MovieChat Forums > 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996) Discussion > Canned laughter?

Canned laughter?

posted 13 years ago by johnnymonsarrat
17 replies | jump to latest

Hi!

So... there are some scenes that are clearly canned laughter. For example, if a scene begins with a closeup and then pulls away to reveal Dr. Solomon dressed funny, and people laugh with the reveal. Of course, in a studio audience, his costume would be apparent the whole time.

Also, several scenes take place in locations that don't seem to be in a studio, or might be in a studio but would take ages to set up, so having a live audience along would be awkward.

So I'm assuming that show has canned laughter.

And yet... the actors often pause the dialogue for laughter. There's laughter on the bloopers reel, where Sally even turns as though addressing a live audience.

I guess the show is a mix? Thoughts?

-Johnny

Johnny Monsarrat Consulting. All content by Jon Monsarrat!

[–] padfootbob 13 years ago

I've always wondered about that... about the whole close-up thing, I sort of figured that maybe to the side of the stage there is some kind of screen for reference, like a jumbo torn at a sports game, that shows the actual camera footage. I've never been to a live taping of any show, but I'm pretty sure they have that on SNL and Mad Tv like shows.

Having said all that, I don't know anything, just speculating.

[–] KarlVadaszffy 13 years ago

I was in the studio for one episode. Some of the scenes are pre-filmed and then played to the audience on screens. They did this for two scenes in the penultimate episode of the last series (when Harry this he's dating twins) because they said it was tricky to film. At these times they recorded the audience laughter. For zoom out shots I imagine they do exactly the same thing. They insisted to the audience that night several times that they have never used canned laughter.

[–] johnnymonsarrat 13 years ago

Hi!

That's interesting! Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. :)

I got to meet John Lithgow at a reception following his new one-man show this year, which is worth seeing if you are paying less than $100. He was friendly, but tired. I decided not to be one of the people who wanted to talk his ear off. :)

-Johnny

Johnny Monsarrat Consulting. All content by Jon Monsarrat!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] johnnymonsarrat 13 years ago

That's interesting. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question! :)

Johnny Monsarrat Consulting. All content by Jon Monsarrat!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] johnnymonsarrat 13 years ago

Sure, but it's not funny in the way that modern comedies are that have shed the sitcom format, such as Arrested Development and Modern Family.

Johnny Monsarrat Consulting. All content by Jon Monsarrat!

[–] ZTrainExpress 13 years ago

3rd Rock is way better and funnier than Modern Family.

[–] johnnymonsarrat 13 years ago

You're entitled to your opinion, but seem to be in a minority. The IMDB ratings for the two shows are 8.9 and 7.9, leaving a huge gap between them. 3rd Rock from the Sun has the lower score.

Johnny Monsarrat Consulting. All content by Jon Monsarrat!

[–] ToranW 13 years ago

Yeah that's because 3rd Rock was in the 90s, and was completely underrated (instead of a cult following, a lot of people simply forgot about the show).

But also, are you seriously trying to say someone's opinion sucks because they're the minority? If you look at how many people who have voted for Modern Family and 3rd Rock, Modern Family has more. So to compare the two is just simply retarded because they don't have the same merits. But then again I'm just getting technical like you were.

[–] billwenham 13 years ago

I think you're forgetting Modern Family is new. So the audience is active on IMDb.

Whereas 3rd Rock from the Sun is an older show that started when the Internet was just becoming mainstream in homes. Hence why a lot of extremely funny things from the 90s seem to have low ratings. It's not that the audience's humor has changed as much as it's people discovering the show for the first time and consider it to be dated and therefore less enjoyable along with the fact that the audience is now focused on something else and hasn't taken the time to watch the series again.

With movies, you'll notice new movies tend to end up in the Top 250, whether they're really the best films of all-time or not.

[–] fanaticita 13 years ago

At the end of season one (on dvd) there is an Extras section in which all of the major characters are interviewed. They all said that the show was done with an audience at the time of filming.

[–] m_e_00 13 years ago

@billwenham

I noticed too, the ratings for 3rd Rock have gone down from 8.5 (possibly just last year, I think) to whatever it is now. I wonder if they're airing reruns on some channel? That'll probably explain the influx of voters giving it a lower score.

[–] slacking101 13 years ago

I always viewed "canned laughter" as the laugh tracks that were recorded in the 50's. And sadly, some shows STILL use today. So that's more artifice than the louder than usual laughter we hear from the studio audience. We're told to laugh extra loud at tapings of late night talk shows as well. But they don't enhance it or tone it down or add anything else to it.

I know for a fact in Cheers, Wings, Frasier, Becker, Friends, Will & Grace, Seinfeld and 3rd Rock that their laughter is always from their studio audience. (Comes from various Q&A's by Ken Levine an ex-writer/director/consultant on all the sitcoms that were good back in the day) If the laughter from the take they are going to use is either too loud, not loud enough, from the 10th take when the audience no longer gives a crap, full of people with obnoxious laughs etc...they will take the laughs from another take from the same shoot and "mix it in". They also do that to help smooth out the laughing (once again if someone laughing really stands out or there's a weird transition from the start and stop of the laughter). I have nothing against that really. Sometimes I hear a person with an annoying laugh on Colbert or The Daily Show and it's hard to focus on anything but the laugh. Almost kills the episode for me.

The only show with an audience that really bothered me was Seinfeld. Their reaction to Kraemer got more annoying as the show went on. Frasier and 3rd Rock could have gone either way. A bunch theater people that thrived on the stage and audience reaction, but at the same time good enough on screen that we didn't need an audience to tell us when to laugh. According to people behind the scenes at Friends, by the end of the show, the audience would just laugh. No matter how terrible the take was or how badly someone flubbed their lines, just seeing the characters would make them laugh like sycophants. So most of the laughter you hear in later episodes of Friends is really toned down post edit audience laughter. Thank goodness, that would have been annoying.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] dpcole7 12 years ago

It is not atypical for all sitcoms to have canned laughter if the intended audience response is insufficient.

There are many times when the audience responds uproariously, so I do agree - it is a mix.

[–] Piperson 10 years ago

Canned laughter is a very sad sound IMO.

If the audience was really laughing it is not so bad but so many shows especially of the 60's and 70's weren't funny and are accompanied by mindless hyena-like laughter.

I don't mind the laughter so much on 3rd Rock because the show is actually funny.
But I still look forward to the day when we will have the option to turn the laugh track OFF.