1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,410
This is a clip from the hit TV series,

2
00:00:02,410 --> 00:00:03,763
"Parks and Recreation."

3
00:00:03,763 --> 00:00:07,393
...128 ounce option.

4
00:00:07,393 --> 00:00:09,905
Most people call 
it a gallon, but they

5
00:00:09,905 --> 00:00:12,595
call it the regular.
Now let's see what

6
00:00:12,595 --> 00:00:14,705
that same clip would
be like if we added

7
00:00:14,705 --> 00:00:15,675
a laugh track.

8
00:00:15,675 --> 00:00:19,675
[rewind sound]
...128 ounce option.

9
00:00:19,675 --> 00:00:22,395
[laughter]
Most people call it

10
00:00:22,395 --> 00:00:25,585
a gallon, [laughter]
but they call it the regular. [laughter]

11
00:00:25,585 --> 00:00:28,635
It seems so wrong,
but for most of

12
00:00:28,635 --> 00:00:32,495
television history, it was
so right. [background laughter]

13
00:00:32,495 --> 00:00:35,145
Over the last half century
or so almost every

14
00:00:35,145 --> 00:00:38,909
comedy on television had
canned laughter, [laughter]

15
00:00:38,909 --> 00:00:41,869
from "I Love Lucy"

16
00:00:41,869 --> 00:00:43,819
to "The Big Bang Theory."

17
00:00:43,819 --> 00:00:45,619
For some, the laughter
is viewed as an

18
00:00:45,619 --> 00:00:48,392
imposition. For
others, a secondary

19
00:00:48,392 --> 00:00:51,022
character you almost forgot was there,

20
00:00:51,022 --> 00:00:52,932
until it wasn't anymore.

21
00:00:52,932 --> 00:00:54,132
In recent years, the

22
00:00:54,132 --> 00:00:55,742
laugh track has been
used less and

23
00:00:55,742 --> 00:00:57,172
less as sitcoms in
general have

24
00:00:57,172 --> 00:01:00,061
decreased in popularity.
Let's break down

25
00:01:00,061 --> 00:01:01,971
where the mysterious
laugh box came from

26
00:01:01,971 --> 00:01:05,971
and where it went.

27
00:01:05,971 --> 00:01:07,401
Before television existed,

28
00:01:07,401 --> 00:01:09,134
there was the ballet, the opera,

29
00:01:09,134 --> 00:01:11,319
magic and comedy shows.

30
00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:12,419
When you went to one of

31
00:01:12,419 --> 00:01:13,479
these events, you were

32
00:01:13,479 --> 00:01:15,251
experiencing the
audience reactions in

33
00:01:15,251 --> 00:01:17,568
real time.
If something was shocking,

34
00:01:17,568 --> 00:01:19,797
you could hear and
feel the gasps echo

35
00:01:19,797 --> 00:01:22,997
around you and
similarly with laughter.

36
00:01:22,997 --> 00:01:25,137
But then came the radio,
the first ever

37
00:01:25,137 --> 00:01:27,500
broadcast medium.
Those communal

38
00:01:27,500 --> 00:01:29,302
reactions disappeared
as American

39
00:01:29,302 --> 00:01:31,012
families gathered in their
living rooms to be

40
00:01:31,012 --> 00:01:33,722
entertained.
Radio producers wanted

41
00:01:33,722 --> 00:01:35,592
to develop a way to
give people the live

42
00:01:35,592 --> 00:01:38,735
experience at home.
The first-ever laugh

43
00:01:38,735 --> 00:01:41,590
track began with
Bing Crosby's radio show.

44
00:01:41,590 --> 00:01:43,860
Recording pioneer Jack Mullen

45
00:01:43,860 --> 00:01:45,580
recalls the creation to "Channels of

46
00:01:45,580 --> 00:01:48,741
Communication," a trade journal in 1981.

