British studios (was: Re: top TV personalities????)

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:54:06 -0500, Shawn Mamros <mamros@mit.edu> said:

> made his debut there.  Miss Piggy (who's actually never been to
> Sesame Street, to the best of my knowledge) was one of the characters
> created for The Muppet Show in the late 70's, co-produced by Henson and
> Britain's ITC at the ATV studios near London.

If Wikipedia is any guide, specifically at the Clarenden Road Studios,
Borehamwood, which were then owned by British entrepreneur Lew Grade
and his Associated Television, which had the ITV franchise for the
Midlands.  See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elstree_Studios> and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Television>.  Because ATV's
main studios were located in Hertfordshire rather than in the
Midlands, they were only able to keep the Midlands contract in the
1982 franchise round by agreeing to restructure, rename the company
(to Central Independent Television) and sell the Elstree studios
(which they did, to the BBC, in 1983).  As Central, they continued to
be a major program producer, responsible for (among others) the
dramatization of Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse" mysteries, seen here
on "Mystery!".

The British no longer use a system of competitive tender for awarding
the "channel 3" television franchises; under the current law, they are
now effectively permanent absent gross misconduct, similar to the way
things are done by the FCC here.  (All but three of the ITV franchises
are now owned by one company, ITV plc.)

-GAWollman