Text 2793, 184 rader
Skriven 2012-08-23 15:15:06 av mark lewis (1:3634/12)
   Kommentar till text 2780 av Roger Nelson (1:3828/7.0)
Ärende: HAngups
===============
"Roger Nelson -> Ross Cassell" <1:3828/7> wrote in news:85100
$fido.fidonews@JamNNTPd:

 RN> On Wed Aug-22-2012 18:53, Ross Cassell (1:123/456) wrote to All:
 RC>> 22 Aug 12 18:00, Björn Felten wrote to Robert Bashe:

 BF>>    <...waiting for the canned laughter...>

 RC>> Whats with this guy and canned laughter??

 RC>> Who devotes this much energy worrying about it?

 RN> He doesn't like it nor does he realize no one else does except its
 RN> creators.  Take a look at his latest anti-US dig.

one would think that he would at least try to learn something about it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh_track

A laugh track (also canned laughter, laughter track, fake laughter) is a
separate soundtrack with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made
to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows. It was
invented by American sound engineer Charles "Charley" Douglass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Douglass

History
========================================================================
Radio

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

In 1946, Jack Mullin had brought a Magnetophon magnetic tape recorder back
from Radio Frankfurt, along with 50 reels of tape (it was one of the
magnetic tape recorders that BASF and AEG had built in Germany starting in
1935). The 6.5mm tape could record 20 minutes per reel of high-quality
analog audio sound; Alexander M. Poniatoff then ordered his Ampex company
to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophon for use in radio
production.[1] Bing Crosby eventually adopted the technology to pre-record
his radio show to both avoid having to do it 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 to a show in post-production. Longtime engineer and recording
pioneer Jack Mullin explained how the laugh track was invented on Crosby's
show with these Ampex recorders:

"The hillbilly comic Bob Burns was on the show one time, and threw a few
of his then-extremely racy and off-color folksy farm stories into the
show. We recorded it live, and they all got enormous laughs, which just
went on and on, but we couldn't use the jokes. Today those stories would
seem tame by comparison, but things were different in radio then, so
scriptwriter Bill Morrow asked us to save the laughs. A couple of weeks
later he had a show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in
the salvaged laughs. Thus the laugh-track was born."[2]

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

In early television, most shows that were not live television used the
single-camera filmmaking technique familiar from movies, where a show was
created by filming each scene several times from different camera angles.
Since it was not possible for an audience to be present during single-
camera filming, there could be none of the live audience laughter that
audiences had come to expect from radio comedy, and which was still
offered in the many shows broadcast live with audiences laughing in the
studio.[2] In addition, live audiences could not be relied upon to laugh
at the "correct" moment. Other times, the audiences would laugh too long
or too loud, sounding unnatural and forced or throwing off the
performers' rhythms.[2]

CBS sound engineer Charley Douglass noticed these inconsistencies, and
took it upon himself to remedy the situation.[3] 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', in which pre-recorded
laughter is used to augment the response of the real studio audience if
they did not react as strongly as desired.[3] 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.[4]

[TRIM]

Controversy and bucking the trend in the U.S.

The practice of simulating an audience reaction was controversial from the
very beginning.[14] A silent minority of producers despised the idea of a
prerecorded audience reaction.[7] Inventor 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 and as a result, a necessity in
the industry.[14] 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.[7] It was believed that the absence of guffaws
meant American viewers could not tell if the particular show was indeed a
comedy.[4] That did not stop several from forgoing the laugh track
entirely:

- Former child star Jackie Cooper believed that the laugh track was false.
Cooper's comedy/drama Hennesey (CBS, 1959-62) was cancelled in 1962 after
a three-season run. 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."[4]

- In September 1964, the comedy/drama Kentucky Jones (NBC, 1964-65),
starring Dennis Weaver, 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.[7]

- Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., creator of the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise,
outright refused to utilize a laugh track when production began on The
Alvin Show (CBS, 1961-62) in 1961. Bagdasarian's reasoning was if the show
was funny, the viewers would laugh without being prompted.[15] The Alvin
Show was cancelled after a single season.

- Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz refused to employ a laugh track during
the production of the holiday favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas (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 show first aired on December
9, 1965, it was a surprise critical and commercial hit.[16]

- The musical sitcom The Monkees (NBC, 1966-68) featured a laugh track
throughout its first season and several episodes of the second. Midway
through Season 2, the Monkees themselves insisted the show eliminate the
laugh track, believing their viewers were intelligent enough to know where
the jokes were. NBC, already annoyed by the manufactured rock group
wanting too much control over their show, cancelled The Monkees after
Season 2 concluded, citing the non-existent laugh track as a major factor.
[7]

- Bill Cosby's first sitcom, The Bill Cosby Show (NBC, 1969-71) was also
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 only two seasons.[7]

- The series Sledge Hammer! (ABC, 1986-88) began with laugh tracks in the
soundtrack, much to creator Alan Spencer's disapproval. After months of
fighting with ABC, Spencer had his wish granted when the laugh tracks were
removed from the series starting with episode 14, "State of Sledge".[17]

- Larry Gelbart, creator of M*A*S*H (CBS, 1972-83), initially wanted the
show to air entirely without a laugh track ("Just like the actual Korean
War", he remarked dryly). However, CBS rejected the idea. Eventually a
compromise was reached, and the producers of the series were allowed to
omit the laugh track during operating room scenes if they wished. As a
result, few scenes in the operating room contain canned laughter. Seasons
1-5 utilized a more invasive laugh track provided by Charley Douglass;
however, as the series progressed, and shifted from a sitcom with dramatic
undertones to a drama with comedic undertones, the producers switched to
Carroll Pratt, who utilized a more subtle laugh track containing quieter
chuckles. Several episodes ("O.R.", "The Bus", ""Quo Vadis, Captain
Chandler?", "The Interview", "Point of View", "Dreams") omitted the laugh
track altogether. The series' 135-minute finale--"Goodbye, Farewell and
Amen"--also did not include a laugh track.[7] 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 releases,
meanwhile, give the viewer a choice of laughing or non-laughing
soundtracks.[18][19]

- Sports Night (ABC, 1998-2000) premiered with a laugh track, against the
wishes of show creator Aaron Sorkin, 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.

[CHOMP]

there's more but i'll leave it to those with a real interest to go to the
given link and actually learn something about it :)

)\/(ark

 * Origin: news://news.wpusa.dynip.com | acct req'd to post (1:3634/12)