Ed Sullivan Show. Reeves Entertainment By 1980, the Ed Sullivan Theater and its office wing were owned by Bankers Life and Casualty. CBS's lease on the building was set to expire in December 1981, but the network did not seek to renew the lease. The Nederlander Organization and the Shubert Organization both expressed interest in leasing the Ed Sullivan Theater and turning it back into a legitimate Broadway venue. The Shuberts, which were federally prohibited from acquiring more theaters, even petitioned a federal court to lift the restriction, a sign of its interest in the Sullivan. Furthermore, by late 1981, Bankers Life announced that it would also sell the Sullivan to avoid tax penalties, since Bankers Life had to divest many of its properties under law. The Sullivan became Teletape Studios, a facility for Reeves Entertainment, in March 1982. Reeves taped the plays The Country Girl and Mornings at Seven there immediately after buying the theater. The company remodeled the Sullivan with a larger stage measuring . The dressing rooms were also refurbished and new lighting and soundproofing were installed. Under Reeves's management, the Sullivan hosted the sitcom Kate & Allie from 1984 to 1989. It also hosted tapings of some Merv Griffin Show episodes, The Great Space Coaster, Doug Henning's World of Magic, the early Nickelodeon talk show Livewire, and a pilot of The Stiller and Meara Show. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting the Sullivan as an official city landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated the interior as a landmark in January 1988. This was part of the LPC's wide-ranging effort to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters, which had commenced in 1987. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in March 1988. David Niles and his company 1125 Productions signed a lease in December 1989 for his HDTV studio and his new Broadway show Dreamtime. Niles recalled that the theater resembled a "bombed-out tenement". The theater was renovated to accommodate HDTV broadcasts, the first of which took place in early 1991 with a taping of the Seattle Opera. An NBC special celebrating Phil Donahue's 25 years on television was taped at the Sullivan in 1992, as well as an MTV "Up Close" interview with Paul McCartney of the Beatles. In addition, NBC News used the theater for election-night coverage of