Canned Laughter
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A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate
soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most commonly used, the term usually implies artificial laughter (canned laughter or fake laughter) made to be inserted into the show. This was invented by American sound engineer Charles "Charley" Douglass. The Douglass laugh track became a standard in mainstream television in the U.S., dominating most prime-time
sitcoms A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new ...
and
sketch comedies Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Usage of the Douglass laughter decreased by the 1980s when
stereophonic Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
laughter was provided by rival sound companies as well as the overall practice of
single-camera The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, also known as portable single camera, is a method of filmmaking and video production. The single-camera setup originally developed during the birth of the classical Hollywood cinema i ...
sitcoms eliminating audiences altogether.


History in the United States


Radio

Before radio and television, audiences experienced live comedy performances in the presence of other audience members. Radio and early
television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...
s used recordings of live shows and later studio-only shows attempted to recreate this atmosphere by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack. Jack Dadswell, former owner of
WWJB WWJB (1450 AM, "103.9 The Boot") is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Brooksville, Florida. The station, established in 1958 as WKTS, is currently owned and operated by Hernando Broadcasting Company, Inc. WWJB is also ...
in Florida, created the first "laughing record". In 1946,
Jack Mullin John Thomas Mullin (October 5, 1913 – June 24, 1999) was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death, ...
brought a
Magnetophon Magnetophone, or simply Magnetophon, was the brand or model name of the pioneering reel-to-reel tape recorder developed by engineers of the German electronics company AEG in the 1930s, based on the magnetic tape invention by Fritz Pfleumer Fr ...
magnetic tape recorder back from Radio Frankfurt, along with 50 reels of tape; the recorder was one of the magnetic tape recorders that
BASF BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The ...
and
AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
had built in Germany starting in 1935. The 6.5 mm tape could record 20 minutes per reel of high-quality
analog audio Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which, among many possibilities, allows analog audio for later playback. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. L ...
sound; Alexander M. Poniatoff then ordered his
Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...
company to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophon for use in radio production.
Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
eventually adopted the technology to pre-record his radio show, which was scheduled for a certain time every week, to avoid having to perform the show live, as well as having to perform it a second time for West Coast audiences. With the introduction of this recording method, it became possible to add sounds during
post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...
. Longtime engineer and recording pioneer
Jack Mullin John Thomas Mullin (October 5, 1913 – June 24, 1999) was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death, ...
explained how the laugh track was invented on Crosby's show:


Early live U.S. television, film; "sweetening"

In early television, most shows that were not broadcast live used the
single-camera The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, also known as portable single camera, is a method of filmmaking and video production. The single-camera setup originally developed during the birth of the classical Hollywood cinema i ...
filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
technique, where a show was created by filming each scene several times from different
camera angle The camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles simultaneously. This will give a different experience and sometimes emotion. The diffe ...
s. Whereas the performances of the actors and crew could be controlled, live audiences could not be relied upon to laugh at the "correct" moments; other times, audiences were deemed to have laughed too loudly or for too long.
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
sound engineer Charley Douglass noticed these inconsistencies, and took it upon himself to remedy the situation. If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass inserted additional laughter; if the live audience chuckled too long, Douglass gradually muted the guffaws. This editing technique became known as
sweetening Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, keton ...
, in which recorded laughter is used to augment the response of the real studio audience if they did not react as strongly as desired. Conversely, the process could be used to "desweeten" audience reactions, toning down unwanted loud laughter or removing inappropriate applause, thus making the laughter more in line with the producer's preferred method of telling the story. While still working for CBS, Douglass built a prototype laugh machine that consisted of a large, wooden wheel 28 inches in diameter with a reel of tape glued to the outer edge of it containing recordings of mild laughs. The machine was operated by a key that played until it hit another detent on the wheel, thus playing a complete laugh. Because it was constructed on company time, CBS demanded possession of the machine when Douglass decided to terminate his time with them. The prototype machine fell apart within months of use. Douglass developed an expansion of his technique in 1953 when he began to extract laughter and applause from live soundtracks recorded (mainly from the
pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
segments of ''
The Red Skelton Show ''The Red Skelton Show'' is an American television comedy/variety show that aired from 1951 to 1971. In the decade prior to hosting the show, Richard "Red" Skelton had a successful career as a radio and motion pictures star. Although his televis ...
''), and then placed the recorded sounds into a huge tape machine. These recorded laughs could be added to single-camera filmed programs. The first American television show to incorporate a laugh track was the
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
The Hank McCune Show ''The Hank McCune Show'' is an American television sitcom. Filmed without a studio audience, the series is notable for being the first television program to incorporate a laugh track. The series began as a local Los Angeles program in 1949. NBC ...
'' in 1950. Other single-camera filmed shows, like ''The Pride of the Family'' (ABC, 1953–54), soon followed suit, though several, like ''
The Trouble with Father ''The Stu Erwin Show'' (also known as ''Trouble with Father'') is an American sitcom which aired on ABC from 1950 to 1955. Only four of the series’ five seasons on the network included new episodes; the 1953–54 season consisted entirely of re ...
'' (
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
, 1950–55), ''
The Beulah Show ''Beulah'' is an American situation-comedy series that ran on CBS Radio from 1945 to 1954, and on ABC Television from 1950 to 1953. The show is notable for being the first sitcom to star an African American actress, for being ABC TV's first hi ...
'' (ABC, 1950–52) and '' The Goldbergs'' (several networks, 1949–56), did not feature an audience or a laugh-track. ''
Four Star Playhouse ''Four Star Playhouse'' is an American anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956. Four Star Playhouse was owned by Four Star International. Its episodes ranged anywhere from surreal mysteries, such as "The Man on the Train", to light comedies ...
'', an anthology series, did not utilize a laugh-track or audience on its occasional comedy episodes, with co-producer
David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in ''Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles ...
calling the laugh track "wild indiscriminate mirth" and stating that "I shall blackball the notion if it ever comes up. Not that it will. We shall carry on without mechanical tricks".


Multi-camera shows

Soon after the rise of the laugh track,
Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...
and
Desi Arnaz Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom ''I Lov ...
devised a method of filming with a live audience using a setup of multiple film cameras. This process was originally employed for their sitcom ''
I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...
'', which used a live
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
audience and no laugh track. Multi-camera shows with live audiences sometimes used recorded laughs to supplement responses.
Sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
and
variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...
s eventually migrated from live broadcasting to
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...
, which allowed for editing before a show was aired. Physically editing a taped audience show (then using
quadruplex videotape 2-inch quadruplex videotape (also called 2″ quad video tape or quadraplex) was the first practical and commercially successful analog recording video tape format. It was developed and released for the broadcast television industry in 1956 by A ...
) before electronic dubbing arrived caused bumps and gaps on the soundtrack; Douglass was then called upon to bridge these gaps. Both performers and producers gradually began to realize the power behind prerecorded laughter. While witnessing an early post-production editing session, comedian
Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
once pointed out a particular joke and said, "as long as we're here doing this, that joke didn't get the response we wanted". After Douglass inserted a hearty laugh following the failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? I told you it was funny". While working with
Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
on one of his television specials, the comedian took Douglass's hands in his own and began rubbing them to create the effect of limbering up Douglass's fingers, saying "OK, now, give me some good laughs."


1960s

As the medium evolved, production costs associated with broadcasting live television escalated. Filming in a studio with an audience, as ''I Love Lucy'' or ''
The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...
'' did, had its limitations as well: half the audience could not see the show from where they were sitting. Douglass was brought in to simulate reactions from scratch for the duration of the entire show. Producers soon realized how much simpler it was to film a show without an audience present and tailor the reactions during post-production. Directors initially did not allow space for inserting reactions, making sweetening difficult and resulted in dialogue being drowned out. Audience response cards repeatedly came back saying that laughter seemed forced or contrived. Writers gradually became more conscious of the space required for the laugh track and began timing their scripts around it. Directors gradually left room for as-yet-unheard audience reactions; producers budgeted for post-production so Douglass could edit with greater ease. Most television sitcoms produced during the 1950s and 1960s used the single-camera technique, with a laugh track simulating the absent audience. Producers became disenchanted with the multi-camera format; consensus at the time was that live audiences were tense, nervous and rarely laughed on cue.


''Hogan's Heroes''

Network research suggested that the laugh track was mandatory in order to brand a single-camera show as a comedy. The experiment to see if a comedy fared better with a laugh track was tested in 1965 when CBS showed its new single-camera sitcom ''
Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast ...
'' 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 while the version with laughter succeeded. The show was broadcast with the laugh track, and CBS utilized a laugh track for all comedies afterwards. Sitcoms had different types of laugh tracks edited onto their soundtracks, depending on style. Outlandish or fantasy shows, like ''
Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typic ...
'', ''
The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monsterEpisodes referring to the fact that Herman is Frankenstein's monster include #55, "Just Anoth ...
'', ''
I Dream of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marrie ...
'' and ''
The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from ...
'', were virtual showcases of Douglass's editing skill. The more outlandish the show, the more invasive the laugh track. Conversely, subdued programs, like ''
The Andy Griffith Show ''The Andy Griffith Show '' is an American situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color. The ...
'', ''
The Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family with six children. The show aired for five seasons and, after ...
'' and ''
My Three Sons ''My Three Sons'' is an American television sitcom that aired from September 29, 1960, to April 13, 1972. The series was broadcast on ABC during its first five seasons, before moving to CBS for the remaining seasons. ''My Three Sons'' chronicl ...
'', had more modulated laughter. Certain shows, like ''
Get Smart ''Get Smart'' is an American comedy television series parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s, with the release of the ''James Bond'' films. It was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, an ...
'', featured a laugh track that became more invasive as the series progressed, while shows like ''
M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. The ...
'' toned down the laughter as the series became more dramatic (it was entirely absent during
operating room Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
scenes). By the mid-1960s, nearly every U.S. sitcom was shot single-camera and was fitted with a laughter track. Only a handful of programs, such as '' The Joey Bishop Show'', ''
The Dick Van Dyke Show ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' is an American television sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Product ...
'' and ''
The Lucy Show ''The Lucy Show'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962 to 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to ''I Love Lucy''. A significant change in cast and premise for the fourth season (1965–1966) divides the program into two distinct ...
'' used studio audiences and turned to Douglass to edit or augment the real laughter via sweetening.


