Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9407130039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The ``Today'' co-anchors convened with their crew in a former bank branch at 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza, a site that $15 million and eight months of feverish work have transformed into NBC's new room with a view, Studio 1A.
``What are we calling that hoojamajiggy that goes up and down?'' Gumbel asked during the 90-minute technical rehearsal Tuesday afternoon. He was referring to the translucent, er, uh, thing that descends into a cabinet behind where he and Couric will sit, to reveal the hustle-bustle of cars and passers-by outside 1A's grand sweep of windows.
No one else knew what to call this retractable piece of the set, either.
The drop? someone suggested. The shade? The curtain?
``The wall!'' Couric piped up.
Thus was it christened ``the wall.''
Viewers can see the wall go up and down, along with the rest of the handsome new ``Today'' digs starting Monday at 7 a.m., as the 42-year-old show makes the move from its longtime lair somewhere deep within that huge G.E. Building across the street, down to this here-for-all-to-see storefront.
Could this 13,000-square-foot, three-story glass house mean that TV is coming out of the closet and grounding itself in the real world?
Is TV edging back from cyberspace?
Consider other evidence.
``Now with Tom Brokaw & Katie Couric,'' which in the past has originated outdoors at Rockefeller Center but usually emanates from deep within that huge G.E. Building, will also relocate to 1A sometime in August.
Two weeks ago, cable's fX talk network signed on from its fully livable, fully equipped Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Madison Square.
And don't forget David Letterman, who instantly established a sense of place for his CBS ``Late Show'' by featuring the Ed Sullivan Theater not just inside but out, and has claimed its surrounding midtown Manhattan neighborhood as his own video village.
This was all since last summer. But the first show to bust the studio wall was - of course - ``Today,'' which premiered in January 1952 in a sidewalk-level showroom right next door to what is now 1A.
The original ``Today'' exposed a busy tangle of equipment and personnel that resembled headquarters for a political campaign. Pausing to peer through the picture windows that faced the set, pedestrians waved at host Dave Garroway and also waved at the camera turned toward them and the audience watching at home, amazed by the phenomenon of television and their participation in it.
This lasted only until 1958 (and briefly in the mid-1960s from yet another storefront site directly across 49th Street).
But now history repeats itself, as ``Today'' delivers a reminder of how, day in and day out, TV can merge with the world of its viewers (or at least give that illusion).
``I think people are tired of studios that are cold and impersonal and phony,'' says ``Today'' executive producer Steve Friedman, for whom 1A is a dream come true. ``With all due respect, an imaginary living room in the studio is not as dynamic as this.''
``I think what's important is the content and the people, not the set,'' argues Bob Reichblum, executive producer of ABC's ``Good Morning America,'' which usually edges out ``Today'' in the ratings, and which, like the third-place ``CBS This Morning,'' happens to take place in an imaginary living room in a studio.
But ``Today'' has more than a new set. It has Rockefeller Center.
Watching ``Today,'' past visitors to New York will easily relate to where Katie and Bryant are sitting ... a mere 40 yards from the ice skating rink and that big golden statue where they took snapshots of the kids.
And future visitors will have to make a morning stroll by 1A. Maybe the folks at home will spot you on TV.
Of course, in the '90s, approachability is tempered by double-paned, bullet-proof glass and a battalion of Rockfeller Center security. Be sure to smile and behave yourself.
And remember Shakespeare, who wrote that all the world's a stage. If he were living today, this is what he'd type on his MessagePad: ``All the world's a TV studio.''
Which ``Today'' has rediscovered.
by CNB