TeleTales #70…NBC Burbank Studio 1: The Start Of Something Big

As NBC’s new Color City was coming to completion, CBS was in the final stages of completing Television City. In September, David Sarnoff announced that Burbank would go on the air earlier than planned. He said the new start date would be October 4, 1952 and that on November 8, NBC would open their first full color studio at the Colonial Theater in New York.

As you can see here in this photo taken shortly after it opened, Studio 1 was originally equipped as a black and white studio and was pressed into service early as KNBH’s studios at Radio City West were very overcrowded.

CBS didn’t want NBC to beat them by going on the air from Burbank first, so they rushed an episode of “My Friend Irma” into production and televised their first program from an unfinished Television City on the evening of October 3rd of 1952, one day before the first telecast from NBC. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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