Nathan Barley comes to TV

First episode of the IT crowd available on the channel 4 site.

uh. yeah. And therein lies the rub.

I recognized the one SugaRAPE employee from Nathan Barley in there; is the Robert Pollard lookalike from something else?

Seemed like a watered down mish-mash of Rob Schneider's copy guy / Jimmy Fallon's IT guy (both from "SNL," and both - *shudder* - funnier that this), "Office Space," and any workplace sitcom since "WKRP in Cincinnati."

Not canned laughter - a live studio audience. Y'know, like sitcoms used to be made before Larry Sanders.

Trend? One that lasted about 40 years (and doesn't look like disappearing from the mainstream anytime soon). I don't think the end of the live audience thing was a bad development at all - it's obviously allowed different sort of shows (less theatrical, more filmic) to prosper - but nor do I think that the absence of a studio audience is now a requirement for a decent show.

i laffed.

-- cutty (holle...), January 27th, 2006.

I was there, in the audience, and saw Morris do his scenes. And even fuck one bit up thrice!

It was grand.

As for whether or not a laugh track is irrelevant to the all around quality of a show, I would argue that the laugh track (recorded live OR pre-recorded or however you want it defined) is fundamentally condescending - does the audience really need to be told when a joke was told? Or is the laughter somehow supposed to be infectuous?

Of course it's a matter of opinion, but I AM begining to believe that the absence of a live audience (or sound designer's careful approximation of one) IS a requirement for a decent show.

MY BRAIN!

And interesting that you as an 'industry vet' have heard loud an obnoxious laughter at 'almost every single live taping'. Whereas I've been to numerous tapings and not had this once.

Ditto the coughing, fidgeting. During takes this just doesn't happen.

As for your "sound has to be mixed" comment, you seem to be colorfully dodging my point, which is that "canned" laughter is a very specific sound acheived by boosting an audience's actual reaction to suit the producers' needs, whatever they may be.

Again, whether or not you like this sort of thing is obviously a matter of opinion, but the facts remain that recording an audience's laughter is more complicated and loaded than you are saying it is.

I agree that not every take of studio audience laughter is a good take, and it would be foolish to re-shoot a scene because of that, so sound editors probably do overdubs of previous takes which have been better. I do think that having a studio audience gives more of a performance atmosphere, and is perhaps better for getting the best take because you can gauge reaction on the spot - last night I was at the taping for the pilot of 'That Mitchell and Webb Look' (peepshow boys) and often they tried out two or three punchlines and one of them got a big roar of laughter from the audience. I have no doubt that's the one they will use.

The trouble comes when you cross the line (or are perceived to) from that to doing overdubs of previous jokes that have gone over better. And obviously it's not helped by the fact that an audience for a pilot for Teh New Graham Linehan/Chris Morris show are hardly unbiased, and will chortle away to lazy shite like that 'not answering the phone' scene.

(which is probably actually the problem, that laugh tracks make unfunny material much worse)

Whilst the final product may be something of a sham, I think the presence of an audience is important in establishing a sort of performance feedback loop. Red Dwarf - not a show I'm that fond of - is widely considered to have suffered in its penultimate series by going the high-production values route and so not having any scenes that could realistically be shot before an audience. The blooper reels for RD VII are weird - Barrie screws up, only the crew laugh.

It was something of a game back when I was subtitling a lot of 70s Brit sitcoms to spot the audience member with the really annoying laugh; if you watch Some Mothers, Summer Wine, etc from that period you'll often hear some ridiculous braying buffoon out on his own a good four or five seconds after everyone else has stopped wetting their pants.

you STALKER

quantick's bit about clip shows made me laugh more than anything else this year.

this is the second series.

i love his show, it's almost as funny as Harry Hill's TV Burp, but i missed this week's episode.

TV Burp should be on all year round really.

Internet debates would be far more efficient if everyone just sat at their keyboards hitting the "harrumph" key over and over again.

cf

http://chilled.cream.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13231&sid=b841d74308711a47858a1364c366e1b6

My god, what did Chris Morris do to deserve such miserable sods as fans?