Thoughts on laugh tracks in sitcoms.

The creative team who developed the M*A*S*H TV series—Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds—originally did not want a laugh track at all. But the network insisted and so they compromised by at least not requiring a laugh track when they were in the OR. As mentioned above, the UK broadcast the show entirely without a laugh track.

What a revelation it was to me to get the DVDs over a decade ago and have the option of watching without the laugh track. At first it's a bit disarming if you grew up with the show originally or in syndication. But if you keep watching you groove into it and once you realize this is how the show was intended you cannot ever watch it with the laugh track again.

 

I've never understood why they didn't take the laugh track off MASH once it went into syndication...the fact that it once had it would just be a piece of trivia by now.

 

I agree.

However, I saw ‘Silent Movie’ (Mel Brooks) on Hollywood Blvd. the second or third day it was released and I swear they had a paid laffer sitting in the front.
It was a loud & unique laugh that stuck out like a sore thumb, that both started and ended after everyone else for anything that even resembled a joke throughout the whole movie.

 

I entered ‘sitcoms without laugh tracks’ in Youtube and got some interesting results.


This clip from Friends actually plays pretty well without one.


Compare that with a segment from the same clip (as seen on TV), that starts @ 1:26
(Notice that the background ambience has been toned down considerably)

Friends - "Just Married" Ross & Rachel


What's so funny about Jerry saying "please lets go"?
The laughing is somewhat the same when they're outside in the backlot.

The Soup Nazi

‘The Soup Nazi’ naked:

Seinfeld / Laugh Track Removed: Soup Nazi

 

Wait, so you don't mind dubbed in fake laughter on DVD and MTM, but can't stand a genuine live audience on Python?

 

One disclaimer I have ever yet to hear on a sitcom:
"This laugh track was filmed before a live audience."

 

I don’t mind laugh tracks. Heck, they’ve been part of my life since I started watching the tube a long time ago.

I was at a Big Bang taping in its final season. I don’t know what kind of sweetening they used on aired episodes, but the live audience laughter was real and loud.

The audience for that taping was a passionate group. They LOVED that show.

I didn’t laugh much. But I was touched by how that show seemed to touch people from all over the world. Was pretty cool.

 

30 Rock
They did live episodes a couple times with an audience present.

 

And they said, "This laugh track was filmed before a live audience"?