CBS Television City

Studios 36 and 46 are over 15,500 square feet each. Studios 41 and 43 are around 12,000 square feet each. That’s the kind of room it takes to do what they do. In the background, the tiny looking RCA TK41s are out of the way as a giant piece of scenery is carefully prepared for…well, what? My guess is it is part of the incredible “Little Mississippi River” built INSIDE these studios!

John Frankenheimer directed a Playhouse 90 presentation of “Old Man” which aired November 20, 1958. This was the first time an entire production had ever been videotaped in advance and edited for air. The year before, Frankenheimer had used videotaped inserts in the live productions of two prior ‘Playhouse 90’ shows which were “Bomber’s Moon” and “The Days Of Wine And Roses”, but “Old Man” was a different ballgame.

Most of “Old Man” took place in a storm on the Mississippi River as an escaped convict fled from the law. The production used two studios at Television City (one wet and one dry) and was so daunting technically that the only way to do it was on tape. You can see some of the production shots below, including the huge Chapman movie crane they brought in.

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