Was TMS shot in front of a live audience?

[D'Snowth]

Okay, I got the Muppet Show Season 1 DVD for Christmas (fuzzy case-fyi). This is my first-time ever seeing actual half-hour episode of TMS, and have a question...was TMS shot in front of a live audience?!

 

[theprawncracker]

No. Plain and simple. It's a laugh track, and sometimes it's the laughter of the crew watching.

 

[sugarbritchez]

Maybe a live Muppet Audience........*smile*

 

[Beauregard]

Well, naturally, nothing but the best live muppets are brought in to fill those awkward moments of silence.

 

[sugarbritchez]

Yeah Beau should know! LOL

 

[D'Snowth]

No. Plain and simple. It's a laugh track, and sometimes it's the laughter of the crew watching.

Those are some of the most live audience-sounding laugh tracks I ever heard!

 

[Beauregard]

Live-audience composed of foam, no less, to sound authentic they made the people who performed in the laugh-track recording put their hands in the air ala Miss Piggy and Kermit.

 

[OverUnderAround]

Okay, I got the Muppet Show Season 1 DVD for Christmas (fuzzy case-fyi).

I'm curious about the fuzzy case.
Every single Muppet Show season one DVD box set I have seen has been just cardboard packaging.

Was this fuzzy packaging a special edition or something?
Beside being fuzzy was there anything else that set it apart from the cardboard box version I've seen?

 

[MrsPepper]

No, OverUnderAround, the only thing that is different, is that the green part on the front of the case feels a bit fuzzy. That's all. I think it originally depended on where you bought your set.

Yeah, DS, everyone's right. It's a laugh-track. However, as the series progresses, the quality of the laugh-track increses. I find that the laughing feels much more natural in the later-season episodes than it does in the first. But it's still pretty good.
Also, interesting tidbit: The Steve Martin episode (I believe it's season two, someone correct me if I'm wrong) has no laugh-track. In this episode, Kermit has cancelled the show and scheduled auditions for new acts. Steve Martin was scheduled to be on the show that night and is a bit disgruntled that he isn't, and he 'auditions' with a few of his acts, like the Balloon Animals, and two acts where he plays the banjo. Also, everyone is nervous that they will be replaced, so everyone tried to stop acts that would be their 'replacements' from finishing their acts. It's great fun. But the laughter is actually the laughter of the cast and crew. Since there is no audience in the episode, there is no laugh track! Cool, eh?

 

[Beauregard]

I think that "Yes, we have no bananas" is from that show. I remember the laughter being very different in that.