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laugh tracks
'Two and a Half Men' Gets a Groan Track
by Danny Gallagher, posted Feb 23rd 2010 9:28PM
Laugh tracks always amaze me. Just what kind of easily-amused simpletons do the networks hire to laugh at crappy sitcoms? I imagine it does something like this. A bunch of actors are wrangled into a studio and are told to pretend to be an interested audience. They are each given a secret dose of thorazine through a hidden syringe in their seats. Nitrous oxide is pumped into the studio. And just before the curtain goes up, they are each whacked across the face with a cast-iron shovel. Then they turn on the applause sign.
College Humor has taken this weird TV tradition and turned it on its head by providing a "groan track" to CBS' neverending sitcom 'Two-and-a-Half Men'.
College Humor has taken this weird TV tradition and turned it on its head by providing a "groan track" to CBS' neverending sitcom 'Two-and-a-Half Men'.
Yep, Roommates is atrocious - VIDEO
by Eliot Glazer, posted Apr 14th 2009 12:01PM
As a TV Squad contributor who, admittedly, could be considered a "niche viewer" (in that I watch few shows, but never miss an episode), I was naturally hesitant to check out Roommates on ABC Family. A friend guaranteed me that the show was not only as bad as one might expect, but that it was so utterly, bafflingly wretched that investing thirty minutes in it turned out way more entertaining than I'd expected, and not just in the so-bad-it's-funny way, either. Roommates is so atrocious, its production should be considered a criminal offense, considering that, even as a basic cable program, hundreds of thousands of dollars (at the very least) have surely been invested in the show. And that's money that could have easily gone toward refugees or food banks or, say, into the budget of ABC Family's other critically lauded programming like Greek or Secret Life of The American Teenager.
Out of the Blogosphere
by Bob Sassone, posted Jul 26th 2006 11:41AM
Ken Levine has an interesting post about the use of laugh tracks on sitcoms. - Aaron Barnhart has a pic of Craig Ferguson's new set. I think it looks kinda Lettermanesque, only Hollywoodized.
- Defamer has a picture of the America's Next Top Model writers picket line.
- Why is FOX handing out free booze to TV critics at 9am? Tim Goodman investigates.
- Alan Sepinwall solves the Heroes mystery (if you've seen it, you know that Greg Grunberg isn't in the pilot like he was supposed to be).
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