Laugh track: Difference between revisions

A laugh track, laughter soundtrack, laughter track, LFN (laughter from nowhere), canned laughter or a laughing audience is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into TV comedy shows and sitcoms. The first television show to incorporate a laugh track was The Hank McCune Show in 1950.^[1]

Before television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members. Television producers attempted to recreate this atmosphere in its early days by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack of television programs. However, live audiences could not be counted on to laugh at the correct moment. Other times, the audiences could laugh too long or too loud, sounding unnatural and forced.^[2] CBS sound engineer Charles Douglass noticed these, as he put it, "God-awful" responses, and took it upon himself to remedy the situation.^[3] If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass inserted additional laughter. If the live audience chuckled for too long, Douglass gradually muted the guffaws. This editing technique became known as sweetening, in which pre-recorded laughter is used to augment the response of the real studio audience if they did not react as strongly as desired.^[3] Douglass eventually spent countless hours extracting laughter, applause, and other reactions from live soundtracks he had recorded (mainly from the dialogue-less The Red Skelton Show), Douglass then placed his recorded guffaws into a huge tape machine, dubbed the "laff box."

At first, the laugh track was used on live shows like The Jack Benny Program and I Love Lucy; as a result, its invention essentially went by unnoticed.^[4] By the end of the 1950s, live comedy transitioned from film to videotape, which allowed for editing during post-production. However, by editing a prerecorded live show, bumps and gaps were present in the soundtrack.^[5] Douglass was again called upon to "bridge or fill" these gaps. Eventually, both performers and producers began to get greedy when they realized the power behind these prerecorded chuckles. Comedian Milton Berle, while witnessing a post-production editing session, once said, "as long as we are here, this joke didn't get all that we wanted." After Douglass inserted a guffaw after a failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? It was funny."^[2] Douglass went from enhancing a soundtrack to literally reorchestrating audience reactions.^[4]

By the early 1960s, it became clear that live television became cost prohibitive, and Douglass was brought in to simulate an entire audience. Shows like Bewitched, The Munsters and The Beverly Hillbillies are virtually showcases of Douglass' editing skill; the more outlandish the show, the more invasive the laugh track was. Conversely, low-key shows, like The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons, resulted in the laugh track chuckling barely above a whimper. From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Douglass had a monopoly on the expensive and painstaking "laff" business.^[6] As one critic pu"the only laugh game in town."^[7]

Prime time live-action shows were not the only genre to employ a laugh track, as the canned chuckles were eventually used in some animated television series that would not employ a live audience. The Flintstones and The Jetsons originally aired with laugh tracks, but later aired with the laugh track removed.^[8]

Eventually, the laugh track entered the world of Saturday Morning cartoon as well. Cartoons that at least originally had laugh tracks include The Pink Panther Show, Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and the very first episodes of Rocky and His Friends.^[4]

Though Douglass provided canned laughs for nearly every prime time show in America by 1960, the Douglas family was quite eccentric, and Charley himself was one of the most talked about men in television history. Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production.^[6] When it came time to "lay in the laughs" onto an episode's soundtrack, the producer would literally direct Douglass where and when to insert the type of laugh requested. Inevitably, arguments arose arose between Douglass and the producer, but in the end, the producer always won.^[7]

After taking his directive, Douglass would then go to work at creating the audience, out of sight from the producer or anyone else present at the studio.^[7] Very few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass using his mysterious "laff box", and he was notoriously secretive about his work.^[9]

The one-of-a-kind device was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ, with a keyboard to select the style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a foot pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the padlocked concoction were an endless array of recorded chuckles, yocks, and belly laughs. Exactly 320 laughs on 32 tape loops, 10 to a loop. Each loop contained 10 individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up. Astute listeners will notice that the bulk of the chuckles always laughed in the same order repeatedly. Experts began to watch certain sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were watching an episode for the first time. Frequently, Douglass would combine different laughs, either long or short in length. Attentive viewers could spot when he decided to mix laughers together to give the effect of a more diverse audience.^[4]

Though the use of canned laughter reached its peak in the 1960s, the trend began to reverse with the 1971 debut of All in the Family. As proclaimed over the closing credits each week ("All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience." and later "All in the Family was played to a studio audience for live responses.") the sitcom relied upon live, unprompted audience responses. On rare occasions, the studio audience laughter was sweetened with canned laughter.

