Laugh track

There are two things that make films better than TV IMHO:

  1. Commercials; I know TV needs them to pay for their programing, and I know a lot of movies have product placement. In product placement, the movie makers, (or sometimes TV makers), find a natural way to display the sponsors name. Product placement seems natural, Cutting to commercial at a dramatic part of the show isn’t natural. Each 5 minutes the writers have to create a certain amount of suspense to keep you watching threw commercial. (not HBO)

  2. Laugh Tracks! I hate them. In a day and age where people don’t except or may not be able to see past unrealistic special effects, why would canned-laughter be any different. Now I know some sitcoms are not to be taken too seriously, and some have live audiences, and I can except that! It seems like TV is catching on, the following programs don’t have a laugh track: “Malcolm In The Middle”, “Undeclared”, and “Scrubs”. They are all great shows. A TV show call “Sports Night” had canned-laughter for a little while, then got rid of it because it took away from the story. Now, one of my favorite shows (I believe) is in front of a live audience and that’s “Frasier”. My question is, how much are TV shows like “Frasier” done before live audiencs and how much canned-laughter? Unlike “Cheers” Frasier moves around a lot and is SOMETIMES even outside. Do they tape the outside scenes and play it infront of the audience? If the audience doesn’t laugh as hard as TV folk would like them to laugh at a certain joke, do they add the sound of laughter? I HATE “Freinds”, anyone know how much of that show’s in front of a live audience? Is “Canned-Laughter” the right terminology?

Thanks and sorry for my spelling

I’m sorry, I posted this on the wrong boards, I meant to put it in that Cafe Society.

I’ll put it in there, but if any of you know… go for it and tell me. It’s a little too opinionated for this board.

I agree 100%

I don’t know the answers to the questions you ask, but I have often felt the same way. To me the laugh-track is lame, and spoils good shows.

The commercial part, yeah it sucks but it can’t really be avoidable. My hats off the anyone in TV biz who can make a good show dispite the limitations

Yeah… it really ruins it.

Posting the same thread in two different forums is called cross-posting and is not allowed. In the future, if you suspect you have posted in the wrong forum, e-mail a moderator to move it for you. This thread is closed. The other is http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=93251

bibliophage
moderator GQ