Charley Douglass and the mysterious "laff box"

From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Charley Douglass had a monopoly on the expensive and painstaking laugh business. By 1960, nearly every
prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
show in the U.S. was sweetened by Douglass. When it came time to "lay in the laughs", the producer directed Douglass where and when to insert the type of laugh requested. Inevitably, disagreements arose between Douglass and the producer, but the producer had final say. After taking his directive, Douglass went to work at creating the audience, out of sight from the producer or anyone else present at the studio. Critic Dick Hobson commented in a July 1966 ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' article that the Douglass family were "the only laugh game in town." Very few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass using his invention, as he was notoriously secretive about his work, and was one of the most talked-about men in the television industry. Douglass formed Northridge Electronics in August 1960, named after the Los Angeles suburb in the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
where the Douglass family resided and operated their business in a padlocked garage. When their services were needed, they wheeled the device into the editing room, plugged it in, and went to work. Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production.Thursday, April 24, 2003; Page B06: "Charles Douglass, 93; Gave TV Its Laugh Track"
''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''
The sophisticated one-of-a-kind device – affectionately known in the industry as the "laff box" – was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ. Only immediate members of the family knew what the inside actually looked like (at one time, the "laff box" was called "the most sought after but well-concealed box in the world"). Since more than one member of the Douglass family was involved in the editing process, it was natural for one member to react to a joke differently from another. Charley Douglass was the most conservative of all, so producers often put in bids for Charley's son Bob, who was more liberal in his choice of laughter. Subtle textural changes could have enormous consequences for the ethical situation suggested by a laugh track. Douglass used a keyboard to select the style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the machine was a wide array of recorded chuckles, yocks and belly laughs; exactly 320 laughs on 32
tape loops Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive * Athletic tape, pressure-sensiti ...
, 10 to a loop. Each loop contained up to 10 individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up. Since the tapes were looped, laughs were played in the same order repeatedly. Sound engineers could watch sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were viewing an episode for the first time. Douglass frequently combined different laughs, either long or short in length. Attentive viewers could spot when he decided to mix chuckles together to give the effect of a more diverse audience. Rather than being simple recordings of a laughing audience, Douglass's laughs were carefully generated and mixed, giving some laughs detailed identities such as "the guy who gets the joke early" and "housewife giggles" and "the one who didn't get the joke but is laughing anyway" all blended and layered to create the illusion of a real audience responding to the show in question. A man's deep laugh would be switched for a new woman's laugh, or a high-pitched woman's giggle would be replaced with a man's snicker. One producer noticed a recurrent laugh of a woman whom he called "the jungle lady" because of her high-pitched shriek. After regularly complaining to Douglass, the laugh was retired from the regular lineup. There was also a 30-second "titter" track in the loop, which consisted of individual people laughing quietly. This "titter" track was used to quiet down a laugh and was always playing in the background. When Douglass inserted a hearty laugh, he increased the volume of the titter track to smooth out the final mix. This titter track was expanded to 45 seconds in 1967, later to 60 seconds in 1970, and received overhauls in 1964, 1967, 1970 and 1976. Douglass kept recordings fresh, making minor changes every few months, believing that the viewing audience evolved over time. Douglass also had an array of audience clapping, "oohs" and "ahhhs," as well as people moving in their seats (which many producers insisted be constantly audible). Douglass knew his material well, as he had compiled it himself. He had dozens of reactions, and he knew where to find each one. Douglass regularly slightly sped up the laughter to heighten the effect. His work was well-appreciated by many in the television industry. Over the years, Douglass added new recordings and revived old ones that had been retired and then retired the newer tracks. Laughter heard in sitcoms of the early 1960s resurfaced years later in the late 1970s. Especially starting in the 1970s, Douglass started alternating the updated laugh track with an older laugh track and even sometimes combined the two together. Up to 40 different laugh clips could be combined and layered at one time, creating the effect of a larger, louder reaction when in fact the same laughs were later heard individually. As the
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
gained momentum, Douglass also started making his laugh track more diverse, including examples of laughter of people from other cultures, whose sounds were noticeably different from white Americans. Douglass's "laff box" was purchased, unseen, at auction in 2010 when its owner failed to pay rent on the storage locker where it was housed. It was later discussed, and demonstrated in a June 2010 episode of ''
Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...
'' from San Diego, California, where its value was appraised at $10,000.


Cartoons and children's shows

The laugh track was also used on some prime time
animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...
, starting with ''
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the American Broadca ...
'' (ABC, 1959–61; NBC, 1961–64), but only used it for the first four episodes of the series (see its controversy below). Hanna-Barbera followed suit and utilized a full laugh track for its prime-time shows up to 1970, including ''
The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...
'' (ABC, 1960–66), ''
Top Cat ''Top Cat'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast in prime time on the ABC network. It aired in a weekly evening time slot from September 27, 1961, to April 18, 1962, for a single season of ...
'' (ABC, 1961–62), and ''
The Jetsons ''The Jetsons'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It originally aired in prime time from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963, on ABC, then later aired in reruns via syndication, with new episodes produced f ...
'' (ABC, 1962–63). Hanna-Barbera's mid-summer sitcom, ''
Where's Huddles? ''Where's Huddles?'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that premiered on CBS on July 1, 1970. It ran for ten episodes as a summer replacement show for ''Hee Haw'', until September 2. It was similar in style to ...
'' (CBS, 1970), as well as Krayo Creston and MCA's ''
Calvin and the Colonel ''Calvin and the Colonel'' is an American animated sitcom about Colonel Montgomery J. Klaxon, a shrewd fox, and Calvin T. Burnside, a dumb bear. Their lawyer was Oliver Wendell Clutch, who was a weasel (literally). The colonel lived with his wife ...
'' (ABC, 1961–62), also used a laugh track. Midday programming, like ''
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour ''The Banana Splits'' is an American television variety show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring the Banana Splits, a fictional rock band composed of four costumed animal characters in red marching band hats with yellow plumes. ...
'' (NBC, 1968–70), gradually followed suit. From 1968 to 1983, most comedic cartoons produced for the Saturday morning genre were fitted with a laugh track, beginning with
Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...
's ''
The Archie Show ''The Archie Show'' (also known as ''The Archies)'' is an American musical animated sitcom television series produced by Filmation for CBS. Based on the Archie Comics, created by Bob Montana in 1941, ''The Archie Show'' aired Saturday mornings ...
'' in 1968.
Rankin-Bass Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...
,
DePatie–Freleng Enterprises DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (also known as Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng Productions when involved with the Mirisch brothers and Geoffrey Productions; and DFE Films) was an American animation production company that was active from 1963 to 1 ...
(DFE) and
Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
followed suit. As Douglass' laughter became redundant in the television industry, all of the animation studios eventually abandoned the laugh track by the early 1980s. Filmation's ''
Gilligan's Planet ''Gilligan's Planet'' is an American Saturday morning animated series produced by Filmation and MGM/UA Television which aired during the 1982–1983 season on CBS. It was the second animated spin-off of the sitcom '' Gilligan's Island'' (the f ...
'' (CBS, 1982–83) was the final animated Saturday-morning series to include a laugh track. Because ''The Banana Splits'' was shown midday, ''
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' is an American animated television comedy, comedy television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. The series premiered as part of Children's programming on CBS, the network ...
'' (CBS, 1969–70) became Hanna-Barbera's first Saturday morning show to use Douglass' laugh track in 1969. Following its success, Hanna-Barbera expanded the laugh track to virtually all of its shows for the 1970–71 season, including ''
Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...
'' (CBS, 1970–71) and ''
Josie and the Pussycats Josie and the Pussycats (sometimes simply known as The Pussycats) are a fictional girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense i ...
'' (CBS, 1970–71). ''
The Pink Panther Show ''The Pink Panther Show'' is a showcase of animated shorts produced by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng between 1969 and 1978, starring the animated Pink Panther character from the opening credits of the live-action films. The series was prod ...
'' (NBC, 1969–1978; ABC, 1978–1980) was an anomaly among its peers. The show consisted of previous theatrical entries compiled into a series of half-hour showcases, which included other DFE theatrical shorts including ''
The Inspector ''The Inspector'' is a series of 34 theatrical cartoon shorts produced between 1965 and 1969 by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and released through United Artists. The cartoons are dedicated to an animated version of Inspector Clouseau comical ...
'', ''
Roland and Ratfink ''Roland and Rattfink'' is a series of animated shorts produced and released from 1967 to 1972. The main characters also made several guest appearances on ''The Pink Panther'' animated series. The series was produced by David H. DePatie and Friz F ...
'', ''
The Ant and the Aardvark ''The Ant and the Aardvark'' is a series of 17 theatrical short cartoons produced at DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, originally released by United Artists and currently distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1969 to 1971. Plot The cartoon se ...
'' and ''
The Tijuana Toads ''Tijuana Toads'' is a series of 17 theatrical cartoons produced by DePatie–Freleng and released through United Artists. Plot The series was about two toads, El Toro and Pancho, who live in the Mexican city of Tijuana. Throughout the carto ...
'' (redubbed as ''The Texas Toads'' for television due to perceived Mexican racial stereotypes). The original theatrical versions did not contain laugh tracks, but NBC insisted on its inclusion for television broadcast. The soundtracks were restored to their original form in 1982 when the DFE theatrical package went into
syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...
. Repackaging over the years has resulted in both theatrical and television versions of the entries being available. The exceptions were ''
Misterjaw ''Misterjaw'' is a 34-episode cartoon television series, produced at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1976 for '' The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show'' television series on NBC. Reruns continued on the Think Pink Panther Show o ...
'' and ''
Crazylegs Crane ''Crazylegs Crane'' is a 16-episode made-for-television cartoon series produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises in 1978 for ''The Pink Panther Show, The All New Pink Panther Show'' on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Production This was Craz ...
'', which were produced specifically for television and never re-released theatrically, resulting in laughter-only versions. Following Filmation were producers
Sid and Marty Krofft Sid Krofft (born July 30, 1929) and Marty Krofft (born April 9, 1937) are a Canadian sibling team of television creators and puppeteers. Through their production company, Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, they have made numerous children's television a ...
. When production began on ''
H.R. Pufnstuf ''H.R. Pufnstuf'' is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-sized-puppet program (not including their previous work with the Hanna-Barbera program ''The Ba ...
'' in 1969, executive producer Si Rose viewed any comedy without a laugh track as a handicap, and convinced the Kroffts to include one on ''Pufnstuf''. After ''Pufnstuf'', the Kroffts employed Douglass's services on all shows produced for Saturday morning television (except for ''
Land of the Lost Land of the Lost may refer to: * Land of the Lost (1974 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1974 TV series), the original 1974 children's television series * Land of the Lost (1991 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1991 TV series), the 1991 remake of ...
'', which was more dramatic in nature), including ''
The Bugaloos ''The Bugaloos'' is an American children's television series, produced by brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, that aired on NBC on Saturday mornings from 1970 to 1972. Reruns of the show aired in daily syndication from 1978 to 1985 as part of the "Krof ...
'', ''
Lidsville ''Lidsville'' is Sid and Marty Krofft's third television show following ''H.R. Pufnstuf'' (1969) and ''The Bugaloos'' (1970). As did its predecessors, the series combined two types of characters: conventional actors in makeup taped alongside per ...
'', ''
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters ''Sigmund and the Sea Monsters'' is an American children's television series that ran from September 8, 1973 to October 18, 1975, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft and aired on Saturday mornings. It was syndicated by itself from December 1975 to J ...
'', ''
The Lost Saucer ''The Lost Saucer'' is an ABC network television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, starring Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors as hapless aliens who take a boy and his babysitter with them on their flying saucer. It aired new episodes from Septembe ...
'' and ''
Far Out Space Nuts ''Far Out Space Nuts'' is a Sid and Marty Krofft children's television series that aired in 1975 for one season, and produced 15 episodes. It was one of only two Krofft series produced exclusively for CBS (the second being 1984's ''Pryor's Plac ...
''. When transitioning from
high concept High concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise. It can be contrasted with ''low concept'', which is more concerned with character development and other subtleties that are not as easily summa ...
children's programming to live variety shows, the Kroffts continued to employ Douglass for sweetening. Several shows included '' Donny and Marie'', ''
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour ''The Brady Bunch Hour'' is an American variety show featuring skits and songs produced by Sid & Marty Krofft Productions in association with Paramount Television. It ran on ABC from November 28, 1976, to May 25, 1977. The series starred the o ...
'', ''
The Krofft Supershow ''The Krofft Supershow'' was a Saturday morning children's variety show, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. It aired for two seasons from September 11, 1976, to September 2, 1978, on ABC. Background The show was composed of several live-action se ...
'', ''
The Krofft Superstar Hour ''The Krofft Superstar Hour'' is a Saturday morning children's variety show, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. After eight episodes, the show was renamed ''The Bay City Rollers Show.'' It aired for one season from September 9, 1978 to January 27, ...
'', ''
Pink Lady and Jeff ''Pink Lady'' is an American variety show that aired for five weeks on NBC in 1980, starring the Japanese musical duo of the same name. The show also is referred to by the title ''Pink Lady and Jeff'', referring to co-star Jeff Altman. The show w ...
'', ''
Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters ''Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters'' was an American variety show starring American country artist Barbara Mandrell, along with her sisters Irlene Mandrell and Louise Mandrell. The show ran for two seasons on the NBC network between Novembe ...
'', ''
Pryor's Place ''Pryor's Place'' is an American children's television series that aired for one season in 1984 on CBS. The live-action series starred comedian Richard Pryor as himself. Overview Despite a reputation for profanity from Richard Pryor, ''Pryor's Pl ...
'', as well as their 1987 syndicated sitcom ''
D.C. Follies ''D.C. Follies'' is a syndicated sitcom which aired from 1987–1989. The show was set in a Washington, D.C. bar, where a bartender played by Fred Willard would welcome puppet caricatures of politicians and popular culture figures. Synopsis The s ...
''. As the use of laugh tracks for Saturday morning series became more common, Douglass eventually added several children's laughs to his library. "Kiddie laughs", as they are known, first saw use for sweetening for the 1973 syndicated television special, '' The World of Sid and Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl'', but were soon heard on most Saturday morning kids' shows by 1974, such as ''
Uncle Croc's Block ''Uncle Croc's Block'' is an hour-long live-action/animated television series. It was produced by Filmation, and broadcast on ABC in 1975–76. The show was a spoof of live kids' shows but with (as MeTV would later describe it) a "bitter edge". C ...
'', ''Sigmund and the Sea Monsters'', ''The Pink Panther Show'', ''The Lost Saucer'' and ''Far Out Space Nuts''. Current
Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
-produced sitcoms and studio-created laugh tracks are primarily recorded in front of live audiences.
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
– Disney's top competitor – utilizes a laugh track for shows such as ''
iCarly ''iCarly'' is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider, which originally aired on Nickelodeon from September 8, 2007, to November 23, 2012. The series tells the story of Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), a teenager who creates and hosts ...
'' and ''
Victorious ''Victorious'' (stylized as ''VICTORiOUS'') is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider (TV producer), Dan Schneider that originally aired on Nickelodeon, debuting on March 27, 2010, and concluding on February 2, 2013 after four seasons. Th ...
'' since closing the original studio facilities fitted for live audience seating.


