Why
do TV sitcoms still have laugh tracks? It's 2005--I think America
is a little sick of the pre-installed laugh track.
Don't
believe me? Here. Listen in on this Authentic Answer B!tch Panel
Discussion culled from Maxine Lapiduss and Stan Zimmerman, both
longtime TV producers and the stars of Situation: Comedy,
a reality show that starts airing later this month on Bravo. Laugh
whenever you want.
MAXINE
Well, most shows actually don't use a laugh track any longer and
really haven't since the 1970s.
STAN
Although, God knows we really haven't come that far. Now TV producers
do something called "sweetening" their show. What that
means is, most sitcoms tape before a live audience...
MAXINE
[And] sometimes the laugh is too big...
STAN
...We should be so lucky--but sometimes that can sound like a fake
laugh. So after the taping, the producers listen to the soundtrack
with a specialist whose job it is to smooth out the laughs and fill
in an occasional dead spot.
MAXINE
Dead spots can happen not just in my career, or from a scene being
unfunny, but if you use a take that may have been shot during the
dress rehearsal in the afternoon (without the audience) or if you
are trimming the scene for time and there's a gap.
STAN
The person who's doing the sweetening has gathered a library of
different kinds of laughs --a twitter, a tee-hee...
MAXINE
And of course the much-maligned "whoooo."
STAN
Usually following a kiss or a wardrobe malfunction. The sad thing,
or odd thing, or really weird thing, depending on how you look at
it--is that some of those laughs are from I Love Lucy tapings or
All in the Family, which means that if you're watching a brand-new
episode of Will & Grace in 2005 or the two pilots we made for
Situation: Comedy on Bravo...
MAXINE
...You're chuckling along with a bunch of dead people.
