TV Studio, Fire Station Compete for Site

The Audiences Unlimited bus, which transports studio audiences to live television tapings, pulled up to the 1000 block of Glendale Avenue on a recent Friday evening. Scores of teen-agers piled out and stood in front of the blue Glendale Studios sign.

“Son of a gun,” said one teen-ager. “I thought we had made a wrong turn.”

Unbeknown to many, Glendale has been the home of a small television studio for more than a year. With little attention--until a rivalry surfaced recently with the city Fire Department-- Glendale Studios has been cranking out television series, including the popular syndicated comedy “What’s Happening Now.”

The studio, which has two sound stages, is now planning a $6-million expansion on adjacent land. It wants to erect a modern three-story building with two more sound stages, a parking structure and underground storage.

But, standing in the way of this expansion, studio officials say, is the Glendale’s plan to build a fire station on the same site. The studio hopes to either acquire the land from the city or convince city officials not to build a fire station there.

“We intend to grow and we’re trying to show them that we’re serious about being here,” said Christopher Cates, the studio’s general manager.

He conceded that the studio could expand on the property where it is now situated, although it would rather build on the nearby land. However, he said that any expansion is unlikely if a fire station is built on the block. The noise from fire engines rushing to fires would “do us in,” Cates said, because few production companies would risk taping at the facilities.

“A fire station is completely incompatible with this type of industry. It’s like putting a rock-and-roll joint next to an old-folks home,” said Ron Erickson, the vice president of Oakridge Productions, the producing arm of the studio.

So, over the last few months, studio officials have been lobbying the local powers-that-be, even throwing city officials a fancy dinner hosted by comedian Tim Conway, who is planning to tape his new syndicated comedy show at the studio.

Thus far it has been a losing battle.

Said Mayor Larry Zarian of the studio: “They have a first-class operation and we’d like to work with them and help with their expansion, but unfortunately that land is not for sale.”

Fire Chief John M. Montenero said there is virtually “no chance’ that he or city officials will change their minds about the fire station location.

The sought-after land is at the corner of Glendale and Palmer avenues and is just south of the studio. The city paid Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. $1.2 million in July for the 1.13 acre plot, said City Manager James Rez. He said Kaiser sold the land to the city only because the city threatened to condemn it and take the land anyway. Kaiser bought the property for a medical clinic after a Chinese restaurant on the site went out of business.

Mayor Zarian and other city officials have told studio officials and stated in interviews that the city could not sell the land or use it for any other purpose because it was acquired for the stated purpose of building a fire station. Assistant City Manager David H. Ramsay said it would be difficult, and probably illegal, to “turn around and sell it to a private company.”

But City Atty. Frank R. Manzano said the city could indeed sell the property or build something other than a fire station.

“The city owns the land and can do whatever it wants with it,” Manzano said.

Under current plans, fire Station 22 at 1505 S. Brand Blvd. will close and relocate to the Glendale Avenue site in January, 1988. The 58-year-old station is too small, has fallen into disrepair and is on the far south side of the city, which prevents quick response by firefighters to calls from many neighborhoods, fire officials said.

“We’ve spent years looking for a site that was farther north and this one is perfect. Nobody around here knew anything about this so-called proposal for (the studio’s) expansion until after we owned the property,” Rez said.

Glendale Studios began operating in June, 1985. But, six months ago when the studio found itself turning away potential clients for lack of space, it started developing expansion plans, the management said. Oakridge Vice President Erickson said the studio did not learn that the city was planning to put a fire station next door until after the city had acquired the land in July.

On Aug. 29, the city manager, the fire chief and the five-member City Council were all guests of honor at a studio dinner.

Banquet on TV Set

There they met studio president and owner Al Makhanian, dined at a banquet on the set of the syndicated television show “The Judge” and mingled with the cast of “What’s Happening Now.”

Council member Ginger Bremberg said it was an enjoyable evening made all the better by the presence of comedian Conway, formerly of the Carol Burnett Show. Conway, she said, joked with council members and signed autographs.

Bremberg said studio officials told them that the dinner was a way of showing their appreciation to the city, but, she said, “I suspect the reason they had us down there was to urge us to sell them the land. But it’s not that easy to sell land that the city has acquired.”

Makhanian, a 53-year-old entrepreneur with extensive real estate holdings, did announce the expansion plans at that dinner.

In a recent interview, he said he has tried to build up rapport with city officials so that they would be more receptive to the studio’s needs. He said Glendale could one day rival its neighbor Burbank as a home to the motion picture and television industry by helping his studio succeed.

‘Need to Stop Trend’

“Many of the different production companies are moving out of the State of California because different states have better incentives. We need to stop the trend,” Makhanian said.

Mayor Zarian said the city knows the studio is not a “fly-by-night outfit” and that city officials are still willing to listen to the studio’s concerns. He said the city is even willing to help find other sites for the studio expansion.

But, even as the controversy continues, the studio is quietly going about business as usual and making a name for itself in the industry.

Comedian Conway said in an interview Monday that he chose Glendale Studios to tape the pilot for his new syndicated show “ ‘Cue Me” because the rates were cheaper and it has none of the parking and traffic problems of Hollywood and other areas.

“It’s kind of an off-Broadway-like studio,” Conway said. The comedian is moving into office space at the studio and will produce his show for marketing next fall as a joint venture with Glendale Studios.

Convenient Location

Those who use the studio have said it is convenient because of its nearness to major freeways and to Burbank and Hollywood. They said the booming syndicated television market has created a greater demand for such taping facilities.

Now, a soap opera being made in New York and a syndicated television talk show have expressed interest in taping at Glendale Studios, studio officials say.

Aside from taping “What’s Happening Now,” the studio was recently the home of the NBC comedy “Me and Mrs. C.,” the story of a white, middle-class woman who takes in a black ex-convict as a boarder.

The show’s producer, Scoey Mitchlll, said the studio is “first class.”

“It was marvelous. We filmed there last season and we wanted to return but they said they didn’t have the space,” said Mitchlll, the former co-star of the 1970 television show “Barefoot in the Park.” “Me and Mrs. C.” is now taped at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.

Glendale Studios came into existence accidentally. The two-acre parcel was the site of a defunct uniform factory. Makhanian and his two brothers purchased the property in late 1984 for about $2 million. They had hoped to develop it into a hospice for the terminally ill.

Studio Space Needed

Makhanian said he was later approached by a friend from Columbia Pictures Television who said the studio needed space to tape new episodes of the syndicated revival of the “What’s Happening” series, which was canceled by ABC in 1979 after a three-year run. The series chronicled the exploits of three black teen-agers who lived in Los Angeles and frequented a local diner.

Makhanian agreed to convert the building into a studio and began taping the show in 1985. The show is now seen on 88 stations nationwide and is the one of the highest-rated shows in the syndicated market.

Andrew Sellig, the show’s financial producer, said taping at Glendale studios has saved the production company a “couple of thousand dollars” a week.