Making their own

By 1970, Douglass's laugh business was proving so lucrative that he decided to raise the rates for his services. However, unlike sitcoms, cartoons were mainly produced with lower budgets and studios looked for opportunities to reduce costs. Hanna-Barbera and
Rankin-Bass Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...
distanced themselves from Douglass starting in 1971. They still felt that having a laugh track was necessary, so they began extracting several of Douglass's chuckles by various means and compiled their own laugh tracks. These custom laugh tracks were controversial, and contemporaries and historians questioned the sensibility and realism for the use of these tracks. Despite this trend, Filmation, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions still retained the services of Douglass for their Saturday-morning content.


Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
was the first cartoon production studio to cease using Douglass's services. They first used the laugh track for their prime-time shows, such as ''The Flintstones'', ''Top Cat'', and ''The Jetsons''. They then expanded using the laugh track into their daytime fare, starting with ''The Banana Splits'' in 1968, which emulated Filmation's ''The Archies''. Successful series prior to 1971, like ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', ''Harlem Globetrotters'' and ''Josie and the Pussycats'' employed a full laugh track. This changed at the start of the 1971–72 season, when Hanna-Barbera employed their limited laugh track using the MacKenzie
Repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...
machine, a tape machine that can play up to five sound effects repeatedly on rotation, which cued up to five Douglass laughs repeatedly. Mixed with a metallic sound, it included three mild laughs and two uncontrollable belly-laughs (one contains a woman laughing prominently at the tail end). With the exception of their variety shows, such as ''
The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour ''The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour'' is an American television comedy-variety show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions which aired for five consecutive weeks on NBC from April 13 to May 11, 1978. Overview The show was hosted by two life-size femal ...
'', which they briefly turned to Douglass for sweetening, Hanna-Barbera used these laughs regularly over the next decade on nearly all of their Saturday morning fare. The Hanna-Barbera laugh track affected several television specials as well, many of them from ''
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie ''The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie'' — retitled ''The New Saturday Superstar Movie'' for its second season — is a series of one-hour animated made-for-television films (some of which also contained live action sequences), broadcast on the ABC ...
'' (ABC, 1972–74), which served as a showcase for hopeful new comedic cartoon shows. On occasion, the studio slowed the laugh track for a greater effect; this was done for the second season of ''
The New Scooby-Doo Movies ''The New Scooby-Doo Movies'' is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. It is the second animated television series in the studio's ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise, and follows the first incarnation, ''Sc ...
''. Hanna-Barbera also used the limited laugh track when they produced ''
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home ''Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'' is an American comedy animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972 to 1974. The show originated as a one-time segment on ''Love, Ame ...
'' in 1972. This laugh track, which added an additional belly laugh to the mix, was noticeably slowed during production (''Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'' was the only television series produced by Hanna-Barbera to have included that specific belly laugh track). Saturday morning shows featuring the Hanna-Barbera laugh track: * ''
Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...
'' (CBS, 1970–71; second season only) * '' Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!'' (CBS, 1971–72) * ''
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show ''The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired for one season on CBS Saturday morning from September 11, 1971, to January 1, 1972. With an ensemble voice ...
'' (CBS, 1971–72) * ''
The Funky Phantom ''The Funky Phantom'' is an animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, in association with Australian production company Air Programs International for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The show was a clone of Hanna- ...
'' (ABC, 1971–72) * ''
The Roman Holidays ''The Roman Holidays'' is a half-hour Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 9 to December 2, 1972. It ran for 13 episodes before being cancelled, and reruns were later shown on t ...
'' (NBC, 1972) * ''
The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan ''The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''The Amazing Chan Clan'') is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, animated by Eric Porter Studios in Australia and broadcast on CBS from S ...
'' (CBS, 1972) * ''
The Flintstone Comedy Hour ''The Flintstone Comedy Hour'' is an American animated television series and a spin-off of ''The Flintstones'' and ''The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show'', produced by Hanna-Barbera, which aired on CBS from September 9, 1972, to September 1, 1973. It w ...
'' (CBS, 1972–73) * ''
Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (formatted as ''Josie and the Pussy Cats'' in the opening titles) is an American animated television series based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo. Produced for Saturday ...
'' (CBS, 1972–74) * ''
The New Scooby-Doo Movies ''The New Scooby-Doo Movies'' is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. It is the second animated television series in the studio's ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise, and follows the first incarnation, ''Sc ...
'' (CBS, 1972–74) * ''
Yogi's Gang ''Yogi's Gang'' is an American animated television series and the second incarnation of the ''Yogi Bear'' franchise, which aired 16 half-hour episodes on ABC from , to . The show began as ''Yogi's Ark Lark'', a special TV movie on ''The ABC Saturd ...
'' (ABC, 1973) * ''
The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...
'' (CBS, 1973–74) * ''
Inch High, Private Eye ''Inch High, Private Eye'' is a short-lived American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 8, to December 1, 1973. The character was modeled after Maxwell Smart, the main character o ...
'' (NBC, 1973–74) * '' Jeannie'' (CBS, 1973–75) * ''
Speed Buggy ''Speed Buggy'' is an American animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, which originally aired for one season on CBS from September 8, 1973, to December 22, 1973. With the voices of Mel Blanc, Michael Bell, Arlene Golonka, and Ph ...
'' (CBS, 1973–75) * ''
Goober and the Ghost Chasers ''Goober and the Ghost Chasers'' is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, broadcast on ABC from September 8, 1973, to August 30, 1975. A total of 16 half-hour episodes of ''Goober and the Ghost Chasers'' were produce ...
'' (ABC, 1973–75) * ''
Hong Kong Phooey ''Hong Kong Phooey'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast on ABC. The original episodes aired from September 7 to December 21, 1974, and then in repeats until 1976. The show wa ...
'' (ABC, 1974) * '' Partridge Family 2200 A.D.'' (CBS, 1974–75) * ''
Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch ''Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch'' is an American animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, which originally aired for one season on NBC from September 7 to November 30, 1974. The show aired for 13 half-hour episodes. With an ensem ...
'' (NBC, 1974) * ''
The Great Grape Ape Show ''The Great Grape Ape Show'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on ABC from September 6 to December 13, 1975. ABC continued to air it in reruns until 1978. Premise The title character i ...
'' (ABC, 1975–78) * ''
Jabberjaw ''Jabberjaw'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired 16 original episodes on ABC from September 11 to December 18, 1976. Reruns continued on ABC until September 3, 1 ...
'' (ABC, 1976–78) * ''
The Scooby-Doo Show ''The Scooby-Doo Show'' is an American animated mystery comedy series. The title of the series is an umbrella term for episodes of the third incarnation of Hanna-Barbera's ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. A total of 40 episodes ran for three seasons, fr ...
'' (ABC, 1976–78) * ''
Dynomutt, Dog Wonder ''Dynomutt, Dog Wonder'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired on ABC from 1976 to 1977. The show centers on a Batman-esque superhero, the Blue Falcon, and his assistant, Dynomutt, a bumbling, ...
'' (ABC, 1976–77) * ''
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels ''Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels'' is an American animated mystery comedy series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for ABC. The series aired during the network's Saturday morning schedule from Sep ...
'' (ABC, 1977–80) * ''
The Super Globetrotters ''The Super Globetrotters'' is a 30-minute Saturday-morning cartoon, Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions. It premiered on NBC on September 22, 1979 and ran for 13 episodes. It was a Spin-off (media) ...
'' (NBC, 1979–80) * '' Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo'' (ABC, 1979–80; first installment) * ''
Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo ''Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo'' is an American animated package show and a spin-off of ''The Flintstones'' produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired on NBC from December 8, 1979 to November 15, 1980. The 90-minute show is a repackaging of episodes ...
'' (NBC, 1979–80) * '' Fred and Barney Meet the Thing'' (NBC, 1979) * ''
The New Fred and Barney Show ''The New Fred and Barney Show'' is an American animated television series revival and spin-off of ''The Flintstones'' produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired on NBC from February 3 to October 20, 1979. The series marked the first time Henry Corden ...
'' (NBC, 1979) * ''
Casper and the Angels ''Casper and the Angels'' is an American animated television series based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1979, to December 15, 1979. ...
'' (NBC, 1979) Prime time specials/TV movies: * ''
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home ''Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'' is an American comedy animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972 to 1974. The show originated as a one-time segment on ''Love, Ame ...
'' (Syndicated, 1972–74) * ''
The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park ''The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park'' is a 1972 live-action/animated television film made by Hanna-Barbera featuring the characters from ''The Banana Splits'' television series. Mixing live action sequences shot at Kings Island amusement par ...
'' (ABC, 1972) * '' A Flintstone Christmas'' (NBC, 1977) * '' The Flintstones: Little Big League'' (NBC, 1978) * ''
The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone ''The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone'' is a 1979 animated Halloween television special featuring The Flintstones. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and first aired on Tuesday, October 30, 1979 on NBC. In addition to the regular ''Flin ...
'' (NBC, 1979) * '' Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood'' (ABC, 1979) * '' Casper the Friendly Ghost: He Ain't Scary, He's Our Brother'' (NBC, 1979) * ''
Casper's First Christmas ''Casper's First Christmas'' is a 1979 animated Christmas television special and crossover produced by Hanna-Barbera. It features Casper the Friendly Ghost and his friend Hairy Scarey from the animated series '' Casper and the Angels''. The speci ...
'' (NBC, 1979) * '' The Flintstone Primetime Specials'': ** ''
The Flintstones' New Neighbors ''The Flintstones' New Neighbors'' is a 1980 Animation, animated television special and the first of ''The Flintstone Primetime Specials, The Flintstone Special'' limited-run prime time revival of ''The Flintstones'' produced by Hanna-Barbera, Han ...
'' (NBC, 1980) ** '' The Flintstones: Fred's Final Fling'' (NBC, 1980) ** '' The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma'' (NBC, 1981) ** '' The Flintstones: Jogging Fever'' (NBC, 1981) The Hanna-Barbera laugh track was discontinued after the 1981–82 television season. In 1994, laugh track historian and
re-recording mixer A re-recording mixer in North America, also known as a dubbing mixer in Europe, is a post-production audio engineer who mixes recorded dialogue, sound effects and music to create the final version of a soundtrack for a feature film, television pro ...
Paul Iverson commented on the legacy of the Hanna-Barbera track: Iverson added:


