It's kind of funny to think that Hogan's Heroes was really the first ethnically diverse sitcom on television: in addition to Hogan himself, his team consisted of a Frenchman, an Englishman, a black man, and a Native American.
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When you need to rant...
- Thread starter Misskermie
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Muppet fan 123
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I hate laugh-tracks.
I mean, if it's so funny, why do you have to have people laughing? And where are all those people? It's not like there is an audience there, watching the show, like in The Muppet Show. The only place I'm OK with laugh tracks is The Muppet Show, becuase there is a live audience right there, it makes sense.
But these other shows, where's the laughing coming from? The camera guys?
I mean, if it's so funny, why do you have to have people laughing? And where are all those people? It's not like there is an audience there, watching the show, like in The Muppet Show. The only place I'm OK with laugh tracks is The Muppet Show, becuase there is a live audience right there, it makes sense.
But these other shows, where's the laughing coming from? The camera guys?
*Rides in on a white horse, defense at the ready*
Okay, the laugh track was developed as a means to recreate the atmosphere of watching a comedy with a group of people, as opposed to being by yourself: in the days before television, people would see comedies at the movies, or at theaters, where there would be an audience full of people, and naturally, the sounds of laughter would fill the venue, even a number of radio programs in the day were recorded/performed before an audience of some size... when it came to television on the other hand, while a small number of programs were filmed or taped before an audience, a number of them weren't. The first laugh machine (called the Laff Box, invented by sound engineer Charley Douglass) was basically meant to "sweeten" a show that had an audience, for example, in editing, sometimes two different takes would be spliced together, so the sounds of laughter would end abruptly or wouldn't match the next take, so originally, a laugh track basically helped smooth those rough cuts to make the reactions sound more smooth and natural, but pretty soon, it grew more and more: you see, live audiences were becoming too expensive in those days, but somehow, a comedy with no sounds of laughter was a handicap, so the Laff Box went from just sweetening a television program to practically replicating an audience for the show... that's why despite all these different shows being made by different companies, and airing on different networks, they all had the exact same laughs. There is the common misconception that the laugh track "tells you when to laugh", or "tells you something is funny", but that isn't the case; again, the laugh track is meant to recreate watching a comedy with other people... and let's face it, even though you may have seen something funny more than once, somehow, it's easier to laugh when you're with a group of buddies, rather than just sitting there all alone. I use a laugh track on a lot of my comedy work, and have no plans of getting rid of it anytime soon.
*Rides away, wearing a jacket with a big C.D. on the front, and a Laff Box on the back*
Okay, the laugh track was developed as a means to recreate the atmosphere of watching a comedy with a group of people, as opposed to being by yourself: in the days before television, people would see comedies at the movies, or at theaters, where there would be an audience full of people, and naturally, the sounds of laughter would fill the venue, even a number of radio programs in the day were recorded/performed before an audience of some size... when it came to television on the other hand, while a small number of programs were filmed or taped before an audience, a number of them weren't. The first laugh machine (called the Laff Box, invented by sound engineer Charley Douglass) was basically meant to "sweeten" a show that had an audience, for example, in editing, sometimes two different takes would be spliced together, so the sounds of laughter would end abruptly or wouldn't match the next take, so originally, a laugh track basically helped smooth those rough cuts to make the reactions sound more smooth and natural, but pretty soon, it grew more and more: you see, live audiences were becoming too expensive in those days, but somehow, a comedy with no sounds of laughter was a handicap, so the Laff Box went from just sweetening a television program to practically replicating an audience for the show... that's why despite all these different shows being made by different companies, and airing on different networks, they all had the exact same laughs. There is the common misconception that the laugh track "tells you when to laugh", or "tells you something is funny", but that isn't the case; again, the laugh track is meant to recreate watching a comedy with other people... and let's face it, even though you may have seen something funny more than once, somehow, it's easier to laugh when you're with a group of buddies, rather than just sitting there all alone. I use a laugh track on a lot of my comedy work, and have no plans of getting rid of it anytime soon.
*Rides away, wearing a jacket with a big C.D. on the front, and a Laff Box on the back*
Hubert
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Here is my rant regarding laugh tracks: Don't get me wrong, I love laugh tracks. I absolutely love them, and basically (yet again) agree with everything D'Snowth said above. But I have noticed in recent years that laugh tracks sound so unnatural. Like it actually sounds like you just put a bunch of sounds together and call it a laugh. I feel like the humanity of laugh tracks has suddenly come out of them...they just sound so fake. Like, I can't even believe that I'm laughing with a bunch of people.
A lot of it has to do with how different sitcoms are today as opposed to 30, 40, and even 50 years ago; sitcoms of yesteryears were a lot "bigger" and more "outlandish", they had a lot going for them as far as humor goes, there was a lot more character antics, physical comedy, and in the cases of fantasy-based sitcoms like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, etc, you had a LOT of outrageous and unbelievable sight gags, and in addition to shows like that, because of all of the outlandish and unbelievable things that happen, you didn't just hear laughter, you also heard other reactions, such as "Oohs" and "Ahhs", and in some cases, even great cries of astonishment (in the case of The Munsters, there were a LOT of "WHHOOAAA!!!s", a couple of which I have in my own library).
