If you’ve never gotten the DVDs and never seen the European version without the laugh track, definitely watch it. It’s like a different (and even better) show. You start realizing that the laugh track was being put in where it shouldn’t have.
I bought the Martinis and Medicine DVD box set back in college and ripped them to my NAS many years ago. Every once in awhile I will be visiting my in-laws and catch an episode with the laugh track on television, and it’s the most awkward thing ever.
It really is amazing where they put the laughs in sometimes. Something that is definitely supposed to be sardonic is taken to be a joke by the laugh track. Gelbart must not have been involved beyond his insistence that OR scenes never had a laugh track because, like you, I occasionally catch an American version on TV and it feels so wrong now.
It kind of ruined shows with laugh tracks for me. I start analyzing where the laughs are being put. Shows I really like with laugh tracks are shows I just can’t watch anymore. I can do live audiences, but not laugh tracks.
It’s a great litmus test for good writing. If the show with it’s laugh track removed is awkward, it’s bad writing. If the opposite is true, it’s not a clear test, but at least it’s a good indicator.
Still my favorite show ever aired, and that’s in a universe where Star Trek exists. But there’s just something special about MASH
If you’ve never gotten the DVDs and never seen the European version without the laugh track, definitely watch it. It’s like a different (and even better) show. You start realizing that the laugh track was being put in where it shouldn’t have.
I bought the Martinis and Medicine DVD box set back in college and ripped them to my NAS many years ago. Every once in awhile I will be visiting my in-laws and catch an episode with the laugh track on television, and it’s the most awkward thing ever.
It really is amazing where they put the laughs in sometimes. Something that is definitely supposed to be sardonic is taken to be a joke by the laugh track. Gelbart must not have been involved beyond his insistence that OR scenes never had a laugh track because, like you, I occasionally catch an American version on TV and it feels so wrong now.
It kind of ruined shows with laugh tracks for me. I start analyzing where the laughs are being put. Shows I really like with laugh tracks are shows I just can’t watch anymore. I can do live audiences, but not laugh tracks.
It’s a great litmus test for good writing. If the show with it’s laugh track removed is awkward, it’s bad writing. If the opposite is true, it’s not a clear test, but at least it’s a good indicator.