Rankin/Bass

Animation studio
Rankin/Bass Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...
, best remembered for their Christmas specials, also experimented with fitting their Saturday morning animated series ''
The Jackson 5ive The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most o ...
'' with a laugh track in 1971. Like Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass isolated several snippets of canned chuckles from Douglass's library and inserted them onto the soundtrack. The laughs initially consisted of only loud eruptions; mild jokes received unnatural bouts of laughter, while other times, the laughter erupted in mid-sentence. The studio had improved the process by the time production began on ''
The Osmonds The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet (billed as the Osmond Brothers) and a quintet (as the Osmonds). The group ...
'' in 1972, using more modulated laughs culled from Douglass's 1971–1972 library. Laughs did not erupt mid-sentence like ''The Jackson 5ive'' and timing was improved by Rankin/Bass sound engineers. Unlike Hanna-Barbera's laugh track, Rankin/Bass provided a larger variety of laughs and did not sound as metallic. The studio ended the practice when production on the two series ended.


Jim Henson & Associates: ''The Muppet Show''

Unlike the two "silent" pilots before it, ''
The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a ser ...
'' series incorporated its own laugh track onto the show, but in a completely different manner; because the variety program was modeled after
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, the viewers were often treated to glimpses of the theater audience and their reactions to The Muppets' antics on stage (though the audience was composed of Muppet characters as well). As the show was produced at the
ATV Elstree Studios The BBC Elstree Centre, sometimes referred to as the BBC Elstree Studios, is a television production facility, currently owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The complex is located between Eldon Avenue and Clarendon Road in Boreh ...
in England,
Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...
and his Muppet production team bypassed Douglass's familiar laughs. New laughs, chuckles and applause were recorded for the first few episodes so they sounded fresh and new. Some of these laughs were provided by the actual cast and crew members reacting to dailies of episodes; eventually, ''The Muppet Show'' began recycling these same chuckles for later shows, establishing its own one-of-a-kind laugh track. A by-product of this convincing laugh track was the belief by viewers that ''The Muppet Show'' was indeed taped in front of a live audience, some even asking for tickets to attend tapings; Henson's son, Brian, noted how strange he thought it was that people believed the show was shot before a live audience. Henson himself knew that having a live audience was impractical, given the production complexities (the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
sitcom '' ALF'' was also difficult to produce and utilized only a laugh track); he also notes that because of the series' vaudeville inspiration, having sounds of laughter was a necessity, but admits that it was not an easy task – "I look at some of the early shows, I'm really embarrassed by them. The sweetening got better later on, but it's always a difficult thing to do well, and to create the reality of the audience laughing." Henson himself initially felt apprehensive about adding a laugh track to a Muppet series, and later commented about the pilot episode not having a laugh track, saying "I did one special dry – without any laugh track – looked at it, and then tried it adding a laugh track to it, and it's unfortunate, but it makes the show funnier." Various Muppet characters or guest stars broke the
fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
and acknowledged the use of the laugh track. In the fourth episode of the series,
Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show'', as well ...
was asked by guest
Ruth Buzzi Ruth Ann Buzzi ( ; born July 24, 1936) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She has appeared on stage, in films, and on television. She is best known for her performances on the comedy-variety show ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1968 ...
if he felt a gag or routine was funny enough for the show, to which he turned to the camera and replied, "That's up to the laugh track." A season two episode featuring guest
Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated ...
eschewed a laugh track altogether to support the concept that the show had been canceled that night in favor of auditioning new acts; the only audible laughs were those of the Muppet performers themselves. After ''The Muppet Show'' ended in 1981, most Muppet projects were produced in the U.S. due to the demise of the commercial ATV franchise in the UK and Lord Lew Grade, who had financed the show, no longer being involved in television. Post-''Muppet Show'' fare then turned to Douglass for audience reactions; one-shot specials such as ''
The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show ''The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show'' is a one-hour television special that aired on ABC on September 17, 1982. It guest stars John Ritter, George Hamilton and Andy Kaufman as Tony Clifton. The special was taped in Toronto between August 9 and 24, 1 ...
'' and '' The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years'' were given full audience by Douglass's son, Robert, who by that time was running Northridge Electronics following his father's retirement. Robert Douglass also orchestrated the audience for
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's unsuccessful ''Muppet Show'' reboot, ''
Muppets Tonight ''Muppets Tonight'' is an American live-action/ puppet family-oriented television series created by Jim Henson Productions and featuring The Muppets. Much like the "MuppeTelevision" segment of ''The Jim Henson Hour'' (1989), the show was a conti ...
''.


