Quote: Sixty3closure @ 17th April 2016, 1:54 AM BSTWhen MASH was shown in the UK it was without a laughter track which I think was to its advantage. In fact one of the best features about the DVD was to have the track on/off and, for me, it was so much better with it off.
And the repeats on True Entertainment have a mixture - some on, some off. Or have I just got used to the laugh track and cut it out of my brain?
As Michael says, sitcom audiences are so wound-up and primed to laugh before the viewing that the amount of laughter almost always seems excessive to me when watching.
I'm not a huge fan of laughter tracks overall, but I think it depends heavily on context. Partridge's laughter track always seemed out of place to me, for example, but then you get things like Red Dwarf X where it just didn't feel the same without a laughter track. If you're going to chill out and watch something broad and easy the laughter track feels right.
I'm definitely in favour
But sometimes they go over the top
The laugh track on Blackadder Goes Forth, for example, is bloody awful
It can also cause delays while the actors are waiting for the laughter to subside and this works with shows like Friends but wouldn't be suitable for something like Scrubs which is much more fast paced and rehearsed that way. It wouldn't be half as funny if there was laughter slowing the pace down.
I like the way The IT Crowd was filmed because it had a live studio audience and some parts were filmed live but a lot of sequences were shown on monitors so the audience is reacting to that. Father Ted was probably recorded in a similar way.
I think what some people don't realise is that this discussion is about pre-recorded laughter tracks on tape which are not connected to the actual recording of the show. This of course was "normal" for US shows from the 1970s and before. Genuine audience reaction is generally acceptable.
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 17th April 2016, 8:20 PM BSTIt can also cause delays while the actors are waiting for the laughter to subside and this works with shows like Friends but wouldn't be suitable for something like Scrubs which is much more fast paced and rehearsed that way. It wouldn't be half as funny if there was laughter slowing the pace down.
I like the way The IT Crowd was filmed because it had a live studio audience and some parts were filmed live but a lot of sequences were shown on monitors so the audience is reacting to that. Father Ted was probably recorded in a similar way.
That's the way Not Going Out is filmed. Last of the Summer Wine was shown to an audience on film with the genuine laughter/reaction included in the recording.
In Ever Decreasing Circles Extras there was added one episode from "Did You See?" / December 1987. And we can see there some footage of prewarming audience process, actual filming EDC in studio with audience laugh illustration, - and discussion about Laugh Track influence on actors and viewers (in studio and solitary TV watchers as group dynamics) with some critics and series makers interviews on this very subject.
It depends on whether it's an actual audience or just a sound effect.
A live studio audience is always a great way to find out what's hilarious and what not for a writer.
Sounds effects can be used, but there's always a chance that you use it on a joke that isn't funny.
However, not everyone has the same taste in humour and it's impossible to please everyone.
Laugh tracks are usually my favourite character in the sitcom heheheh
There is nothing worse than hearing an audience (canned laughter) roaring with laughter when there wasn't even a joke or if the joke didn't work.
I'm quite against canned laughter, studio audience laughter is fine. But yeah, don't use it when there isn't something funny on-screen.
So many sitcoms these days seem to be light dramas rather than comedy. Where is the silly? Where is the Zany? Where is the humour?
Grumble grumble.
Quote: Geistycat @ 17th April 2016, 5:52 PM BSTPartridge's laughter track always seemed out of place to me, for example...
Like the albino with diarrhea, fair do's. I remember one critic saying the only gripe with KMKY is that the audience are in on the joke. Mind you, how else could they have done it?
Quote: lofthouse @ 17th April 2016, 8:04 PM BSTthey go over the top... Blackadder Goes Forth
So did he at the end... Incidentally, I never got how people were impressed by the ''''''''''sensitive'''''''''' Handling of the war in that series.
If we should happen to tread on a mine, what do we do? - Well, normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump up 200 feet into the air and scatter yourself over a wide area.
Can I ask you to leave a pause between the word "aim" and the word "fire"? Thirty or forty years, perhaps? [The firing squad laugh] Squad Leader: Ahh, wish I could pause, sir, I really wish I could. But I can't, you see, 'cos I'm a gabbler, me, you see. "READYAIMFIRE!!!" [laughs]
This is the Andrew Dice Clay school of sensitivity.
Quote: LoopyTheClown @ 26th April 2016, 6:09 AM BSTThere is nothing worse than hearing an audience (canned laughter) roaring with laughter when there wasn't even a joke or if the joke didn't work.
Anal with a gorilla?
A very good case of a show where no laugh track was better was Boosh. Check the pilot and you'll see what I mean.
Not a sitcom I know, but the amount of laughter in the first series of Ben Elton - The Man From Auntie (aka The Beginning of the End for Benji) was way too much.
Quote: LoopyTheClown @ 26th April 2016, 6:09 AM BSTThere is nothing worse than hearing an audience (canned laughter) roaring with laughter when there wasn't even a joke or if the joke didn't work.
I'm quite against canned laughter, studio audience laughter is fine. But yeah, don't use it when there isn't something funny on-screen.
It's both real and canned at same time, the devious prods tell you it's real but what they don't tell you is it's been manipulated, added to or just bulked up by their computer software.
So often these days the laughter sounds forced and even false. Did they really all scream their heads off at a tired old punch line just then or did the producers turn up the volume knob to max in their prod room, where they spend way too much time now ruining sitcoms! If the Beeb want to save millions then sack a load of producers please and go back to the more natural, less tampered with sitcom we had in the 70s. That would be bliss.
Yes I know, but I still call it canned if it didnt happen at the time and has been edited in.
Technically the wrong term though. I mean, some people call Pepsi 'coke', but it's not right. 
Yes I know it's not technically correct.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 26th April 2016, 4:34 PM BSTIt's both real and canned at same time, the devious prods tell you it's real but what they don't tell you is it's been manipulated, added to or just bulked up by their computer software.
Exactly.
Also, a spider is not an insect.