‘Family Feud’…ABC’s TV 54 Studio, Hollywood
‘Family Feud’…ABC’s TV 54 Studio, Hollywood
TV 54 was the largest studio ABC had at the Prospect property. It was also home to ‘American Bandstand’ and ‘Let’s Make A Deal’ back in the ’60s and ’70s. I think ‘General Hospital’ took it over and may still be there…it’s in it’s 51st year on the air.
In this photo, we see two Chapman Sidewinders on the set and next to them is announcer Gene Wood warming up the audience. The cameras, I think, are Ikegami HK 322s. Donna Quante, who sent me this photo, was usually on one of the Sidewinders. I understand a lot of the crew wore coats to these tapings as host Richard Dawson liked it cold in there.
The original version on ABC ran nine seasons, from 1976 till 1985 and was a Goodson/Todman Production. Enjoy and share!
I remember the few times I worked the show, and working the camera next to my good friend Joe Talose
Does anyone know how the current Prospect stages relate to the old ABC ones (51 to 55)? Have all the old ABC stages been rebuilt or altered?
“General Hospital” is still in Studio 54 today!
In those days they would do literally anything to placate Dawson, including banning producer Howard Felsher from the set and making his daughter in law producer. Every show had to be edited to time because Dawson kept running off at the mouth. After each taping, Paul Alter would come to the office with five 3/4″ cassettes under one arm and five under the other arm and sit at his desk making edit notes. All you could hear in the office was that incessant “clang” whenever an answer was revealed.
That was such a large set….probably a pain when they had to recreate the entire set at CBS Television City three years later after they cancelled the ABC version (aside from color scheme).
Studio 54 was kept cold because Richard liked to wear three piece suits and he didn’t want to sweat. I can remember a time when we were wearing winter coats and gloves and hats to stay warm. The summer audiences were chilled to the bone. Came the day I could see my breath, I called OSHA. They asked if anyone had gotten sick. I said not yet. They didn’t think they could do anything. But, half an hour after that call, all the mucky mucks were in the studio noising around and suddenly it wasn’t as cold. that lasted for a few weeks, but gradually it became colder again. Not as cold as seeing your breath, but cold. The comments from the booth about women contestants and freezing body parts were also part of what we listened to on headsets. Sometimes it was very much like a locker room.
Article about General Hospital moving back to ABC Television Center in a new studio built especially for them after 10 years away at Sunset-Gower Studios. GH is still produced here & the studios were renamed “The Prospect Studios” in 2002 & Grey’s Anatomy films right next door. I believe the studio numbers were renamed as well(no longer called “Studio 54”)
http://www.josephdisante.com/article.aspx?pg=Welcome%20to%20Studio%2054
Here’s the Prospect Studios website:
http://www.prospectstudios.com
I’m trying to imagine the silliness coming from Gene Wood at that warm-up moment.
Actually, I believe studios 57 and 59 were larger. At least when I was there. (1980-1986)
Goodson toddman also produced Whats my line?
Question for Brett R. Henry, regarding the 1984 Summer Olympics. Didn’t ABC also place in Studio 54 all of the International Broadcasters with trailers for editing packages for transmission?
Studio 54 also served as the anchoring hub for Jim McKay and Kathleen Sullivan during the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles. The studio was later torn down and a much larger Studio 54 was constructed for “General Hospital.” As to the “cold factor”, many of the crew wore their Winter Olympics parkas when working on “Family Feud.” In the photo, you’ll see a Guest Relations page standing next to the game board. In addition to working with the audience, the ABC Pages also were assigned to the contestants and to security positions throughout the studio (to prevent potential cheating). One of the coldest places for an ABC Page to work was behind the game board, guarding the big box containing all of the pre-sorted answer cards that were fed into the board between each game round. There was one Goodson-Todman staff member and two IATSE stagehands inside the game board, inserting the answers and turning the three-sided board on its center axis.
This pic was from the early-mid 80s.. Note the lucky lollipop bushes at the ends of the contestant podiums..
I still remember when Richard Dawson had to leave the set to handle a medical problem (rib cage), and a female producer took over the show so they would not have to stop taping.