1970s; Comeback of live audiences

Though the use of canned laughter reached its peak in the 1960s, a few shows still retained the multi-camera tradition. In 1967,
Desi Arnaz Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom ''I Lov ...
produced ''
The Mothers-in-Law ''The Mothers-in-Law'' is an American situation comedy featuring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as two women who were friends and next-door neighbors until their children's elopement made them in-laws. The show aired on NBC television from September ...
'' (
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, 1967–69), which was recorded in front of a live audience at Desilu Studios, with a sweetening performed in post-production. A year later, '' The Good Guys'' (CBS, 1968–70) followed the same format. Production changes in location, however, caused the remainder of the first season to transition back to single-camera entirely, using only a laugh track. This continued through season two until low ratings led to its cancellation in 1970. The 1970s began with the decline of rural-based shows (such as ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', ''
Green Acres ''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadcast on ...
'' and ''
Mayberry RFD ''Mayberry R.F.D.'' (abbreviation for Rural Free Delivery) is an American television series produced as a spin-off continuation of ''The Andy Griffith Show''. When star Andy Griffith decided to leave his series, most of the supporting character ...
'') and the rise of socially conscious programming (such as ''All in the Family'', ''M*A*S*H'' and '' Maude''). The resulting change also spurred the return of live audiences, starting with ''
Here's Lucy ''Here's Lucy'' is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. The series co-starred her long-time comedy partner Gale Gordon and her real-life children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. It was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1974. It was Ball's thir ...
'' (CBS, 1968–1974), which starred Lucille Ball and served as a prototypal impetus to the new subject matter, and ultimately ''
The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. Moor ...
'' (CBS, 1970–77). The series' pilot episode, "Love is All Around", had been initially filmed using the single-camera method. The results were not satisfactory to Moore or the producers, who then decided to shift to multiple cameras. Since the first several episodes were taped in late summer, the pilot's first taping was not received well due to bad insulation and poor audio. The second taping, however, provided better air conditioning and a better quality sound system to the stage. Critical reception thus improved, and the show used the multi-camera format thereafter, and became a major success during its seven-year run. The resurgence of live audiences began to gradually take hold. More sitcoms began to veer away from the single-camera, movie-style format, reverting to the multi-camera format with a live studio audience providing real laughter, which producers found more pleasing because it had a better comic rhythm and helped them write better jokes. Creator
Norman Lear Norman Milton Lear (born July 27, 1922) is an American producer and screenwriter, who has produced, written, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear is known for many popular 1970s sitcoms, including the multi-award winning ''All in the Famil ...
's ''
All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series '' Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
'' (CBS, 1971–1979) followed suit in 1971. Videotaped live, Lear was more spontaneous; he wanted the studio audience to act like the performer, with hopes of the two developing a rapport with each other. Lear was not a fan of pretaped audiences, resulting in no laugh track being employed, not even during post-production when Lear could have had the luxury of sweetening any failed jokes (Lear relented somewhat in later seasons, and allowed Douglass to insert an occasional laugh). Lear's decision resulted in the show being a huge success, and ushered in the return of live audiences to the U.S. sitcom mainstream. To make his point clear, an announcement proclaimed over the closing credits each week that "''All in the Family'' was recorded on tape before a live audience" or during the show's final seasons where live audiences no longer attended tapings of the show, "''All in the Family'' was played to a studio audience for live responses."
Jack Klugman Jack Klugman (April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. He began his career in 1950 and started television and film work with roles in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957) and '' Cry Terror!'' (1958). D ...
and
Tony Randall Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play ''The Odd Couple'' by Neil Sim ...
expressed displeasure during the first season of ''
The Odd Couple Odd Couple may refer to: Neil Simon play and its adaptations * ''The Odd Couple'' (play), a 1965 stage play by Neil Simon ** ''The Odd Couple'' (film), a 1968 film based on the play *** ''The Odd Couple'' (1970 TV series), a 1970–1975 televisi ...
'' (ABC, 1970–75), which used a laugh track without a live audience. Co-creator/executive producer
Garry Marshall Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American filmmaker and actor. He started his career in the 1960s writing for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' before he developed Neil Simon's 1965 play ''The Odd Co ...
also disliked utilizing a laugh track, and
theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
veteran Randall, in particular, resented the process of having to wait several seconds between punchlines in order to allot enough space for the laugh track to be inserted. The production team experimented with omitting the laugh track altogether with the episode "Oscar's New Life"; the episode aired without a laugh track (laughter was subsequently added for syndication in order to maintain continuity). ABC relented by the second season, with ''The Odd Couple'' being filmed with three cameras (vs. a single camera the previous season) and performed like a stage play in front of a studio audience. The change also required a new, larger set to be constructed within a theatre. With a live audience present, Randall and Klugman enjoyed the spontaneity that came with it; any missed or blown lines went by without stopping (they could always be re-filmed during post-production). In addition, it gave the show a certain edge that was seen as missing in the first season, although actors had to deliver lines louder, since they were on a larger sound stage as opposed to a quiet studio with only minimal crew present. Klugman later commented, "We spent three days rehearsing the show. We sat around a table the first day. We tore the script apart. We took out all the jokes and put in character. The only reason we leave in any jokes is for the rotten canned laughter. I hated it. I watch the shows at home, I see Oscar come in and he says, 'Hi,' and there is the laughter. 'Hey,' I think, 'what the hell did I do?' I hate it; it insults the audience." The sitcom ''Happy Days'' (ABC, 1974–84) mirrored ''The Odd Couple'' scenario as well. Its first two seasons used only a laugh track, and by third season, shifted over to a live audience. The shows were not entirely live, however. With the exception of ''All in the Family'', sweetening was still a necessity during post-production in order to bridge any gaps in audience reactions. Television/laugh track historian Ben Glenn II observed a taping of the sitcom '' Alice'' (CBS, 1976–85) and noted the need for sweetening: "The actors kept blowing their lines. Of course, by the third or fourth take, the joke was no longer funny. A Douglass laugh was inserted into the final broadcast version to compensate." Some producers, like
James Komack James Komack (August 3, 1924 – December 24, 1997) was an American television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best known for producing several hit television series, including ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'', ''Chico and ...
, however, followed Lear's approach. Komack, who was involved in the short-lived sitcom ''
Hennesey ''Hennesey'' is an American military comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1962, starring Jackie Cooper and Abby Dalton. Cooper played a United States Navy physician, Lt. Charles W. "Chick" Hennesey, with Abby Dalton ...
'' starring
Jackie Cooper John Cooper Jr. (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor, television director, producer, and executive, known universally as Jackie Cooper. He was a child actor who made the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first ...
, was a longtime critic of the Douglass laugh track, believing the laughs were too predictable and could hinder the effect of the sitcom's humor. Komack instead employed music to counteract the sweetened laughs. He experimented with this technique in ''
The Courtship of Eddie's Father ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'' is an American sitcom based on the 1963 film of the same name, which was based on a novel by Mark Toby (edited by Dorothy Wilson). The series is about a widower, Tom Corbett (played by Bill Bixby), who is a ...
'' (ABC, 1969–72), which featured a subdued laugh track. Multi-camera shows produced by Komack, such as ''
Chico and the Man ''Chico and the Man'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for four seasons from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown (the Man), the cantankerous owner of a run-down garage in an East Los ...
'' (NBC, 1974–78) and ''
Welcome Back, Kotter ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' is an American sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan as a high-school teacher in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial education class called the "Sweathogs." Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the series ...
'' (ABC, 1975–79), utilized background music cues during scene transitions (obvious locations for sweetening) and made sure that Douglass's laugh track was used infrequently during post-production. Komack later commented, "If you ever try to do a show without a laugh track, you'll see a huge difference... flattens. The only way to get away from a laugh track is to use music, which can indicate when something is funny." On sweetening, he continued, "Then it's determined by the taste of the producers – by the morality of the producers... ter a while, you learn that it is valueless. In the extremes, people are going to hear it and say, 'Why are they laughing?' and they'll turn off your program." In addition to ''The Odd Couple'', ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ''Happy Days'', other live sitcoms that were sweetened by Douglass (many of which also sweetened by Pratt by the end of the 1970s) were ''
The Paul Lynde Show ''The Paul Lynde Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC. The series starred comedian Paul Lynde and aired for one season, with original episodes airing from September 13, 1972, to March 14, 1973. Setting The series starred Lyn ...
'' (ABC, 1972–73), ''
The Bob Newhart Show ''The Bob Newhart Show'' is an American sitcom television series produced by MTM Enterprises that aired on CBS from September 16, 1972, to April 1, 1978, with a total of 142 half-hour episodes over six seasons. Comedian Bob Newhart portrays a psy ...
'' (CBS, 1972–78), ''Maude'' (CBS, 1972–78), ''
Rhoda ''Rhoda'' is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns starring Valerie Harper that originally aired on CBS for five seasons from September 9, 1974, to December 9, 1978. It was the first spin-off of ''The Mary Tyle ...
'' (CBS, 1974–78), ''
Barney Miller ''Barney Miller'' is an American sitcom television series set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th St in Greenwich Village. The series was broadcast on ABC Network from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982. It was created ...
'' (ABC, 1975–82), ''
Laverne and Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' sta ...
'' (ABC, 1976–83), ''
Soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...
'' (ABC, 1977–81), ''The Comedy Shop'' (Syndication, 1978–81), ''
Mork & Mindy ''Mork & Mindy'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978, to May 27, 1982. A spin-off after a highly successful episode of ''Happy Days'', "My Favorite Orkan", it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrest ...
'' (ABC, 1978–82), ''
Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
'' (ABC, 1978–82; NBC, 1982–83), ''
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'' (NBC, 1982–93) and its spinoff ''
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'' (NBC, 1993–2004). Variety shows that became prominent during the 1970s, such as ''
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'', ''
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'' and ''
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'' (as well as ''
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'' succeeding afterwards) also continued to use Douglass's sweetening for any less appealing jokes performed during sketches. Game shows were sweetened during the 1970s and early 1980s, often played when a contestant or the host says something considered to be funny and only a small reaction comes from the live audience. Douglass's laugh track was especially heard in Chuck Barris' game shows (i.e. ''
The Gong Show ''The Gong Show'' is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1 ...
'' and ''
The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally create ...
''), whose shows were designed mainly to entertain the audience; the "prizes" were often rudimentary or derisive. Game shows that were produced at CBS Television City and NBC Studios Burbank were also sweetened, often to intensify audience reactions, including shows like ''
Press Your Luck ''Press Your Luck'' is an American television game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on CBS daytime on September 19, 1983, and ended on September 26, 1986. The format is a retooling of an earlier Carruthers productio ...
'' (used during "Whammy" segments). During a typical game show's closing credits, the show used canned cheers and applause noises to sweeten the live studio audience applause noises that viewers did not hear during the credits. This was common on daytime game shows on CBS and NBC and some syndicated game shows from the 1970s through the 1990s. Game shows taped at NBC Studios Burbank used three different applause tracks for sweetening: one with a smaller crowd, one with a medium crowd, and one with a large crowd with a cheerful male audience member in the background. However, many kids' game shows, most ABC game shows, and most Mark Goodson-Bill Todman productions, such as ''
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'', ''
Match Game ''Match Game'' is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelist ...
'' and ''
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'' were taped with a live audience present, though sweetening was used on rare occasions. There were still some producers who either still did not trust a live audience, produced a show that was too complex for an audience to be present, favored the single-camera method, or could not afford to screen it live to an audience for responses. In these cases, Douglass orchestrated the laugh track from scratch. Sitcoms like ''The Brady Bunch'', ''
The Partridge Family ''The Partridge Family'' is an American musical sitcom starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy. Jones plays a widowed mother, and Cassidy plays the oldest of her five children, in a family who embarks on a music career. It ran from Se ...
'' and ''M*A*S*H'' utilized the single-camera method for their entire run. Several hour-long comedy dramas, like ''
The Love Boat ''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS ''Pac ...
'' and ''
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'', used only a laugh track. In the intervening years beginning with live film, progressing through videotape and onto studio-filmed productions with no live audience back to live-on-tape, Douglass had gone from merely enhancing or tweaking a soundtrack, to literally customizing entire audience reactions to each performance and back again to enhancing and tweaking performances recorded with live audiences.


Competition and decline

Although Douglass had a monopoly on the laugh track, he eventually faced competition by 1977 when other sound engineers began to offer laugh tracks that differed from Douglass's distinctive laughs. Most notably, engineer and Douglass
protégé Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...
Carroll Pratt Carroll Holmes Pratt (April 19, 1921 – November 11, 2010) was an American sound engineer who, along with laugh track inventor Charley Douglass, pioneered the use of prerecorded laughter. Early life Carroll Pratt was born April 19, 1921, in Hol ...
started his own company, Sound One. Pratt and his brother had been working under Douglass since the early 1960s, but began to notice that Douglass's technique was falling behind as advances were made in production technology. Pratt commented that after years of constant use, an audible hiss could be heard when a laugh was being cued up due to Douglass's tapes wearing out. Pratt also observed that as the 1970s progressed, audiences started maturing more with the sitcom's humor, that he felt Douglass should also tone down his invasive laughs while adding quieter and more subdued laughter to the mix. While not stubborn, Douglass was so fond of his machine and technique that he felt no urgency to advance his technology. Pratt parted ways with Douglass after the 1976–77 television season wrapped up, and created a new "laff box," one that was simpler to use and had greater capacity than Douglass's (Pratt's recordings were on
cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
, Douglass's on an older
reel-to-reel tape Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...
). With the advent of
stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
television, Pratt's stereo recordings matched the sound quality of television shows being filmed or videotaped in that audio format, whereas Douglass attempted to convert previous
mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...
analog recordings to stereo. Pratt introduced an innovative laugh track that contained more realistic (though less distinctive) reactions. While Pratt's laugh track had its share of recognizable chuckles as well, they are more quiet and subtle than Douglass's, which had become so familiar and ubiquitous that they sounded trite. Some sitcoms started switching to Pratt's laugh track in 1977, including ''M*A*S*H'' and ''The Love Boat'' (which were more dramatic in tone). By the end of the decade, many live and single-camera sitcoms, such as ''
Laverne and Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' sta ...
'', ''
Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most succ ...
'', ''
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'', and all post-1978 MTM productions like ''
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'' (CBS, 1978–82) and ''
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'' (CBS, 1982–90), also chose Pratt over Douglass for the sweetening process. The competition from Pratt caused Douglass to retool his library after the 1977–78 television season, retiring most of his distinctive laughs with new laughs and salvaging his more extreme reactions almost exclusively. The combination of classic loud guffaws, mixed with his own new, less invasive recordings, had middling results. Both viewers and television critics had become conditioned to hearing laughter as part of the television comedy viewing experience. Shows like ''
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'' (NBC, 1987–88), ''
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'' (ABC, 1987–89) and ''
Doogie Howser, M.D. ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' is an American medical sitcom that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the titl ...
'' (ABC, 1989–93) were
comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...
s that abandoned the laughter altogether, earning laudatory media attention in the process. 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
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, which allowed its single-camera comedies such as '' Dream On'' and ''
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'' to run without laugh tracks, and won critical praise for doing so. Single-camera shows without an audience, live or laugh track, have become increasingly common on broadcast networks as well. Animated shows have also gone silent, except on the rare occasion that canned laughter is used, usually as a parody of a sitcom. Animated shows that used to employ a laugh track, such as ''
Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animation, animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative List of Scooby-Doo media, media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the orig ...
'', had dismissed the laugh track altogether by the 1990s. However, sitcoms made by
It's a Laugh Productions It's a Laugh Productions, Inc. is an American production company owned by The Walt Disney Company which produces live-action teen sitcoms and sketch comedies airing on Disney Channel, and Disney XD. It is a division of Disney Branded Television ...
, such as ''
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'', use laugh tracks. Sweetening is a common practice in live awards shows such as the
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
, the
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and the
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. The microphones onstage often do not fully pick up the audience's laughter and reaction to the monologues as audiences are not microphoned in live awards shows due to the amount of conversation that takes place during filming. Laughter and applause are often sweetened and edited prior to public viewing, or if aired live, are done on the spot via a seven-second delay (the same crew is also used to mute swear words and controversial statements from award winners). ''
Holliston Holliston may refer to: * Holliston, Saskatoon, Canada *Holliston, Massachusetts, USA **Holliston High School, a secondary school in Holliston, Massachusetts * ''Holliston'' (TV series), a television show on Fearnet, set in Holliston, Massachusetts ...
'', an independently produced multicamera sitcom on the defunct
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, used laugh tracks to mimic the look and feel of popular sitcoms from the 1980s and 1990s. Creator Adam Green also expressed interest in using a live studio audience in the future.


