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74-869: Sports Night is an American comedy drama television series about a fictional sports news show also called Sports Night . It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls and ethical issues the creative talent of the program face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure. Created by Aaron Sorkin , the half-hour prime time comedy drama aired on ABC for two seasons, from September 22, 1998, to May 16, 2000. The show stars Robert Guillaume as managing editor Isaac Jaffe, Felicity Huffman as executive producer Dana Whitaker, Peter Krause as anchor Casey McCall, Josh Charles as anchor Dan Rydell, Sabrina Lloyd as senior associate producer Natalie Hurley, and Joshua Malina as associate producer Jeremy Goodwin. Regular guest stars included William H. Macy as ratings expert Sam Donovan and Brenda Strong as Sally Sasser,

148-501: A broad spectrum of Hanna-Barbera's animated offerings, including series such as Harlem Globetrotters (CBS, 1970–71) and Josie and the Pussycats (CBS, 1970–71). Such strategic deployment of Douglass's technology mirrored Hanna-Barbera's commitment to enhancing the comedic appeal and viewer engagement of its animated content during the pivotal Saturday morning programming block. The Pink Panther Show (NBC, 1969–1978; ABC, 1978–1980)

222-411: A comedy fared better with a laugh track was tested in 1965 when CBS showed its new single-camera sitcom Hogan's Heroes to test audiences in two versions: one with the laugh track, the other without. Partly due to the somewhat cerebral nature of the show's humor, the version without the laugh track failed while the version with laughter succeeded. The show was broadcast with the laugh track, and CBS used

296-456: A distinctive departure from their standard practice. Moreover, the laugh track in this instance underwent a deliberate reduction in speed during the production process, marking a singular occurrence within Hanna-Barbera's television repertoire. Saturday morning shows featuring the Hanna-Barbera laugh track: Prime time specials/TV movies: The Hanna-Barbera laugh track was discontinued after

370-592: A large, wooden wheel 28 inches in diameter with a reel of tape glued to the outer edge of it containing recordings of mild laughs. The machine was operated by a key that played until it hit another detent on the wheel, thus playing a complete laugh. Because it was constructed on company time, CBS demanded possession of the machine when Douglass decided to terminate his time with them. The prototype machine fell apart within months of use. Douglass developed an expansion of his technique in 1953 when he began to extract laughter and applause from live soundtracks recorded (mainly from

444-485: A laugh track for all comedies afterwards. Sitcom laugh tracks differed, depending on the style of the show. The more outlandish the show, the more invasive the laugh track. Shows like Bewitched , The Munsters , I Dream of Jeannie and The Beverly Hillbillies relied heavily on laugh tracks, while more subdued programs, like The Andy Griffith Show , The Brady Bunch and My Three Sons , had more modulated laughter. Certain shows, like Get Smart , featured

518-497: A laugh track for shows such as iCarly and Victorious since closing the original studio facilities fitted for live audience seating. By the onset of 1970, Charles Douglass's enterprise in laugh production had become increasingly profitable, prompting a decision to adjust the pricing structure for his services. However, the economic landscape of animated television programming differed significantly from that of sitcoms, characterized by tighter budgetary constraints. In response to

592-473: A laugh track that became more invasive as the series progressed, while shows like M*A*S*H toned down the laughter as the series became more dramatic; it was entirely absent during operating room scenes. By the mid-1960s, nearly every U.S. sitcom was shot using the single camera and was fitted with a laughter track. Only a handful of programs, such as The Joey Bishop Show , The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Lucy Show used studio audiences but augmented

666-435: A laugh-track. Four Star Playhouse , an anthology series, did not utilize a laugh-track or audience on its occasional comedy episodes, with co-producer David Niven calling the laugh track "wild indiscriminate mirth" and stating that "I shall blackball the notion if it ever comes up. Not that it will. We shall carry on without mechanical tricks". Soon after the rise of the laugh track, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz devised

