Originally Posted By DBitz2 >>I know that Disney recently announced that they would be building a new studio complex in the Thousand Oaks area, on the ranch that they've owned for decades, where they filmed Spin & Marty, portions of The Parent Trap, and the Zorro tv show (among many other things). Perhaps they're just waiting for that complex to be built before they continue with their 'local' production. Disney's Golden Oak Ranch is actually up in the Santa Clarita area, not Thousand Oaks! Some of the ABC Studios at Golden Oak has been developed out. They've built a very nice "backlot" residential street with homes in various architectural styles as well as a nice "urban streets" backlot area on the property. Not sure how they're coming along with soundstages. The ABC Studios was built on a mostly unused portion of Golden Oak that is close to the freeway. Much to my sadness, they tore down the Western street on the ranch four or five years ago that had been built in the 1970's for Roots II. (Although, with that set gone, it might bring more filming to our Western street at Paramount Ranch.) Various other long standing sets on the ranch still stand. Here's the website for Golden Oak, where you can view photos. <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.goldenoakranch.com/">http://www.goldenoakranch.com/</a> The Melody Ranch Studios, on property that was once Gene Autry's movie ranch is up in that area, too, not too far from Golden Oak. Melody Ranch primarily contains a very nice Western street that gets used a lot, along with a soundstage or two. It is opened to the public every April for the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, if anyone is interested in visiting it. I've been a number of times. >>Does anybody know where Disney Channel films its stuff? I imagine they might be using the Burbank soundstages, but I know they've filmed a lot of stuff in Canada in the past. Perhaps ABC uses them (though I know they film a lot on the CBS lot)<< The various Disney Channel series use various studios around Hollywood. My Time Warner cable has a local channel with a series that goes behind the scenes of tv shows and movies. A good many of the series sets they visit are Disney Channel shows and they usually mention the studio the show is filmed at. A lot of those shows are done by outside producers or production companies for Disney. I doubt there's room on the Disney lot for all of the Disney Channel series going these days. I'd say that many of the Disney Channel movies do not appear to be filmed locally, though. I do know that the pilot movie for Big Thunder, the ABC series based on Big Thunder Mountain, was done up in Canada. Rob Bowman, who directs for ABC's Castle and the son of one of Dr. Quinn's well liked directors, directed it. I keep waiting to hear news on when/if that is ever going to air, as I like Westerns.
Originally Posted By leemac Big Thunder was awful and so ABC passed on the pilot - it probably won't see the light of day ever. Makes you wonder how bad it was when they still went ahead with the likes of Killer Women and The Assets!
Originally Posted By DBitz2 Thanks for the info on Big Thunder. Yeah, there is some dreadful stuff on ABC already! I find myself watching more and more British made tv these days. Much better quality stuff!
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I find myself watching more and more British made tv these days. Much better quality stuff!<< Just to point out … You're comparing the BEST British TV - the stuff that was good enough to export - with ALL American TV, good bad and ghastly. Not a fair comparison.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Yeah, there is some dreadful stuff on ABC already!>> That's what happens when you try to cater solely to women and gays. ABC's stuff can be so derivative at times. For every Scandal they have The Assets or Killer Women.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Just to point out … You're comparing the BEST British TV - the stuff that was good enough to export - with ALL American TV, good bad and ghastly. Not a fair comparison.>> I'd happily wager that the sum of parts of British TV is better than the US equivalent. It isn't just the likes of Downtown Abbey, Sherlock and Doctor Who that are finding an audience - there is a wealth of other stuff like Hulu's The Wrong Mans and ITV's Broadchurch. When you only need to write 6 episodes (and typically only have 2 writers) then the quality is almost always going to be better. Producing 22 episodes of the same nonsense is more likely than not to have a dilutive effect.