Controversy, bucking the trend

The practice of simulating an audience reaction was controversial from the beginning. A silent minority of producers despised the idea of a prerecorded audience reaction. Douglass was aware that his "laff box" was maligned by critics and actors, but also knew that the use of a laugh track became standard practice. Leading industry experts reasoned that laugh tracks were a necessary evil in prime time television: without the canned laughter, a show was doomed to fail. It was believed that in the absence of any sort of audience reaction, American viewers could not differentiate between a comedy or drama. That did not stop several from forgoing the laugh track entirely: * Former child star
Jackie Cooper John Cooper Jr. (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor, television director, producer, and executive, known universally as Jackie Cooper. He was a child actor who made the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first ...
believed that the laugh track was false. Cooper's comedy/drama ''
Hennesey ''Hennesey'' is an American military comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1962, starring Jackie Cooper and Abby Dalton. Cooper played a United States Navy physician, Lt. Charles W. "Chick" Hennesey, with Abby Dalton ...
'' (CBS, 1959–62) was cancelled in 1962 after three seasons. For its first two seasons, the show used only a mild laugh track; by the third and final season, the chuckles were eliminated completely. Cooper later commented that "we're manufacturing a reaction to our own creation, yet we'll never know if people out there are really laughing." Cooper concluded by saying, "It's a put-on all the time." * In September 1964, the comedy/drama ''
Kentucky Jones ''Kentucky Jones'' is an American comedy-drama television series starring Dennis Weaver which centers around a widowed Southern California veterinarian and rancher raising an adopted Chinese boy. Original episodes aired from September 19, 1964, un ...
'' (NBC, 1964–65), starring
Dennis Weaver William Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s until just before his death in 2006. Weave ...
, tried to eliminate laughs, simulated or live. After only five episodes and slumping ratings, Douglass was recruited to add the laugh track. ''Kentucky Jones'' was cancelled the following April. *
Ross Bagdasarian Sr. Ross S. Bagdasarian (; January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972), known professionally by his stage name David Seville, was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor, best known for creating the virtual band, cartoon band Alvin an ...
, creator of the ''
Alvin and the Chipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for novelty records in 1958. The group consists of three s ...
'' franchise, outright refused to utilize a laugh track when production began on ''
The Alvin Show ''The Alvin Show'' is an American animated television series that aired on CBS in the early 1960s. This was the first series to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks. ''The Alvin Show'' aired for one season, from October 4, 1961, ...
'' (CBS, 1961–62) in 1961. Bagdasarian's reasoning was if the show was funny, the viewers would laugh without being prompted. ''The Alvin Show'' was cancelled after a single season. * ''
Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
'' creator
Charles M. Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...
refused to employ a laugh track during the production of the holiday favorite ''
A Charlie Brown Christmas ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' is a 1965 animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip ''Peanuts'', by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on C ...
'' (CBS, 1965). Like Bagdasarian, Schulz maintained that the audience should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace, without being cued when to laugh. When CBS executives saw the final product, they were horrified and believed the special would be a flop (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 the special first aired on December 9, 1965, it was a surprise critical and commercial hit. As a result of this success, all subsequent ''Peanuts'' specials aired with no laugh track present. * ''
Rocky and His Friends ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC tele ...
'' (ABC, 1959–61; NBC, 1961–64 as ''The Bullwinkle Show'') was originally broadcast with a laugh track, against the wishes of creators
Jay Ward Joseph Ward Cohen Jr. (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989), also known as Jay Ward, was an American creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bul ...
and Bill Scott, who disputed the laugh track with ABC; given the rapid-fire pace of the show's humor, the laugh track slowed the timing and at times interrupted dialogue. After getting support from sponsor
General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...
, Ward and Scott convinced ABC, and the laugh track ended after its fourth episode; while current syndicated prints of these episodes still retain the laugh track, it has been subsequently removed from the DVD release. * The musical sitcom ''
The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...
'' (NBC, 1966–68) featured a laugh track throughout its first season and several episodes of the second. Midway through Season 2, the Monkees band members insisted the show eliminate the laugh track, believing their viewers were intelligent enough to know where the jokes were.
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, already annoyed by the rock group wanting too much control over their show, cancelled ''The Monkees'' after the conclusion of its second season, citing the removal of the laugh track as a significant factor.
Peter Tork Peter Halsten Thorkelson (February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019), better known by his stage name Peter Tork, was an American musician and actor. He was best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees and a co-star of the TV ...
commented in 2013 that "we didn't want it from the beginning, but NBC insisted. I thought it was a stroke of genius when it was eliminated in the second season." *
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
's first sitcom, ''
The Bill Cosby Show ''The Bill Cosby Show'' is an American sitcom television series, that aired for two seasons on NBC's Sunday night schedule from 1969 until 1971, under the sponsorship of Procter & Gamble. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked Bill ...
'' (NBC, 1969–71) was produced without a laugh track at the insistence of Cosby. He stated that his opposition to NBC's desire to add a laugh track led to the show's cancellation after two seasons. *
Andy Griffith Andy Samuel Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, comedian, television producer, southern gospel singer and writer whose career spanned seven decades in music and television. Known for his Southern drawl, his characte ...
initially resisted the inclusion of a laugh track on ''
The Andy Griffith Show ''The Andy Griffith Show '' is an American situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color. The ...
''. Co-star
Don Knotts Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924February 24, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He is widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on ''The Andy Griffith Show'', a 1960s sitcom for which he earned five Emmy Awards. He also ...
had previously been a member of the ensemble cast of ''
The Steve Allen Show ''The Steve Allen Show'' was an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on American Broadcasting Company, ABC,
'' when it transitioned from a live audience to a laugh track in its fourth season. Knotts felt the artificial audience reaction contributed to the show's demise – a sentiment that influenced Griffith's opinion. Instead of a laugh track, Griffith insisted on screening completed episodes in front of an audience, recording their reaction, and inserting that into the show's soundtrack (a practice that became more commonplace for television comedies in years to come). The earliest episodes include these custom audience reactions; however, Griffith's experiment was too costly, and the network insisted on a Douglass laugh track. Griffith eventually compromised on the grounds that it be utilized sparingly. *
Larry Gelbart Larry Simon Gelbart (February 25, 1928 – September 11, 2009) was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter, director and author, most famous as a creator and producer of the television series ''M*A*S*H'', and as co-writer of the B ...
, co-creator of ''
M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. The ...
'' (CBS, 1972–83), initially wanted the show to air without a laugh track ("Just like the actual
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
", he remarked dryly). Though CBS initially rejected the idea, a compromise was reached that allowed Gelbart and co-producer
Gene Reynolds Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal (April 4, 1923 – February 3, 2020) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He was one of the developers and producers of the TV series ''M*A*S*H''. Early life Reynolds was born on April 4, 1923, ...
to omit the laugh track during operating room scenes if they wished. "We told the network that under no circumstances would we ever can laughter during an OR scene when the doctors were working," said Gelbart in 1998. "It's hard to imagine that 300 people were in there laughing at somebody's guts being sewn up." Seasons 1–5 utilized Douglass's more invasive laugh track; Carroll Pratt's quieter laugh track was employed for Seasons 6–11 when the series shifted from sitcom to comedy drama with the departure of Gelbart and Reynolds. Several episodes ("O.R.", "The Bus", ""Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?", "The Interview", "Point of View" and "Dreams" among them) omitted the laugh track; as did almost all of Season 11, including the 135-minute series finale, "
Goodbye, Farewell and Amen "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" is a television film that served as the series finale of the American television series ''M*A*S*H''. Closing out the series' 11th season, the 2 1⁄2-hour episode first aired on CBS on February 28, 1983, ending the s ...
". The laugh track is also omitted from some international and syndicated airings of the show; on one occasion during an airing in the UK, the laugh track was accidentally left on, and viewers expressed their displeasure, an apology from the network for the "technical difficulty" was later released. The
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
releases, meanwhile, give the viewer a choice of watching every episode with or without the laugh tracks (though the French and Spanish track do not have this option). UK DVD critics speak poorly of the laugh track, stating "canned laughter is intrusive at the best of times, but with a programme like ''M*A*S*H'', it's downright unbearable." "They're a lie," said Gelbart in a 1992 interview. "You're telling an engineer when to push a button to produce a laugh from people who don't exist. It's just so dishonest. The biggest shows when we were on the air were ''
All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series '' Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
'' and ''
The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. Moor ...
'' both of which were taped before a live studio audience where laughter made sense," continued Gelbart. "But our show was a film show – supposedly shot in the middle of
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
. So the question I always asked the network was, 'Who are these laughing people? Where did they come from?'" Gelbart persuaded CBS to test the show in private screenings with and without the laugh track. The results showed no measurable difference in the audience's enjoyment. "So you know what they said?" Gelbart said. "'Since there's no difference, let's leave it alone!' The people who defend laugh tracks have no sense of humor." Gelbart summed up the situation by saying, "I always thought it cheapened the show. The network got their way. They were paying for dinner." * The sitcom ''
Police Squad! ''Police Squad!'' is an American television crime comedy series that was broadcast on the ABC network in 1982. It was created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, starring Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin. A spoof of police procedural ...
'', which was a parody of
police procedurals The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...
, did not utilize a laugh track in any of its six episodes. The decision not to incorporate one was at the behest of its creators, the trio of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, since most of the humor of the program was derived from events that occurred either in the foreground or in the background of various scenes. * Another satirical police sitcom, ''
Sledge Hammer! ''Sledge Hammer!'' is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from September 23, 1986 to February 12, 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and stars David Rasche as Inspector ...
'' (ABC, 1986–88), utilized a laugh track for the first 13 episodes of its first season, which creator
Alan Spencer ''Sledge Hammer!'' is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from September 23, 1986 to February 12, 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and stars David Rasche as Inspector ...
did not approve of. After months of fighting with ABC, Spencer was able to cease adding laughter beginning with episode 14, " State of Sledge". * The sitcom ''
Dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
'' (ABC, 1991–94) initially featured a laugh track. At the insistence of co-producers
Brian Henson Brian Henson (born November 3, 1963) is an American puppeteer, director, producer, voice actor and the chairman of The Jim Henson Company. He is the son of puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson. Early life Henson was born on November 3, 1963, in New ...
and Michael Jacobs, it was eventually dropped as the show grew in popularity. * '' Sports Night'' (ABC, 1998–2000) premiered with a laugh track, against the wishes of show creator
Aaron Sorkin Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director. Born in New York City, he developed a passion for writing at an early age. Sorkin has earned an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime E ...
, 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, while the remainder were filmed without an audience present. * The 2020 revival of ''Saved by the Bell'' is a single-camera sitcom that dropped the live audience and laugh track altogether, which is a major difference from the
original series Original programming (also called originals or original programs, and subcategorized as "original series", "original movies", "original documentaries" and "original specials") is a term used for in-house television, film or web series productions ...
.


