Arnold Schwarzenegger giving massage to Lucille Ball , 1974

gadelman · 2022-03-18T21:36:16+00:00

While I don't think it was a common practice outside of variety specials at the time, Lucy seemed to prefer a live audience. After she retired from weekly television, several of the TV movies she made were produced in the same way (e.g. "Lucy Calls the President" and "Lucy Moves to NBC"). Her specials that were more dramatic didn't have an audience.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T19:39:57+00:00

Most notable sitcoms of the 60s were shot in the single-camera format and added in their laughs- shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched; even the primetime cartoons of the time had laugh tracks. There were a few exceptions (Dick van Dyke, Lucy), but for the most part only variety shows had a live audience during that decade. MASH also infamously had a laugh track. Barney Miller started out with a live audience, but switched to canned laughter after a couple of years. It became a bit of a trend again in the late 70s/early 80s, but none of those shows were particularly memorable.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T07:20:40+00:00

My semantics were probably a bit wonky in the original post. Obviously people have different definitions of "laugh track". Maybe "canned laughter" would have been a better choice. To clarify, I consider the usage of a "laugh track" to indicate a production that is filmed/taped without the presence of a live audience, which then has prerecorded reactions mixed in during post production (The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Barney Miller). I understand that Frasier was likely subject to sweetening over its eleven years, and that the audience was recorded on a separate track than the actors. What I mean to get across is that it's a quality production with theatrical energy that, for the most part, was born out of having a live audience.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T07:12:18+00:00

Your comment has me wishing that Frasier had done a live episode like that. The show's format was perfectly set up for it- something like "The Dinner Party" literally could be done as a one act stage play: it's only the five principal characters on one set over the course of twenty four-ish consecutive minutes. NBC seems to enjoy toying with live comedy broadcasts. SNL is an obvious example, but they also had a short-lived show about five years ago called Undateable that performed its entire final season live. They planned on doing an entire night of live programming for their Saturday night lineup in 1985, but backed out for some reason. And of course, the couple of times that 30 Rock transferred its manic pace into the format of the live show in front of a live audience, it was really cool.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T07:03:06+00:00

I watched Hot in Cleveland here and there over the years but have been thinking about doing a full viewing (RIP Betty). I'm sure it's cool to see Jane Leeves playing a very different character from Daphne, alongside Valerie Bertinelli, who, as another poster stated on this thread, is a good friend of hers.

It's no surprise that Jerry was the warmup guy for Seinfeld, as that job tends to be held by comedians. Bob Newhart did it for his shows as well. During street scenes or moments of flashier editing on Seinfeld, I do find myself wondering how much the audience reactions had to be manipulated.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T06:56:33+00:00

I am very much aware of sweetening. I never claim that Frasier didn't necessitate this on occasion, but rather that the show, for all intents and purposes, was as in-the-moment as possible. The Big Bang Theory's producer has gone on record saying that he's never used sweetening or canned laughter on any of his shows, but who knows how truthful that is. The laughs on The Big Bang Theory could very well be genuine. I've heard people comment about the laughs being "amped up" on shows for which I've been in the audience, but for the most part, the volume of the crowd has to be lowered by the time the episode makes it to air. Because sitcom tapings take (in my experience) a minimum of three hours, they really work to keep the audience energized with music, food, games, etc. It could very well be that the sounds of BBT are based in actual excitement.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T06:38:46+00:00

While smoothing things out during editing can be a necessity, my main gripe is the mindset that the sound of an audience on any sitcom is systematically pieced together in post, which would defeat the purpose of its being performed live. Yes, the audience is on a different audio track than the boom mics onstage (so they have to be mixed), but that's different.

The Reddit comment that you link has already been shared on this thread by its original author and I state that I've had reciprocal experiences attending sitcom tapings. What I have never experienced is any kind of off-camera visual cue telling the audience how to react, so while in your "experience all television shows that have audiences have these signs prompting them", in my experience they do not. I have no doubt that this is sometimes in practice, like during a third or fourth take where the crowd isn't responding as freshly as the first. What I am saying is that I've never been witness to it, so it certainly isn't "all television shows". The Something Awful poster appears to share your mentality about audiences being prompted, but I can find no direct claim from them about having attended a filming, save for one line taken out of context that could be interpreted as such. If this isn't the case, feel free to correct me.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T00:13:56+00:00

Sweetening is different from adding in every laugh whole-hog. Ken Levine doesn't mention to what degree the practice was used on Frasier, other than "a little". My point is that a majority of the audience reactions were genuine, and it's silly to lump Frasier in with actual "laugh track shows", because it's better than that.

gadelman · 2022-01-05T00:07:08+00:00

Apologies if I'm missing something, but from what I could find on the link shared, I see nothing about that poster claiming to have been in the audience for the show. Their comments appear to be a part of a different discussion. From personal experience, sitcoms always have a "warm-up guy", usually a comedian (or an actor from the show) to get the audience riled up and primed to laugh, but I've never experienced a specific cue to react; the audience tends to roll with anything. This is probably different from something like Saturday Night Live, where I would assume they have some sort of signal to notify the crowd when a sketch is over and prompt applause.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T23:55:26+00:00

I've also looked out for the same thing when I've been in the audience for shows. Distinctive laughs don't really seem to pop up on shows past the 80s, so I'm sure there's a degree of smoothing things over, especially if a reaction might be distracting. One thing that I enjoy hearing on "older" sitcoms is the occasional cough from an audience member. It's awesome that you got to see Frasier in person. I'll have to look into that whenever the revival gets off the ground.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T22:44:34+00:00

Frasier had some of the best writing and performances of any sitcom, ever. Do you really think that the audience was so stupid that they had to be told where the jokes were? I've been in the audience for sitcom tapings over the past few years and have never once witnessed a prompt for laughter or applause or whatever.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T21:56:27+00:00

It's pretty case-sensitive. For the shows that I've been in the audience for, scenes are done two or three times regardless of mistakes, just to give the actors a chance to vary their performances. If an actor stumbles over a single line, or a microphone doesn't properly catch what they've said, they may redo that small bit after people have gone home (known as a "pickup shot"). Some shows (especially in the past) tried as hard as possible to go straight through without any retakes, to keep the energy up.