740-635: A limited laugh track mechanism employing the MacKenzie Repeater machine. This device, capable of cyclically playing up to five sound effects, facilitated the repetition of Douglass's distinctive laughs. The auditory composition featured a blend of mild chuckles and hearty belly-laughs, occasionally accentuated by a prominent female laugh, all augmented by a metallic resonance. With the exception of their eclectic variety shows, exemplified by The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour , which briefly reverted to Douglass for additional enhancements, Hanna-Barbera standardized

814-532: A lower joke rate than sitcoms . In the very influential Greek theatre , plays were considered comedies or tragedies. This concept even influenced Roman theatre and theatre of the Hellenistic period . Theatre of that era is thought to have long-lasting influence, even in modern narrative works. Even today, works are often classified into two broad buckets, dramas and comedies. For instance, many awards that recognize achievements in film and television today, such as

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888-433: A method of filming with a live audience using a setup of multiple film cameras . This process was originally employed for their sitcom I Love Lucy , which used a live studio audience and no laugh track. Multi-camera shows with live audiences sometimes used recorded laughs to supplement responses. Sketch comedy and variety shows eventually migrated from live broadcasting to videotape , which allowed for editing before

962-472: A particular joke and said, "as long as we're here doing this, that joke didn't get the response we wanted". After Douglass inserted a hearty laugh following the failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? I told you it was funny". The comedian Bob Hope , while working on one of his television specials, took Douglass's hands in his own and began rubbing them to create the effect of limbering up Douglass's fingers, saying "OK, now, give me some good laughs." As

1036-644: A range of productions, including The Bugaloos , Lidsville , Sigmund and the Sea Monsters , The Lost Saucer and Far Out Space Nuts . Transitioning from high-concept children's programming to live variety shows, the Kroffts continued their collaboration with Douglass for audio sweetening purposes. Notable variety shows benefiting from Douglass's expertise include Donny and Marie , The Brady Bunch Variety Hour , The Krofft Supershow , The Krofft Superstar Hour , Pink Lady and Jeff , Barbara Mandrell and

1110-440: A show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs. Thus the laugh-track was born. In early television, most shows that were not broadcast live used the single-camera filmmaking technique, where a show was created by filming each scene several times from different camera angles . Whereas the performances of the actors and crew could be controlled, live audiences could not be relied upon to laugh at

1184-421: A show was aired. Physically editing a taped audience show (then using quadruplex videotape ) before electronic dubbing arrived caused bumps and gaps on the soundtrack; Douglass was then called upon to bridge these gaps. Both performers and producers gradually began to realize the power behind prerecorded laughter. While witnessing an early post-production editing session, comedian Milton Berle once pointed out

1258-509: A standard in mainstream television in the U.S., dominating most prime-time sitcoms and sketch comedies from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Use of the Douglass laughter decreased by the 1980s upon the development of stereophonic laughter. In addition, single-camera sitcoms eliminated audiences altogether. Canned laughter is used to encourage the viewer to laugh. Before radio and television, audiences experienced live comedy performances in

1332-464: A stroke midway through the first season and this event was worked into his character and the season's story arc . Sports Night struggled to find an audience and ABC cancelled it after two seasons. Although it had the opportunity to move to several different networks, including HBO , Showtime and USA , Sorkin decided to let the show pass so that he could focus on The West Wing . On November 5, 2002, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released

1406-606: A unit of Continental Corp, owned and run by Luther Sachs. Continental Corp owns cable networks around the United States; when the company is offered for sale, bidders include Time Warner , Disney (which, incidentally, owns a majority of ESPN in reality), and News Corporation . Both the fictional show and the network have competitive and financial difficulties. The network, according to Continental Corp's CFO, has an annual deficit up to $ 120 million. Although Sports Night does better than CNN/SI , Dana Whitaker says that Sports Night

1480-406: Is "in third place. We are getting our asses kicked by ESPN and Fox ". Natalie Hurley replies, "Every show on this network is in third place. It's a third-place network." When Sports Night is asked to interview Michael Jordan about his new perfume, the retired basketball star's publicity team demands final cut privilege —something it would not ask Fox or ESPN—because it believes that Sports Night

