It was rare for a '90s sitcom not to have a laugh track. Which made it all the more surprising when Sports Night dropped the ...

When was the last time you spared a thought about sitcom laugh tracks? Probably years. Maybe decades? Sitcoms with background laughter have seemed almost dead, definitely and firmly dying, for a very ...

In the 75 years since it was introduced, the laugh track has conditioned viewers to know when and how much to laugh Some audiences love it, and some audiences hate it, but the laugh track—which ...

I ran into an old episode of Hogan’s Heroes the other day that stuck me as odd. It didn’t have a laugh track. Ironically, the show was one where two pilots were shown, one with and one without a laugh ...

Critically reviled. Hopelessly dated. Forever near extinction. Yet in a TV landscape full of brutally realistic hits, sitcoms with background laughter are not only still popular, but have become ...