9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is a clip from the hit TV series,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Parks and Recreation."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
...128 ounce option.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Most people call it a gallon, but they

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
call it the regular.[br]Now let's see what

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that same clip would[br]be like if we added

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a laugh track.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[rewind sound][br]...128 ounce option.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[laughter][br]Most people call it a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
gallon, [laughter][br]but they call it the regular. [laughter]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It seems so wrong,[br]but for most of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
television history, it was[br]so right. [background laughter]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Over the last half century[br]or so almost every

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
comedy on television had canned laughter,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from "I Love Lucy"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to "The Big Bang Theory."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For some, the laughter is viewed as an

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
imposition. For others, a secondary

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
character you almost forgot was there,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
until it wasn't anymore.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In recent years, the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laugh track has been used less and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
less as sitcoms in general have

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
decreased in popularity.[br]Let's break down

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where the mysterious laugh box came from

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and where it went.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Before television existed,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there was the ballet, the opera,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
magic and comedy shows.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When you went to one of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these events, you were

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
experiencing the audience reactions in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
real time.[br]If something was shocking,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you could hear and[br]feel the gasps echo

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
around you and[br]similarly with laughter.

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But then came the radio,[br]the first ever

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
broadcast medium.[br]Those communal

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
reactions disappeared as American

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
families gathered in their living rooms

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to be entertained.[br]Radio producers wanted

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to develop a way to give people the live

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
experience at home.[br]The first-ever laugh

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
track began with[br]Bing Crosby's radio show.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Recording pioneer Jack Mullen

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recalls the creation to "Channels of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Communication," a trade journal in 1981.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"The hillbilly comic Bob Burns was on the

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show one time and through a few of his

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then extremely racy and off-color folksy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
farm stories into the show. We recorded

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it live and they all got enormous laughs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but we couldn't use the jokes. So

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
scriptwriter Bill Morrow asked us to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
save the laughs.[br]A couple of weeks later he

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
had a show that wasn't[br]very funny and he

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
insisted that we put[br]in the salvage laughs.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thus the laugh track was born.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Fast forward to the[br]era of early television.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Comedies were filmed with a single

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
camera in front of a live audience.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That meant that each scene would be filmed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
multiple times from multiple angles,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
instead of the multi cams today, which

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
have multiple cameras capturing one take.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Those separate angles and takes would be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cut together and when that happened, the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laughter was inconsistent.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Audiences would laugh at the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wrong time, too loudly,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for too long and were simply unreliable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the late 1940s, CBS sound engineer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Charlie Douglas noticed those

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
inconsistencies and couldn't take it

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
anymore. If a joke didn't get a desired

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laugh, he would insert one with the use

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of a laugh track. This technique became

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
known as "sweetening." Douglass went so far

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as to create a physical laugh box.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
According to Ron Simon, curator of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
television and radio at the Paley Center

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for Media, the device was about three

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
feet tall, the shape of a filing cabinet,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
very heavy and had slots for 32 reels,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which could hold ten laughs each. It was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
officially named the audience response

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
duplicator, but it became known as the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"laugh box." At its best,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the "laugh box" could hold 320

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laughs. Press them one at a time

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and you get a similar laugh.[br][single laugh]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Press multiple keys at once [br][laughter] and a symphony of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laughter would play.[br]Each key represented

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a different age, sex,[br]and style of laugh,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with a foot pedal regulating the way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The "laugh box" was mysterious though.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Since Douglas owned the patent and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
created all of them, nobody outside of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
him and his family members had ever seen

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the inside of the machine. And when

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Douglas wasn't around, the machine was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
kept tightly padlocked.[br]In an interview

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with "TV Guide" in 1966,[br]Dick Hobson said

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if the laugh box should start acting

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
strangely, the laugh boys

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wheel it into the men's room,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
locking the door behind them so no

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
one can peek.[br]I mentioned the name

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Charlie Douglas and it's like Cosa

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nostra, everybody starts whispering.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's the most taboo topic in TV.[br]The first sitcom to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
use the "laugh box" was the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
short-lived series, "The Hank McCune Show"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in 1950. [laughter on show][br]The idea of recorded laughter

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
spread throughout Hollywood and by the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
1960s almost every single cameras sitcom

