Is lack of trust in their comedy or they really think the public is that dumb they need to know when to laugh?
Or is a by product of its former format, the live laughs with a crowd while filming?
Is lack of trust in their comedy or they really think the public is that dumb they need to know when to laugh?
Or is a by product of its former format, the live laughs with a crowd while filming?
They started using laugh tracks back in the 50s, but they became the standard in the 80s due to the attack on Fran Drescher. At that time, sitcoms were still commonly recorded in front of a live studio audience.
In 1985, she and her husband were brutally attacked in their home by two men who had stalked her from a live taping. In response, the studio went to a closed set for security and hired Central Casting “laughers,” that were eventually replaced by a laugh track. Other sitcoms followed suit when studios saw the ratings and cost benefits to a laugh track over taping in front of a live studio audience.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/how-fran-dreschers-stalker-ordeal-changed-sitcoms-forever/VUD7L6NOIKJIMB5S6GG3KWVXUA/
Laugh tracks were extensively used long before the Fran Drescher thing though?
Nearly every show I watched from the 60’s to the early 80’s used them. It was noticeable when there wasn’t a laugh track.
It’s true. Laugh tracks were used since the 50s to sweeten the audience sound, but sets didn’t close and become exclusively hired laughers and laugh tracks until that incident.