Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

[evilC]

Having just looked for the 'Ripping Yarns' episode 'The Curse Of The Claw' online, I was frustrated to find that seemingly all of the clips available were of the re-run versions, with the added laughtrack, which absolutely ruins it. Thus, three questions arise from this:

a) Does anyone know of a source for Ripping Yarns clips online without the laughtrack?

b) Can one buy Ripping Yarns without the added laughter these days, or have the superior unadulterated versions been expunged from history?

c) What other great examples have there been, in your opinions, of comedy/comedies being defiled and destroyed in this way?

[Gangster Octopus]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

c) M*A*S*H

[evilC]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

No way! I didn't know about that one. That's inconceivable!

[Ginger Yellow]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

I've got the Ripping Yarns DVDs. Can't remember off the top of my head what the laugh track situation is, but I can check.

[ian.64]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Conceivable, I'm afraid, Evil. The Beeb struck lucky when they got the entire series without the laughtracks.

When the ones with laughtracks were shown on Paramount Comedy, the effect was horrid.

[The Exploding Vole]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

For me -- and I'm probably as big a fan of the early series of M*A*S*H as they come -- the greatest crime was in syndication, when they started lopping stuff off the originals so they could fit in more commercials. Some of the plot lines were scarcely held together.

[Gangster Octopus]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Also the later Pink Panther cartoons had a laughter track shoved onto them, totally ruining the wonderful minimalism of the earlier ones.

[Ray de Galles]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

ian.64 wrote:

Conceivable, I'm afraid, Evil. The Beeb struck lucky when they got the entire series without the laughtracks.

When the ones with laughtracks were shown on Paramount Comedy, the effect was horrid.

I was composing this exact post in my head when I saw the thread title.

[The Exploding Vole]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Gangster Octopus wrote:

Also the later Pink Panther cartoons had a laughter track shoved onto them, totally ruining the wonderful minimalism of the earlier ones.

Gosh, I'd forgotten that.

[WOM]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Gangster Octopus wrote:

c) M*A*S*H

I don't believe laugh tracks were retroactively added. I know that when they did bring them in, Alda and a couple of the others protested and got them left out of any operating room scenes.

The worst laugh tracks I ever heard were on old shows like Are You Being Served. They laugh track would go from 0 to 60 and back to 0 again in three seconds. Then the applause track would do the same. It was manic.

[ian.64]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

I always thought that ITV's laughtracks were the worst. Whereas the Beeb's were annoying, at least they had the decency to make it sound as if the audience was at least there in some form, whereas ITV's made it sound as if their audience was locked in a small warehouse on one of Jupiter's orbiting moons.

Mind you, most of ITV's comedy output (sitcoms especially) was shit and so needed all the help it could get.

[Levin]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

ian.64 wrote:

Mind you, most of ITV's comedy output (sitcoms especially) was shit and so needed all the help it could get.

I was about to disagree with you here but then I ralised that I was basing my opinion purely on Rising Damp.

[ian.64]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Oh, Ricky, m'colleague - Agony, A Sharp Intake Of Breath, The Squirrels only scratches the small nub of the tip of the iceberg of ITV's prodigious and police-arrest-worthy contribution to the art of making people wince.

[Guest]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Don't forget Never the Twain, a.k.a. the Large Ham Collider.

[Mitch]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Aw, I was just going to use Never The Twain as an exception to the rule. They were great comic actors. Nothing wrong with a slice of ham.

Home To Roost, then? Bearing in mind I haven't seen it since I was 9.

[Incandenza]

Laughtracks - the murdering of comedy

Sports Night, Aaron Sorkin's show before The West Wing, was marred by a laugh track in the first season, when it was obviously not filmed before a live audience--there were long tracking shots following characters down hallways, etc., but ABC thought that people wouldn't understand that it was supposed to be funny without it. This was before any single-camera comedies were on network TV. The pilot was actually taped before an audience, who only mildly laughed in some spots. Then came in a really forced laugh track, which decreased in volume as Season 1 went on, and it was gone by Season 2.