1554-689: Is a movie or program that balances the elements of a drama and a comedy. Also known as a comedy drama, this hybrid genre often deals with real life situations, grounded characters, and believable situations. The ratio between the drama and comedy can vary, but most of the time there is an equal measure of both, with neither side dominating. Abreu also adds that dramedies often deal with relatable and serious topics such as divorce, illness, hardship, and heartache. Examples of comedy dramas in American film include: Examples of American television comedy dramas include: Laugh track The Douglass laugh track became

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1628-553: Is another characteristic of Sorkin's shows as "walk and talks" are used quite frequently in The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip . A number of similar themes, elements and actors carried over from Sports Night to The West Wing and later Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip . The show's main focus is the relationships between the characters. These include an off-again on-again flirtation and romance between Dana and Casey,

1702-433: Is more desperate for ratings. Although the first season of Sports Night is a sitcom, it often is portrayed as more of a comedy drama representative of some of Sorkin's later work on The West Wing . Sorkin intended for the series' humor to be drier and more realistic than typical sitcoms. He initially wanted the show to be recorded without a laugh track , but ABC network executives insisted on including one. The volume of

1776-464: Is said to be a semi-fictional account of the ESPN SportsCenter team of Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick , with Rydell representing Olbermann and McCall representing Patrick. Patrick has confirmed this on his syndicated radio program The Dan Patrick Show . It has also been said that many of the storylines for McCall were inspired by Craig Kilborn , who was an anchor on SportsCenter during

1850-438: Is used to augment the response of the real studio audience if they did not react as strongly as desired. Conversely, the process could be used to "desweeten" audience reactions, toning down unwanted loud laughter or removing inappropriate applause, thus making the laughter more in line with the producer's preferred method of telling the story. While still working for CBS, Douglass built a prototype laugh machine that consisted of

1924-530: Is watching an episode of Josie and the Pussycats alongside of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space and it is painfully obvious. It is a shame that a company as powerful as Hanna-Barbera – who, at its peak, practically owned Saturday mornings – thought so little of their audience by dubbing such an inferior laugh track for so long a period. Rankin/Bass , a notable animation studio renowned predominantly for their Christmas-themed specials, ventured into

1998-478: The Chamberlain Music Master and Mellotron . His sophisticated one-of-a-kind device – affectionately known in the industry as the "laff box" – was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ. Douglass used a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter to select the corresponding style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a pedal to time the length of

2072-693: The Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards segregate several award categories into these two classifications. The 20th century saw a rise in film and television works that could be described as comedy-dramas. The term is a translation from the French "comédie dramatique". The portmanteau "dramedy" came to be in the 1980s. In January 2022, Rafael Abreu, writing for the StudioBinder filmmaking blog, defined this genre as follows: A dramedy

2146-639: The pantomime segments of The Red Skelton Show ), and then placed the recorded sounds into a huge tape machine. These recorded laughs could be added to single-camera filmed programs. The first American television show to incorporate a laugh track was the sitcom The Hank McCune Show in 1950. Other single-camera filmed shows, like The Pride of the Family (ABC, 1953–54), soon followed suit, though several, like The Trouble with Father ( ABC , 1950–55), The Beulah Show (ABC, 1950–52) and The Goldbergs (several networks, 1949–56), did not feature an audience or

2220-408: The portmanteau dramedy , is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and drama . In films, serious dramatic themes (such as death, illness, etc.) are dealt with realism and subtlety, while preserving a humorous tenor. In television, modern scripted comedy dramas tend to have more humour integrated into the story than the comic relief common in drama series but usually contain

2294-466: The "correct" moments; other times, audiences were deemed to have laughed too loudly or for too long. CBS sound engineer Charley Douglass noticed these inconsistencies, and took it upon himself to remedy the situation. If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass inserted additional laughter; if the live audience chuckled too long, Douglass gradually muted the guffaws. This editing technique became known as sweetening , in which recorded laughter

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2368-400: The 1950s and 1960s used the single-camera technique, with a laugh track simulating the absent audience. Producers became disenchanted with the multi-camera format; consensus at the time was that live audiences were tense, nervous and rarely laughed on cue. Network research suggested that the laugh track was mandatory in order to brand a single-camera show as a comedy. The experiment to see if

