Most sitcoms in the 90s were filmed in front of a live studio audience. The laughter you hear in all these shows consists of real laughs from audience (fans who wanted to watch them film as well as some hired professional laughers[/b]), and then in post production they would strengthen them[/b] or soften them as necessary for the final cut. The only time the laughs were completely piped in were for scenes shot at locations that couldn't be filmed in front of audiences.
I just watched the first 7 episodes of Friends. Not once did I hear the same laughter twice, nor did it sound any more fake than any other sitcom I've seen in the 90s. But, since you seem to know the laugh track so well, maybe you're a bigger fan than me and I don't know what I'm talking about. If you have any examples, I'm down to check them out[/b].
Bolded points one and two: So pretty much exactly like piped in stadium crowd noise over a small actual crowd like I compared it to?
Bolded point three: I'm not going to find examples for the same reason I'm not going to hit myself in the balls with a hammer to see how badly it hurts.
I was at a friend's house when I was in high school, and he was watching Friends. I went to the kitchen to make a sammich, so for five minutes I couldn't see the show but I could hear it. About three minutes in, I was never able to watch again. The sheer frequency of over the top laughter (at anything[/i]) and how same it was drove me nuts. No idea what season or episode, but that was the end for me.
Nope haven't seen it I'll try to watch unless its on Hulu because I still don't have Hulu because I'm stupid I guess.
It actually is on Hulu, but that's what VPNs and bittorrent were invented for. I don't have Hulu either. Here's a taste:
I’m so happy* that this did in fact turn out to be a multi-page thread.
