Laugh Track

[ClassyCo]

To be honest, pretty much all sitcoms I ever watched had laughter and laugh tracks. I became so used to it it doesn’t even bother me. However, 10 or 15 years ago there have been a number of shows that don’t use the laugh track at all. Being so used to the track I found this jarring. Don’t ask me why I don’t know, it just did and does.

I can totally relate. I cannot really remember watching a television comedy without some form of laughter being present, whether it be live audiences or laugh track. It was ever-present. My fiancee got me to start watching The Office sometime last year, and at first I didn't "get" it. Looking back, I'm fairly certain that was because of the absent laughter. I didn't know when it was alright for me to laugh, I was use to that gentle nudge to know there was time allotted for me to chuckle a little. It's funny though because I never thought anything when watching animated comedies like King of the Hill, which is vacant of a laugh track. I guess my familiarity with live-action comedies having some form of audience laughter spoiled me. Or maybe it ruined me.

 

[ClassyCo]

I know the episode "Lucy Does the Tango" from the final season of I Love Lucy generated the longest recorded audience response in the show's history. It was so long that he had to be edited before CBS could air the episode, or it would have ran into over-time.

It's the episode where the Ricardos and the Mertzes decide to raise chickens. Lucy's hiding eggs in her sweater and when she does the tango with Ricky, the eggs end up shattered inside her shirt. It's quite hysterical to watch, even some sixty years later.

 

[bmasters9]

It's the episode where the Ricardos and the Mertzes decide to raise chickens. Lucy's hiding eggs in her sweater and when she does the tango with Ricky, the eggs end up shattered inside her shirt. It's quite hysterical to watch, even some sixty years later.

And it was that one, and many others similar and the same, that helped cement the reputation of I Love Lucy as being one of the finest comedies of classic television, and why it still runs in reruns now, and still sells well on DVD, IIRC.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[kenneth]

Imagine Ross and pre-Monica Chandler from Friends without a laugh track.

It would be a horror show.

 

[Toni]

I had a strange experience with laugh tracks when I started re-watching "The Golden Girls" a couple of years ago. The Spanish-dubbed version of the Pilot had no laugh track at all, and I found the silences between the (now not so funny) one-liners super-long. When I checked out the original version, the laughs were there, of course, so it seemed that for one reason or another, the Spanish version had "deleted" those laughs.

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The TV shows where I thought laughs were badly placed and not necessary were "The Love Boat" and "Eight Is Enough". I don´t know if the laughs were omitted at some point, but they were totally out of place in the latter. Now I´m watching "I Dream of Jeannie" and I love to find those laughs there, because yes, in some episodes the plot is so thin that one needs some help (not that seeing Larry and Lee Ann de la Vega together is not a treat).

 

[Barbara Fan]

To be honest Im not a fun of canned laughter on shows and half the time i used to wonder what they were actually laughing at as it wasnt THAT funny!

But US comedy shows arent really my cup of tea except from Cheers back in the day and it no longer works for me

 

[ClassyCo]

I had a strange experience with laugh tracks when I started re-watching "The Golden Girls" a couple of years ago. The Spanish-dubbed version of the Pilot had no laugh track at all, and I found the silences between the (now not so funny) one-liners super-long. When I checked out the original version, the laughs were there, of course, so it seemed that for one reason or another, the Spanish version had "deleted" those laughs.

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The TV shows where I thought laughs were badly placed and not necessary were "The Love Boat" and "Eight Is Enough". I don´t know if the laughs were omitted at some point, but they were totally out of place in the latter. Now I´m watching "I Dream of Jeannie" and I love to find those laughs there, because yes, in some episodes the plot is so thin that one needs some help (not that seeing Larry and Lee Ann de la Vega together is not a treat).

It's strange that you mention THE LOVE BOAT. I saw a three-season-bundle of that show at Big Lots for fifteen dollars, and while that was a steal, I passed on it because of the laugh track. Sure, THE LOVE BOAT was loaded with guest stars that I'd personally love to see on shows, but the laugh track would bother me. I don't think of THE LOVE BOAT as a sitcom, and it's mild laugh track just bugs me. I've caught occasional reruns on MeTV, but it's not something I record or wait to watch.

