There are two things that make films better than TV IMHO:
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)
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?
I’d have to say that the worst part is when the show is actually NOT funny, but yet the laugh track is laughing hysterically. If it IS funny, the laughter doesn’t sound quite as bad (to me).
There was an episode of ST:TNG like this, where Data was trying to figure out humor, so he programmed a comedy club into the holodeck and started doing some material. He thought he was doing good because the audience was laughing, but then he gradually figured out that the audience was PROGRAMMED to laugh at everything he did, regardless of if is was meant to be funny or not.
That would be just like the laugh tracks on sitcoms, I think.
Here’s a great game for you to play at home, alone or with friends: Gather around for an episode of The Brady Bunch (it can be any sitcom, but I’ve found this one works pretty consistently) and try to see who can laugh along with the laugh track the most times. It’s pretty tough. There are “jokes” in there that you would never know are jokes without the laugh track.