47
00:01:48,741 --> 00:01:51,078
"The hillbilly comic Bob Burns was on the

48
00:01:51,078 --> 00:01:53,593
show one time and through a few of his

49
00:01:53,593 --> 00:01:55,958
then extremely racy and off-color folksy

50
00:01:55,958 --> 00:01:58,785
farm stories into the show. We recorded

51
00:01:58,785 --> 00:02:01,863
it live and they all got enormous laughs,
[laughter]

52
00:02:01,863 --> 00:02:04,363
but we couldn't use the jokes. So

53
00:02:04,363 --> 00:02:06,379
scriptwriter Bill Morrow
asked us to

54
00:02:06,379 --> 00:02:09,539
save the laughs.
A couple of weeks later, he

55
00:02:09,539 --> 00:02:11,764
had a show that wasn't
very funny and he

56
00:02:11,764 --> 00:02:14,289
insisted that we put
in the salvage laughs. [laughter]

57
00:02:14,289 --> 00:02:15,880
Thus the laugh
track was born.

58
00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,837
Fast forward to the
era of early television.

59
00:02:18,837 --> 00:02:20,747
Comedies were filmed
with a single camera

60
00:02:20,747 --> 00:02:22,991
in front of a live audience.
That meant

61
00:02:22,991 --> 00:02:25,183
that each scene would be
filmed multiple times, from

62
00:02:25,183 --> 00:02:28,278
multiple angles, instead 
of the multi cams today, which

63
00:02:28,278 --> 00:02:30,677
have multiple cameras
capturing one take.

64
00:02:30,677 --> 00:02:33,169
Those separate angles
and takes would be

65
00:02:33,169 --> 00:02:35,208
cut together and when
that happened, the

66
00:02:35,208 --> 00:02:37,342
laughter was inconsistent.

67
00:02:37,342 --> 00:02:39,151
Audiences would laugh at the

68
00:02:39,151 --> 00:02:40,901
wrong time, too loudly,

69
00:02:40,901 --> 00:02:44,049
for too long and were simply unreliable.

70
00:02:44,049 --> 00:02:47,899
In the late 1940s, CBS sound engineer

71
00:02:47,899 --> 00:02:49,560
Charlie Douglas noticed those

72
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,670
inconsistencies and
couldn't take it anymore.

73
00:02:52,670 --> 00:02:54,634
If a joke didn't get
a desired laugh,

74
00:02:54,634 --> 00:02:56,114
he would insert
one with the use

75
00:02:56,114 --> 00:02:58,248
of a laugh track.
This technique became

76
00:02:58,248 --> 00:03:01,117
known as "sweetening."
Douglas went so far

77
00:03:01,117 --> 00:03:03,466
as to create a physical laugh box.

78
00:03:03,466 --> 00:03:05,851
According to Ron Simon, curator of

79
00:03:05,851 --> 00:03:07,769
television and radio at the Paley Center

80
00:03:07,769 --> 00:03:10,242
for Media, the device was about three

81
00:03:10,242 --> 00:03:12,540
feet tall, the shape of a filing cabinet,

82
00:03:12,540 --> 00:03:15,310
very heavy and had slots for 32 reels,

83
00:03:15,310 --> 00:03:18,480
which could hold ten laughs each. It was

84
00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:20,304
officially named the audience response

85
00:03:20,304 --> 00:03:22,534
duplicator, but it became known as the

86
00:03:22,534 --> 00:03:25,874
"laugh box." At its best,

87
00:03:25,874 --> 00:03:27,904
the "laugh box" could hold 320

88
00:03:27,904 --> 00:03:30,460
laughs. Press them one at a time

89
00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:32,796
and you get a similar laugh.
[single laughs] Press

90
00:03:32,796 --> 00:03:36,309
multiple keys at once [laughter] 
and a symphony of laughter would play.

91
00:03:36,309 --> 00:03:37,431
Each key represented a

92
00:03:37,431 --> 00:03:39,757
different age, sex,
and style of laugh,

93
00:03:39,757 --> 00:03:43,107
with a foot pedal
regulating the length. [laughter]

94
00:03:43,107 --> 00:03:45,423
The "laugh box" was mysterious though.