Sitcoms today, on the other hand, are (supposedly) a lot more "sophisticated" and "intelligent", they no longer have the great wacky antics, or the boiterous sight gags that sitcoms of yesteryears had, they rely a lot more on realism, and the humor is more cereberal; because of that, those big and joyful laughs you heard on classic sitcoms would actually sound forced and un-natural on today's more sophisticated sitcoms, which is why most laugh tracks today are really droll and more subdued.
Interestingly enough, a friend of mine recently experimented with laughing up an episode of Modern Family (he too has a large library of the classic 60s and 70s laughs like I do), while the laugh track made a world of difference, since the show is one of those "intelligent" and "sophisticated" sitcoms, he had utilize his softer/quieter chuckles for the most part.
EDIT: Actually, the whole "sophistication process" started as early as the 80s... I remember an interview with Charley Douglass' protege Carroll Pratt (who had his own Laff Box by the late 70s), saying that what was considered funny in the 50s and 60s was rather hokey in the 80s. In fact, take a listen to these:
They're both the exact same Pink Panther cartoon, however the first one was broadcasted on television in the mid-70s, and the second version is from a newer broadcast in the early 80s: notice the difference in the laughter used on both, the first sounds like an episode of M*A*S*H, the second you can barely hear any laughter at all because of how muted and toned down it is.
Sitcoms today, on the other hand, are (supposedly) a lot more "sophisticated" and "intelligent", they no longer have the great wacky antics, or the boiterous sight gags that sitcoms of yesteryears had, they rely a lot more on realism, and the humor is more cereberal; because of that, those big and joyful laughs you heard on classic sitcoms would actually sound forced and un-natural on today's more sophisticated sitcoms, which is why most laugh tracks today are really droll and more subdued.
Interestingly enough, a friend of mine recently experimented with laughing up an episode of Modern Family (he too has a large library of the classic 60s and 70s laughs like I do), while the laugh track made a world of difference, since the show is one of those "intelligent" and "sophisticated" sitcoms, he had utilize his softer/quieter chuckles for the most part.
EDIT: Actually, the whole "sophistication process" started as early as the 80s... I remember an interview with Charley Douglass' protege Carroll Pratt (who had his own Laff Box by the late 70s), saying that what was considered funny in the 50s and 60s was rather hokey in the 80s. In fact, take a listen to these:
Mo Frackle
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Extreme nitpicking, I know, but closed captioning errors drive me insane. Sure, there's the usual error that occurs when the captioning isn't familiar with a certain TV show, and therefore (whenever an off-screen character speaks), the captioning will give that character the generic title of "Man", "Woman", etc.
I remember watching the ending of the second Fairly Odd Parents/Jimmy Neutron cross-over, when the main characters are dancing to the music of Chip Skylark. For some reason, the captioning referred to Chip as a woman.
And there was an episode of "That's So Raven" in which Raven said her usual catchphrase, "Oh snap!" (at least I think that's what she was saying). Rather than "snap", the CC brings up another word that I'd rather not mention on here.
The "I'm With Stupid" episode of SpongeBob has a scene in which Patrick tells his phony parents that every morning SpongeBob runs around yelling "I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready". The CC states that Patrick is saying "Harmony! Harmony! Harmony!".
And let's not forget those subtitle goofs on the old Columbia/Tri Star DVD release of The Muppet Movie. The mistakes that come to mind are referring Lew as "Luke", stating that a line in 'I'm Going to Go Back There Someday' is "We can hold on to young like invisible strings", and Animal saying "Chugga! Chugga!" while the gang arrive at the Ghost Town.
I remember watching the ending of the second Fairly Odd Parents/Jimmy Neutron cross-over, when the main characters are dancing to the music of Chip Skylark. For some reason, the captioning referred to Chip as a woman.
And there was an episode of "That's So Raven" in which Raven said her usual catchphrase, "Oh snap!" (at least I think that's what she was saying). Rather than "snap", the CC brings up another word that I'd rather not mention on here.
The "I'm With Stupid" episode of SpongeBob has a scene in which Patrick tells his phony parents that every morning SpongeBob runs around yelling "I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready". The CC states that Patrick is saying "Harmony! Harmony! Harmony!".
And let's not forget those subtitle goofs on the old Columbia/Tri Star DVD release of The Muppet Movie. The mistakes that come to mind are referring Lew as "Luke", stating that a line in 'I'm Going to Go Back There Someday' is "We can hold on to young like invisible strings", and Animal saying "Chugga! Chugga!" while the gang arrive at the Ghost Town.
Closed-captioning drives me nuts too... I don't know if it's still an issue today like it has been, but SST is notorious for really poor captioning... I guess they figure most kids can't really read captioning too well, because the captioning for SST was VERY simplistic and condensed compared to the actual dialogue.
