# Filmed in Front of a Live Studio Audience



## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

What shows are still filmed in front of a live studio audience? I believe the TV land sitcoms are. Are the network sitcoms filmed in front of a live audience too? I can't tell if it's a laugh track or not.


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

I'd venture to say that nearly every sitcom with a laugh track is filmed in front of a live studio audience.

Here's one site that offers tickets to shows: http://tvtickets.com/overview.htm

I'm sure there are more.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

Kablemodem said:


> I'd venture to say that nearly every sitcom with a laugh track is filmed in front of a live studio audience.
> 
> Here's one site that offers tickets to shows: http://tvtickets.com/overview.htm
> 
> I'm sure there are more.


I don't think they all are. This actually occurred to me tonight when I was watching How I Met Your Mother. It's not on the list and I am guessing it isn't filmed in front of an audience. I think it would be rather difficult with all of the backwards story telling they do.

How does it work when they don't film in front of an audience? Where does the laugh track come from? Do they have an audience watch the show later and record it?


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## EscapeGoat (Oct 12, 2008)

Radiolab did a show about the studio audience used for "The Nanny". It's not an entirely happy story, but it is pretty interesting.

Link to the Radiolab segment. (Click on the "Stream" link to play the show)

Link to a transcript of the show, which is not nearly as good.


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## doom1701 (May 15, 2001)

Even when a show is filmed in front of an audience, it's not like your hearing 100% real audience reaction. The audience is mic'ed to the hilt, and the sound mixers add the audience response (choosing the channels they want that offer the best response) in post.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

Is it true that they hire "professional laughers" to stimulate the crowd?
Seems like there is always the one guy or girl that seems to be laughing just a little too loudly.


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## Jon J (Aug 23, 2000)

Kablemodem said:


> I'd venture to say that nearly every sitcom with a laugh track is filmed in front of a live studio audience.


Actually, according to Ken Levine, Emmy-winning writer for _M*A*S*H_ and _Cheers_, it's usually just the opposite. Most live-audience shows are multi-camera so they can shoot without so many re-takes from different angles and the audience stays fresher. According to him, there may be some "sweetening" of the audience reaction but, for the most part, what you hear is what they got.


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## doom1701 (May 15, 2001)

If anyone tries to tell me that Scooby Doo wasn't actually filmed in front of a live studio audience, I'm going to cry.


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## stahta01 (Dec 23, 2001)

Has anyone stated the opposite?

"Filmed in Front of a 'dead' Studio Audience" and then shown the Audience full of some type of dead people.

Tim S.


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## DeDondeEs (Feb 20, 2004)

I've always wondered if for studio audience shows they add in some canned laughter to enhance it. 

You see this on awards shows all of the time. They'll introduce some musical act and you'll hear screaming and cheering like it was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but then they show the audience and everyone is just quietly sitting there...


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## mrdbdigital (Feb 3, 2004)

Shouldn't that be "Taped Before a Live Studio Audience", not "filmed"?

I doubt they film much television production anymore.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

mrdbdigital said:


> Shouldn't that be "Taped Before a Live Studio Audience", not "filmed"?
> 
> I doubt they film much television production anymore.


I was thinking the same thing. On Hot In Cleveland, they actually tell you that it's filmed in front of an audience before the show starts. I am pretty sure they use the word "filmed".

It's not like they are using tape anymore either. 

Maybe the proper term is "recorded"?


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## JLucPicard (Jul 8, 2004)

DeDondeEs said:


> I've always wondered if for studio audience shows they add in some canned laughter to enhance it.
> 
> You see this on awards shows all of the time. They'll introduce some musical act and you'll hear screaming and cheering like it was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but then they show the audience and everyone is just quietly sitting there...


I don't watch a lot of awards shows, but it seems to me there are the A-listers (and seat fillers) sitting in the viewable sections and there are 'upper decks' that are more fans and general public. I think that would be where the Beatles-type reactions are coming from.


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

Jon J said:


> Actually, according to Ken Levine, Emmy-winning writer for _M*A*S*H_ and _Cheers_, it's usually just the opposite. Most live-audience shows are multi-camera so they can shoot without so many re-takes from different angles and the audience stays fresher. According to him, there may be some "sweetening" of the audience reaction but, for the most part, what you hear is what they got.


