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The laughing man in the studio audience

V

vchimpanzee

I recently discovered that WGN America has "Bewitched" reruns.

Up until about a week ago, I could hear the same man laughing in just about every episode. I think that man laughed at just about all comedies from that era that used canned laughter rather than a studio aduience.

His replacement seems to be a squeaking noise sort of like a cat. That noise showed up in a lot of sitcoms too.
 
I remember reading something a long time ago that talked about how the studios would plant certain people in studio audiences...their job was to laugh loud and laugh often which would then spur the rest of the audience into laughing too. Perhaps you were hearing a few of those ringers.
 
I recently read that "Uh, oh" from a woman in old reruns of many shows is actually Lucile Ball's mother.

If you watch reruns of Taxi (too bad you can't) there is a really obnoxious laughter from one of the producers.
 
The most obnoxious laugh track ever was on Ozzie And Harriet.

Always the same short sequence, used for every drop-in.
 
therealjm12 said:
I recently read that "Uh, oh" from a woman in old reruns of many shows is actually Lucile Ball's mother.
Click to expand...

That is true..Dee Dee Ball was indeed the mother of Lucille Ball.

Dee Dee's "Uh, Oh" actually played a part of a "tiny" bit of controversy several years ago thanks to HBO's prison drama "OZ". A man was talking in group therapy about how he was raped by a guard as I Love Lucy was being played in the background. In a flashback, OZ did show that rape but didn't show I Love Lucy on TV even though one could hear Dee Dee's "Uh, Oh...Uh, Oh" several times in the background. Needless to say neither Lucie Arnaz or Desi Arnaz Jr. were very happy about that OZ episodeand how their late grandmother's voice was "used" in a rape scene but since CBS owns I Love Lucy and allowed the show to be involved with OZ, there wasn't anything Lucie or Desi could had done.
 
I think it was on this board a number of years ago someone mentioned there was a canned laughter track one sitcom used that was exactly the same from one episode to another, and always included someone yelling "YEE-HAW!"
 
As a sort of sidebar to this thread...anyone else besides me remember a regular audience member for the Merv Griffin Show named Mrs. Miller? She attended many of the tapings of the show and every now and then, Merv would ask her what she thought of something or if she liked the guest.
 
.anyone else besides me remember a regular audience member for the Merv Griffin Show named Mrs. Miller?

Yes, I do remember her but I believe she was "transferred" over to Merv after the Tonight Show left N. Y. C. for L.A. I vaguely remember her being in the audience the Jack Paar Show. Probably the Friday night prime time show. I am too young for the Paar years of the Tonight Show.
 
And, yes, there's a Wikipedia page on Miss Miller.

Wow, I was right about something! Could someone show this thread to my ex wife?
 
I've noticed a lot of old shows' laugh tracks had the same sound that popped up several times-instead of an individual laugh, it sounded something like a horse whinnying! Was an actual horse involved in the recording of the standard '50s sitcom laugh track? ;D
 
onairb said:
Was an actual horse involved in the recording of the standard '50s sitcom laugh track? ;D
Click to expand...

"Willburrrrrr!"

That's what got Bamboo Harvester the gig on Mr. Ed in '61.

(Sorry, that was too easy to pass up. :))
 
Didn't syndicated radio talkers Bob & Tom start their careers as sitcom audience laughers? :)
 
According to a blog by one of the show's writers of "Taxi" the man you heard laughing on almost every show was producer James Brooks.
 
Show used to sell laugh tracks to each other. Lucie Arnaz Jr claimed she can tell her grandmother's laugh (Dee Dee Ball or how ever you spell it) and could tell which shows bought the "I Love Lucy" laugh track.
 
The laugh I remember sounded like female macaw, which popped up in almost every I LOVE LUCY episode and was still being used on TV variety shows into the late 60s.
Officially known as "Jungle Woman", this particular laugh was reportedly recorded and preserved during a "Burns and Allen" radio show circa 1944.
 
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