95
00:03:45,423 --> 00:03:47,323
Since Douglas owned the patent and

96
00:03:47,323 --> 00:03:49,406
created all of them, nobody outside of

97
00:03:49,406 --> 00:03:51,450
him and his family
members had ever seen the

98
00:03:51,450 --> 00:03:53,025
inside of the machine. And when

99
00:03:53,025 --> 00:03:55,096
Douglas wasn't around,
the machine was

100
00:03:55,096 --> 00:03:58,191
kept tightly padlocked.
In an interview

101
00:03:58,191 --> 00:04:01,646
with "TV Guide" in 1966,
Dick Hobson said

102
00:04:01,646 --> 00:04:03,999
if the laugh box should start acting

103
00:04:03,999 --> 00:04:05,296
strangely, the laugh boys

104
00:04:05,296 --> 00:04:06,655
wheel it into the
men's room,

105
00:04:06,655 --> 00:04:08,281
locking the door
behind them so no

106
00:04:08,281 --> 00:04:10,187
one can peek.
I mentioned the name

107
00:04:10,187 --> 00:04:12,386
Charlie Douglas and it's like Cosa

108
00:04:12,386 --> 00:04:14,836
Nostra, everybody starts whispering.

109
00:04:14,836 --> 00:04:19,236
It's the most taboo topic in TV.
The first sitcom to

110
00:04:19,236 --> 00:04:21,055
use the "laugh box"
was the short-lived

111
00:04:21,055 --> 00:04:24,845
series, "The Hank McCune Show"
in 1950. [laughter on show]

112
00:04:24,845 --> 00:04:26,290
The idea of recorded laughter

113
00:04:26,290 --> 00:04:28,938
spread throughout Hollywood
and by the 1960s

114
00:04:28,938 --> 00:04:30,887
almost every single camera sitcom

115
00:04:30,887 --> 00:04:34,037
was utilizing canned laughter. But it was

116
00:04:34,037 --> 00:04:35,601
only Douglas that engineered the

117
00:04:35,601 --> 00:04:37,415
laughing for everyone for almost a

118
00:04:37,415 --> 00:04:41,073
decade. For $100 Douglas would wheel the

119
00:04:41,073 --> 00:04:43,318
mysterious box to each studio on a dolly

120
00:04:43,318 --> 00:04:44,898
and sit with the producers in a

121
00:04:44,898 --> 00:04:47,103
screening room and
decide what kind of laughter

122
00:04:47,103 --> 00:04:49,383
and when. Eventually Douglas

123
00:04:49,383 --> 00:04:51,108
hired a second-in-command to keep up

124
00:04:51,108 --> 00:04:52,813
with the 100 hours of television he

125
00:04:52,813 --> 00:04:54,734
needed to sweeten.
And the rest was

126
00:04:54,734 --> 00:04:57,747
history. Multicam sitcoms were

127
00:04:57,747 --> 00:04:59,741
popularized in shows like "Friends,"

128
00:04:59,741 --> 00:05:01,071
"Frasier," "Seinfeld" and

129
00:05:01,071 --> 00:05:08,820
more incorporated canned laughter.
[Sound of "Friends" in the background]

130
00:05:08,820 --> 00:05:11,102
The actors and actresses would know to

131
00:05:11,102 --> 00:05:13,122
hold for laughter, knowing that each

132
00:05:13,122 --> 00:05:16,570
scene would be sweetened.
[more sound from "Friends"] The Discovery

133
00:05:16,570 --> 00:05:18,401
Channel documentary,
the one that goes

134
00:05:18,401 --> 00:05:21,112
behind the scenes,
shows how it works.

135
00:05:21,112 --> 00:05:23,802
[Sometimes the audience responds too big.]

