jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If you can find the English series "The Detectorists" on Netflix, Hulu, or some other service, give it a look. It's about a small group of people in England who use metal detectors, so they call themselves detectorists. It's a very funny series.

Steve_m Loc: Southern California

Thanks Jerry!

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

I'll have to check it out.

Skip-M Loc: Phoenix AZ

Me 2 thanks Skip

pdsdville Loc: Midlothian, Tx

It comes on PBS here in the Dallas area. These people are really on the edge.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Definitely. It must be rough trying to record the shows with all the laughing.

Steve_m Loc: Southern California

That laughing is not from actual audience. They must be quiet like a church mouse, because they might not laugh accordingly. For example, they could laugh "he he" where they want "ha ha." They have "laugh in the can" and that is inserted in the show after editing and it is there for TV audience, so they will know when they should laugh and when not, and what is intended to be funny. Each 30 minutes show (actually 20 minutes, additional 10 minutes are for commercials), takes about 5 hours of taping. Each about 10 seconds long clip is taken about 5 or 10 times with variation of dialogs and actual stage setting. Before each taping of a clip they ring a bell and then there is an union person, who turns toward the audience and shouts on top of his union lungs: "quiet, I said quiet." He just does it, even when nobody peeps after the bell ringing. After the taping, the show is edited and assembled from sorted clips and the canned laugh is inserted. I have been once on such a taping and it is extremely boring and would never ever go again.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I meant the cast breaking up from the lines they had to say. I'll have to look for outtakes. Many years ago, I remember reading a few articles about the man who owned the Laugh Machine. TV studios had him come in and add the right amount and the right kind of laughter. Obviously, people need someone to tell them when a line is funny. I seem to recall some shows being broadcast without laugh tracks, and I thought they were fine.

Slightly off topic, you might remember "77 Sunset Strip," a very popular TV show. They did an entire one-hour episode with no dialog at all, and it worked. I'm surprised no one has tried that since.

Lots of info here.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=outtakes%20from%20the%20dectectorists