Comments on: 6 Television Firsts (from Canned Laughter to Dropping the “D” Word)

By: beth

beth — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:26:45 +0000

Back to Lucille Ball…when you watch “I Love Lucy” and hear that “uh oh” when Lucy’s about to get into trouble, know that the female voice you’re hearing is actually Lucy’s mom (Lucie Arnez’s grandma).

By: Special Agent Baker

Special Agent Baker — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:06:44 +0000

I’m with Leah Y., As if I don’t get enough Bill Engvall when my brother makes me watch Country Fried Home Videos now I can’t even watch Family Guy withour him “pausing” the show to do a commercial DURING the show! If CBS starts doing that during my NCIS, heads WILL roll.
On a less violent note, I’ve always wondered that about the bugs. They get annoying, too. But not half as annoying as when your watching ESPN and you’ve been waiting 10 minutes for National League scores then they start talking about something you want to watch and you look up and by the time you get back to the ticker, you’ve missed the Cubbies’ score…I hate tickers.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:31:53 +0000

As I’ve long said… Newton Minnow was an optimist and I can only echo that great philosopher Bruce Springsteen.. “57 channels and there’s nothing on…”

By: Leah Y.

Leah Y. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:46:50 +0000

Just adding to what other people said about annoying ads popping up on the bottom of the screen BLOCKING the current show…the freaking Bill Engvall show!! Literally every 5 minutes TBS decides to remind you that they have an absolutely horrible show featuring Bill Engvall…who the hell is that anyway??

By: Celeste M.

Celeste M. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:43:42 +0000

That is really creepy. They seriously need to get rid of laugh tracks altogether. They’re annoying enough on sitcoms (and, as proven by The Office and Arrested Development, unnecessary), but they’re the absolute worst on video clip shows. SO OBNOXIOUS.

As a Heroes fan, I really like my reCaptcha: fist Linderman. What am I, D.L.?

By: Tdave

Tdave — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:09:35 +0000

About canned laughter:

What Johnny Cat heard is right.
Lucie Arnaz said her mother, Lucille Ball, was in the audience of several comedy shows where they recorded the laughter for use in laugh tracks. Years later, Arnaz could identify (pick out) her moms distinctive laugh in tv shows that were made after Lucille Ball had died. Shows of the 1990’s were still using laugh tracks recorded in the 1950’s.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:26:13 +0000

Yeah, Uncle. That’s why I’m just now getting the whole Battlestar Galactica experience via the DVD collection. I sure as hell don’t want some ad for Sci-Fi channel popping up during a tense Adama/Tighe scene.

By: UncleBoogie

UncleBoogie — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:24:52 +0000

Worst one I’ve ever seen was on “Band of Brothers” when it aired on Global. It was a very emotional scene… And up popped the weather forecast sponsored by a pizza company.

I pretty much gave up on network TV that day and have rarely watched it since as I find this stuff absolutely deplorable, and it shows a complete disrespect both for the creators of the show, and the audience at home.

This is why I torrent shows now. If you’re going to plaster sponsored crap over the screen, pimp your other shows DURING THE SHOW, why the hell should I give your advertisers my eyes. “But then there’d be no shows.”

Given the wasteland of TV these days, that would be a good thing. The few actual GOOD shows I buy on DVD anyway, and to be honest would rather financially support a direct-to-dvd model than the current cancerous advertising based television industry.

By: TeacherPatti

TeacherPatti — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:33:43 +0000

Johnny Cat–I’m glad that I’m not the only one to be spooked by Kyra suddenly appearing at the lower right hand part of my screen. I forget what movie I was watching, but it really startled me.

Personally, I hate canned laughter. I’d rather the show just leave it up to me to figure out what’s supposed to be funny.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:23:16 +0000

That bottom of the screen thing… Once I was watching a scary movie, like Alien or something, and at a very tense moment, Kyra Sedewick popped up with her flashlight and scared my face off.

I’ve heard that the canned laughter they use today is the same they used 40 yrs ago, and what you hear is the laughter of actually dead people, which is either really cool, or really unnerving.