136
00:05:23,802 --> 00:05:28,612
If I went with the actual
laugh, [laughter] that laugh

137
00:05:28,612 --> 00:05:30,465
is still going through her next line

138
00:05:30,465 --> 00:05:34,142
into his next reaction
and that's, it's

139
00:05:34,142 --> 00:05:37,002
five, six seconds.
And in TV land that's

140
00:05:37,002 --> 00:05:39,792
an eternity. [laughter]
[Sometimes we have to put in

141
00:05:39,792 --> 00:05:43,112
a laughter that is shorter.]
[laughter]

142
00:05:43,112 --> 00:05:44,971
It felt like comedies
would be like this

143
00:05:44,971 --> 00:05:47,329
forever. And then "The
Big Bang Theory"

144
00:05:47,329 --> 00:05:49,040
went off the air in 2019

145
00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:50,720
and took with it one of the last

146
00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:52,727
multicam sitcoms with canned laughter.

147
00:05:52,727 --> 00:05:54,717
When we look at the television landscape

148
00:05:54,717 --> 00:05:57,137
today almost, every single comedy is a

149
00:05:57,137 --> 00:06:00,217
single-camera comedy and not a multicam

150
00:06:00,217 --> 00:06:02,857
sitcom with canned laughter. You can

151
00:06:02,857 --> 00:06:04,837
count on two hands how many multicam

152
00:06:04,837 --> 00:06:06,927
sitcoms that use a
laugh track are on TV

153
00:06:06,927 --> 00:06:09,271
right now, and not to

154
00:06:09,271 --> 00:06:13,197
mention those that went
off the air this year [2020].

155
00:06:13,197 --> 00:06:15,491
The use of the laugh track
has almost disappeared

156
00:06:15,491 --> 00:06:17,591
completely from the TV lineup.

157
00:06:17,591 --> 00:06:19,901
So what changed?

158
00:06:19,901 --> 00:06:22,531
Dead air in television
used to be frowned upon

159
00:06:22,531 --> 00:06:24,256
and shows would push
for laugh tracks

160
00:06:24,256 --> 00:06:26,946
whenever possible.
[distant laugh track]

161
00:06:26,946 --> 00:06:28,776
Bill Cosby claimed
his first sitcom,

162
00:06:28,776 --> 00:06:31,786
"The Bill Cosby Show,"
that ran from 1961 to

163
00:06:31,786 --> 00:06:34,681
1971, failed because
he had insisted on

164
00:06:34,681 --> 00:06:37,811
not using a laugh track.
Not to be

165
00:06:37,811 --> 00:06:39,632
confused with the
very successful "The

166
00:06:39,632 --> 00:06:41,915
Cosby Show" that aired
in the 1980s and

167
00:06:41,915 --> 00:06:45,068
did have a laugh track.
And "MASH" fought

168
00:06:45,068 --> 00:06:47,148
to not have a laugh track
at all, but

169
00:06:47,148 --> 00:06:49,182
they came to a compromise
with the studio

170
00:06:49,182 --> 00:06:50,392
They would use the canned

171
00:06:50,392 --> 00:06:54,150
laughter, [laughter]
but just not during the very

172
00:06:54,150 --> 00:06:57,262
serious OR scenes.
While we associate

173
00:06:57,262 --> 00:06:59,212
the 80s and the 90s
with the laugh track,

174
00:06:59,212 --> 00:07:01,175
that was actually the
time when single

175
00:07:01,175 --> 00:07:03,018
camera comedies
without canned laughter

176
00:07:03,018 --> 00:07:06,258
started to take over.
A key player in this

177
00:07:06,258 --> 00:07:09,174
transition was HBO. Their shows

178
00:07:09,174 --> 00:07:11,954
"Dream On" in 1990
and "The Larry Sanders Show"

179
00:07:11,954 --> 00:07:14,661
in 1992 ran without laughs tracks

180
00:07:14,661 --> 00:07:17,024
and even garnered praise for doing so.

181
00:07:17,024 --> 00:07:19,209
The airing of these shows
proved that comedies

182
00:07:19,209 --> 00:07:21,649
could exist, and
exist successfully

183
00:07:21,649 --> 00:07:24,385
without laugh tracks.
Other studios

184
00:07:24,385 --> 00:07:25,375
took notice and

185
00:07:25,375 --> 00:07:27,395
began to follow suit.

