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BocaDavie · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:07 am Post subject: Hooray for Hollywood!

I don't think I've watched a sitcom since "Seinfeld" (well, maybe an episode or two of "Scrubs"), but was a bit surprised when we were in Hollywood last week to learn what it takes to make a sitcom. I thought that if you want to be in the audience the whole thing would last about a half hour, right? Wrong! If you want to be in the audience you make a full day commitment... EIGHT hours! The audience sits in raised stands with the writers, directors and producers in front of them. The sets we viewed were from the series "Two and a Half Men" on the Paramount lot. Let's say they're filming a scene with Charlie Sheen walking down the stairs and saying one of his lines. They listen to the audience's reaction, and if the audience doesn't react well to it the writers do a quick re-write, reset the scene, have Sheen walk down again saying the new line, and see if the audience reacts better. That's why it takes 8 hours to get 22 minutes of sitcom.
Interesting side note... they are having to replace all the "painted backdrops" to the sets with high-quality digital images because of all the viewers with HD TV's; apparently in HD you can tell it's just a painting.

Soylent Purple · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:47 pm Post subject:

^ Yeah, I've known people that have been to a few Red Dwarf shootings (annoyingly they were not Red Dwarf fans, and didn't even watch the show.)

Didn't take them 8 hours, but they were there for a good long stretch.

I found it funny watching a behind the scenes thing for Friends. They proudly proclaimed that all their laughter was a real audience with no canned laughter. They they explained and showed the sound guys who said something like this:

"In this scene the laugh is too loud and drowns out the actor's line. So we use a different laugh from an earlier scene and use that laugh instead. Here the laugh doesn't fit the gap, so we have used a longer laugh from a later scene instead. So all the laughs are real, we just use them in different places for different jokes."

Wow, what great reasoning. I might try that myself when I market some amazing new product. "The best thing ever invented. You need this now!!!" It is a real quote, just for a different product.
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Tailkinker · Site Admin Joined: 07 Aug 2004 Posts: 20842

"Nobody laughed at all at this particular lame joke, so we took a laugh from a part of the show that was actually funny and reused it".
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daguru · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:36 pm Post subject:

IT'S A TRAP
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daguru · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:37 pm Post subject:

Soylent Purple · Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:20 am Post subject:

No I didn't see the end or the beginning, just the middle third.

Yeah, "It's a trap" was amusing, but having the same laugh dubbed over the top 3 times in a row was too much.
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Duff · Oscar winner Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 2555

And so it's been commisioned for another 2 seasons. Awesome.
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Duff · Oscar winner Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 2555

Season 3 starts in the USA today/tonight

I'm split between waiting or watching online.
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SnowBuddy · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:56 am Post subject:

I missed the season opener. Sad

I have to watch it on-line this weekend. The DVR is now programmed to catch them all. Cool

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Duff · Oscar winner Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 2555

Anyone have any idea on UK airing of season 3
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Ollie · Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:47 pm Post subject:

I hate canned laughter with a pasion - it's ruined many a good show... Evil or Very Mad

I'll laugh when I find it funny, thanks, not when you tell me I should laugh...

I've been in the audience to watch "Bottom" being filmed - very funnee! Very Happy

Only took about 2 hours to film the 30min episode (Season 2, Episode 1: Digger) as all the actors were consumate professionals. Mostly. Edmonson (mainly) and Mayal did f**k about considerably during scene resets and occasionally deliberately got their lines wrong for comedic effect. Laughing

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