2442-531: The 1973 syndicated television special, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl , but by 1974, were heard on most Saturday morning kids' shows such as Uncle Croc's Block , Sigmund and the Sea Monsters , The Pink Panther Show , The Lost Saucer and Far Out Space Nuts . Current Disney Channel -produced sitcoms and studio-created laugh tracks are primarily recorded in front of live audiences. Nickelodeon – Disney's top competitor – utilizes

2516-421: The 1981–82 television season. In 1994, laugh track historian and re-recording mixer Paul Iverson commented on the legacy of the Hanna-Barbera track: The Hanna Barbera laugh track did more to give laugh tracks a bad name than Douglass's work could ever have done. Using the same five or so laughs repeatedly for a decade does not go by unnoticed, no matter how young the viewer is. Iverson added: All it takes

2590-517: The Colonel (ABC, 1961–62), featured analogous employment of laugh tracks. The incorporation of laugh tracks extended further into midday programming, exemplified by The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (NBC, 1968–70), gradually aligning with prevailing industry practices. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, a substantial proportion of comedic cartoons tailored for the Saturday morning genre embraced

2664-526: The Douglass family was involved in the editing process, and each reacted to a joke differently. Charley Douglass was the most conservative of all, so producers often put in bids for Charley's son Bob, who was more liberal in his choice of laughter. Subtle textural changes could have enormous consequences for the ethical situation suggested by a laugh track. Douglass knew his material well, as he had compiled it himself. He had dozens of reactions, and he knew where to find each one. Douglass regularly slightly sped up

2738-461: The Mandrell Sisters , Pryor's Place , as well as their 1987 syndicated sitcom D.C. Follies . As the practice of incorporating laugh tracks into Saturday morning television programming gained traction, Douglass expanded his repertoire to include a variety of children's laughter. Referred to as "kiddie laughs," these additions to his sound library were first utilized for audio enhancement in

2812-483: The augmentation of laughter in their Saturday-morning animated content. Hanna-Barbera, a pioneering force in American cartoon production, marked a significant departure from its utilization of Douglass's services. The studio embraced the laugh track phenomenon, initially integrating it into their prime-time lineup comprising acclaimed shows such as The Flintstones , Top Cat , and The Jetsons . Subsequently, this practice extended to their daytime programming, notably with

2886-403: The debut of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (CBS, 1969–70) in 1969, marking the inaugural incorporation of Douglass's laugh track within Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning lineup. Encouraged by the favorable reception of this innovation, Hanna-Barbera proceeded to integrate the laugh track into the majority of its productions for the 1970–71 season. This expansion of the laugh track's usage encompassed

2960-496: The early 1980s. The denouement of this era was marked by the conclusion of Filmation's Gilligan's Planet (CBS, 1982–83), which stands as the culminating animated Saturday-morning series to feature the inclusion of a laugh track within its framework. Given its midday time slot, The Banana Splits served as a precursor to Hanna-Barbera's utilization of Charles Douglass's laugh track technology in animated programming aired during Saturday morning hours. This transition commenced with

3034-560: The entire series on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. A special 10th Anniversary Edition Sports Night DVD set was released on September 30, 2008, from Shout! Factory with new bonus features including all-new interviews with creator Aaron Sorkin and cast & crew, featurettes and commentaries. Also included is a commemorative 36-page booklet. In March 2010, Shout! Factory released Sports Night: Season One on DVD with just 16 episodes. Comedy drama Comedy drama , also known by

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3108-459: The first time. Douglass frequently combined different laughs, either long or short in length. Attentive viewers could spot when he decided to mix chuckles together to give the effect of a more diverse audience. Rather than being simple recordings of a laughing audience, Douglass's laughs were carefully generated and mixed, giving some laughs detailed identities such as "the guy who gets the joke early" and "housewife giggles" and "the one who didn't get