Outside the U.S.


United Kingdom

In the 20th century, most sitcoms in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
were taped before live audiences to provide natural laughter. Scenes recorded outdoors, traditionally recorded in advance of studio work, are played back to the studio audience and their laughter is recorded for the broadcast episode (occasionally, entire shows have been recorded in this fashion). Other comedies, such as ''
The Royle Family ''The Royle Family'' is a British sitcom produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series from 1998 to 2000, and specials from 2006 to 2012. It centres on the lives of a television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, com ...
'' and ''
The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series of ...
'', which are presented in the mode of
cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or high ...
rather than in the format of a traditional sitcom, do not feature any audience laughter. One notable exception to the use of a live audience was
Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...
's ''
The Kenny Everett Video Show ''The Kenny Everett Video Show'' (later renamed ''The Kenny Everett Video Cassette'') is a British television comedy and music programme that was made by Thames Television for ITV from 3 July 1978 to 21 May 1981. Overview Philip Jones, Tham ...
'', whose laugh track consisted of spontaneous reaction to sketches from the studio production crew. This technique was maintained throughout its four-year run, even as the show moved to larger studio facilities and its emphasis switched from music to comedy. Everett's later series for the BBC (''
The Kenny Everett Television Show ''The Kenny Everett Television Show'' is a comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC1 from 1981 to 1988. It was presented by its main performer Kenny Everett, who wrote the material with Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron. Later in 1986 they were joined by ...
'') were recorded in front of live studio audiences. In the early 1980s it was BBC policy that comedy programmes be broadcast with a laugh track, though producers did not always agree this suited their programmes. As a result, a laugh track for ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comic science fiction, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally The Hitchhiker's Guide to th ...
'' was recorded for the first episode, but dropped before transmission. ''
The League of Gentlemen ''The League of Gentlemen'' is a surreal British comedy horror sitcom that premiered on BBC Two in 1999. The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England, originally based on Alston, Cumbria, and follows the lives o ...
'' was originally broadcast with a laugh track, but this was dropped after the programme's second series. The pilot episode of the satirical series ''
Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ov ...
'' was also broadcast with a laugh track, apparently at the insistence of Central Television. This idea was dropped as the show's producers felt that the show worked better without one. Some later editions, in 1992 (Election Special) and 1993 (two episodes) did use a laughter track, as these were performed live in front of a studio audience and included a spoof ''
Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...
''. Most episodes of ''
Only Fools and Horses ''Only Fools and Horses....'' is a British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until t ...
'' feature a studio audience; the exceptions, which featured no laughter at all, were all Christmas specials, "
To Hull and Back "To Hull and Back" is the fourth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom, ''Only Fools and Horses'', first screened on 25 December 1985. It was the first feature-length edition of the show and also the first special not to feature or mention ...
", "
A Royal Flush "A Royal Flush" is the fifth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom, ''Only Fools and Horses'', first screened on 25 December 1986. It was re-edited into a shorter version with added laughter track and released on DVD in 2004. In the episode ...
" and the second part of "
Miami Twice "Miami Twice" is the two-part tenth Christmas special edition of the British sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses''. The first episode, on-screen subtitle "The American Dream", was first screened on 24 December 1991. The second episode of "Miami Twice" ...
". For their DVD releases, "A Royal Flush" (which was edited to remove over 20 minutes of footage) had an added laughter track, as did the second part of "Miami Twice" (which was merged with the first part to make ''Miami Twice: The Movie''). In the 21st century, many sitcoms inspired by the new wave of British comedies of the late 1990s have not featured a laugh track or studio audience. Although ''
Green Wing ''Green Wing'' is a British sitcom set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital. It was created by the same team behind the Sketch comedy, sketch show ''Smack the Pony'' – Channel 4 commissioner Caroline Leddy and producer Victoria Pile – and ...
'' does not feature audience laughter, partly because of its surreal nature, it does feature unusual
lazzi Lazzi (; from the Italian ''lazzo'', a joke or witticism) are stock comedic routines that are associated with '' Commedia dell'arte''. Performers, especially those playing the masked Arlecchino, had many examples of this in their repertoire, and wou ...
techniques, where the film of the episode is slowed down immediately following a joke. ''
Mrs Brown's Boys ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' is an Irish television sitcom created by and starring Brendan O'Carroll and produced in the United Kingdom by BBC Scotland in partnership with BOC-PIX and Irish broadcaster RTÉ. The series stars O'Carroll as Agnes B ...
'' and ''
Still Open All Hours ''Still Open All Hours'' is a British sitcom created for the BBC by Roy Clarke, and starring David Jason and James Baxter. It is the sequel to the sitcom ''Open All Hours'', which both Clarke and Jason worked on throughout its 26-episode run ...
'' both feature a studio audience.


Canada

Most contemporary Canadian television comedies do not incorporate a laugh track, although some programs, such as the sitcom ''
Maniac Mansion ''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been ensla ...
'' (1990–1993) and the children's program ''
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein ''The Hilarious House of Frightenstein'' is a Television in Canada, Canadian children's television series, which was produced by Hamilton, Ontario's independent station CHCH-DT, CHCH-TV in 1971."Fit and 40: CHCH Channel 11 was built on one man's ...
'' (1971) had a laugh track added for airings in the U.S. despite being broadcast in Canada without one. The children's sketch comedy series ''
You Can't Do That on Television ''You Can't Do That on Television'' is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that first aired locally in 1979 before airing in the United States in 1981. It featured pre-teen and teenage actors in a sketch comedy format similar to that of ...
'' (1979–1990) had no laugh track during its first season as a locally televised program. However, when it entered the Canadian network realm (as ''Whatever Turns You On''), a laugh track was added which was composed almost exclusively of children's laughter, with some peppering of adult laughter. While unique and appropriate for the nature of the show, the use and quality of the laugh track varied from season to season. The 1981 episodes featured an excellent variety of different laughs, offering a more authentic sound. The 1982 season, which was the first season of the series produced for U.S. cable channel
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
, used fewer laughs, but also employed Carroll Pratt's titter track used on U.S. sitcoms such as ''
Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most succ ...
'' and ''
What's Happening!! ''What's Happening!!'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976, until April 28, 1979, premiering as a summer series. Due to other shows being cancelled across the network, and good ratings and reviews from ...
''. The last six episodes of 1982 corrected the repetition of the kiddie track by mixing different laughs together, along with the titter track. 1983 took a noticeable downturn, with the laugh track being considerably muted and poorly edited. By 1984, the editors corrected this problem, with laughs reverting to 1982 minus the effective titter track. In 1986, a new children's laugh track was used with decidedly younger sounding laughs to match the material, which targeting a younger demographic than earlier seasons. When the series returned in 1989, it used both 1981 and 1986 kiddie tracks.


China

''
I Love My Family ''I Love My Family'' () is a Chinese sitcom. It was China's first multi-camera sitcom and it originally aired from 1993 to 1994 with a total of 120 episodes. It is also the first Mandarin-language sitcom. It was directed by Ying Da and Lin Cong a ...
'', the first multi-camera sitcom in
mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
, used a live studio audience. Some single-camera comedies, such as ''
iPartment ''iPartment'' (; pinyin: Àiqíng Gōngyù), is a sitcom from Mainland China. It was produced by the Shanghai Film Group and Shanghai Film Studio, and aired by Jiangxi TV in August 2009, with twenty 45-minute episodes. The second season a ...
'', used a laugh track. Laugh tracks are commonly used in variety shows for comic effect. Examples include ''Super Sunday'', ''
Kangxi Lai Le Kangsi Coming () was a Taiwanese variety-comedy talk show hosted by variety show veterans Dee Hsu (徐熙娣 a.k.a. Xiao S) and Kevin Tsai (蔡康永). It was produced by Chungta Production (中大製作) from 2004 to 2009, and currently produced ...
'', ''
Variety Big Brother Variety Big Brother (, literally Big Brother of Entertainment), also known as Big Brother's Return, was a television show hosted by Chang Fei, a.k.a. Fei Ge, which screened on Taiwanese channel China Television on Saturday evenings, Singapore Me ...
'' and ''Home Run''.


Latin America

Several
Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n countries like
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
replace the laugh track with a crew of off-screen people paid specifically to laugh on command whenever the comedic situation merits a laugh. Known as ''reidores'' ("laughers"), a senior laugher signals all the others when to laugh. In others like
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, comedies without audience reactions were openly stated to have no laugh track because they respected their audience, most notably
Chespirito Roberto Gómez Bolaños (21 February 1929 – 28 November 2014), more commonly known by his stage name Chespirito, or "Little William Shakespeare, Shakespeare", was a Mexican actor, comedian, screenwriter, humorist, director, producer, and au ...
programs like ''
El Chapulín Colorado ''El Chapulín Colorado'' (English: ''The Red Grasshopper'') is a Mexican television comedy series that ran from 1973 to 1979 and parodied superhero shows. It was created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños ( Chespirito), who also played the main ch ...
'' and ''
El Chavo del Ocho ''El Chavo'' (English: ''The Kid''); — also known as ''El Chavo del Ocho'' (English: ''The Kid from number Eight'') during its earliest episodes —, is a Mexico, Mexican television sitcom created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, produced by Tele ...
''.


