No laugh track on this post!
Big Bang Theory, yes or no?
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No laugh track on this post!
Whether it's a laugh track or a real audience, it's still annoying. I'm thankful that shows are beginning to move away from it by and large. I'm a huge Seinfeld fan and wish there was a DVD option that removed the laughter.
The problem is when a show is filmed with a studio audience, the show is timed with gaps for the laughs. How long the gap depends on how big a laugh the joke gets.
Without the gaps, the laughs would run over the dialog. If you took out the laughs, you end up with pauses that feel unnatural, and I think people would find it slow, or unfunny.
You can do that with every episode of M*A*S*H on DVD.
I think it's also true with Sledge Hammer! (either that, or the SH DVDs simply have no laugh track at all. In either case, it's a win-win)
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I have only seen it a few times...watching the one now where Sheldon goes on a date and Penny is with them...and Howard(?) gets his penis stuck in a robot hand. It is a funny ep. 
I watched Sledge Hammer on TV and it never had a laugh track.
On Frasier you would often hear not just the audience laughing but also gasping at some of the dramatic moments, sounds that seemed like shock or approval and other spontaneous reactions.
In the episode Back Talk in which Frasier unintentionally reveals to Daphne that Niles is in love with her, you could hear the gasps from the audience, literally.
The episode with Amy and the tiara .... The jewelry store was "Frank & Sons." For those in the LA area, there was a big comic book show in the City of Industry in the 80s and 90s (we moved in 2000, so I don't know if it's still there). It was called Frank & Son. Anybody think it's homage or coincidence?
I don't know if it's been addressed as I haven't read this whole thread, but laugh tracks are generally considered to "work," aren't they? In the sense that people usually hate them, but also find things funnier when they're present. We're more likely to laugh when people around us are laughing.
Perhaps but I feel like the laugh track has been so overused that it doesn't work anymore. I could be wrong.
The whole concept of a laugh track is insulting. Yeah, the show has to tell you to laugh, otherwise you might not know what's supposed to be funny.
As for studio audiences... Don't they do multiple takes? I assume there's like a Laugh/Applause light or something... I might laugh at a sitcom joke the first time... but I'm not going to laugh at the same joke 2 minutes later.
As for studio audiences... Don't they do multiple takes? I assume there's like a Laugh/Applause light or something... I might laugh at a sitcom joke the first time... but I'm not going to laugh at the same joke 2 minutes later.
I suspect you're right, or else they wouldn't be so prevalent. Then again, I can understand the revulsion to them. It's as if the creators of a show are holding up a cue card that says "laugh, now", as if we can't be trusted to know when we're supposed to laugh.
you have some actual knowledge of this, or are you just being cynical? Not that there's anything wrong with cynical.
I think the timing would appear to be off if you could remove the laughter track, especially if the track came from a live studio audience. It would be full of awkward pauses where the actors are waiting for laughter to subside. And timing of the next comic line that is dependant on the actor's reaction to the audience would probably seem completely wrong. I think a lot of how funny a live comedian is depends on his ability to time gags based on his observations of the audience.
I would imagine the additon of canned laughter would also affect the editing process a lot, so removing a canned track would probably also leave you with something that felt off.
Now if they filmed the same episode twice, once with an audience and once without, that might be interesting.
I love the show and love the Star Trek/Sci-Fi/comic nods. I don't really find the writing on the show mean spirited toward the fanbase.
Same here. I feel if you take offense to most of the jokes and comedy on it you should get thicker skin.
you have some actual knowledge of this, or are you just being cynical? Not that there's anything wrong with cynical.
No, they actually do increase the laughter.
This whole discussion reminds me of the bit from Curb Your Enthusiasm when Ricky Gerveis says, "Oh, I love that Seinfeld had a laugh track. Reminded me of when I was supposed to laugh."
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