I've never seen EIGHT IS ENOUGH really, but I know it has a similar laugh track. I'm sure I wouldn't like that one, either. And for similar reasons.

When watching the older sitcoms, such as I DREAM OF JEANNIE, I always go in expecting to hear the canned laughter. Outside of THE LUCY SHOW or THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, there are very few from the same period I've seen that actually use live audiences over artificial reactions. And I'm sure even those two shows "sweetened" their audience responses.

 

[ClassyCo]

To be honest Im not a fun of canned laughter on shows and half the time i used to wonder what they were actually laughing at as it wasnt THAT funny!

But US comedy shows arent really my cup of tea except from Cheers back in the day and it no longer works for me

Well, I guess I can understand that. Being American, I've naturally been raised on a healthy dose of American television shows from varying genres. There are only a handful of channels that I've had access to over the years that actually show British sitcoms. There was a time that I use to watch AS TIME GOES BY a lot, the Judi Dench show, but none of the others have ever really "clicked" with me.

I know there's a lot of hoopla around ARE YOU BEING SERVED?, but what little I've seen of it hasn't inclined me to watch more. I'm not saying it's bad, but I guess I just haven't seen enough of it to form a solid opinion.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Love Boat was indeed an odd one, straddling the fence between comedy and drama and not really excelling at either. It was not filmed in front of a studio audience so the laugh track was obviously added in ("sweetening"). The effect is similar to the laugh track they used to add to The Flintstones (you knew it did not belong there). Then again we tended to watch Love Boat for the guest stars, not the sparkling dialogue or fresh writing.

 

[ClassyCo]

Love Boat was indeed an odd one, straddling the fence between comedy and drama and not really excelling at either. It was not filmed in front of a studio audience so the laugh track was obviously added in ("sweetening"). The effect is similar to the laugh track they used to add to The Flintstones (you knew it did not belong there). Then again we tended to watch Love Boat for the guest stars, not the sparkling dialogue or fresh writing.

Yeah, THE LOVE BOAT was one of those "guest star shows", where nothing mattered but who was the celebrity guest star(s) of the week.

 

[Toni]

It's strange that you mention THE LOVE BOAT. I saw a three-season-bundle of that show at Big Lots for fifteen dollars, and while that was a steal, I passed on it because of the laugh track. Sure, THE LOVE BOAT was loaded with guest stars that I'd personally love to see on shows, but the laugh track would bother me. I don't think of THE LOVE BOAT as a sitcom, and it's mild laugh track just bugs me. I've caught occasional reruns on MeTV, but it's not something I record or wait to watch.

I've never seen EIGHT IS ENOUGH really, but I know it has a similar laugh track. I'm sure I wouldn't like that one, either. And for similar reasons.

When watching the older sitcoms, such as I DREAM OF JEANNIE, I always go in expecting to hear the canned laughter. Outside of THE LUCY SHOW or THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, there are very few from the same period I've seen that actually use live audiences over artificial reactions. And I'm sure even those two shows "sweetened" their audience responses.

I agree about the older sitcoms, I also expect laugh tracks. About "Eight Is Enough", if I remember well, they only used them in the Pilot Miniseries (yes, Lorimar did that too, partly because of Diana Hyland´s sad death) and maybe the first season. I mainly remember them in the intro scenes, with daddy Bradford handling something "funny" with one of his kids. However, the show quickly turned into a very entertaining "dramedy" and character development was number one rule. Of course, until "Dallas" became a phenomenon and they tried to inject soapiness into the last season of the show. They even included dramatic previews before the opening. I really loved the whole series, but what happened behind the scenes was what killed the show (ie the younger cast was impossible so they axed the show instead of renewing or revamping it).

I can remember that the first time I noticed those laughs coming "from nowhere" probably was when I started watching "Man About the House" (I was a little child then, go figure...). There were laughs even in the Opening!!

Those were the days....​

 

[Grant Jennings]

Unfortunately, I've spent a lot of time at doctor's offices and labs lately and I've seen more daytime TV than I can tolerate. I've noticed something possibly worse than excessive/inappropriate laugh-track use: the "applause" button. "When it comes out of the oven it looks like this!" * excessive applause * If they stopped hitting the applause button the running times of these shows would be considerably shorter. There is one up-side: Meghan McCain pausing for applause - and not getting any.