186
00:07:27,395 --> 00:07:29,135
Then came "Curb Your Enthusiasm,"

187
00:07:29,135 --> 00:07:30,257
"Malcolm in the Middle,"

188
00:07:30,257 --> 00:07:31,068
"Scrubs,"

189
00:07:31,068 --> 00:07:32,233
"Arrested Development,"

190
00:07:32,233 --> 00:07:33,566
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,"

191
00:07:33,566 --> 00:07:34,304
"30 Rock,"

192
00:07:34,304 --> 00:07:35,464
"The Office" and

193
00:07:35,464 --> 00:07:37,734
the list goes on and on.

194
00:07:37,734 --> 00:07:39,544
Writers and producers
were excited by

195
00:07:39,544 --> 00:07:41,634
the change, as it
allowed them to stray

196
00:07:41,634 --> 00:07:43,196
from the constant
stream of punchlines

197
00:07:43,196 --> 00:07:45,650
to explore character-based
humor. Another

198
00:07:45,650 --> 00:07:47,790
reason the laugh track fell
to the wayside?

199
00:07:47,790 --> 00:07:50,228
According to Mike Royce,
the co-showrunner of

200
00:07:50,228 --> 00:07:52,318
Netflix's "One Day at a Time,"

201
00:07:52,318 --> 00:07:54,078
"I think one of the
reasons why people

202
00:07:54,078 --> 00:07:55,830
don't like laugh tracks
is they don't like

203
00:07:55,830 --> 00:07:57,740
to be told how to react. It's

204
00:07:57,740 --> 00:08:00,216
an American thing:
Don't tell me what the

205
00:08:00,216 --> 00:08:02,212
[bleep] to laugh at."
"T"he Big Bang Theory was

206
00:08:02,212 --> 00:08:03,851
one of the last
big sitcoms that used

207
00:08:03,851 --> 00:08:05,957
canned laughter
and even their creator

208
00:08:05,957 --> 00:08:08,028
Chuck Lorre insisted
that absolutely no

209
00:08:08,028 --> 00:08:10,008
sweetening took place on any of his

210
00:08:10,008 --> 00:08:12,887
series, which also include
"Two and a Half Men"

211
00:08:12,887 --> 00:08:16,296
and "Mike and Molly,"
stating "I do not

212
00:08:16,296 --> 00:08:18,262
and have never,
sweetened my shows with

213
00:08:18,262 --> 00:08:20,412
fake laughs.
I've always thought it was

214
00:08:20,412 --> 00:08:23,374
pretty hateful and
a self-defeating practice."

215
00:08:23,374 --> 00:08:24,840
For now, the laugh track lives

216
00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:27,450
in a very strange state.
It's used in very

217
00:08:27,450 --> 00:08:28,891
few shows,
but lives on in the

218
00:08:28,891 --> 00:08:30,921
reruns of ever popular series like

219
00:08:30,921 --> 00:08:34,401
"Friends," "How I Met
Your Mother," and more.

220
00:08:34,401 --> 00:08:36,209
Perhaps history might
repeat itself and

221
00:08:36,209 --> 00:08:38,210
we'll see a resurgence
in multicam sitcoms

222
00:08:38,210 --> 00:08:40,110
and the laugh track.

223
00:08:40,110 --> 00:08:41,741
Until then, we can thank streaming

224
00:08:41,741 --> 00:08:43,457
services like Netflix and Hulu for

225
00:08:43,457 --> 00:08:47,457
keeping Charlie Douglass's
legacy in our living rooms.

226
00:08:47,999 --> 00:08:49,109
Thank you for watching.

227
00:08:49,109 --> 00:08:51,029
Please be sure to like, comment and

228
00:08:51,029 --> 00:08:52,799
subscribe to our channel and ring the

229
00:08:52,799 --> 00:08:54,489
bell below. That way, you're notified

230
00:08:54,489 --> 00:08:56,721
whenever we post a new video.
[music ends]