3 Eloquent Defenses of Laugh Tracks on the Blogs of Television Writers/Critics

While I was wasting a little time in between writing my paper, I found these today.  I thought they all had something interesting and worthwhile to say, especially as I have often personally defended the laugh track as having its place and time and enhancing a show that is well-built with it in mind.  Maybe some time I will share my own thoughts on the laugh track/studio audience laughter issue in full.  Until then, THESE:

3. "Bring Back the Laugh Track!" by Jaime J. Weinman

A pretty full-throated endorsement of laugh tracks for single-camera comedies.  Not sure if I fully agree, but interseting.

2. "Laugh Tracks" by Ken Levine

Probably more negative than positive in this one, but it contains an good defense of the laugh track's use in certain situations.

1. "Laugh Tracks" by Earl Pomerantz

The best of these, though it's more about studio audience laughter than laugh tracks per se.  That's probably good, since very few people (other than #3 above) I know of actually think that canned laughter in single-camera sitcoms should come back.  So the point about taped-live shows is more interesting to argue.  Also, might I add that this blog, written by a former writer for Taxi among other shows (but it's Taxi that I care about because I LOVE TAXI) is absolutely delightful in general.  I'm going to subscribe to it in Google Reader right NOW.