Studio comedy in demand from BBC Page 2

I agree there is nothing like being at a live comedy show, actually in the audience.

But for most studio sitcoms you are not there so its not the same and so the laughter is there because its contagious and a kind of prompt which i don't necessarily need. Different people find different things funny and that's why I'm not so dismissive of non-studio comedy. The Office would have been shit as a studio-com.

I might have accidentally pissed off people by suggesting that I'm against studio-sitcoms, which I'm not at all. Blackadder, Fawlty, Only Fools, Father Ted are all in my favourites. I feel the recent offerings of Green Green Grass, My Family, Grown-ups, 2 pints haven't been as good while G&S, Peep Show, Extras, 30 Rock, Arrested Dev, Curb are all doing well, so I felt like it was wrong to come out and say we want to focus on just one type. No offence intended, a good studio sitcom is as welcome as any.

Quote: ContainsNuts @ February 14, 2008, 11:24 AM

I agree there is nothing like being at a live comedy show, actually in the audience.

But for most studio sitcoms you are not there so its not the same and so the laughter is there because its contagious and a kind of prompt which i don't necessarily need. Different people find different things funny and that's why I'm not so dismissive of non-studio comedy. The Office would have been shit as a studio-com.

I might have accidentally pissed off people by suggesting that I'm against studio-sitcoms, which I'm not at all. Blackadder, Fawlty, Only Fools, Father Ted are all in my favourites. I feel the recent offerings of Green Green Grass, My Family, Grown-ups, 2 pints haven't been as good while G&S, Peep Show, Extras, 30 Rock, Arrested Dev, Curb are all doing well, so I felt like it was wrong to come out and say we want to focus on just one type. No offence intended, a good studio sitcom is as welcome as any.

View original

I'm certainly not offended - as you say, Blackadder, Only Fools et al are some of the best comedies ever. But being "prompted" by studio laughter...you're not actually being "prompted". That would suggest that the laughter is completely canned and inserted into the show by the programme makers at supposedly-funny points. That used to happen in the old days and especially in old American sitcoms - laughter tracks were just that - tracks on tape. But when it's a genuine audience, laughing at a good joke then I don't see how that's prompting you to laugh.

Imagine a guy in the audience at a comedy night, standing up halfway through and shouting to the audience "Look, do you mind not laughing? It's insulting my intelligence to prompt me like that!"

Good point Perry, but I think the thing is, the audience laughter track has been worn thin by the orgy of sketch shows that have been produced in recent years.

As for not wanting to be prompted into laughter, I can think of a good counter-example: TittyBangBang.

Quote: Perry Nium @ February 14, 2008, 11:34 AM

I'm certainly not offended - as you say, Blackadder, Only Fools et al are some of the best comedies ever. But being "prompted" by studio laughter...you're not actually being "prompted". That would suggest that the laughter is completely canned and inserted into the show by the programme makers at supposedly-funny points. That used to happen in the old days and especially in old American sitcoms - laughter tracks were just that - tracks on tape. But when it's a genuine audience, laughing at a good joke then I don't see how that's prompting you to laugh.

Imagine a guy in the audience at a comedy night, standing up halfway through and shouting to the audience "Look, do you mind not laughing? It's insulting my intelligence to prompt me like that!"

View original

Kind of prompt is what I said, I've seen shows where friends has laughed when everyone else has and then when I ask them what was said they said they didn't know. It wasn't a major point in my arguments that the BBC should be concentrating on quality comedy rather than type and that there is nothing wrong with a good non-laughter track comedy.

Quote: Perry Nium @ February 14, 2008, 11:34 AM

I'm certainly not offended - as you say, Blackadder, Only Fools et al are some of the best comedies ever. But being "prompted" by studio laughter...you're not actually being "prompted". That would suggest that the laughter is completely canned and inserted into the show by the programme makers at supposedly-funny points. That used to happen in the old days and especially in old American sitcoms - laughter tracks were just that - tracks on tape. But when it's a genuine audience, laughing at a good joke then I don't see how that's prompting you to laugh.

Imagine a guy in the audience at a comedy night, standing up halfway through and shouting to the audience "Look, do you mind not laughing? It's insulting my intelligence to prompt me like that!"

View original

While I agree with this sentiment, the tweaking that goes on with the audience laughter track can be pretty shameless. I recall watching a behind the scenes bit from the Friends editing room that was straight out of a Woody Allen movie.

Quote: Perry Nium @ February 14, 2008, 11:34 AM

I'm certainly not offended - as you say, Blackadder, Only Fools et al are some of the best comedies ever. But being "prompted" by studio laughter...you're not actually being "prompted". That would suggest that the laughter is completely canned and inserted into the show by the programme makers at supposedly-funny points. That used to happen in the old days and especially in old American sitcoms - laughter tracks were just that - tracks on tape. But when it's a genuine audience, laughing at a good joke then I don't see how that's prompting you to laugh.