3182-873: The imperative of cost reduction, animation studios, notably Hanna-Barbera and Rankin-Bass, commenced a gradual disengagement from Douglass's services beginning in 1971. While acknowledging the necessity of incorporating laughter tracks into their productions, these studios sought alternative methods to procure chuckles, employing diverse strategies to compile custom laugh tracks independently. The adoption of such proprietary laugh tracks elicited considerable controversy within contemporary discourse and among historical commentators, who raised questions regarding their authenticity and aesthetic congruence. Nevertheless, amidst this shifting landscape, entities such as Filmation, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, and Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions maintained their collaborative alliances with Douglass, continuing to enlist his expertise for

3256-429: The inclusion of laugh tracks. This trend was inaugurated with the debut of Filmation 's The Archie Show in 1968, subsequently emulated by industry stalwarts such as Rankin-Bass, DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (DFE), and Hanna-Barbera. However, as the proliferation of laugh tracks grew pervasive, diminishing their novelty and efficacy, animation studios gradually relinquished their reliance on this auditory embellishment by

3330-449: The inclusion of such audio elements for television airing. Consequently, laugh tracks were added to adapt the content for broadcast, a decision driven by network preferences and perceived audience expectations. Subsequently, in 1982, when the DFE theatrical package entered syndication, efforts were undertaken to restore the soundtracks to their original state, aligning with the artistic integrity of

3404-446: The incorporation of Douglass's laugh track into H.R. Pufnstuf, setting the stage for its integration into subsequent Krofft productions tailored for Saturday morning television. Subsequently, the Kroffts enlisted Douglass's services for all their Saturday morning television ventures, excluding the more dramatically oriented Land of the Lost series. This collaborative endeavor extended to

3478-427: The introduction of The Banana Splits in 1968, drawing inspiration from Filmation's The Archies . Prior to 1971, successful series such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! , Harlem Globetrotters , and Josie and the Pussycats were characterized by the pervasive presence of a comprehensive laugh track. A pivotal shift occurred at the outset of the 1971–72 season when Hanna-Barbera adopted a nuanced approach by implementing

3552-430: The joke but is laughing anyway" all blended and layered to create the illusion of a real audience responding to the show in question. A man's deep laugh would be switched for a new woman's laugh, or a high-pitched woman's giggle would be replaced with a man's snicker. One producer noticed a recurrent laugh of a woman whom he called "the jungle lady" because of her high-pitched shriek. After regularly complaining to Douglass,

3626-413: The laugh track faded as Season One continued and was abandoned at the beginning of Season Two. The dialogue is often delivered at a rapid-fire pace and intentionally exposes many aspects of communication that go beyond the words that are spoken. The show also frequently employed a technique known as " Walk and talk ", where the characters are walking from one location to the next while in conversation. This

3700-587: The laugh was retired from the regular lineup. There was also a 30-second "titter" track in the loop, which consisted of individual people laughing quietly. This "titter" track was used to quiet down a laugh and was always playing in the background. When Douglass inserted a hearty laugh, he increased the volume of the titter track to smooth out the final mix. This titter track was expanded to 45 seconds in 1967, later to 60 seconds in 1970, and received overhauls in 1964, 1967, 1970, and 1976. Douglass kept recordings fresh, making minor changes every few months, believing that

3774-455: The laughter to heighten the effect. His work was well appreciated by many in the television industry. Over the years, Douglass added new recordings and revived old ones that had been retired and then retired the newer tracks. Laughter heard in sitcoms of the early 1960s resurfaced years later in the late 1970s. Especially starting in the 1970s, Douglass started alternating the updated laugh track with an older laugh track and even sometimes combined

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3848-421: The medium evolved, production costs associated with broadcasting live television escalated. Filming in a studio with an audience, as I Love Lucy or The Ed Sullivan Show did, had its limitations as well: half the audience could not see the show from where they were sitting. Douglass was brought in to simulate reactions from scratch for the duration of the entire show. Producers soon realized how much simpler it

3922-575: The mid 1990s. The fictional Sports Night is a sports news program in the style of SportsCenter . The show broadcasts live from 11 pm to midnight and is rebroadcast through the next morning; it may broadcast at other times for special events, such as the NFL Draft . The program debuted in 1996 and airs from the Rockefeller Center in New York City on the fictional Continental Sports Channel (CSC),

