Metromedia Square - History

History

The site was first known as the Nassour Studio, built in 1946 and opened January 1, 1947 after Edward Nassour (1911-1962) and his brother William. Over 100 independent films were shot there under the Nassour Studio banner. Originally, there were four sound stages ranging in size from around 7,600 square feet (710 m2) to just over 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2). Nassour's modern Art Deco-styled projection room and modern offices were located in the buildings fronting Sunset Boulevard.

Dressing rooms were constructed adjacent to stages 1 and 2. An old converted two story apartment building located down the street on Van Ness housed producers and writers. The big stage (4) had removable panels that hid a water tank. It was used to film the jungle river scenes in Africa Screams (1949). The lot was very small (about four acres) so an underground facility for storage was necessary. A large freight elevator was installed for access.

In 1950 Nassour Studio was sold to the Times-Mirror Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Times-Mirror was looking for a facility to permanently house KTTV (channel 11), its new television station (at the time, owned jointly with CBS) which commenced broadcasting the previous year. The facility was later renamed KTTV Studios.

The New York City-based firm Metromedia purchased the property along with KTTV in 1963, and soon after the facility was renamed Metromedia Square. Los Angeles radio stations KLAC and KLAC-FM (later KMET and now KTWV), which Metromedia purchased in a separate 1963 transaction, moved there in 1976. Metromedia also increased the property's capacity by adding two more stages as well as large office buildings.

Television producer Norman Lear moved into the property in 1973 and headquartered his company, Tandem Productions, in the building. Lear started videotaping his television series here in the fall of 1975, including, but not limited to, All in the Family, Diff'rent Strokes, The Jeffersons, Maude, Good Times, Hello, Larry, One Day at a Time, and The Facts of Life. One of his other classic shows, Sanford and Son, remained taped at NBC Studios in Burbank, although its 1980 revival, Sanford, was videotaped at Metromedia. Shows such as Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, One Day at a Time, and The Jeffersons later relocated to Universal City Studios by 1982.

In 1986 Metromedia sold most of its television interests to News Corporation, and KTTV became a cornerstone station of the new Fox Broadcasting Company. As a result, the studios became the Fox Television Center, though Metromedia continued to own the building and the land on which it was situated, leasing the property to Fox and KTTV. Shows like the Fox-produced Small Wonder and NBC's Saved by the Bell as well as the sketch comedy series In Living Color, and the first season of MAD TV were among the last series to be taped at this complex. Ironically, very few Fox television shows were actually taped at the Fox Television Center.

KTTV and the Fox network operations moved to their own new building (the present-day Fox Television Center) in West Los Angeles in 1996, which is the corporate home of the Fox Television Stations group. Meanwhile, the radio stations' studios remained there, even long after they were no longer owned by Metromedia. KTWV moved to new studios in Culver City in 1997, and then Miracle Mile neighborhood on L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard on February 18, 2005. KLAC eventually became acquired by Clear Channel Communications and moved to studios shared with Clear Channel's other AM stations, which are now located in Burbank.

The Fox Broadcasting Company, which had maintained some business offices at the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles' Century City neighborhood while at the Television Center, moved its complete base of operations to the Century City studio lot shortly after the KTTV move. This new facility, known as the Fox Network Center, is the home to the network's live studio productions, such as Fox NFL Sunday.

Metromedia sold the land to the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2000. The building was demolished by the school district in 2003. Replacing the old studios is Helen Bernstein High School, a campus which opened in 2008.