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It's located right in the heart of "Gower Gulch," near the corner of Gower Street and Sunset Boulevard) - hence the new name.
In 1972, Columbia left its Hollywood studios at Sunset & Gower (to save money) and moved over the hill to the San Fernando Valley, where they shared "Burbank Studios" with Warner Bros. In their new Burbank location,
Columbia made "The Last Picture Show" (1971), "The
Way We Were" (1973), "Shampoo (1975), "Taxi Driver"
(1976), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977),
"Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), "The China Syndrome"
(1979), "The Blue Lagoon" (1980), "Tootsie"
(1982), and "The Karate Kid" (1988). The new stars
there included Cybill Shepherd,
Robert Redford,
Warren Beatty,
Goldie Hawn,
Jodie Foster,
Robert De Niro,
Richard Dreyfuss,
Dustin Hoffman,
Meryl Streep,
Jane Fonda,
Michael Douglas,
and Brooke Shields. In 1978, Columbia Pictures made the Guinness Book of World Records by paying the highest price ever paid ($9,500,000.) for the rights to the Broadway stage hit "Annie" (which, as it turned out, wasn't the wisest investment in the studio's illustrious history.) But eventually, Columbia was bought by Sony Entertainment of Japan, and they finally settled into the historic M-G-M Studios lot in Culver City, where they remain today, along with Sony's other label, TriStar Pictures. Now that Columbia has moved on, the old studio lot they deserted isn't just sitting idly by. The re-named "Sunset-Gower Studios" no longer has a permanent film production company to call its own (hence the geographical name), but it keeps busy renting out its ample sound stages for assorted television and indie movie productions. The studio employees between 2,500 and 3,000 people, depending upon the time of year.
As of 2013, the three major TV productions
on the lot are Showtime's hit serial
killer, "Dexter" and ABC's "Private Practice" & "Scandal". But they also shoot "Let's Make a Deal" at Sunset-Gower, as well as a host of TV courtroom shows (i.e. "Judge Judy", "Divorce Court", etc.) In recent years, they filmed
the popular "Heroes" here, as well as the NBC series "American Dreams" and the HBO series "Six
Feet Under". "JAG," "Moesha,"
"Blossom," "Married With Children,"
"Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "Who's
the Boss?" and "The John Larroquette Show"
The Sunset-Gower Studios offer
no public tour of this historic lot, but sometimes there is a way to get
inside the walls, just the same. You will notice when you drive past the
studio that there are large posters mounted on the outside walls that
television shows that are being taped inside. The public is invited to the live tapings of these sitcoms when they take place. To find out whether anything is taping there right now, call "Audiences Unlimited" (see separate page), and ask them if there are any free tickets to shows taped at Sunset-Gower. Then you can go inside to watch the TV taping, and walk into the studio which gave us "Gandhi," "A Man For All Seasons" and "Ghostbusters." Update:
In late 2008, Sunset-Gower studio was merged with KTLA studios
(next door), to create the new Capital Studios.
The lot will still be known as "Sunset Gower", while
KTLA will be known as "Sunset-Bronson". Together,
the new dual studio will cover 28 acres, with 23 sound stages and 700,000 square
feet of office production space.
[You can access the studio's official website at www.sunsetgower.com.] [
The new Capital Studios website is at www.shootatcapital.com
]
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