Talk about an epic mis-spelling though: years ago, I picked up on a really epic typo in a caption, where a character was supposed to be laughing in an awkward manner, which ended up being captioned as "[Laughing awkwardyardely]". Seriously.
And while we're on the subject, sometimes DVD subtitles are pretty bad too... any DVD manufactured by Fox is really bad, a lot of times if there's a song in a movie or something, they don't even bother subtitling the lyrics, they just usually put "[Singing]", or little musical notes to indicate singing... really annoying.
Talk about an epic mis-spelling though: years ago, I picked up on a really epic typo in a caption, where a character was supposed to be laughing in an awkward manner, which ended up being captioned as "[Laughing awkwardyardely]". Seriously.
And while we're on the subject, sometimes DVD subtitles are pretty bad too... any DVD manufactured by Fox is really bad, a lot of times if there's a song in a movie or something, they don't even bother subtitling the lyrics, they just usually put "[Singing]", or little musical notes to indicate singing... really annoying.
When it comes to laugh tracks, I'm mixed.
On the one hand, they worked perfectly for older sitcoms.... but nowadays, I kinda like the movement away from the Laugh track to make TV sitcoms look more theatrical.
The problem lies not in the fact that it's obsolete... it's been exhausted by UNFUNNY shows like every single 2000 era sitcom on ABC. And for a more recent example, watch the hideously terrible sitcom Whitney, and listen to the "live studio audience" forcibly laugh at every exchange.
I remember hearing Andy Griffith hated live studio audience laughs because there was more time spent on making jokes than on actual storyline. And that was back in the 60's.
The thing it, a laugh track/live audience works for certain kinds , and doesn't for others. A laugh track on The Office, My Name is Earl, or Raising Hope would take you out of the moment. Those shows are supposed to look theatrical and become 20 minute a week movies with commercial breaks. The Office especially. It owes a LOT to the Christopher Guest documentary films (even it's earliest British version). But the laugh track is BACK with shows like 2 Broke Girls and everything Chuck Lorre does (well, maybe not 2.5 Men currently).
Then there's the strange case of How I Met your Mother. A Show that doesn't need a Laugh track, has one anyway, and I keep forgetting it does.
HIMYM found the balance between deep character growth AND making laugh track worthy quips that don't take you out of the moment.
That said, rewatching my FAVORITE sitcom of all time, Get Smart, it didn't need the laugh track. It has a beautiful mix of action and comedy. Heck, I'd say it works better than the Naked Gun movies, and I LOVE those too.
On the one hand, they worked perfectly for older sitcoms.... but nowadays, I kinda like the movement away from the Laugh track to make TV sitcoms look more theatrical.
The problem lies not in the fact that it's obsolete... it's been exhausted by UNFUNNY shows like every single 2000 era sitcom on ABC. And for a more recent example, watch the hideously terrible sitcom Whitney, and listen to the "live studio audience" forcibly laugh at every exchange.
I remember hearing Andy Griffith hated live studio audience laughs because there was more time spent on making jokes than on actual storyline. And that was back in the 60's.
The thing it, a laugh track/live audience works for certain kinds , and doesn't for others. A laugh track on The Office, My Name is Earl, or Raising Hope would take you out of the moment. Those shows are supposed to look theatrical and become 20 minute a week movies with commercial breaks. The Office especially. It owes a LOT to the Christopher Guest documentary films (even it's earliest British version). But the laugh track is BACK with shows like 2 Broke Girls and everything Chuck Lorre does (well, maybe not 2.5 Men currently).
Then there's the strange case of How I Met your Mother. A Show that doesn't need a Laugh track, has one anyway, and I keep forgetting it does.
HIMYM found the balance between deep character growth AND making laugh track worthy quips that don't take you out of the moment.
That said, rewatching my FAVORITE sitcom of all time, Get Smart, it didn't need the laugh track. It has a beautiful mix of action and comedy. Heck, I'd say it works better than the Naked Gun movies, and I LOVE those too.
Hubert
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Follow-up on my original laugh track comment: I think that I'm noticing more recent stuff is actually forcing laughs, half the time because they don't think the show is funny enough. Which is what I don't like. It seems like laugh tracks are sometimes almost used as an excuse for shows to be less funny.
That was All those terrible ABC sitcoms. My Wife and Kids (unfunny), 8 Simple Rules (unfunny), Hope and Faith (unfunny), According to Jim (howlingly unfunny and slightly homophobic).
Not to mention (I'm not going to make friends here) overrated, loud, shrill, Will and Grace as well. Not too keen on Friends, either.
But the thing is, you can TOTALLY notice the laugh track is forced on bad jokes on a bad sitcom. But, let's face it. If any show or movie is bad, the flaws are extremely obvious. You can see obvious TV Tropes when a show is lame enough... but you'll ignore the fact they use the same tropes on a good show or at least one you're too busy being happily entertained. Muppet Babies is COMPLETELY trope filled as far as the main cast goes. Most of the characters are basically the same tropes of the 1980's gang of kids shows (Get Along Gang, Pink Panther and Sons... etc)... but you don't notice it, because the show is actually good.