# History of "this show filmed in front of a live studio audience"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-this-show-filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience/549838 "2010-08-10T16:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-this-show-filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience/549838/21 "2014-07-06T20:27:45Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Y’know, I’ve tried to watch MASH without the laugh track. Except for the episodes that they specifically left one off (which tended to be more serious anyway) it just didn’t sound right to me. I’m too used to it. > > Proclamations of my extreme lameness will be accepted in due humility. No, I understand. One of the Gilligan’s Island movies were done without a laugh track. It was a bizarre experience. I think the Brady Bunch movies ingeniously got around that by musical cues or puzzled looks from the ‘modern characters’ ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-this-show-filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience/549838/22 "2014-07-07T02:45:00Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > …A show that has a live studio audiences is to television what a play is to a movie. (Work with me here.) When you have a live studio audience, you are limited to indoor sets, fewer sets, and you have to plan the shoot so the audience can see what you are doing. These are similar limitations to live theatre, with the exception being that in theatre, you don’t get to do re-takes… Although **I Love Lucy** was never actually broadcast live the early episodes were filmed exactly like a play was being performed, in real time, for the audience. This was very exhausting for the performs and Arnaz quickly realized that the audience would wait tru “intermissions” while the sets were changed and the actors changed costumes. Later one the show did experiment with location shooting and filmed inserts. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-this-show-filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience/549838/23 "2014-07-07T19:40:04Z")
Most drama and light entertainment (in England, at any rate) was done that way for many years, and audiences accepted props that did not quite work the way they had been supposed to or people fluffing their lines and strange noises happening off. Filmed inserts gave the cast time to get over to the next set and change their costumes if needed. Shows like _Bilko_ and _I Love Lucy_ were filmed with three cameras simultaneously covering three different angles and the result was high quality (technically) television, but it was very expensive as you never used more than a third of what you shot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-this-show-filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience/549838.md?page=1)