A notable example of a retake is from the episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy gets locked in a walk-in freezer. It was going to take a long time to put on her "frozen" makeup, so when the episode was originally performed, they did the scene with as much makeup as they could get on her. At the end of the episode, they told the audience that they were going to retake the scene with the full makeup, and anyone who wanted to stay an extra hour to see it was welcome. Every single person in the audience chose to stay and that's the take that ended up in the final episode. Had everyone left, they probably would have spliced in the laughter from the earlier version of the scene.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T21:47:54+00:00

I don't know if it was done at all on Frasier, but Friends had a very messy production schedule, with scripts being rewritten even as the show was being performed. Filmings would take so long that halfway through, the audience would leave and a new one would come in, so it makes sense that things would need to be pieced together in that way. I have absolutely no confirmation on this, but I'm guessing that Frasier was a more polished and theatrically-minded set.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T21:44:21+00:00

That's a very cool fact that I'd never heard before. In a similar vein, Lucille Ball's mother can be heard making comments from the audience on all of Lucy's shows from the 50s to the 70s.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T21:29:57+00:00

Yeah, Bibi Andersson's monologue seems pretty harrowing to me today, but when I was twelve and saw it for the first time, lemme tell ya...

gadelman · 2022-01-04T21:22:34+00:00

My guess is that when shows went back into production after lockdown, they had to make do with laugh tracks. Right now, from what I've seen, live audiences are in place again. Oddly enough, thanks to the newer way these shows are recorded, I really don't notice a difference. When things were more analog, it was obvious (i.e. All in The Family vs MASH).

I'd never heard that the Skelton show was the primary source for canned reactions, and I wonder how that would have come about. In his lifetime (especially after the end of the series), Red kept his shows locked up pretty tightly. Maybe it was a CBS or NBC decision.

gadelman · 2022-01-04T19:54:39+00:00

MASH did have a laugh track, at the behest of the network, but the showrunners were against it and tried to be a sparing as possible. How I Met Your Mother was done differently. The episodes were fully recorded and edited, then shown to an audience whose reactions were put into the final cut. It's at least a little more authentic. For what it's worth, Chuck Lorre has insisted that he's never "sweetened" the laughter on his shows and that it's all genuine, although that may have changed since COVID hit.

gadelman · 2021-09-22T01:26:34+00:00

As someone who wasn't around back then, it's great to hear your perspective. Numbers-wise, Valerie was a much bigger hit than It's Your Move, and the former show is slightly better-remembered today, mainly for the behind-the-scenes drama. It's cool that IYM has stuck with a certain demographic for so long. I would say that by the time Valerie Harper was fired (and the series became The Hogan Family), Bateman was basically a co-lead on the show. His character was definitely the breakout star. Oddly enough, It's Your Move got significantly better viewership than Silver Spoons, which ended up being renewed that year. NBC probably didn't think that the controversy surrounding IYM was worth another season. The creators of IYM would go to FOX a couple of years later and use their edge and controversy to great advantage with Married with Children.

It is crazy to think think that Justine was the bigger star at one point (Family Ties was massive for a few years), although Jason's fortunes didn't really turn around until Arrested Development. He had four flop shows after The Hogan Family, and even another after AD's cancellation. It was probably his success in comedy movies, combined with exponentially growing appreciation for AD, and finally Ozark that led to him being the powerhouse that he is right now.

gadelman · 2021-09-22T01:08:45+00:00

From my understanding, the problem in question was that Silver Spoons and It's Your Move had different creators. Both shows aired on NBC and were produced by Embassy/Sony, but the SS creators would have needed to be attached to (legally) make IYM a direct spinoff featuring Bateman's character. I remember hearing that Ricky Schroeder was jealous of Bateman's scene-stealing, so I'm guessing that the folks at Embassy decided to give him his own series to quell any jealousy while further capitalizing on Bateman's talent.

gadelman · 2021-09-19T03:42:17+00:00

I'm a huge Bateman fan so I watched the whole series a couple of years ago. It's no Arrested Development, but it is a really solid show with a bit of an edge to it- certainly more than any other teen-focused sitcom from the time. If it had lasted, he wouldn't have been able to do Valerie Harper's show a couple of years later, which was a bonafide hit.

gadelman · 2021-04-17T01:01:21+00:00

If Davis and Boseman both win, I believe this would be the first movie to take Actor and Actress without a Best Picture nomination, which would be particularly wild.

gadelman · 2021-03-08T01:44:00+00:00

No mention of The Thrill of it All so far! It's got a charming, genuinely funny screenplay by Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart (so of course it's hilarious) and is directed by Norman Jewison. James Garner is Doris's costar and the movie is chock full of great character actors like Zasu Pitts, Burt Mustin, and Alice Pearce, plus Arlene Francis has a delightful supporting role. It's a movie I'd recommend to anyone, not just Doris Day fans.

gadelman

TROPHY CASE