KCOP is a local, independent television station (Channel 13 in Los Angeles), which signed on with the UPN (United Paramount Network).

Its modest studio is located in the heart of Hollywood, on La Brea Avenue, about half a mile south of the old Charlie Chaplin Studios.

Channel 13 first began broadcasting over 50 years ago, in 1948, as KLAC-TV. In 1953, it was sold to Copley Press, who renamed it KCOP. Just a month later, Copley sold the station to a group of investors that included Bing Crosby. Crosby's group owned the station until 1960, when it was sold to Chris Craft Industries.

Over the years, KCOP featured such classic golden age shows as "Romper Room," "Hobo Kelly," "The Oscar Levant Show," "Bozo, the Clown," "The Lloyd Thaxton Show'', "Polka Parade" and "Boxing at the Olympic."

Stars who put in their time on early KCOP shows included Horace Heidt, Leo Carrillo, Betty White, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Cliffie Stone and newcomer Liberace (who first got his trademark candelabra from the KCOP prop room.)

Many future stars began their careers off-camera at KCOP, including Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy (who worked as a general handyman around the studio), talk show host Regis Philbin (who had his first job here, as a stagehand), the "Beverly Hillbillies"' Max Baer Jr. (who was a 'gopher'), and director Sam Peckinpah.

Although KCOP airs many top notch syndicated and UPN programs (including "Star Trek: Enterprise," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Moesha" and "Relic Hunter"), the local station doesn't produce any of these shows at their La Brea studio. And KCOP doesn't offer any tickets at all to the tapings of live TV shows.

To learn about getting tickets to shows broadcast on KCOP (but taped at other studios), such as "Martin," go to our separate page about getting tickets to live TV tapings.

The "Star Trek" series which airs on KCOP ("Enterprise") is taped at the nearby Paramount Studios. But unfortunately for trekkors, the Trek shows don't require a live audience, so no tickets are ever given out to watch "Star Trek" being filmed. In fact, when you take the Paramount Studio guided tour, you aren't even allowed to see the "Star Trek" set - it's officially off-limits to visitors. (However, when I last toured Paramount, we did see stars of the "Voyager" crew relaxing during a break outside the "Star Trek" soundstage.)

In September of 1999, Paramount announced that it was buying the CBS Television network. [In 2006, they announced that both the UPN network and the WB network would cease to exist, merging into a new network called "The CW" - under that new arrangement, most of Channel 13's hit UPN shows, such as "Veronica Mars", "Girlfriends" and "America's Top Model" will probably move over to KTLA, now the CW affiliate.

Getting there: KCOP Studios is located at the corner of La Brea Avenue and Willoughby Avenue, in Hollywood (south of Santa Monica Boulevard). / From Hollywood and Vine, go west (about one mile) on Hollywood Boulevard, past the Chinese Theatre, to La Brea Avenue. Turn left (south) on La Brea, and go one mile south to Willoughby Avenue. The studio will be on your right (west) side.