Laughter tracks remind me of being a kid in Saturday morning pictures waiting to see the next installment of Batman in my duffel coat/ cloak. I hated it when they put the words to a song up and you had to follow the dot to sing a long to it. And I always thought to myself 'If it was that f**king good you wouldn't need the dot'
May I add I was a foul mouthed child.
Bad Move Page 7
All this talk of laughter track or not reminds of when M*A*S*H was first shown on BBC2 (?) in the early/mid 70s.
At that time I was very much connected with the local USAF bases here in the UK and the young airman I used to play Pinochle/drink in the local with said they were SO PLEASED that M*A*S*H here in the UK was shown without the laughter track, which they despised when it was shown in The States and which I seem to remember was left on when they were repeated on Sky many years later.
It didn't need a laughter track....................well, not here - in the US of A? ummm, I cannot possibly comment. 
That's the wonderful thing about the M*A*S*H Martinis and Medicine complete DVD set... You can disable the laugh track.
Of course, after having watched it through, a number of times, it's all the more grating to see an episode on TV with the laugh track.
Quote: Andicus @ 1st March 2019, 5:26 PM...............it's all the more grating to see an episode on TV with the laugh track.
Isn't it just - just doesn't sound right with it, but then, just to reiterate, Sky wouldn't know quality even if it came up to them and smacked them right between the eyes. Sky TV - the prostitutes of the media world.
MASH is being repeated on C32 at the mo with laugh track and it's awful. But back to the thread topic Bad Move, that's awful too.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 28th February 2019, 10:49 PMWe don't have a laugh track on films and we don't have a laugh track on theatrical productions. Why then do we have them on television?
The answer is because TV executives have historically considered TV audiences to be the scum of the earth who aren't bright enough to realise when they think something is funny and then to realise how funny they think it is.
No. The answer is because films and plays are by very nature designed to be watched amidst a large, live, laughing audience. Television sitcom traditionally has a laugh track because it is a filmed equivalent broadcast to many individual or small groups of viewers in their own homes. This is very basic humour/laughter psychology.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 28th February 2019, 10:49 PMcomedy, at its most intelligent and most effective, isn't always about making people laugh.
Oh, God.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 1st March 2019, 12:52 PMlaughter recorded from an audience that, in many cases, died years before the action on the stage was ever performed.
This is a great conspiracy theory based on a half understanding, but utter nonsense. Sound mixes on television comedy have varied considerably over the years, making this not remotely practicable. A laughter track may certainly be manipulated with other takes; with other sections from the same series; or indeed from other recent productions if necessary - but not from recordings decades ago.
