TV Studio Tour
Of the commercial TV networks, only NBC Studios in Burbank offers the public a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of its television operation.
ABC TV doesn't offer a guided tour of their studio. Neither does CBS, nor even Fox. In fact, if you want to see the inside of a TV studio, your only other choice is over at KCET - the local public television (PBS) station, Channel 28 , which offers a free guided tour of its historic Monogram Studios.
The studio tour at NBC isn't free, but it is reasonably priced when compared with the cost of the tours provided by the local motion picture studios. NBC's $7.50 admission charge seems like a bargain compared with the $36 charged by Universal Studios or the $30 charged by nearby Warner Brothers. It also beats the $15 price of the Paramount Studiostour.
The NBC tour is a modest one, though. You'll find no audioanimatronic sharks snapping at your heels here, no 50-foot apes or flying DeLoreans. Unlike Universal, the NBC Studio tour is not a theme park in disguise.
And unlike the Warner Bros tour, there are no mini trams or giant back lots to explore. It's just a 70-minute, indoor walking tour, offering a down-to-earth view of a working television studio.
Their guided studio tour gives you a chance to go where TV history was made; it takes you deep inside the NBC studio. The tour shows you the vast warehouse areas where props are stored, and construction areas where craftsmen are hard at work building realistic sets, it shows you examples of special-effects hardware, and gives you a peek at the NBC wardrobe department.
The tour leads you through the studio's labyrinth of hallways, past the makeup department, through the Peacock Store, and out into the parking lot where Jay Leno and other celebrities park their cars. You even get a glimpse of the infamous NBC commissary.
Then it's up to Studio Three, the set where the "Tonight Show" is taped. (Jay Leno moved the show to this building in 1994, from the historic Studio One where Johnny Carson taped his shows.) There, tour guests get to sit in the same seats as the "Tonight Show" studio audience and see that famous, familiar "Tonight Show" set up-close.
The tour shows you videos about NBC's history, gives you demonstrations of sound-effects machines, and explains how such TV effects as 'chroma key' is brought to life. You might even bump into a minor celebrity along the way. And they accomplish all of this in less than 90 minutes. It's a polished, professional little tour which probably satisfies most tourists' urge for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of some aspect of Hollywood.
The problem is that the NBC tour is just a little too slick. In fact, it's superficial - bordering on condescending. Tour guests don't actually visit the wardrobe department, for instance, they just walk past it, and look at mannequins in a picture window. Tour guests don't get to see the actual makeup or special-effects departments in action, instead they are merely shown simple display cases filled with related props. The tour guide points to the NBC commissary from afar, but they won't let you actually go inside that well known cafeteria. When they take visitors out to the studio parking lot, they actually expect us to be impressed by the oil stain left by Jay Leno's car.
You get the feeling that someone in charge thinks the tour guests have just fallen off the turnip truck. When soap opera actress Deidre Hall (from "Days of Our Lives") "accidentally" walks by and waves hello, you're supposed to believe that it was a blissful coincidence. When they demonstrate the well-known blue-screen process (by making a volunteer "fly" in a Superman cape against a blue background) we are supposed to be dazzled by 20-year-old video technology that in this day of home computers and videocams is old hat to just about everyone taking the tour.
Guests are "treated like tourists" in the worst sense of that term. The well groomed tour guides are friendly and polite, but you are always aware that, as a visitor, you are being kept on a very tight leash.
NBC and Monogram Studios are the only two TV networks that provide a .
A guided tour at Universal Studios costs .
The tour takes 70 minutes.
During the tour you will see the car park used by the .
Since 1994 the Tonight Show has been produced in .
Visitors can only see several rather than seeing inside actual departments.