Jack Klugman and Tony Randall expressed displeasure during the first season (1970) of The Odd Couple, which utilized a laugh track without a live audience. Theatre-veteran Randall, in particular, resented the usage of the laugh track, and wanted to perform in front of a live audience. ABC relented and by the second season, The Odd Couple was filmed with three cameras (vs. a single camera the previous season) and performed like a stage play in front of a studio audience. Douglass' "laff box", however, was used in post-production to "sweeten" and smooth out the live reactions.^[4]

The highly popular Happy Days, which premiered in 1974, mirrored The Odd Couple scenario. Its first two seasons utilized only a laugh track, and by third season, shifted over to a live audience with "sweetening" done in post-production.^[4]

The practice of simulating an audience reaction was controversial from the very beginning.^[10]Inventor Douglass was well aware that his "laff box" was maligned by critics and wrtiers, but also knew that the utilization of a laugh track became standard practice and as a result, a commodity in the industry.^[10]

Not everyone believed it was a commodity, however. Former child star Jackie Cooper, for one, believed that the laugh track was false. Cooper's television show Hennesey was cancelled in 1962 after a three-season run. When it premiered in 1959, Cooper insisted that no laugh track was utilized, and the ratings were poor. Eventually, he gave in and allowed the network to add a mild laugh track (courtesy of Douglass), but it was too late. Cooper later commented that "we are creating a response to our own product." He added that the industry never really knew if audiences at home were laughing because the show was funny, or because they heard people laughing already.^[4]

Conversely, Ross Bagdasarian, creator of the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, outright refused to utilize a laugh track when production began on The Alvin Show in 1961. Bagdasarian's reasoning was that if the show was funny, the viewers would laugh without being prompted.^[11] The Alvin Show, however, was cancelled after just one season, leading industry experts to reason that laugh tracks were a necessary evil in prime time television: without the canned laughter, a show was doomed to fail.^[4]

Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz refused to employ a laugh track during the production of the holiday favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas. Like Bagdasarian, Schulz maintained that the audience should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace, without being cued when to laugh. (CBS did create a version of the show with the laugh track added, just in case Schulz changed his mind. This version remains unavailable.) When CBS executives saw the final product, they were horrified and believed the special would be a flop. When the show fist aired on December 9, 1965, it was both a surprise critical and commercial hit.^[12]

Bill Cosby's first situation comedy, The Bill Cosby Show (NBC, 1969-71) was also produced without a laugh track at the insistence of Cosby. He has stated that his opposition to NBC's desire to add a laugh track led to the show's cancellation after only two seasons.

Larry Gelbart, creator of the TV series M*A*S*H, has said that he initially wanted the show to air entirely without a laugh track ("Just like the actual Korean War", he is said to have remarked dryly). However, CBS rejected the idea. Eventually a compromise was reached, and the producers of the series were not required to include a laugh track on operating room scenes on the show. As a result few scenes in the operating room contain canned laughter. Certain episodes omitted the laugh track completely, as did some international and syndicated airings of the show; the DVD releases, meanwhile, give the viewer a choice of laughing or non-laughing soundtracks.^[13][14]

In a similar case, Sports Night premiered with a laugh track, against the wishes of show creator Aaron Sorkin, but the laugh track became more subtle as the season progressed and was completely removed at the start of the second season. In some cases a laugh track was needed to maintain continuity, as portions of each episode were filmed in front of a live audience, the remainder being filmed without an audience present.