Imagine a guy in the audience at a comedy night, standing up halfway through and shouting to the audience "Look, do you mind not laughing? It's insulting my intelligence to prompt me like that!"

View original

So many single camera sitcoms have been commissioned and end up being advertised as comedy-dramas (or dramas) that you can't blame them for trying to ensure at least some laugh out loud sitcoms that the majority of the public can laugh at for the majority of the running time.

However, in terms of laugh tracks I simply do not believe that the laugh tracks on the single camera sketch shows I've seen recently aren't canned. Not just because of the content but technically it seemed badly done.

While canned laughter is supposedly not used for sitcoms, the My Family producer told me that when one part of the show gets no laughs they dub on the laughter from another part of the episode.

As anyone who has been in the audience knows, we're told to laugh out loud. If they have to re-do a scene the audience is told to laugh as much as the first time they saw the scene. There are regulars who are proud of their ability to laugh on order and feel part of the show.

When you find a show funny you don't notice there is a studio audience but if you don't you wonder what the idiots are laughing at. Someone was arguing to me that I am Alan Partridge series 1 didn't have a studio audience but series 2 did. It was simply that the first series was much funnier than the second.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the format Last Of The Summer Wine uses. On film and then showing it to an audience. Why is there not more of this?

On some American studio comedies, if a joke doesn't make the audience laugh they'll stop the show, the writers will scuttle out and quickly write a better gag. I think that's a great way to do it. Keeps everyone on their toes. Susan Nickson told me the Mark Wooton plug they did on 2 Pints Live didn't go in until the last 5 minutes. It must be scary but what an exciting way to write.

Wow some great name dropping on this thread. The only person that ever speaks to me is God...

Heh - sorry. I'll rephrase - "A certain female comedy writer from Runcorn told me..." Better?

Anyway, you think that's impressive - my uncle's boss owns Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and I've sat in it. How about that for name dropping?

Quote: ContainsNuts @ February 14, 2008, 11:00 AM

Easy! I was just offering an opinion. Studio sitcoms have always been around at the BBC so its not really a change. There is always room for studio sitcoms but it just sounded like they were closing the door on other types which are still comparatively new compared to studio ones.

View original

Ok, you're forgiven. (Just to clarify, they're certainly not closing the door, they just want more studio stuff, as I understand it.)

Quote: Perry Nium @ February 14, 2008, 11:09 AM

As good as The Office, Thick Of It, Extras etc are, I genuinely prefer to watch good audience-based sitcoms. Why? Because I LAUGH MORE!

...

I get really pissed off when people snobbishly dismiss studio comedies as if they're outmoded and old hat. In my opinion they make the writer work harder. There's no better script editor than a studio audience. If the audience doesn't laugh, the joke wasn't funny. For me, non-audience comedy writing is akin to a stand-up telling jokes to an empty club. He has the luxury of never knowing if his jokes are shite or not.

View original

Aaron agrees.

Quote: David Bussell @ February 14, 2008, 11:50 AM

While I agree with this sentiment, the tweaking that goes on with the audience laughter track can be pretty shameless.

View original

Here's a shocker for you then. Whenever they start a new show/series, Brown & Hendrie ask the sound guys what they can do about the audience laughter, because it always comes out too loud - and it never gets changed any.

Quote: Perry Nium @ February 14, 2008, 1:32 PM

Anyway, you think that's impressive - my uncle's boss owns Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and I've sat in it. How about that for name dropping?

View original

Haha, immense!

For the record, both series of 'I'm Alan Partridge' were filmed (except for exteriors) on studio sets in front of an audience. It's just that they lit it etc. so it didn't look so obvious. (This was a shock to new actors in the 2nd series who didn't realise they were to perform live.)

Soon to be sending out my latest script. As with my last, I'm not going to specify how I see it being filmed. I actually think it would work in front of a studio audience, but why pigeon-hole your script?

Quote: Tim Walker @ February 18, 2008, 9:40 AM

For the record, both series of 'I'm Alan Partridge' were filmed (except for exteriors) on studio sets in front of an audience. It's just that they lit it etc. so it didn't look so obvious. (This was a shock to new actors in the 2nd series who didn't realise they were to perform live.)

View original

Erm...I thought that's what I said. This bloke thought the first series wasn't in front of a studio audience because he found it funny and didn't notice the studio laughter.

The most important thing Iannucci did was put up a fourth wall to stop the actors playing to the audience and to play to the camera instead.

Oops sorry, made the mistake of skimming through too quickly.

Quote: Tim Walker @ February 18, 2008, 10:14 AM

Oops sorry, made the mistake of skimming through too quickly.

View original

No probs.

My instinct is to specify audience or single camera and write to the strengths of both but I can see your point of view as it's not as if they're going to go straight into production with any script. They can ask you to re-write it for one or the other.