"What you hear" is the laugh track. The audience has mikes all over the place. The show's producers can decide how much of that laughter makes it into the episode. They can also enhance it if they like, either using multiple layers of the track from the studio audience or using canned laughter if the show is so bad that the audience didn't laugh much.


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## trainman (Jan 29, 2001)

Kablemodem said:


> "What you hear" is the laugh track.


Some people use "laugh track" solely to refer to completely canned laughter -- I was in fact called out on Twitter once for using "laugh track" in referring to a show that was filmed before a live audience. 

But I'm with you -- as far as I'm concerned, "laugh track" is "the audio track that has laughter on it," whether that laughter was created by a studio audience, by a previously existing recording of people laughing, or (as is often the case) a little of both.

I know I've mentioned this here before, but back when I worked as a closed-captioner, we would often get tapes of shows that had been dubbed before the audio mix had been completed (including adding the "sweetening" for the laughter). Pretty much every sitcom with a live audience would have jokes that got _no_ reaction in the studio, but they'd be followed by uproarious laughter when the show actually aired on TV. Some were much more guilty of the practice than others (cough, cough, "According to Jim," cough, cough).


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Cearbhaill said:


> Is it true that they hire "professional laughers" to stimulate the crowd?
> Seems like there is always the one guy or girl that seems to be laughing just a little too loudly.


The big laugher during I Love Lucy is Desi Arnaz. Notice that the big guffaw is never heard when he is on camera. But the laugh was real. He thought the stuff was funny.


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## questors (Jun 4, 2009)

I went to a tapping of Big Bang Theory. Almost all of the scenes were recorded in front of a live audience. We got to see several takes of each scene.They had sets for the apartments, hall and stairway, Cal Tech cafeteria and, Cheesecake Factory. There were also some offsite scenes that were previously recorded. They played a tape of those and recorded the audience laughs.


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

trainman said:


> Some people use "laugh track" solely to refer to completely canned laughter -- I was in fact called out on Twitter once for using "laugh track" in referring to a show that was filmed before a live audience. .


Yeah, it's just semantics... I say "laugh track" when I'm talking about shows where there is no audience--instead of us hearing the genuine audience participation as it was captured during the taping of that show, we're hearing pre-recorded and fabricated laughter added in post. Maybe it's not accurate since even the live laughter is edited, etc, but it's just terminology.

I don't really like traditional sitcoms (anymore) because I can't stand the laughter after every person delivers every line. This is was the most evident on Everybody Loves Raymond, which I get had some good humor, but I just couldn't get into it because 15 out of 22 minutes was just laughter. Nothing is that funny.

But to me what's worse by far are shows that obviously aren't shot with an audience, and yet there is still a laugh track used. I've heard that it's still an audience reacting to THAT episode, it's just shown on a screen and their laughs are recorded, but I don't buy that at all... I've watched a million sitcoms and have laughed out loud plenty of times, but I've never sat and laughed, out loud, 400 times an episode. I've had a lot of people tell me I should get into How I Met Your Mother but the engineered laughs make it impossible--can't even get through an episode.

I kind of liken to lip syncing at a concert or at what's supposed to be a live performance--what's the point. If they can't logistically shoot a show in front of an audience, then I'd rather they go the other route and just make it a single camera comedy like Scrubs, Modern Family, Happy Endings, etc, which are much more authentic because you're not distracted by fake laughter added by people who are telling you what's funny.


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## Bob_Newhart (Jul 14, 2004)

Canned laugh tracks make any show funnier. Many 's the time I will be watching a show and not have any idea when or at what jokes I am supposed to laugh. With canned laughter, I no longer have to worry about this. The producers know what 's funny (they're the professionals) so I 'm able to wait for my cue, laugh, and move on.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

I always liked the way Married with Children handled their laugh track. The audience would often scream when Al or Kelly walked into the house and the actor would just stand there and wait for the audience to finish. It was like watching a play.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Whitney says filmed before a live studio audience.

The statement about Married with Children is really basically the same as after Fonzie came in on Happy Days..


