TCC_201 The Universal Backlot: Hollywood’s Factory Floor

Timecode Cowboys | Season Two | Ep. 1 | The Universal Backlot: Hollywood’s Factory Floor

In this S2 premiere episode, we explore the history, mythology, and everyday reality of Universal Studios Hollywood — not as a theme park, but as a working studio that’s been shaping Hollywood for more than a century.

We’re joined on a backlot field trip by special guests Ben Sommer (@ben.gordo), Director of Programmatic Partnerships at NBCUniversal, and Andrew Paz (@andybrand), co-founder of Big Time (@bigtimebigtimebigtimebigtime), bringing insider access and fresh perspective along for the ride.

In this episode, we cover:

• 🎞️ The birth of the studio tour and the chaos of silent-era filmmaking
• 🧠 Life inside the machine: soundstages, commissaries, parking politics, and daily studio rhythms
• 🦈 How Spielberg and Verna Fields saved Jaws when the shark wouldn’t work
• 🌍 Universal logo history, late-’90s DVD bumpers, and studio branding obsessions
• 🔥 Studio fires, lost archives, and preservation vs. reinvention

It’s a reset. A road trip. And a statement of intent for Season Two: fewer walls, more field trips, and a deeper connection to the places where film history is still being made.

🎬 Films & TV Shows Discussed:

• The Time Tunnel (1966)
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964)
• How the West Was Won (1962)
• The Battle of the Bulge (1965)
• Grand Prix (1966)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Airport (1970)
• Columbo (1971)
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
• Earthquake (1974)
• Airport 1975 (1974)
• Jaws (1975)
• Midway (1976)
• Alien (1979)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• The Rockford Files (1974)
• Hart to Hart (1979)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
• The Mummy (1999)
• The Mummy Returns (2001)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
• Desperate Housewives (2004)
• The Artist (2011)
• Stranger Things (2016)

••Babylon (2022)

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