France

Most French television comedies do not incorporate laugh tracks. One noticeable try was on AB Productions television series, produced by
Jean-Luc Azoulay Jean-Luc Azoulay also known by the pseudonym Jean-François Porry (born 1947 in Sétif, then French Algeria) is a French television producer. He was born in Algeria to a Sephardic Jewish family. In 1987, with the ''Club Dorothée'', he developed ...
, such as '' Hélène et les Garçons'' and the following series, each one being a spin-off of the previous one - which allowed using the same stages or actors. Each series copied the use of the
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
format, such as twenty minutes duration, almost
single camera The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, also known as portable single camera, is a method of filmmaking and video production. The single-camera setup originally developed during the birth of the classical Hollywood cinema i ...
, but no
studio audience A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack (as opposed to canned ...
, since the editing was very poor and very short
principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
(somehow, many
in-camera editing In-camera editing is a technique where, instead of Film editing, editing the shots in a film into sequence after shooting, the Film director, director or cinematographer instead shoots the sequences in strict order. The resulting "edit" is therefor ...
episodes could be shot during the same day), which makes actual audience laughter impossible. Many criticisms were made of the poor quality of the realisation, actor play, many of them were not professional actors, and also the attempt to copy American series format – mix-up of sitcom,
soap-opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored b ...
and
teen drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
– in which laughter was the main complaint.


Effects

In order to gauge the continued relevance of Douglass's laugh track, a study was published in 1974 in the ''
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology The ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association that was established in 1965. It covers the fields of social and personality psychology. The edi ...
'' that concluded people were still more likely to laugh at jokes that were followed by canned laughter. ''
That Girl ''That Girl'' is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from September 8, 1966 to March 19, 1971. It starred Marlo Thomas as the title character Ann Marie, an aspiring (but only sporadically employed) actress, who moves from her hometown of Brewster ...
'' co-creator
Sam Denoff Samuel Denoff (July 1, 1928 – July 8, 2011) was an American screenwriter and television producer. Biography Denoff was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Esther (Rothbard) and Harry Denoff, a salesman. With his long-time ...
commented in 1978 that "laughter is social. It's easier to laugh when you're with people." Denoff added "in a movie theatre, you don't need a laugh track, but at home, watching TV, you're probably alone or with just a few others."
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
psychology professor Bill Kelley gauged the necessity of the laugh track, particularly on U.S. sitcoms. He stated "we're much more likely to laugh at something funny in the presence of other people." Kelley's research compared students' reactions to an episode of ''Seinfeld'', which utilizes a laugh track, to those watching ''The Simpsons'', which does not. Brain scans suggested that viewers found the same things funny and the same regions of their brain lit up whether or not they heard others laughing. Despite this, Kelley still found value in the laugh track. "When done well," Kelley commented, "they can give people pointers about what's funny and help them along. But when done poorly, you notice a laugh track and it seems unnatural and out of place."


Legacy and support

Since its inception, the idea of prerecorded laughter has had its share of supporters as well as detractors. Si Rose, executive producer for Sid and Marty Krofft, convinced the Kroffts to use a laugh track on their puppet shows, such as ''
H.R. Pufnstuf ''H.R. Pufnstuf'' is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-sized-puppet program (not including their previous work with the Hanna-Barbera program ''The Ba ...
'', ''
The Bugaloos ''The Bugaloos'' is an American children's television series, produced by brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, that aired on NBC on Saturday mornings from 1970 to 1972. Reruns of the show aired in daily syndication from 1978 to 1985 as part of the "Krof ...
'' and ''
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters ''Sigmund and the Sea Monsters'' is an American children's television series that ran from September 8, 1973 to October 18, 1975, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft and aired on Saturday mornings. It was syndicated by itself from December 1975 to J ...
''. Rose stated: In 2000, Sid Krofft commented, "We were sort of against that he laugh track but Si Rose – being in sitcoms – he felt that when the show was put together that the children would not know when to laugh." Marty Krofft added: When discussing the show's production techniques for ''The Bugaloos'' DVD commentary track in 2006, British series stars
Caroline Ellis Caroline Ellis (born 12 October 1950) is an English actress. She is best known for her role in Only Fools and Horses as Michelle and her other roles in a 1968 TV adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story ''The Boscombe Valley Mystery'', Jill Ro ...
and John Philpott addressed the laugh track, which at that time was uncharacteristic and often scorned in the United Kingdom. "I was never one for the American canned laughter, because sometimes it's too much," said Ellis. She added, however, that it does help in creating "the atmosphere for the reaction." Philpott added that, unlike their UK counterparts, US viewing audiences at the time had become accustomed to hearing laughter, saying, "I think you find yourself genuinely laughing more if you are prompted to laugh along with the canned laughter." When viewing the Kroffts' ''
H.R. Pufnstuf ''H.R. Pufnstuf'' is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-sized-puppet program (not including their previous work with the Hanna-Barbera program ''The Ba ...
'' for the first time, ''Brady Bunch'' star Susan Olsen described the laugh track as "overbearing," saying, "I remember being eight years old...and just thinking, 'Will they get rid of that awful canned laughter?!'" Olsen added that
recreational drug use Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...
was necessary to enjoy the silliness of the program, saying, "I never tried combining mind-altering substances and Krofft entertainment; I'm afraid the laugh track would send me on a bad trip." In a 2007 interview,
Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...
producer/founder
Lou Scheimer Louis Scheimer (October 19, 1928 – October 17, 2013) was an American producer and voice actor who was one of the original founders of Filmation. He was also credited as an executive producer of many of its cartoons. Early life and education ...
praised the laugh track for its usage on ''The Archie Show''. "Why did we use a laugh track?" Scheimer asked. "Because it makes the audience want to laugh with all the other people who are watching t home And you felt like ou werepart of the show than just eingan observer." Scheimer confirmed that ''The Archie Show'' was the first
Saturday morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...
to utilize a laugh track. Television and laugh track historian Ben Glenn, II, commented that the laugh tracks currently used are radically different from the "carefree" quality of the laughter of past: Several months after Douglass's death in 2003, his son Bob commented on the pros and cons of his father's invention: Carroll Pratt confirmed Douglass's comments in a June 2002 interview with the Archive of American Television, saying that producers regularly wanted louder, longer laughs: Few
re-recording mixer A re-recording mixer in North America, also known as a dubbing mixer in Europe, is a post-production audio engineer who mixes recorded dialogue, sound effects and music to create the final version of a soundtrack for a feature film, television pro ...
s have carried on the "laff box" tradition. In addition to Bob Douglass, Los Angeles-based mixers
Bob La Masney Bob La Masney is an American sound engineer. He is known for his work on the television programs '' Mom'', ''The Big Bang Theory'', ''B Positive'', ''Mike & Molly'', ''Two and a Half Men ''Two and a Half Men'' is an American television sitco ...
, and Sound One's Jack Donato and John Bickelhaupt currently specialize in audience sweetening. While modern digital machines are not as cumbersome as Douglass's original machinery, Bickelhaupt confirmed they "are pretty anonymous, with nlabeledknobs and buttons. We like to remain kind of mysterious – the man-behind-the-curtain thing. We don't really like to talk about it too much." Bickelhaupt added that "most of the time, what we're doing isn't re-creating a studio audience; the audience laughter is already there. But in editing, when sections of the show are taken out, when they take out lines to make the show fit a time slot – we have to cover the bridge between one laugh and another by using the laugh machine." In reference to the quiet laugh track employed on ''
How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his ...
'', Bickelhaupt commented that producers are increasingly "shying away from that big, full audience – the raucous sound that was more commonplace in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. They want a more subtle track." Bickelhaupt concluded, "I have a great job. When you sit and work on comedy all day, you can't possibly get depressed. When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them, 'I laugh.'"
Steven Levitan Steven E. Levitan (born April 6, 1962) is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter. He has created such television series as ''Just Shoot Me!'', ''Stark Raving Mad (TV series), Stark Raving Mad'', ''Stacked'', ''Back to You ( ...
, creator of ''
Just Shoot Me! ''Just Shoot Me!'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from March 4, 1997, to November 26, 2003, with a total of 145 half-hour episodes spanning seven seasons. The show was created by Steven Levitan, the show's executive pr ...
'' (a multi-camera series that used live and taped audience reactions) and co-creator of ''Modern Family'' (which does not utilize live or recorded audience laughter as a single-camera series), commented, "When used properly, the laugh guy's job is to smooth out the soundtrack – nothing more."
Phil Rosenthal Philip Rosenthal (born January 27, 1960) is an American television writer and producer who is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the CBS sitcom ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' (1996–2005). In recent years, he has presented food and t ...
confirmed that he "rarely manipulated the laughs" on ''
Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American sitcom television series created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch and ...
''. "I worked on shows in the past where the 'sweetener' was ladled on with a heavy hand, mainly because there were hardly any laughs from the living. The executive producers would say, 'Don't worry – you know who will love that joke? Mr. Sweet man.'" Bickelhaupt confirmed this observation, admitting there are many occasions he has created all audience responses. Conversely,
Lloyd J. Schwartz Lloyd Jeffry Schwartz (born May 2, 1946) is an American television producer and writer. Career Schwartz is the son of TV mogul Sherwood Schwartz and his wife Mildred Seidman. Lloyd worked alongside his father since the late 1960s. They teamed ...
, son of ''
Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family with six children. The show aired for five seasons and, after ...
'' creator
Sherwood Schwartz Sherwood Charles Schwartz (; November 14, 1916 – July 12, 2011) was an American television screenwriter and producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, but he now is best known for creating the 1960s television series '' Gilligan's Isla ...
, admitted in his book, ''Brady, Brady, Brady'', that the laugh track in his directorial debut of ''The Brady Bunch'' (S4E23 "Room at the Top") was "significantly louder than any of the other 'Brady Bunch''episodes." Schwartz added, "I'm a little embarrassed about it now, but I wanted to make sure that the manufactured audience got all the jokes I directed." Karal Ann Marling, professor of American studies and art history at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
, voiced concerns about Douglass's invention: Marling added she was concerned more about canned laughter as a symptom of a larger social willingness to accept things uncritically, which included political messages as well as commercial messages. "It's a kind of decline in American feistiness and an ability to think for yourself," she said. "It certainly is embedded, but that doesn't make it a good thing. There are a lot of things that we do every day of the week that aren't good things. And this is one of them."


See also

*
Artificial crowd noise Artificial crowd noise is pre-recorded audio that simulates the live sounds of spectators, particularly during sporting events. Sports teams have used artificial crowd noise to simulate stadium sounds during practices to acclimate themselves to ...
*
Claque A claque is an organized body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses. Members of a claque are called claqueurs. History Hiring people to applaud dramatic performances was common in classical times. For example, when th ...
* Noddies *
Studio audience A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack (as opposed to canned ...
* Applause sign


References

{{Reflist, 30em


External links


"Artificially Sweetened: The Story of Canned Laughter" at neatorama.com




* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090212113557/http://www.andheresthekicker.com/ex_ben_glenn.php Canned Laughter: A History Reconstructed– An Interview with Ben Glenn II, television historian
Laugh Tracks are No Replacement for the Real Thing

Charley Douglass Laugh Track Appreciation page
Laughter Sitcoms Sketch comedy Sound recording Television terminology Audiovisual introductions in 1950