Laugh track

A laugh track (a.k.a. canned laughter, laughter track, fake laughter) is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into TV comedy shows and sitcoms. The term does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in front of audiences.

History

Radio

Before television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members. Later radio and early television producers attempted to recreate this atmosphere by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack.

With the introduction of Magnetophon magnetic tape in 1946, it became possible to add sounds to a show in post-production and Bing Crosby adopted the technology to pre-record his radio show A) to avoid having to do it live and B) to avoid having to do it a second time for West Coast audiences.

Longtime engineer and recording pioneer Jack Mullin explains from an interview recorded in the late `70's how the laugh track was invented on Crosby's show with these Ampex recorders:

"The hillbilly comic Bob Burns was on the show one time, and threw a few of his then-extremely racy and off-color folksy farm stories into the show. We recorded it live, and they all got enormous laughs, which just went on and on, but we couldn't use the jokes. Today those stories would seem tame by comparison, but things were different in radio then, so scriptwriter Bill Morrow asked us to save the laughs. A couple of weeks later he had a show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs. Thus the laugh-track was born."

Early filmed television

In early television, most shows that were not broadcast live used the single-camera filming technique familiar from movies, where a show was created by filming each scene several times from different angles. Since it was not possible for an audience to be present during single-camera filming, there could be none of the live audience laughter that audiences had come to expect from radio comedy, and which was still offered in the many shows broadcast live with audiences laughing in the studio.

CBS sound engineer Charley Douglass took it upon himself to remedy the situation. He spent countless hours extracting laughter, applause, and other reactions (right down to people moving around in their seats) from live soundtracks he had recorded (mainly from the live audience laughter in the dialogue-less The Red Skelton Show) and then placed the recorded sounds into a huge tape machine, dubbed the "laff box," the basic concept of which would later be reworked as the Chamberlin Music Master and succeeded by the more widely-known Mellotron.

These recorded laughs could be added to single-camera filmed shows, making them seem as though there was a live audience. The first American television show to incorporate a laugh track was the sitcom The Hank McCune Show in 1950. Other single-camera filmed shows soon followed suit.

Live audiences and "sweetening"

Soon after the advent of the laugh track, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz invented a method of filming with an audience utilizing a multi-camera format. This process was originally used for their show I Love Lucy, which used a live studio audience and no laugh track. Instead, sweetening is used to tone down overly enthusiastic audience reactions, or to transition between different takes of a scene without a noticeable difference in the sound of the audience.

The age of laugh tracks

Despite the success of I Love Lucy, most television comedies in the '50s and '60s used the single-camera technique, with a laugh track simulating the absent audience. Network research suggested that the laugh track was required in order to brand a single-camera show as a comedy. In 1965 CBS showed its new single-camera sitcom Hogan's Heroes to test audiences in two versions: one with the laugh track, the other without. Partly due to the somewhat cerebral nature of the show's humor, the version without the laugh track failed miserably with test audiences, while the version with canned laughter got an excellent reaction. The show went on the air with the laugh track, and CBS abandoned the idea of doing single-camera comedies without at least a touch-up from Charley Douglass’s laff box. Even prime-time animated series like The Flintstones and The Jetsons used laugh tracks to make it clear that they were comedies.

Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production. When it came time to "lay in the laughs", the producer would direct Douglass where and when to insert the type of laugh requested. Inevitably, arguments arose between Douglass and the producer, but in the end, the producer always won. The special was a major critical and commercial success. More often, however, shows that did without the laugh track would fail, unable to convince viewers that they were in fact comedies rather than dramas or adventure shows. The musical sitcom The Monkees (NBC, 1966–68) eliminated its laugh track midway through season 2. NBC, already annoyed by the manufactured rock group wanting too much control over their show, cancelled The Monkees after Season 2 concluded, citing the non-existent laugh track as a major factor.

