Stamford Studios: Home to TV talk show land

STAMFORD – Imagine a world where syndicated television talk show hosts and fierce competitors Maury Povich, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos worked under the same roof.

That was the case at Stamford Studios in when it opened in 2009 at the former Rich Forum Theatre in the city’s downtown. The demise of the former iconic theater led to the TV talk show “factory” that hosted Maury, The Jerry Springer show, Judge Jerry, and the Steve Wilkos show.

“The whole reason why we are here is that The Maury Povich show lost its lease in New York,” said Kristen Killackey, vice president of production and operations. “So, then the writing was on the wall. We needed to find another studio to tape that show. Our boss at the time said Connecticut has a tax credit program. How difficult would it be for us to move the show to Connecticut.”

Killackey, Vinnie Fusco, senior vice president of production and operations, and their team scoped out possible venues in the state.

“We looked in more untraditional places – a mall, a warehouse that you can use as a studio,” Killackey said. “Then a Realtor told us they have this old theater. It’s owned by the Stamford Center for the Arts. It’s in bankruptcy and foreclosure.”

They took a trip to downtown Stamford and when they walked in they could feel the vibe that this would be their future home.

“The bones of the building were so perfect for what we could see us doing there,” Fusco said. “The great part of it was that it was a theater. It had the elements of a theater, like a fly system where the sets go up into the air and a lot of depth on the wings so you can build sets you can roll in and out.”

Fusco and Killackey asked themselves, “why should we just put the Maury show there?” They had two other shows in Chicago that could use better space – the Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos shows.

With some cajoling and coordination, the Stamford Studios team worked with all three talk show hosts to agree to sharing one stage at different times of the day and days of the week.

“You have to remember that it was really a little unorthodox,” Fusco said. “Up until that point, all the syndicated shows were done in New York, Chicago and LA for the most part on a single stage.”

The crew at Stamford Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal, took the keys for 307 Atlantic St. in April and by August began taping its first Maury show in August. “There were a lot of pieces that had to be brought together,” Killackey said. “Before we even moved a staff, we had to get the building to a place where we could make TV.”

That included an around-the-clock transformation of an old theater into a television studio complete with seating for an audience, green rooms, production facilities, and a control room. With a lot of help from former Mayor Michael Pavia’s office, the city’s building department and the Downtown Special Services District led by Sandy Goldstein, Stamford Studios was able to meet its tight deadline to start rolling its cameras by August 2009.

“They were really interested in a business like ours because of the brick and mortar element of it,” Killackey said. “We’re not just a film that brings in a lot of people and leaves. We were going to bring in a business and hopefully go year over year over year and expand.”

And grow they did. In a matter of 15 years, Stamford Studios has built out its 46,000-square-foot

space, which now includes two studios, support space. In total, they have 70,000 square feet of space that includes its “digital factory” at nearby Bank Street.

Also, it is now marketing its Studio B for third-party events.

Economic impact

When they were taping Maury, Springer and Wilkos in the early years, the studio employed more than 400 workers. That figure is now down to about 250 as they are taping Wilkos and Karamo (Karamo Brown of TV’s Queer Eye). When it had all three shows, the studio handled about 600 people per day for three shows.

The economic impact of both Stamford Studios and its satellite digital productions venue, which also tapes podcasts, is not to be taken lightly for the city of Stamford.

“We have probably traveled 55,000 people into Stamford since the inception of the shows here,” Fusco said. “And 600,000 audience members, more or less.”

He went on to describe how the spend by guests, audience members and most importantly the crew itself in and around Stamford shows how important a business like theirs is.

“What’s really different about our shows is that a lot of the spend in the state is very variable,” he added. “It encompasses restaurants, cleaners, HVAC companies, architectural companies. You name it, food stores. In the 15 years, we have spent about $150 million directly in variable spend with Connecticut vendors.”

When the studios came to Connecticut and took advantage of the tax credit, it was really important for them to fulfill their obligation to be a part of the community from a volunteerism standpoint and from a variable spend standpoint, according to Fusco.

Many of the Stamford Studios employees volunteer for such organizations as Inspirica (a homeless advocacy group), DSSD events such as the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Boys and Girls Club, American Cancer Society, and Stamford Hospital’s Paint the Town Pink event.

The state’s Digital Media and Motion Picture Tax Credit allows for a company to qualify for up to a 30% tax credit if production expenses are more than $1 million annually. There is a sliding scale where if a company spends between $100,000 and $500,000 it gets a 10% credit, and if it spends between $500,000 and $1 million, it gets a 15% credit.

Additionally, the studio qualifies for the credit if it conducts at least 50% of principal photography in the state or 50% of postproduction costs within the state, or $1 million in postproduction costs in the state.

One story Fusco likes to tell about the early days at Stamford Studios is about the former Atlantic Pizza restaurant.

“We would order about 60 pizza pies per day from Atlantic Pizza at the time when we were taping five days a week from 8 in the morning until sometimes as late as 9 at night,” Fusco said.

“That included pizza for the audience, guests on the show and the crew.”