3996-738: The mid-20th century. This trend commenced notably with The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (ABC, 1959–61; NBC, 1961–64), albeit restricted to the initial four episodes of the series. Subsequent to this pioneering endeavor, Hanna-Barbera adopted a similar approach, incorporating comprehensive laugh tracks into its prime-time animated productions until approximately 1970. Noteworthy examples of Hanna-Barbera's utilization of laugh tracks encompassed acclaimed series such as The Flintstones (ABC, 1960–66), Top Cat (ABC, 1961–62), and The Jetsons (ABC, 1962–63). Additionally, supplementary productions including Hanna-Barbera's mid-summer sitcom, Where's Huddles? (CBS, 1970), and Krayo Creston and MCA's Calvin and

4070-431: The partnership of Natalie and Jeremy, and Dan's ongoing problems with relationships in general. The character of Isaac Jaffe hovers over his staff as a benevolent but uncompromising father figure . The show is mostly set in the studio and station offices. However, in the second season Anthony's, a local sports bar and restaurant, was introduced as another location for scenes out of the work environment. Guillaume suffered

4144-461: The presence of laughter tracks. Following the precedent set by Filmation, producers Sid and Marty Krofft adopted Douglass's laugh track technology for their television productions. The pivotal moment occurred with the commencement of production on H.R. Pufnstuf in 1969, when executive producer Si Rose advocated for the inclusion of a laugh track, considering any comedy devoid of such augmentation as inherently disadvantaged. This persuasion led to

4218-525: The presence of other audience members. Radio and early television producers used recordings of live shows and later studio-only shows attempted to recreate this atmosphere by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack. Jack Dadswell, former owner of WWJB in Florida, created the first "laughing record". In 1946, Jack Mullin brought a Magnetophon magnetic tape recorder back from Radio Frankfurt, along with 50 reels of tape;

4292-554: The producer of West Coast Update (a sister show on the same network as Sports Night ) and professional and romantic rival of Dana. Other notable guest stars included Paula Marshall and several who later appeared on Sorkin's The West Wing including Janel Moloney , Teri Polo , Ted McGinley , Lisa Edelstein , Clark Gregg , Nina Siemaszko , John de Lancie , Timothy Davis-Reed , Cress Williams , Nadia Dajani , and Spencer Garrett . TV Guide ranked it #10 on their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon". The show

4366-444: The producer, but the producer had final say. After taking his directive, Douglass went to work at creating the audience, out of sight from the producer or anyone else present at the studio. Critic Dick Hobson commented in a July 1966 TV Guide article that the Douglass family were "the only laugh game in town." Very few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass using his invention, as he was notoriously secretive about his work, and

4440-480: The reaction. Inside the machine was a wide array of recorded chuckles, yocks and belly laughs: 320 laughs on 32 tape loops , ten to a loop. Each loop contained up to ten individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up. Since the tapes were looped, laughs were played in the same order repeatedly. Sound engineers could watch sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were viewing an episode for

4514-412: The real laughter via "sweetening." From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Douglass had a monopoly on the expensive and painstaking laugh business. By 1960, nearly every prime time show in the U.S. was sweetened by Douglass. When it came time to "lay in the laughs", the producer directed Douglass where and when to insert the type of laugh requested. Inevitably, disagreements arose between Douglass and

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4588-557: The realm of incorporating a laugh track into their Saturday morning animated series The Jackson 5ive in 1971. Following a model akin to that of Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass adopted a methodology involving the extraction of laughter samples from Charles Douglass's extensive library, integrating them seamlessly into the program's audio track. Initially, the laughter segments featured unmodulated bursts of sound, rendering their application somewhat discordant; instances of subdued humor prompted disproportionately robust reactions, often disrupting

4662-534: The recorder was one of the magnetic tape recorders that BASF and AEG had built in Germany starting in 1935. The 6.5 mm tape could record 20 minutes per reel of high-quality analog audio sound; Alexander M. Poniatoff then ordered his Ampex company to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophon for use in radio production. Bing Crosby eventually adopted the technology to pre-record his radio show, which