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was utilizing canned laughter. But it was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
only Douglas that engineered the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laughing for everyone for almost a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
decade. For $100 Douglas would wheel the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mysterious box to each studio on a dolly

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and sit with the producers in a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
screening room and decide what kind of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laughter and when. Eventually Douglas

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hired a second-in-command to keep up

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with the 100 hours of television he

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
needed to sweeten.[br]And the rest was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
history. Multicam sitcoms were

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
popularized in shows like "Friends,"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Frasier," "Seinfeld" and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
more incorporated canned laughter.[br][Sound of "Friends" in the background]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The actors and actresses would know to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hold for laughter, knowing that each

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
scene would be sweetened.[br][more sound from "Friends"] The Discovery

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Channel documentary, the one that goes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
behind the scenes, shows how it works.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Sometimes the audience responds too big.]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If I went with the actual[br]laugh, [laughter]that laugh

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is still going through her next line

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into his next reaction and that's, it's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
five, six seconds. And in TV land that's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
an eternity. [laughter][br][Sometimes we have to put in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a laughter that is shorter.]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It felt like comedies would be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like this forever. And then "The

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Big Bang Theory" went off the air in 2019

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and took with it one of the last

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
multicam sitcoms with canned laughter.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When we look at the television landscape

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
today almost, every single comedy is a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
single-camera comedy and not a multicam

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sitcom with canned laughter. You can

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
count on two hands how many multicam

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sitcoms that use a laugh track are on TV

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
right now, and not to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mention those that went off

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the air this year [2020].[br]The use of the laugh

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
track has almost disappeared completely

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from the TV lineup.[br]So what changed?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Dead air in television[br]used to be frowned upon

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and shows would push for laugh

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
tracks whenever possible.[br][distant laugh track]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Bill Cosby claimed his first sitcom, "The

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Bill Cosby Show," that ran from 1961 to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
1971, failed because he had insisted on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not using a laugh track. Not to be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
confused with the very successful "The

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Cosby Show" that aired in the 1980s and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
did have a laugh track.[br]And "MASH" fought

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to not have a laugh track at all, but

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they came to a compromise with the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
studio. They would use the canned

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
laughter, but just not during the very

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
serious OR scenes.[br]While we associate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the 80s and the 90s with the laugh track,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that was actually the time when single

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
camera comedies without canned laughter

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
started to take over.[br]A key player in this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
transition was HBO. Their show's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Dream On" in 1990 and "The Larry Sanders

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Show" in 1992 ran without laughs tracks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and even garnered praise for doing so.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The airing of these shows proved that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
comedies could exist, and exist

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
successfully without laugh tracks. Other

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
studios took notice and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
began to follow suit.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then came "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Malcolm

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the Middle," "Scrubs,"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Arrested Development," "It's Always Sunny

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in Philadelphia," "30 Rock," "The Office" and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the list goes on and on.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Writers and producers were excited by

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the change, as it allowed them to stray

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from the constant stream of punchlines

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to explore character based humor. Another

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
reason the laugh track fell to the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wayside? According to Mike Royce the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
co-showrunner of Netflix's[br]"One Day at a Time,"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"I think one of the reasons why

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
people don't like laugh tracks is they

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
don't like to be told how to react. It's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
an American thing: Don't tell me what the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[bleep] to laugh at."[br]"T"he Big Bang Theory was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
one of the last big sitcoms that used

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
canned laughter and even their creator

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Chuck Lorre insisted that absolutely no

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sweetening took place on any of his

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
series, which also include "Two and a Half

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Men"" and Mike and Molly,"[br]stating "I do not

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and have never, sweetened my shows with

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
fake laughs. I've always thought it was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
pretty hateful and[br]a self-defeating practice."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For now, the laugh track lives

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a very strange state. It's used in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
very few shows, but lives on in the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
reruns of ever popular series like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Friends," "How I Met[br]Your Mother," and more.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Perhaps history might repeat itself

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we'll see a resurgence in multicam

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sitcoms and the laugh track.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Until then, we can thank streaming

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
services like Netflix and Hulu for

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
keeping Charlie Douglass's legacy in our

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
living rooms. Thank you for watching.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Please be sure to like, comment and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
subscribe to our channel and ring the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
bell below. That way, you're notified

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
whenever we post a new video.[br][music ends]

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