 

[ClassyCo]

I've watched some old episodes of MY LITTLE MARGIE online, and they don't have laugh tracks. It was kind of refreshing to see an old sitcom that didn't have a terribly loud laugh track inserted after practically every joke -- regardless to how "funny" it is.

What's interesting, though, is I thought I remembered the reruns I watched on ION-TV many years ago had a laugh track.

 

[ClassyCo]

Concerning laugh tracks.... It was once a necessity mandated by the TV networks that I show must have a laugh track (whether real or artificial) to be branded a comedy. That is simply not the norm anymore.

But there were some old shows that were comedies that broadcast without any sort of laughter. What were they?

JULIA, starring Diahann Carroll, was originally aired without a laugh track from 1968 to 1971, although syndicated reruns added one. THE MONKEES did their hardest to remove the laugh track from the second season of their show in the late-60s.

Anyway, what other comedy shows from the 1950s onward aired without any laugh track or live audience laughter?

 

[lost-in-time]

I couldn’t imagine something like Married… With Children without the laugh track. It’s like a character within itself on the show.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I couldn’t imagine something like Married… With Children without the laugh track. It’s like a character within itself on the show.

But that's performed in front of an actual live audience.

 

[Daniel Avery]

It's not laughter, but that particular audience reaction when a popular character enters (applause, cheering, even "barking" noises) in sitcoms is unnatural and essentially breaks the fourth wall. The earliest show I recall doing this was Happy Days, which started with Fonzie entering to applause and cheering then graduated to practically every cast member getting that treatment. Obviously Garry Marshall liked it because no one discouraged the audience from doing it, nor did they edit it out. HD only had the brief applause/reaction thing happen though, while Married With Children took it a few steps further by encouraging the hoots and hollers all during the taping. MWC was buoyed along by the generally raucous audiences who enjoyed the show's trademark lowbrow humor. People who went to watch a taping of MWC were encouraged to behave that way because....well, prudish people would not have been pleased to be there.

One interesting comparison would be two late-1970s soap opera parodies: Soap and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Soap was taped before a live audience while MH, MH was not. Both were hilarious spoofs of the soap opera genre, but whereas everyone laughed along with Soap and knew it not to be taken seriously, many viewers of MH, MH were left confused and unsure how to take its deadpan delivery with no laugh track or audience reaction. The laugh track seemed to give the audience the signal that it was okay to laugh at these people and their predicaments.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

One interesting comparison would be two late-1970s soap opera parodies: Soap and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Soap was taped before a live audience while MH, MH was not. Both were hilarious spoofs of the soap opera genre, but whereas everyone laughed along with Soap and knew it not to be taken seriously, many viewers of MH, MH were left confused and unsure how to take its deadpan delivery with no laugh track or audience reaction. The laugh track seemed to give the audience the signal that it was okay to laugh at these people and their predicaments.

Except for that DINAH SHORE SHOW appearance!!

 

[ClassyCo]

The earliest show I recall doing this was Happy Days, which started with Fonzie entering to applause and cheering then graduated to practically every cast member getting that treatment. Obviously Garry Marshall liked it because no one discouraged the audience from doing it, nor did they edit it out. HD only had the brief applause/reaction thing happen though

This started happening around mid-series for HAPPY DAYS, which ran for eleven seasons --- to the best of knowledge anyway.

When I first really started watching HAPPY DAYS, it was during the early evenings at 6:00pm (EST), when the channel INSP used to show two back-to-back episodes. During my early viewing cycle, the show was airing the later episodes, the ones after Ron Howard's departure, if memory serves me.

My point being this -- every main or semi-main character on the show got a uproar of applause from the studio audience when they entered, whether it be Fonzie, Joanie, Chachi, Mr. C, or Mrs. C. Fonzie sometimes got a loud response every time he entered a scene throughout the episode.

I have since seen early episodes of HAPPY DAYS (my collection includes a six-season bundle, which is likely all I'll ever own of the show), and I'd say these types of introductions for the characters started around the fifth season, maybe earlier --- which, I must say is a little odd, considering the fifth season contains the literal "jump the shark" episode.