Live audiences make a comeback

Though the use of canned laughter reached its peak in the 1960s, the trend began to reverse in the 1970-1 season with the debut of two shows done in the multi-camera format pioneered by I Love Lucy. The 1970 debut of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-77), shot on film in front of an audience, preceded the 1971 debut of All in the Family (CBS, 1971–79), which proudly announced that it was "recorded on tape before a live audience." The producers behind these shows, MTM Enterprises and Norman Lear respectively, used the multi-camera format for all their subsequent shows, including hits like The Bob Newhart Show (CBS, 1972–78) and Maude (CBS, 1972–78).

Hour-long single-camera comedy-dramas such as The Love Boat and Eight is Enough also used laugh tracks for the scenes that were purely comic in nature. Laugh tracks were also used for many animated Saturday morning cartoons from studios such as Hanna-Barbera and Filmation as well as the children's live-action shows from Sid and Marty Krofft. The syndicated variety show The Muppet Show could not use an audience due to the complexity of its production, and used a laugh track instead.

Usage in America, post-1990

Single-camera comedy has made a comeback in the U.S. since the early 1990s, but networks have mostly abandoned the old tradition of laugh tracks for single-camera shows. A key player in this revolution was HBO, which allowed its single-camera comedies such as Dream On and The Larry Sanders Show to run without laugh tracks, and won critical praise for doing so. Single-camera shows with no laugh track have become increasingly common on broadcast networks as well, with critical and popular hits such as Malcolm in the Middle and Modern Family.

One of the last single-camera broadcast network shows to employ a laugh track was Sports Night (ABC, 1998–2000), which shot some of its early scenes with an audience present. While it abandoned the audience very soon, the network insisted that the show use a laugh track to create continuity with the style of those early scenes. Due to the objections of creator Aaron Sorkin, the laugh track became more subtle as the season progressed and was completely removed at the start of the second season.

Laugh tracks are still sometimes used for multi-camera sitcoms that shoot without audiences. How I Met Your Mother, which uses the multi-camera format but no audience, uses a laugh track assembled from the sounds of audiences watching completed episodes early in the show's run. The game show Merv Griffin's Crosswords, which ran from 2007 to 2008 and, unlike most game shows, did not tape in front of a studio audience, used a laugh track as well.

Laugh tracks outside the U.S.

UK

In the 20th century, most UK sitcoms were taped before live audiences to provide natural laughter. Scenes shot outside the studio would be screened to the audience, whose reactions would be recorded. As in the U.S., current single-camera comedies in the UK, such as The Royle Family and The Office, do not add laugh tracks.

The League of Gentlemen was originally broadcast with a laugh track, but after the first two series this was dropped. The pilot episode of the satirical series Spitting Image was also broadcast with a laugh track, apparently at the insistence of Central Television. This idea was quickly dropped as it was felt by the show's producers that the show worked better without one.

Canada

Most contemporary Canadian television comedies are single-camera, such as The Newsroom and Corner Gas, and producers and networks no longer add laugh tracks. Some older Canadian programs used laugh tracks, such as Maniac Mansion (1990–1993) and The Trouble With Tracy.

Asia

While contemporary sitcoms in mainland China use a live studio audience, the Shanghai-based sitcom iPartment uses a laugh track despite being filmed in a single-camera format.

In the Philippines, some of the radio stations in the country like 91.5 Energy FM, 90.7 Love Radio and other mass stations uses artificial laugh tracks during their respective radio talk show, some are infamous for their constant use of artificial laugh tracks. Some radio programs in the country are known for its constant use of funny sound effects and joke portion.

Support and legacy

Si Rose, executive producer for Sid and Marty Krofft, convinced the Kroffts to use laugh tracks on their puppet shows such as H.R. Pufnstuf. Rose stated, "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.". 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.

See also

Claque

Noddies

References

External links

TVParty.com - The Laugh Track

Newyorktimes.com - Charles Douglass

Canned Laughter: A History Reconstructed - An Interview with Ben Glenn II, Television Historian

Category:Laughter Category:Sound recording Category:Television terminology Category:1950 introductions