Rick Glover wrote me to ask…
Reading your peace on Television City reminded me that in the 70s, my wife (then girlfriend) and I would go to Farmers Market for lunch and drop by CBS. In those days, you could ask at the ticket office if any tapings were scheduled for that day.
My first show was Match Game. That was great, but what has stayed with me over the years was that whoever did the warm-up told the audience that Judy Garland had used the studio for her shows. I have always hoped it was true, thinking how one of the greatest performers performed on that tiny stage.
Well, I hate to break it to you but it's not true. Match Game was done on Stage 33, which is probably the most historic stage in the complex. I saw The Red Skelton Show tape in 33. The Carol Burnett Show taped in 33. Since it went on the air, The Price is Right has taped in Stage 33 and a few years ago, it was also dubbed The Bob Barker Stage in honor of You-Know-Who. However, when that show isn't using it, other shows sneak in there. Bill Maher's Real Time is done there on Friday nights. (I worked in there once for a grand total of one day for a Saturday morning series called CBS Storybreak. That's where we taped all the intros with Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan.)
The Judy Garland Show was done on Stage 43, which is more or less across the hall from 33. These days, The Young and the Restless is in there.
However, here's a comforting thought: Given the vast number of shows that have been done in Stage 33, there were probably very few big stars — at least of those who did any amount of television in the fifties through the eighties — who didn't perform at least once in there. Among the other shows which were in there on occasion were The Jack Benny Program, The Johnny Carson Show, Art Linkletter's House Party, Stump the Stars, Playboy After Dark, The Tim Conway Comedy Hour, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (her variety show), Mama's Family, Archie Bunker's Place, The $100,000 Pyramid and hundreds of pilots and specials. Judy Garland may even have done something within those hallowed halls.