Married... with Children

When I was a teen I spent a summer in France with some relatives. I asked if they watched any American TV - they said "yes!" (or "oui") - "we love Married With Children! - isn't that how most American families are?" I had to explain to them that it was a satire, and most American families are really not like that. I guess I was wrong.

Anyone else remember when Teri Weigel was on Married With Children? She only got into porn after - but I certainly was happy when that happened:

Maester Chuk_sl said:

The point is they are faked laughter telling you to laugh because those are jokes. If you arent laughing when the audience is then it implies there is something wrong with you.

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I agree, but the older a show is the more I tend to forgive it since the practice was more ubiquitous. The track vs. live audience thing is a distinction, but I feel like the important part is the dialog pacing is custom made for all the breaks during the laugh track or the applause/laughter signs while still fitting in a 20 minute window. So a show without any canned or live laughter has to have tighter better writing to fill the time.

I recently had this conversation with a RL friend. His trump card was Seinfeld. Which as we recalled was also a live audience I think, but it still managed to be well written with laughter breaks. So it isn't impossible. I feel like some older shows like MASH and All In the Family showed that you could have a mix as well. Partly because they were partially light drama or social commentary. I don't recall much inappropriate laughter in MASH, especially in later episodes there were significant chunks of time with preachy or serious monologues and dead silence. Same with AItF.

More modern sitcoms have proven how well a funny show can do with nothing highlighting the jokes. I think that's the biggest issue to me. The reason for the laughter is so the audience at home knows where the funny parts are, and that is insulting and boring to me. It kills dynamic pacing and removes the chance for subtle and mutlifaceted humorous writing or delivery.

Remember the old shows like Laverne and Shirley or Happy Days that opened with the voiceover "Astr0creeps was filimed before a live studio audience"???

recently downloaded all 11 seasons in case it gets thrown off streaming sites, haven't watched the show in over a decade time for a rewatch this year

this interview on reddit triggered it, i never knew Ed O'Neil and the chick playing Marcy didn't get along at all