Death to the Laugh Track

Among the many things that stuck out on The Beverly Hillbillies was the same audience was heard on other TV shows. The exact same one.

That’s because it (and other sitcoms of the ‘60s) didn’t have a live audience. It had a laugh track, one that got a lot of use around Hollywood. The height of ridiculousness was ABC ordering Hanna-Barbera to glue phoney laughs onto The Flintstones. Who ever heard of a cartoon with a studio audience?

The ‘60s were an era of protest. And as the ‘60s became the ‘70s, two actors protested the laugh track and got it thrown out of their show.

They were Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.

Firing a laugh track was big news in the entertainment world. Both major wire services covered it. In the second season, The Odd Couple was filmed in front of a live audience, and looked and sounded better to many viewers.

First up is an Associated Press story from February 26, 1971 and the second is a United Press International column from November 2nd the same year. In the first, both stars of couldn’t disguise their dislike of a fake audience. In the second, one viewer raises an interesting point about whether there was a need for laughs at all. Yet an audience is naturally expected to react to a live performance in front of them, while the actors on stage can gauge their timing by the reaction in the seats.

‘Odd Couple’ Gets Even; No Laughs
By JERRY BUCK
NEW YORK (AP) – ABC's "Odd Couple" has made some recent changes to broaden its appeal and next Friday something will be missing—the laugh track.
The show for March 5 will drop the laugh track after much imploring by the stars, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.
“Tony and Jack have been yelling to get the laugh track off,” said Jerry Belson, who with Garry Marshall, adapted the Neil Simon play for television.
“I guess I'm the heavy because I think a comedy show needs a laugh track,” Belson said. “But we have to respect their judgment. We'll do it for one show to see what the audience reaction is.”

As Klugman put it, “‘The Odd Couple’ is ‘inching’ up in the ratings, progressing from an intolerable position at the bottom to one that is merely uncomfortable.”
In recent weeks the show moved from No. 78 to 71 to 59 and finally to 54 in the most recent rating period.
THE timing may be fortunate for the comedy, since ABC is now putting together its fall schedule. “The Odd Couple” is a show which network officials hope to save.
Randall, asked about the laugh track, mocked, “Isn't that daring? One show!”
Klugman, slouched nearby in a chair, said, “You should see the guy running the laugh machine. This guy never smiles.”
Randall said, “‘Hi there’! That's a laugh.”
“‘You home, Felix?’ That gets a laugh,” Klugman said.
“But a line like, ‘You deserve a TV dinner’ doesn't get a laugh,” Randall said.
AT midseason the show was moved from Thursday, where it was being mauled by the CBS Movie, to Friday. The prologue was changed to explain why two divorced men are living together, Klugman was given a girl friend, Randall spends more time trying to make up with his ex-wife, and a boy next door was introduced.
Belson said, “What we’re trying to do is give it more mass appeal without ruining it. Our research showed that the great heartland can't relate to a concept of two guys living together.”
Klugman grumbled, “I liked it the way it was. When I saw the first new script I said if this is what we're going to do, cancel the show. It's ‘Family Affair.’ But we hashed it out and we've kept the same kind of humor.”

‘Odd Couple’ sound track dropped
By RICK DU BROW
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)—It is being widely noted in the television industry that ABC-TV's "The Odd Couple" is not only a much better and funnier show this season, but has moved up well in the ratings since dumping its laugh track. With a live audience instead, the Tony Randall-Jack Klugman comedy is a good deal friskier and seems much more natural.
The latest 70-market ratings, for the week ending Oct. 24, report that "The Odd Couple," which is seen on Friday night, usually the least-watched television night of the week, came in 20th among all shows which is really the high rent district in the video rankings. In fact, the series has been faring well in the ratings virtually all season.
Normally, the idea of dumping a laugh track for a live audience would seem to appeal to most people I know. Obviously one of the appeals for seasoned performers like Randall and Klugman is that there is a sort of chemistry between actors and audiences when things are going right. Actors have often said they feel more inspired, and react better, when there is a live audience to more or less share the mutual vibrations.
But should we take this standard explanation as proof that live audiences are necessarily an asset for television series? My own feeling is that they usually are, but a lady reader from New Jersey has sent a letter that brings up some interesting points and shows that viewers often can be more perceptive than top industry executives.
Sound Tracks Unreal

"I can't help but wonder," she writes, "why any TV show thinks it is doing us a favor by taking out a laugh track and putting in the laughter of a live audience. One is just as annoying as another. Especially when they laugh and applaud because a sign is held up for them to do so (before a live audience).
"We at home know whether a thing is funny enough to laugh at, we don't need to be prompted by a live audience or anything else. Just where would an audience be in the apartment of anyone, ready to laugh at the occupants? It is so unrealistic. It just ruins the show, so we just don't view anything with an audience or laugh track built in.
"Right, we just don't look at much TV as so many shows now have laugh and audience tracks ... a live audience should ready be screened out if anything. I have never been able to understand how any big star could put up with a sound track or signs prompting a live audience to laugh or applaud. There was a time when big stars worked hard to earn the applause and laughter of the audience.
Prefers TV Movies
"And now when there are reruns, how ridiculous to hear the applause and laughter of sound tracks or live audiences, especially when the show has been rerun more than once. We can view some wonderful movies without the applause and laughter built in, so if they didn't need it, why does any TV show need it?"
Regarding live audiences, my own feeling is that they seem a most natural part of programs like variety shows in which, for instance, standup comedians like Jack Benny play directly to people in front of them, and play off them to good effect. And then there is excitement in audience reactions to interviews like Dick Cavett's recent long one with Fred Astaire. But our lady reader from New Jersey makes some pretty good points of her own in her letter. Only a performer without pride can find satisfaction in having laughter artificially created for him, either by laugh tracks or cue cards.