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## getbak (Oct 8, 2004)

Cearbhaill said:


> Is it true that they hire "professional laughers" to stimulate the crowd?
> Seems like there is always the one guy or girl that seems to be laughing just a little too loudly.


I went to a filming of Two and a Half Men a few years ago (and, yes, it was shot using film cameras).

There was a single empty seat beside me until about five minutes before they started shooting, then a guy showed up who seemed to be familiar with the people who worked there. During the filming, he had a very loud and booming laugh, and he left right after they shot the last scene (they did a curtain call and gave away some prizes after the filming, but the guy didn't stick around for that).

I'd be very surprised if he wasn't a professional laugher.


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## appleye1 (Jan 26, 2002)

mattack said:


> Whitney says filmed before a live studio audience.
> 
> The statement about Married with Children is really basically the same as after Fonzie came in on Happy Days..


And Kramer on Seinfeld.


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## scooterboy (Mar 27, 2001)

mmiskov100 said:


> I like it


Yeah - you seem to like a lot of things...


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## HomieG (Feb 17, 2003)

Is it filmed, taped or digitized? That is the real question  How 'bout recorded?


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## tiassa (Jul 2, 2008)

One more thing is that they will frequently do the show twice and pick the "best" laughs of the two


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## Idearat (Nov 26, 2000)

HomieG said:


> Is it filmed, taped or digitized? That is the real question  How 'bout recorded?


I find "filmed" perfectly acceptable to use for the act of capturing visual and audio performance for storage and later retrieval. As someone else mentioned, tape isn't used much either.

People still dial phones when the dial has long been gone. "I poked a wrong number" doesn't have the same ring to it. (and could probably be misinterpreted )


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## Bob_Newhart (Jul 14, 2004)

Performed in front of a live studio audience.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

I just checked Hot In Cleveland and Wendie Malick says "Hot In Cleveland is recorded in front of a live studio audience" at the beginning of each episode.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

While occasionally a laugh track on a show will bother me but if the show is funny, I don't even hear it. I'd e hard presses to list which shows I watch have laughter and which do not.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

There were some good articles about this stuff at the beginning of this TV season when the opening sequence of "Whitney" said "Filmed before a live studio audience."

Here's one: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/...-hate-laugh-tracks-but-they-work-studies-show

But it's not the one I remember reading. I'll keep looking.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mrdazzo7 said:


> But to me what's worse by far are shows that obviously aren't shot with an audience, and yet there is still a laugh track used. I've heard that it's still an audience reacting to THAT episode, it's just shown on a screen and their laughs are recorded, but I don't buy that at all... I've watched a million sitcoms and have laughed out loud plenty of times, but I've never sat and laughed, out loud, 400 times an episode. I've had a lot of people tell me I should get into How I Met Your Mother but the engineered laughs make it impossible--can't even get through an episode.


That's not a very fair comparison. The audiences for these shows are treated to all kinds of stimuli to get them amped up and ready to laugh at the slightest bit of funny. It's just like at a comedy club where there are a couple opening acts before the headliner comes on. There are warm-up comedians on these shows that get the audience ready so that when the taping actually starts, the audience will be primed and ready to laugh.

I'll bet you've never had a comedian come in your living room and get your all primed and ready to laugh before you start watching an episode of your favorite sitcom.


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## pteronaut (Dec 26, 2009)

Those shows always miss out the end of the sentence:

"This show was recorded in front of a live studio audience _*and if they want to stay that way, they better laugh.*_"


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

questors said:


> I went to a tapping of Big Bang Theory. Almost all of the scenes were recorded in front of a live audience. We got to see several takes of each scene.They had sets for the apartments, hall and stairway, Cal Tech cafeteria and, Cheesecake Factory.


Did you have to move from set to set, or did the sets come to you?


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## stahta01 (Dec 23, 2001)

pteronaut said:


> Those shows always miss out the end of the sentence:
> 
> "This show was recorded in front of a live studio audience _*and if they want to stay that way, they better laugh at the right time.*_"


FYP


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> Did you have to move from set to set, or did the sets come to you?


