is still a workplace.

Still, I can't see any harm in letting the audience linger for an extra few minutes longer, instead of shooing them out right away, as long as it doesn't interfere with any work that might need to be done on stage.  Maybe let them watch any promos that might need to be taped, if they promise to be quiet.

[CBSpromoman]

Gary Dunaier wrote:
Maybe let them watch any promos that might need to be taped, if they promise to be quiet.

Trust me on this, since this is my specific profession:  that NEVER works.

[MissesJanice]

Amen to that.....I do the same type job and let me tell you asking an audience to be quiet in a show like that is like asking a baby not to cry.

On the last show of season 32, as the audience was filing out they had to have Bob do some voice over work and they asked us to be quiet and no one would.

[Axl]

MissesJanice wrote:
On the last show of season 32, as the audience was filing out they had to have Bob do some voice over work and they asked us to be quiet and no one would.

I don't know if he still does, but Jay Leno (and Johnny Carson before him) used to tape a 10 sec. dry-voice promo for the Tonight Show during the final commercial break of each episode.  Back when NBC's network feed was in the clear, you could actually watch it on satellite.

Anyway, I discovered when I went to a taping years ago that they made absolutely no effort to quiet the audience.  Instead, they would punch up the shot of Jay on the monitors, wait a few seconds for the audience murmuring to stop (as people assumed the show was resuming), and then he would do the promo without any sort of explanation.  By the time people figured out it wasn't part of the show, it was already over.  Weird, but smart.

[ewalker3]

ooh she pressed the stop button? hopefully it was an Ampex AVR-1 that had the instant lockup to get the picture back up fast.

as for cbs keeping techniques under wraps:

here is one:

they tape price is right on digital betacam and when they are done editing they play it out to 1980s era D2 Composite video tape and mail two copies to NYC for later playback. Yes in the era of fiber optics they mail the tapes. At least the last time I visited the video tape area.

though I do need to ask again, given all the equipment change outs they have recently done, they might have stopped doing this.. next time im there....


CBS TVCity really isn't setup for tours its spread out more and the offices / studios / other spots are all

[ewalker3]

actually for those of us who have had the opportunity to "roam" CBSTVcity, you will find that almost everyone there seems to enjoy being asked questions about what they day (since technically they don't always have visitors). I've found the staff seems to like to tell you what they do and go out of their way to do so! Many staff have worked there for decades!!

A few years ago, we ran into the Video Tape Dept Manager, and he said hello, the short of it, by the end of the evening, we had seen yet another area of TVC we hadnt seen: the tape library, the 2" machines (pieces of history i might adD) , and a 1950s era can of I Love Lucy Film that was going to be dubbed. The one part of the library we say had stuff from various decades,and in one spot they had all of bill mahr's politically incorrect videotapes ready to go (as that was the week the show ended its run on ABC).

[Vexorg]

I actually recall taking the NBC studio tour many years ago (sometime during the late Eighties.)  They had a couple of areas set up specifically for the tour (one where they showed a short video, and another where they did a demonstration of chroma key) but mostly it was just showing some of the various studios.  the ones I recall seeing were the Tonight Show set (this was back when Johnny Carson was still around,) the local NBC affiliate's news set, and the Wheel of Fortune set (although we didn't really get a good look at that one.)  I'd guess this probably varies depending on what's being taped at the time.  Back in the pre-Internet days it was interesting to learn a bit about how TV is produced, but I suspect that the Golden Gallery has far more content than we'd ever get out of any sort of officially sanctioned tour of Television City.