4736-420: The source material. Over time, the repackaging of these shorts has led to the availability of both theatrical and television versions, preserving the diverse auditory experiences associated with each iteration. Exceptions to this trend include Misterjaw and Crazylegs Crane , which were exclusively produced for television and never subjected to theatrical releases, resulting in versions characterized solely by

4810-426: The studio employed techniques such as deceleration of the laugh track to heighten its comedic effect, as exemplified by the second season of The New Scooby-Doo Movies . In 1972, Hanna-Barbera continued its experimentation with laugh track dynamics with the production of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home . Notably, this endeavor featured a modified laugh track distinguished by the inclusion of an additional belly laugh,

4884-457: The two together. Up to 40 different laugh clips could be combined and layered at one time, creating the effect of a larger, louder reaction when in fact the same laughs were later heard individually. As the civil rights movement gained momentum, Douglass also started making his laugh track more diverse, including examples of laughter of people from other cultures, whose sounds were noticeably different from white Americans. Douglass's "laff box"

4958-493: The use of this modified laugh track across the majority of their Saturday morning programming throughout the ensuing decade. The impact of the Hanna-Barbera laugh track extended beyond episodic content to various television specials, notably those featured within The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (ABC, 1972–74), functioning as a platform for the introduction of prospective comedic cartoon series. Occasionally,

5032-419: The viewing audience evolved over time. Douglass also had an array of audience clapping, "oohs" and "ahhhs," as well as people moving in their seats (which many producers insisted be constantly audible). Only immediate members of the family knew what the inside of the device looked like (at one time, the "laff box" was called "the most sought after but well-concealed box in the world"). More than one member of

5106-412: Was on the show one time, and threw a few of his then-extremely racy and off-color folksy farm stories into the show. We recorded it live, and they all got enormous laughs, which just went on and on, but we couldn't use the jokes. Today those stories would seem tame by comparison, but things were different in radio then, so scriptwriter Bill Morrow asked us to save the laughs. A couple of weeks later he had

5180-814: Was one of the most talked-about men in the television industry. Douglass formed Northridge Electronics in August 1960, named after the Los Angeles suburb in the San Fernando Valley where the Douglass family resided and operated their business in a padlocked garage. When their services were needed, they wheeled the device into the editing room, plugged it in, and went to work. Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production. The technological advancements pioneered by Douglass closely resembled those found in musical instruments such as

5254-417: Was purchased, unseen, at auction in 2010 when its owner failed to pay rent on the storage locker where it was housed. It was later discussed, and demonstrated in a June 2010 episode of Antiques Roadshow from San Diego, California, where its value was appraised at $ 10,000. The integration of laugh tracks extended beyond live-action programming to include select prime-time animated television series during

5328-415: Was scheduled for a certain time every week, to avoid having to perform the show live, as well as having to perform it a second time for West Coast audiences. With the introduction of this recording method, it became possible to add sounds during post-production . Longtime engineer and recording pioneer Jack Mullin explained how the laugh track was invented on Crosby's show: The hillbilly comic Bob Burns

5402-550: Was something of an anomaly among its peers. Comprising a compilation of previous theatrical releases, the show adopted a format featuring half-hour showcases, amalgamating various DFE theatrical shorts such as The Inspector , The Ant and the Aardvark and The Tijuana Toads (rebranded as The Texas Toads for television broadcasts due to perceived cultural sensitivities). Notably, the original theatrical versions of these shorts did not incorporate laugh tracks. However, NBC mandated

5476-644: Was to film a show without an audience present and tailor the reactions during post-production. Directors initially did not allow space for inserting reactions, making sweetening difficult and resulted in dialogue being drowned out. Audience response cards repeatedly came back saying that laughter seemed forced or contrived. Writers gradually became more conscious of the space required for the laugh track and began timing their scripts around it. Directors gradually left room for as-yet-unheard audience reactions; producers budgeted for post-production so Douglass could edit with greater ease. Most television sitcoms produced during

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