The sets are all mobile and they move them in front of the seating area when each one is needed.


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## Rocketslc (Jan 5, 2004)

stahta01 said:


> Has anyone stated the opposite?
> 
> "Filmed in Front of a 'dead' Studio Audience" and then shown the Audience full of some type of dead people.
> 
> Tim S.


I believe you are thinking of "Late Night of the Living Dead with Jimmy Fallen"


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## marksman (Mar 4, 2002)

Idearat said:


> I find "filmed" perfectly acceptable to use for the act of capturing visual and audio performance for storage and later retrieval. As someone else mentioned, tape isn't used much either.
> 
> People still dial phones when the dial has long been gone. "I poked a wrong number" doesn't have the same ring to it. (and could probably be misinterpreted )


I have poked the wrong number before. She really got pissed off.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

So......


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## zordude (Sep 23, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> There were some good articles about this stuff at the beginning of this TV season when the opening sequence of "Whitney" said "Filmed before a live studio audience."


I watched the most current episode last night and I'm almost positive she said "Taped"


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

appleye1 said:


> And Kramer on Seinfeld.


Yeah, but I was just trying to show an earlier instance (possibly earliest), not just list all of the cases where it happened.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

mattack said:


> Yeah, but I was just trying to show an earlier instance (possibly earliest), not just list all of the cases where it happened.


I feel like it may have happened on The Cosby Show too. I haven't watched it in so long I can't remember.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

zordude said:


> I watched the most current episode last night and I'm almost positive she said "Taped"


They have at least three different announcements on Whitney. One where she is cocky about it, one where she is not and one where he says it, not her, so they may use different words. Don't have the time, inclination or resources to check.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Anything this century has not been shot on traditional video.
The last "video" broadcast sitcom I seen was Unhaplilly Ever After.
Everything since was shot on film, or on tape/digital and processed to a film look.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

As soon as I become aware of the canned laughter I cannot tune it out.


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## questors (Jun 4, 2009)

wmcbrine said:


> Did you have to move from set to set, or did the sets come to you?


The sets are all connected, you can see all of the sets at the same time. They have only three walls, you view through the open side. They are from left to right: Cafeteria, Penny's apartment, elevator area, Sheldon's apartment, Cheesecake Factory. For that particular episode they had an unemployment office in between the cafeteria and Penny's apartment.


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

DevdogAZ said:


> That's not a very fair comparison. The audiences for these shows are treated to all kinds of stimuli to get them amped up and ready to laugh at the slightest bit of funny. It's just like at a comedy club where there are a couple opening acts before the headliner comes on. There are warm-up comedians on these shows that get the audience ready so that when the taping actually starts, the audience will be primed and ready to laugh.
> 
> I'll bet you've never had a comedian come in your living room and get your all primed and ready to laugh before you start watching an episode of your favorite sitcom.


Still don't buy it that the whole audience will laugh at a SCREENING of a tv a show that much, which is why it doesn't come across as authentic. I'm sure in a live audience situation people are absolutely inclined to laugh more--the environment is totally different. Can't see that level of authentic laughter from a group watching it later on TV, so that's why they need it to be heavily edited and the result, for me, is that it takes me out of the show.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mrdazzo7 said:


> Still don't buy it that the whole audience will laugh at a SCREENING of a tv a show that much, which is why it doesn't come across as authentic. I'm sure in a live audience situation people are absolutely inclined to laugh more--the environment is totally different. Can't see that level of authentic laughter from a group watching it later on TV, so that's why they need it to be heavily edited and the result, for me, is that it takes me out of the show.


 Who said anything about people laughing at a screening of a show? I'm not aware of any shows that do this. It's pretty commonly acknowledged that HIMYM uses "canned laughter" because the logistics of the show do not allow them to shoot in front of a live audience. Are there any other shows currently airing where the viewer hears audience laughter but the show wasn't recorded in front of a live audience?


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

They even add laughter to shows like Leno and Letterman which are obviously recorded with an audience. Think of it like pumping up the bass in a disco.

My guess is the only shows that have audience reactions as part of the audio broadcast, but don't have anything added are sporting events, but even there they are "producing" the sound to create an effect.


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