Alan Spencer's Sledge Hammer! aired with a laugh track for the first 12 episodes including the pilot, but Spencer was not impressed by ABC editing the episodes. Later on, the video releases had all the laugh tracks removed.^[15]

Laugh-track-free production has been gaining ground in the US since the early 1990s. The Larry Sanders Show won critical praise for not including a laugh track.^[16] Such shows are often produced in the more expensive single camera style usually reserved for one-hour drama, using on-location shooting and high production values, as opposed to the standard multi-camera sitcom sound stage. Recent live action North American sitcoms that adopted this style include Arrested Development, Malcolm in the Middle, Curb Your Enthusiasm, My Name Is Earl, The Bernie Mac Show, The Office, Trailer Park Boys, Scrubs, 30 Rock, Samantha Who?, Flight of the Conchords, My Boys, Testees and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

In the United Kingdom prior to the 2000s most sitcoms were taped before live audiences to provide natural laughter. Other comedies, such as the The Royle Family and The Office which are presented in the mode of cinema verite rather than in the format of a traditional sitcom, do not feature any audience laughter.

The League of Gentlemen was originally broadcast with a laughter track, but after the first two series this was dropped.^[17] The pilot episode of the satirical series Spitting Image was also broadcast with a laughter track. This idea was quickly dropped as it was felt that the series worked better without one. ^{[citation needed]} Some later editions, in 1992 (Election Special) and 1993 (two episodes) did use a studio audience, and therefore a laughter track, as the format of these editions included a spoof Question Time.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, some programs have been shown to a live audience, though they were not filmed live. Many scenes of the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine are filmed outdoors but the show's producers, while confirming that the show is filmed without an audience, point out that that the laughter is not "manufactured" but instead is a recording of the genuine response of a studio audience to whom the completed episode is shown. This is a technique which is frequently used for programmes that feature a lot of location filming (for which an audience could obviously not be present) or which involve a lot of post-production effects work. A prime example of this is Red Dwarf; the first six series were shot partly in front of a live audience and, due to special effects scenes, filmed but shown to the audience later. This caused a lot of problems, so Series 7 was filmed without an audience but was shown to one to get 'live' laughter. Series 8 saw the return of the live audience.

Although some contemporary Canadian sitcoms are laugh track-free (e.g., The Newsroom, Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Billable Hours etc.), many still rely on laugh tracks in some form. Air Farce and The Red Green Show both tape in front of a live audience, and in the latter's case the audience itself is incorporated into the format of the program (Red Green is a show about a show).

In parts of East Asia, laugh tracks are often loud and exaggerated in comedy-variety shows despite them being filmed with small live audiences. The Hong Kong game show Minutes to Fame is one of the recognizable shows that uses a large number of laugh tracks, which sometimes cover up the singing or dialogue.

Executive producer for Sid and Marty Krofft, Si Rose, convinced the Kroffts to use laugh tracks on their puppet shows such as H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, and others. In a recent interview, he states "The laugh track was a big debate, they (the Kroffts) said they didn't want to do it, but with my experience with night-timers, night-time started using laugh tracks, and it becomes a staple, because the viewer watches the program and there's a big laugh every time because of the laugh track, and then when you see a show that's funny and there's no laugh because of no laugh track, it becomes a handicap, so I convinced them of that. Good or bad."^{[citation needed]}. Later in another interview, Marty Krofft confirmed that he and Sid were initially reluctant to use a laugh track on their shows, but agreed that it was a necessity.

In a 2007 DVD interview, Filmation producer/founder Lou Scheimer praised the laugh track for its usage on The Archie Show. "Why a laugh track?" Scheimer asked. "Because you feel that you are watching the program with a group of people instead of being alone." Scheimer confirmed that The Archie Show was the first Saturday morning cartoon to utilize a laugh track.^[18]

A well-known gag often used in satirical comedy is the use of a laughter track which cuts off unnaturally abruptly after each burst of laughter or applause, emphasizing its artificial nature and therefore its implied insincerity. The sound of laughter has even been portrayed as emerging from a can marked 'Canned Laughter' as if it were a product. The sound emerges whenever the can is opened.

In some cases, laugh tracks are used as a source of humor in themselves. For example, the video game Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon features a laugh track after certain lines of text dialog.^{[citation needed]}

• Claque
• Noddies

• TVParty.com - The Laugh Track
• Newyorktimes.com - Charles Douglass
• Canned Laughter: A History Reconstructed - An Interview with Ben Glenn II, Television Historian