American Cinematographer - July 1985 - 95

t

Lighting The Bill Cosby Show
Shooting scene for
Cosby show. Below,
Jay Sandrich directs
rehearsal. Multiple

by Paul Mandell
Before there
was

will
nue

Burbank, there

was

Brooklyn. Any NBC veteran
tell you that. Sitting on Ave¬

cameras

M in the Midwood section of

that

and

overhead

lighting

grid.

across from what
Vitagraph film stu¬
dio, is a nondescript red brick
building devoid of windows and
signs. It was from here that most
of the great NBC shows of the
fifties originated. The Kraft Music
Hall color specials. Mary Martin's
Peter Pan, Jose Ferrer's Cyrano de
Bergerac. Mitch Miller, the NBC
opera series, The Hallmark Hall of
Fame. While the parent facility at
was

borough,

once

the

Rockefeller Center continued to
the pulse of the network,

serve as

NBC-Brooklyn

was a

hub of

spec¬

tacular television broadcasting for
almost two decades.
In the late sixties, much
of the studio's activity moved
West.

"Brooklyn One", the lower

level of the Avenue M complex
which once housed a huge swim¬

ming pool for The Esther Williams
Show, became the home of the
soap opera

Another World. The

latter still resides there, but save
for an occasional Kraft special, the
street level floor re¬
mained dormant. Saturday Night
Live made a brief appearance there
in 1976, then returned to Manhat¬
tan for logistical reasons. Another

history-rich

Texas, came to Brooklyn in
1982 but went under a year later,

Photos

soap,

making Another World the

stu¬

dio's sole survivor.

Things changed in July of
1984 when The Bill Cosby Show
moved in. To the

delight of NBC

entertainment chief Brandon Tar-

tikoff and the Carsey-Werner pro¬
duction company, the show
became one of the biggest sleepers

by Paul Mandell

in broadcast

verted into the first show. Because

Nielsens

Cosby lives back East, the decision
was made to bring it there. For the
first time in fifteen-odd years, the
90 x 150 foot "Brooklyn Two"
stage was juiced up for weekly

Sitcoms

come and go; sponsors
consider it risky business. But Tartikoff felt confident in putting

usage.

NBC's

the
the

history, grabbing the
practically overnight.
Actually, the first episode
was not a completed show but
more of a presentation in search of
a network, taped in Hollywood.

chips on the Cosby chem¬
istry. The presentation was con¬
July 1985

One of the savviest

moves

Cosby organization made was
hiring of Jay Sandrich as the

show's director. Sandrich

American

Cinematographer

has

93



American Cinematographer - July 1985

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