I was totally weirded out as a kid due to MAS*H. I mostly grew up in Michigan, then we had a stint in Canada, then back to Michigan. I started watching MASH in Canada, then when we went back to Michigan, I was totally weirded out by the laugh track. That was the weirdest shit ever to me. Especially when I saw re-runs of episodes I had already seen.
There’s not really a difference to me, the end result is the same. And you’re probably right that I’m missing out, from what I’ve heard it’s the kind of show I would like. But I can’t help it, I will notice every single time there is laughter and the actors pause for it to die down. In a talk show like The Daily Show or a SNL skit I’m ok with that, but for anything trying to tell a story the laughter just takes me out of it.
I don’t mind the waiting for the studio laughter bit, especially when it’s a talented actor who makes it invisible. That’s what happens in live theater, after all. Seems very natural to me, but then I love seeing plays and musicals. I believe that’s what the purpose of the studio audience was – to replicate the experience of attending live comedies, where mutual laughter is infectious.
Depends on where you saw it. The version I saw first in America had a laugh track added. And it was horrid. I’ve seen two versions of the same show, one with, one without, depending on who was broadcasting it.
I’d like a cite on this. I can’t believe Lionheart (BBC material distributors back in the day) would have paid for a new “laugh-track” to be added to a show that already had a live audience laugh track. There was already enough cackling - what would have been the compelling reason to do such a thing?
Can’t stand it 99% of the time. The very few exceptions are when the writing and acting of the show are so funny that my mind is able to block out the canned laughter - often because I’m laughing myself before the laugh track starts, and end up not noticing it. Of recent sitcoms, this is pretty much limited to Sports Night and How I Met Your Mother (the latter being one of the best television comedies created in the past ten years - well worth overlooking the laugh track for, if you haven’t seen it).
In general, though, I much prefer the 30 Rock/ The Office style of modern sitcoms, which avoid the laugh track like the plague.
Ditto, what would have been the point of removing the real laughs and adding a new canned laugh track? And for that matter, how can you tell (unless the track was unusually egregious)?
Again, I think maybe some people are confusing live audience laughter with a laugh track. They are not interchangeable. Though some live audience reactions are later “sweetened” – either filled in our lowered in volume, depending on the necessity. But there are still humans reacting naturally to what’s on screen.
Many times, actors prefer the live audience; I think the performances are often improved by the “juice” of playing to others. On the News Radio DVD commentaries, Maura Tierney and I think Dave Foley make mention of how much they disliked working on the sets where the audience was blocked and not able to see them (IIRC the break room and elevator/lobby sets are examples of this).
Nowadays I don’t like laugh tracks. But I don’t even notice it on MASH* anymore. I think that was a particularly well-done use of a track, generally pretty subtle. And they did without it whenever possible, during surgery and for more serious scenes.
I had the same experience with How I Met Your Mother. And when I learned the reason why they don’t have a studio audience, it made even more sense. Though I think it might have been better suited as a single-camera show, and without a laugh track.
A live audience on a comedy skit show, I don’t mind. Mr. Show, SNL, Python, etc. What I can’t take is canned laughter on a conventional non-skit sitcom like Cheers, Roseanne, whatever.
ABC accidentally posted the show Roommates on their site minus its laugh track. Sadly, it’s been fixed, but when it was up it was an amazing example of the difference between a comedy made without a laugh track and a comedy mad without a laugh track but the intent to plug one in. Awkward all around.
Am I the only person in the world that actually enjoys laugh tracks or audience participation? A show without one can be funny, of course, but if I want consistent belly laughs, hearing someone else do it makes it a whole lot more likely. Very few shows can pull off having every joke be hilarious.
Those of you who can’t stand it–does that mean you can’t watch TV with someone? Why don’t their laughs pull you out?
See, this is the root of the problem for me. If I hear the canned audience laughing, but I felt like the joke was bad, obvious, or flopped on delivery, then I’m annoyed, and the laugh track makes it worse. MASH* having a laugh track doesn’t bother me, but Big Bang Theory does.
I assume in Canada, they had no laugh track? They didn’t in Europe when the show aired.
As far as I can tell, it was the local station adding canned laughter to parts. I don’t know why. I really don’t know why. And yes, there was overlap. But at least it was Python. Sadly, I can’t cite the 1970s.
A laugh track does not make or break a sitcom for me. If a show’s good a laugh track is irrelevant. If a show stinks a laugh track isn’t going to rescue it. A laugh track is so common nowadays that it’s become background noise to me.
I can watch TV with somebody with no problem. It doesn’t bother me in movies when the audience is laughing and my own laughter doesn’t take me out of it either. But when I’m watching a show on TV I’m paying attention to the show and I just notice the laugh track every time it comes up and it just doesn’t fit what I think I’m supposed to be hearing. Imagine if instead of a laugh track a big —> 
<— appeared on screen every time they told a joke. A laugh track is just as annoying to me as that would be*.
*Edit: I may exaggerate, the smiley would be much more annoying than a laugh track, but it’s the same idea, I think.
No, in Canada we have no laughter.
It’s not polite.
Those were all live audiences. Remember the voice over: “Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience”
And I agree with the previous poster that the intent is to capture the feeling of being at a live theater.
Oh; I never caught more than a few minutes of it without turning it off. I guess it has something to do with being a skit show vs. otherwise. I really do not mind laugh tracks in skits. Maybe I just don’t find sitcoms to be funny at all?
One plus of being a child of 1970s, when everything had a laugh track, is the development of the ability to completely tune it out. I don’t remember until someone points it out that How I Met Your Mother has a laugh track, for example.