# Has a TV show ever switched from single camera to multi camera (or vice versa) during its run? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 21, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310 "2025-04-21T15:19:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310/1 "2025-04-21T15:19:50Z")
I have vague memories of a TV show ditching the live audience and going to single-camera during its run, but I’ll be damned if I can think of it. Has this ever happened? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310/2 "2025-04-21T15:22:23Z")
_Happy Days_ started out as single-camera, no audience, and a laugh track. After testing filming before a live audience for a Season 2 episode, the show was then filmed three-camera, with a live audience, from Season 3 on. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310/3 "2025-04-21T15:36:46Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > _Happy Days_ started out as single-camera, no audience, and a laugh track. _The Odd Couple_ did the same thing. > **['The Odd Couple': Why the Show's First Season Looks and Feels Different](https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/odd-couple-shows-first-season-looks-feels-different.html/)** > > 'The Odd Couple' was a beloved sitcom with a story that spanned the big screen and small screen — here's why the first season seems different. And so did the show _Up All Night_ decades later. > **[Up All Night Will Switch to Traditional Multi-Cam Sitcom After Extended...](https://tvline.com/news/up-all-night-will-switch-to-traditional-multi-cam-sitcom-376168/)** > > NBC‘s Up All Night is shifting comedic gears, converting from a single-camera comedy (à la Modern Family) to a traditional multi-cam sitcom (in the style of The Big Bang Theory) come spring 2013. RELATED | Up All Night Casts Alphas Beauty as Ava’s... But I can’t find an example of the opposite; a show that started multi-camera and switched to single-camera. From what I’m reading, multi-camera is easier, so it’s unlikely for a show to change to make it harder (my speculation). ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310/4 "2025-04-21T15:44:07Z")
I know they’re not _exactly_ the same show, but Young Sheldon was shot single camera and the follow-up series George and Mandy’s First Marriage (which is essentially Young Sheldon without Sheldon or his dad) is your typical three camera sitcom with laugh track. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310/5 "2025-04-21T15:47:12Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But I can’t find an example of the opposite; a show that started multi-camera and switched to single-camera. From what I’m reading, multi-camera is easier, so it’s unlikely for a show to change to make it harder (my speculation). The Drew Carey Show switched from multi-cam to single-cam in it’s final season. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-tv-show-ever-switched-from-single-camera-to-multi-camera-or-vice-versa-during-its-run/1017310/6 "2025-04-21T15:53:19Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > The Drew Carey Show switched from multi-cam to single-cam in it’s final season. According to this article, it was only parts of some episodes in the final season, the show itself didn’t completely change. > **[‘The Drew Carey Show’ will go quietly](https://www.today.com/popculture/drew-carey-show-will-go-quietly-wbna4873625)** > > The sitcom has been on for nine years, but ABC buried the show in the schedule, making it almost impossible for viewers to find. > Producers had a little fun, took some chances. Parts of some episodes were shot in a single-camera format, without an audience, instead of the three-camera format before a live audience seen on most sitcoms. But still, that’s a pretty good example, because prior to that they were solidly a three-camera show, and decided to switch it up a bit near the end of the run.