Tha Laugh Track

I caught BBC 1's new prime time comedy series In With The Flynns last night - and had to fight the family to keep watching until the end. I always approach these new shows hoping it'll be great. This wasn't. There's good sit com out there - you just have watch BBC 2 and BBC 4, sometimes Channel 4 - or Sky 1 -  to find them - and from what I've recently read BBC 4 is about to ditch its association with humour.

BBC1 sitcoms seem to leave any semblance of reality in the rehearsal room, that's where very good actors suddenly decide that as this is 'comedy' lots of 'acting funny' is required.

The Flynns may or may not get better - my family won't allow me to watch any more to find out - and frankly I'm busy working my way through a couple of excellent box-sets that will keep my juices flowing for some time to come (Rome and Justified). So, rather than bleat about a lame show what I want to talk about is the presence of a laugh track.

So many comedies play without them these days it seems odd to hear the gales of laughter from 'the studio audience' - or rather the dub. In With The Flynns  has a structure that visually smacks of Modern Family, what it doesn't have is the bravery to let the viewer decide what's funny. Hence the 'laughs'.

I'm not against a laugh track, Cheers, Frasier, Only Fools and Horses, Steptoe, Porridge...all had studio audiences there to laugh along. The odd thing about the laugh track on the Flynn's show was that it pointed up how UN-funny things were.

Which is bizarre.

80% of the laughs on this show must have come from the laugh  machine - and don't listen to BBC producers who say they don't use it, I was a Producer and Exec with BBC Entertainment and it was used all the time - but usually to 'help' the laugh. What I heard last night sounded so artificial because there wasn't anything funny there to laugh at.

And it wasn't me who vocalised it first - but my daughter, "What are they laughing at?"

Some shows benefit from studio laughter - but those shows tend to be the ones that are shot almost entirely in a studio. Longer scenes allow laughter to build - and if you are going for laughs you need tags - and some BIG JOKES. The  moment you write very short scenes that chop between Interiors and Exteriors the laugh track seems wrong.

The excellent Outnumbered is a great example of how to get a contemporary sitcom right - funny - no laugh-track. 

Growing up in England I watched M*A*S*H play without a laugh-track. One night the technician playing in  the VT didn't knock it off and for one episode only it played to a dedicated, loyal, loving and admiring audience with the phoney laughter. The BBC was swamped with complaints. It ruined the show for so many people. It was unnecessary, it got in the way. Larry Gelbart never wanted the bloody thing - but the US Network insisted. How could it be a comedy if no-one laughed? They didn't understand. They were laughing - WE were laughing, at home, in front of our TV screens with no-one to prompt us. I sometimes catch a moment or two of M*A*S*H on Comedy Central, playing with the laughs. I can't take it. It doesn't work for me.

But if I were to watch Frasier or One Foot In The Grave without the warmth of the studio laughter  that  wouldn't work for me either.

So, both work - but you can't have laughter where there isn't funny.