M*A*S*H laugh tracks.

The fourth season of MASH was released today and a copy followed me home. I love this show. Groucho was probably proud of the word play they absorbed from him.

Anyway, I noticed one episode didn't have a laugh track. There's usually an option to turn the laugh track on or off but it wasn't available on this episode. I happened to have seen it yesterday on FX and noticed there wasn't a laugh track then. That's okay, it was a rather serious episode. But, I am watching a "funny" episode and there's no laugh track (no option for one either). Did they experiment with leaving the laughter off? I never noticed it before but it really makes this one drag (it's a colonel Flag episode).

 

I remember when this episode aired, and it seemed stiff and unfunny to me then. I've switched off the fake laughter from the season 1 set that I own, and I've found that I do not like it that way. Give me the phony guffaws!

 

I remember a series of Get Smart where they left out the laugh track.

Makes you find the jokes unassisted. Very interesting concept!

 

That is, like most comedy cinema...., hoping the audience just might figure it out.



ED

 

I believe that the MASH TV series might have been aired in some coutnries without the laugh track. I have seen episodes with and without the laugh track - I prefer it without. It's such a funny show, and the humour is so unexpected at times, that the canned laughter upsets the flow, IMO.

 

Quite right Ed!

Still it was a shock to the system on late 60s TV.

 

Absolutely right!


The jolly old BBC, here in the UK never played the laugh track.

Now the repeats are on satellite TV (Paramount, I think) they have laugh tracks and they sound very wierd!!!

I've just bought Season One and have to listen to the clean track!



Nobby.

 

I've never been a huge MASH fan, and the laugh track was one of the reasons. It just seemed odd and out of place. I mean, here they are, in the middle of Korea, obviously not on a soundstage many times and you're brain is trying to put the sound of a studio audience in with the action.

With a comedy like Seinfeld, you know that people are sitting there watching the filming and laughing along.

 

Jamie, which episode lacks the laugh track option? I remember there were a few episodes were this was intentional...

Todd

 

Didn't the producers of M*A*S*H* at some point lobby to stop using the laugh track altogether? Perhaps this was when they finally got their way.

 

That's right, the OR scenes were always presented sans laughs. At least one episode took place entirely within the OR, so there wouldn't have been any laugh track for that one.

 

I think I remember the two-hour series finale having no laugh track. It played more like a real movie than a fake sitcom.
My sister and I watched it together when we were kids and I remember thinking it was cool that the canned laughter was gone. There were some good laughs in the first half and even as kids we didn't need the silly laugh track.
Interesting thoughts though about the validity of that sound effect. I guess it also depends on what you're used too seeing. There seemed to be quite a lot of single camera shows with fake laughter made during the 60s and 70s. Can you imagine if they added fake giggles to something like Malcolm in the Middle ? Blech!!

Dan C

 

One episode was presented entirely from the first-person perspective of a wounded soldier. They obviously didn't use the laugh track for that one; where would the guffaws have come from, inside the guy's head?

 

Yes, the produces never wanted a laugh track for MASH. The network insisted on having one, so they compromised by having a laugh track in all but the operating room scenes. Later, when the show got successful and the producers had more pull, they did a handful of episodes (the documentary for example) sans laugh track.

 

I read Larry Gilbert's book and the laugh track was a huge issue. CBS wanted it and they didn't. That's why a lot of countries got the show sans the laugh track. This same problem occured with Northern Exposure but the producers had more pull and used the MASH debate to have more pull....

 

whenever I hear a laugh track I just have to think of some poor guy sitting in a studio somewhere with his hand on a volume controll turn it uuuuup then dooooown uuuup and dooown. What a job.

 

Actually, while most in-studio sitcoms do sweaten the sound in a manner much like you describe, most shows do mic the audience and use their actual laughter as the basic laugh track. Obviously MASH wasn't filmed before a live audience, so the laugh track is more obvious and objectionable.

 

Gary, I'm not sure. One thing I do know is that I really can't stand fake laugh tracks. Sometimes I can tune them out but when I can't it's almost like a propaganda torture device!!

Todd

 

There was online article somewhere about the DVD release of "Mash" and it mentions sumpin' about the laugh track. I think a link to it was posted here in fact, someone check the archives.

I wonder how many sitcoms would be revealed as unfunny if they took out the laugh track, it's like a cruch. a lot I'm sure.

 

Here's what I want to know - who thought it was a good idea to include laugh tracks on Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons? I'm glad they removed the laugh tracks (as much as they could) in the '90s.

 

Was it the episode where a bombadeer thought he was Jesus Christ? The laugh track didn't appear when the episode aired. It was probably deemed inappropriate considering the subject matter.

Brian

 

Sure was. Now that I've been paying attention to it there's several other, more serious episodes where they didn't include a laugh track.

 

I believe that the episode where Hawkeye was wounded and was doctored by a Korean family is another sans laugh track. That's the episode where Hawkeye makes a string of puns on their pet ox (Wizard of Ox, Cow Green is my Valley IIRC). Also, the last fourth season episode done in black and white The Interview, which I believe was the last episode that Larry Gelbart wrote.

I personally stopped my collection with the third season. I thought Abyssinia Henry where Henry Blake dies was a good cutoff for me. Despite the fact that I loved Mash after the cast changes.

Interesting thought...they had Mike Farrell grow this bushy moustache after the fifth season. I wonder if that was to make him look like Elliott Gould from the movie M*A*S*H even though they played different characters. Also, David Ogden Stiers seemed to remind me of Robert Duvall from the movie as well, even though they also played different characters.

Just a thought....

Brian