Television Locations

Louis J. Horvitz is no stranger to the big leagues. He won an Emmy last September for directing the Kennedy Center Honors. In January, he directed the halftime extravaganza at the Super Bowl. Still, calling the shots on tonight's 69th Academy Awards show, he says, is most definitely in a class by itself. "It's the cachet of the Oscars--not the numbers," Horvitz said, referring to the 1 billion people expected to tune in from 100 countries worldwide.

Although there may be production delays, none of the major TV networks' San Francisco-based series sustained serious damage in Tuesday's earthquake. The cast and crew of CBS' "Wolf" were shooting interior scenes when the set began to rumble Tuesday night, sending lights and equipment tumbling onto crew members, who suffered cuts and bruises. The production team broke for dinner and then tried to resume shooting, but were thwarted by the power outage. Production resumed Wednesday.

In the weeks preceding the outbreak of hostilities, the art gallery had gone through video hell. The gallery is in Los Angeles' industrial downtown, a neighborhood so favored by TV and movie makers for its all-purpose gritty-slummy-New Yorky-Philly look that film companies have been known to arrive there of a morning to find other film companies setting up at the far end of the same block.

Just when it seems TV's obsession with the O.J. Simpson murder case has peaked, it reaches new heights. Only two weeks into a trial that may take more than six months, television is already growing tired of "Camp O.J."--the cramped compound of satellite dishes and broadcast platforms near the Criminal Courts Building that is giving the world its look at Los Angeles.

A groan goes up from the teenagers clinging to a dusty traffic island in the middle of Times Square: Apparently MTV, whose glass-walled studio they've been peering up toward in hopes of waving to their friends at home, isn't shooting outdoors this afternoon. "We risked our lives just to get here and be on MTV," wails Cynthia Hempel, 16, of Connecticut, as cars and smelly buses stream past, inches from her toes.

Television executives looking to duplicate the meteoric success of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" can study time slots, demographics, viewing trends and the like. Or they can just ask an 11-year-old to decode the puzzle for them. O'Donnell is "like another person, but then, a lot of people know her, so she's a star," reasoned Angela Taylor of Ojai at Universal Studios theme park last weekend.