Nickelodeon on Sunset (also called Nick on Sunset), formerly known as Earl Carroll Theatre, was a stage facility located at 6230 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California which has housed the West Coast production of live-action original series produced for Nickelodeon since 1997, starting with the production of the third season of All That.
As of 2011, 12 television series have been shot at the studios, not including minor publicity events and television pilots. Bella and the Bulldogs is the most recent Nickelodeon original series known to have been in production at the studios. As of September 2007, the City of Los Angeles Historic Preservation Board has worked to assure that the theater is protected.
Brief history[]
Nick on Sunset originally opened on December 26, 1938 as the West Coast location of the Earl Carroll Theatre. The supper club-theatre offered shows on a massive stage containing a 60-foot (18 m)-wide double revolving turntable, staircase and swings that could be lowered from the ceiling. The building's facade was adorned by a 20-foot (6.1 m)-high neon head portrait of entertainer Beryl Wallace. The sign had been long gone by the 1960s, but a recreation made from photographs of the sign is now on display at Universal CityWalk, as part of a collection from the Museum of Neon Art.
Earl Carroll Theatre, Hollywood as it looked in the 1940s. After Carroll and Wallace died in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 in 1948, the theater was sold. In 1953, it became the Moulin Rouge nightclub, then later the Hullabaloo Rock and Roll club, and then the Aquarius Theatre in the late 1960s. The Pick-Vanoff Company, who owned Sunset Gower Studios, purchased the property in 1983, converting it into a television theater where Star Search, the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and The Chevy Chase Show were once broadcast.
In the mid-1990s, Nickelodeon decided to move production of some live-action series' to the West Coast from Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios, after scouting soundstages for a year, the network's headlining mover All That spent a year at Paramount Pictures before Nickelodeon obtained a lease for the 6238 Sunset Blvd facility, acquiring the soundstage and rebranding it "Nickelodeon on Sunset" by 1997. Due to limited studio space and the need to control plot spoilage for several programs, only a few series' are taped at Nickelodeon on Sunset at a time. As a result, other live-action series' produced for the network are filmed in other stage facilities with closed set policies throughout the Hollywood area.
Since September 2017, no new Nick programs have been filmed here and all of the Nickelodeon signage has since been removed. Though rumors from current and former pages at CBS Television City talk about either HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher or The Late Late Show with James Corden moving to the studio which would revert its name back to Earl Carroll Theatre around 2018.
Shows taped at Nickelodeon on Sunset[]
- Zoey 101 – table reads, only some minor episodes
- All That (seasons 3-10)
- Kenan & Kel (seasons 3 and 4)
- The Amanda Show (seasons 2-3)
- SNICKhouse
- The Nick Cannon Show (Various soundstage production)
- The Conspiracy Zone (the series was produced for Nickelodeon's sister channel TNN, now Paramount Network)
- Taina (season 2 only)
- Drake & Josh (seasons 1, 2, 4)
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide (season 1 only)
- Unfabulous
- iCarly (season 1 to 5) – Moved to Sunset Bronson Studios for season 6 & 7
- Dance on Sunset
- Blue's Room
- True Jackson, VP (season 1 only)
- The Fresh Beat Band – Various episodes for Nick Jr.
- Victorious
- Alf's Hit Talk Show – For Nick's sister network TV Land
- Sam & Cat
- Bella and the Bulldogs
- SpongeBob SquarePants (2017, live-action scenes for the episode "Feral Friends")
Specials produced at Nickelodeon on Sunset[]
From the studios prime opening in 1997, several shows have used Nickelodeon on Sunset to film special events, shows which have used the soundstage in such ways include:
- "All That LIVE" – The 100th episode of All That was presented live from the studios on the evening of March 6, 1999 and was the first Nickelodeon show of its kind broadcast live from Hollywood, with some elements taped before the live show. The exterior of the building was sparingly used to avert confusion with the Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida.
- "R U All That? Competition"
- "All That 10th Anniversary Reunion Special"