When this was Fox/KTTV, people driving by on the Hollywood Freeway could easily spot this large, white building. It was the one with the bizarre, ladder-like sculpture of white steel snaking its way across the roof, like some fire escape run amok. That work of art was entitled "Starsteps." Unfortunately, it was taken down and shipped to Chicago after Metromedia sold the building to the Los Angeles School District in 2000. The studio itself was torn down in 2003, and a 2000-student high school is being built on the former property.

This studio (right next to KTLA) was the long-time home of KTTV television (Channel 11 in Los Angeles). For years it was known as Metromedia Square. Many of the classic Norman Lear sitcoms of the 70's were shot on the stages here here, including "Maude," "One Day at a Time" and "The Jeffersons."

Some of those Tandem shows were taped in the Sunset Building (see the photo to the right), which once included a small swimming pool where they filmed the swimming sequences for some of the Esther Williams musicals, as well as the productions of B-Movie legend, Ed Wood.

In 1986, Metromedia sold KTTV and its operations to the Fox broadcasting network, and this lot was renamed Fox Television Center (although Metromedia held onto ownership of the real estate.)

Fox was the newest of the four major networks, the network which brought us such shows as "The O.C.", "American Idol", "24," "The Simpsons," "Married...With Children," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Melrose Place," "The X Files," "In Living Color," "Party of Five," "Ally McBeal," "Cops" and "Martin."

But virtually none of those Fox shows were taped before a live studio audience at this Sunset Blvd studio. "The X-Files," for instance, is taped at 20th Century Fox studios in Century City. Both "The O.C." and "Ally McBeal" were filmed at Raleigh's Manhattan Beach Studios. Their network sitcoms were taped at other studios in the Hollywood area.

There have been a few TV sitcoms taped here in the recent past (such as "Saved By the Bell" and "South Central"), but it looks like there won't be anything taped here in the future.

(Of course, that doesn't mean you can't get tickets to see Fox's shows taped elsewhere. For information about tickets to live tapings, check with Audiences Unlimited, or call (818) 506-0067 for recorded information.)

In 1996, Fox affiliate KTTV (Channel 11), which called this building home for almost 47 years, moved to new digs on the west side (near Santa Monica) at the new Fox Television Center at 1999 Bundy Drive, in Los Angeles. (