The new TV season

That was *their *story, but I suspect the studio audience got up and quietly fled after ten minutes, so they had to fill in with a laff-track lifted from a 1967 episode of I Dream of Jeannie.

For the TV viewer at home, the distinction is essentially meaningless. And for me, it still makes for shit television. I’ve been spoiled by all the good comedy shows that manage to get by without it, and these days i can barely watch a show with a laugh track or studio audience.

I sometimes make exceptions for older shows where it’s unavoidable (Seinfeld, Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous, etc.), but a new show that has one would have to be incredibly good to even get me to continue watching after that first annoying burst of audience laughter.

I watched “New Girl”. It was way worse than “Whitney”.

So far this season not one good new sitcom. Well, except for “Happy Endings”, which is reasonable, but it came out earlier.

If Charlies Angels lasts more than two months, I will be astonished. It has ‘bomb’ written all over it.

I watched The X-Factor for the first time last night, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. I’m one of ‘those’ who liked watching American Idol just to hear Simon.

Is Happy Endings coming back? I saw that one of Damon Wayans Jr. on *New Girl *and wondered…

Yes. It is.
The producers of The New Girl didn’t really expect it to (and apparently, neither did Damon Wayans Jr.), so they went ahead with him in the pilot. In future episodes Lamorne Morris will be part of the cast.

I watched it and I was puzzled. If Simon wanted to just do American Idol, why didn’t he stay there? The formula looks identical up to and including the disastrous auditions of the extremely self-deluded. The only difference is that they didn’t seem to restrict the age group of the talent (and I use the term “talent” very lightly).

I think a big part of it is that Simon Cowell owns The X Factor, and he was just an employee (although a very highly paid one) of American Idol.

I wonder why they didn’t expect it to. Happy Endings is a lot better than “The New Girl”. Everything - the premise, the actors and the writing.

Shows are a crap shoot - lots of good ones sometimes tank for whatever reason.

I think Casey Wilson is my newest favorite normal looking girl. Never saw her on anything before this, and seeing that she was on SNL I try not to hold it against her.

-Joe

I liked “Prime Suspect” myself. I’ve always liked Maria Bello.

Even though I think she is absolutely stunning, I really just couldn’t bring myself to watch it.

I loved New Girl. I expect it to tail off, but I literally LOL’d at the pilot.

Re: Terra Nova … I have a suspicion that they’ll use up all their CGI special fx budget in the pilot, and then it’ll be people sitting around discussing their personal relationships and talking about dinosaurs.

My wife had the first episode of that Playboy show playing On Demand. I don’t know who the character was but there’s some guy who enters an office and places down a car key and $10 bill before sitting and lighting a cigarette. He was so desperately wishing that he could be Jon Hamm in his mannerisms and style that I had to leave the room in sympathy for him.

Most of the current comedies that I like don’t have a laugh track/studio audience, but I do occasionally watch The Big Bang Theory and the laughing doesn’t bother me on that.

However, the instant the laughing started up on Whitney I went “What the hell is this?” It seemed really out of place on NBC’s Thursday night lineup, where it’s surrounded by comedies without laugh tracks. I found the laughing so irritating (not sure if it was really worse than on shows like Big Bang Theory or if it just seemed worse in contrast to the other Thursday NBC shows) that I turned the show off pretty quickly. It didn’t seem very funny anyway, but I probably would have left it on in the background while I checked the SDMB if not for the obnoxious laughing.

Parks and Recreation has a laugh track…but it seldomly gives the audience anything to laugh at.

I gave A Gifted Man a try tonight. It’s a cross between House MD and Ghost Whisperer. I enjoyed the House aspects, but the ghost story deters from the show. It would work better as a straight medical show about a jerkish neurosurgeon, imho.

You’re acting like a real jerk right now.

As for me, I’ll be in the minority who is excited about The New Girl. I thought the first episode was great. I wish we’d had a Douchebag Jar back in college when I was rooming with five dudes.

Terra Nova, sounds interesting, I could see it going either way. It may very well get off to a shaky start and take off.

Glee, I already missed the Season Premiere but I am a fan, so I’m sure I will catch up.
**
Raising Hope** - definitely will keep up.

Are you thinking of the right show? Parks and Recreation is filmed similarly to The Office. (In fact it was originally planned on being a spinoff show.) There is no laugh track or an implied audience.
Maybe you watched with people who have a better sense of humor than you and you took their uproarious laughter at such a funny show to be canned? (ha ha.)
I actually had a similar conversation about Whitney with a friend. I said “I hate the laugh track” she said “It’s not a laugh track. It’s taped in front of a live audience.” She’s right, of course. But, it doesn’t matter. Even when they film it in front of an audience they sweeten the laughter. If a joke doesn’t get the appropriate amount of laughs they’ll take reactions from other parts of the show and pipe them in. All shows do it. Going by my reaction to Whitney, it required it more than most.

It’s funny. I had never heard of Whitney Cummings before this year. And, now she has two shows on the air. After watching ads for her self named show all summer I couldn’t imagine it being any good. 2 Broke Girls was so good that I decided to give Whitney a chance. I didn’t like it as much.

I think this year’s crop of new shows has been good. I’ve really liked New Girl, Person of Interest, and 2 Broke Girls. I thought Pan Am and Revenge were pretty good, worth seeing where they go with it. I thought the Ringer and Lying Games are pretty much the same show. They are the same awful show and I still have enjoyed them (I should read The Prince and the Pauper. Maybe I’ll like it even better when it’s done well.) I’m looking forward to seeing that Patrick Wilson show. i missed it last week. I thought Prime Suspect had some good acting, but took itself way too seriously and didn’t seem like it would turn into anything especially good. Not especially bad, either. Which is a shame, because I did enjoy the performances. I thought Playboy Club was laughably bad. And, I thought Charlie’s Angels was just bad.

That was a woosh (like what they have on Big Bang Theory). Nobody actually thinks P&R is funny, they just have to pretend it’s funny to avoid sounding unsophisticated.

I gave Prime Suspect a try. I don’t see this show lasting past the initial order. There are already way too many cop shows, and this just doesn’t add anything to make it stand out from the others.

fusoya, Now, I’m sure you are thinking of the wrong show. No one who enjoys a show that calls bathrooms “whizz palaces” could ever think they sound sophisticated.

Yeah, that’s the other point against Prime Suspect. It doesn’t set itself apart from the myriad of other cops shows out there. Set in the same city, no less.