Jack Playing Violin on the Show

[bboswell]

Does anyone know if that is actually Jack playing his violin on the show whenever it is played for laughs? (e.g. during his lessons.) I personally doubt it because it would be impossible to hold a script and play too. If not, who does it? Or if so, how did they work out the script problem, and did someone hand the violin to him, and then take it away again?

[LukeJB]

I don't know for a fact but my guess would be that it's one of the band members with good timing. Jack just waits and his timing makes it funny.

[LLeff]

Does anyone know if that is actually Jack playing his violin on the show whenever it is played for laughs? (e.g. during his lessons.) I personally doubt it because it would be impossible to hold a script and play too. If not, who does it? Or if so, how did they work out the script problem, and did someone hand the violin to him, and then take it away again?

I coulda sworn I've seen a photo of Jack and Mel doing the Professor LeBlanc bit where there's a music stand in front of them. If the pagination was done properly, the first line on the next page could be set to always be Mel's to give Jack some additional page-turning time.

Also, I don't think the audience reaction would be nearly as good if Jack himself wasn't playing the violin. The visuals of that create at least half of the laugh...just watch it on television.

[Gerry O.]

Also, I don't think the audience reaction would be nearly as good if Jack himself wasn't playing the violin. The visuals of that create at least half of the laugh...just watch it on television.

That's a good point about the audience reaction....not only the audience laughing WHILE Jack's playing, but also the enthusiastic applause when he's finished.

One of my favorite "Jack Playing The Violin" bits is the Lucky Strike commercial from the 1947 Thanksgiving show, where Jack accompanies the Sportsmen on a lively rendition of "The Poet and Peasant Overture". GREAT stuff!

[shimp scrampi]

Count my two cents as thinking Jack did the violin playing himself. Jack's "bad" violin playing is remarkably distinctive and consistent. It may not be masterful but it sure is recognizeable. As the particularly apt saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat - you can play the violin poorly in a number of ways but Jack's squeaks and squawks usually sound distinctly "Benny" - and are comedically timed and important to the routines in such a way I don't think he would cede the job to a band member when a music stand could easily solve the hands-free script problem.

[LukeJB]

I actually agree for both. There is a possability that the audiance was fake. A Laugh track. There was a apart of one show I listened to recenly where one of mel's characters called Don fat and it got a huge laugh, but it wasn't really that funny. It seemed like the audiance was laughing too long. Like they did in old sitcomes. But then again the sounds of the violin do seem to sound like Jack's forced mistakes, same as on the TV show. I have to agree both ways...

[Maxwell]

I actually agree for both. There is a possability that the audiance was fake. A Laugh track. There was a apart of one show I listened to recenly where one of mel's characters called Don fat and it got a huge laugh, but it wasn't really that funny. It seemed like the audiance was laughing too long. Like they did in old sitcomes. But then again the sounds of the violin do seem to sound like Jack's forced mistakes, same as on the TV show. I have to agree both ways...

Which leads to a question that I don't know the answer to. Did they use laugh tracks on radio shows? I seem to remember running across a quote once that came from an article about some early TV show describing the use of a laugh track as if it were something new.

Parenthetcially: One of the more annoying laugh tracks I recall was the one on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." Every laugh was EXACTLY the same.

[LLeff]

Which leads to a question that I don't know the answer to. Did they use laugh tracks on radio shows? I seem to remember running across a quote once that came from an article about some early TV show describing the use of a laugh track as if it were something new.

As far as I know, there was never a laugh track on the radio shows. Even the prerecorded ones had a live audience. This is further borne out by Mary's stand-in fluffing a line, and Mary needed to do the same fluff so as to match with the audience's reaction to the fluff (and, sometimes, Jack's subsequent commentary).

[bboswell]

Parenthetcially: One of the more annoying laugh tracks I recall was the one on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." Every laugh was EXACTLY the same.

That reminds me of a scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen is visiting his friend in California. His friend is putting some last-minute laughs in the television show he produces because it wasn't funny enough and the audience didn't laugh enough.

And THAT reminds me of another Annie Hall quote...

Annie Hall: "It's so clean out here."
Alvy Singer: "That's because they don't throw their garbage away, they turn it into television shows."

[Maxwell]

As far as I know, there was never a laugh track on the radio shows. Even the prerecorded ones had a live audience. This is further borne out by Mary's stand-in fluffing a line, and Mary needed to do the same fluff so as to match with the audience's reaction to the fluff (and, sometimes, Jack's subsequent commentary).

Now that I think about it, it makes sense that radio wouldn't use a laugh track whereas it was almost a necessity for television, at least until "I Love Lucy" came along. The pioneers of radio, a new medium, would of necessity build studios to fit that medium's necessities. Comedy requires laughter. Music in live performance would require applause.

There is a very good web site I stumbled on a few weeks ago dedicated to the now-defunct Chicago station WMAQ. There were floor plans and photos of the studios of that station, located on the 19th floor of the Merchandise Mart. They were built fairly early in the history of NBC ('MAQ was a Red Network affiliate, and was sold to NBC by the Chicago Daily News. The studios built for orchestral performances and other major programs were quite large (although probably not as large as Studio 8H at 30 Rock).

Getting back to my point, though, a lot of early sitcoms, even after "I Love Lucy" were filmed in soundstages. One of the larger producers in the '50s was Hal Roach, for example. They were filmed like 2-reelers, which is what they essentially were. Aside from Lucy, very few shows used a 3-camera filming technique until the '60s or even the early '70s. Comedy really does seem to require a herd mentality in order to be effective. (Note the lack of success of comedy shows that dare go without a laugh track. Even great shows like "Arrested Development" seem to fall flat without a laugh track. One hit show that did get away with it to some extent was M*A*S*H, but it only dropped the laugh track for the operating room scenes.)

At any rate, it seems that since TV adopted Hollywood production techniques, there had to be some way of stimulating laughter. The laugh track fit the bill. (Another parenthetical note: one of the most unfunny shows I've ever watched was the pilot episode for a show called "Me and the Chimp," starring Ted Bessell, who played Marlo Thomas's fiance' in "That Girl." I didn't laugh once, but I counted over a hundred laugh track guffaws.)

[Gerry O.]

It's interesting to note the problems that some of radio's comedians had with laugh tracks when they used them on their TV shows.

In his book about Jack, Milt Josefsberg tells of one of the rare times he saw Jack REALLY blow up and get mad....it was when Jack was watching the rushes of his first (or at least ONE of his first) filmed TV shows using a canned laugh track. In the film, Jack came out on stage and said, "Thank you and good evening, ladies and gentlemen..." and the soundtrack burst into loud recorded laughter. Jack was FURIOUS and started yelling that he had NEVER received that kind of a big laugh over saying "Good evening" in his life!

[shimp scrampi]

It's interesting also to think about the MAJOR adjustment it must have been for Jack to move to filmed shows without an audience. It's pretty impressive how well those shows work as far as timing without the give-and-take of an audience to work off of. I know some don't agree, but I really like Jack's filmed shows of the fifties, the film permits a lot of special effects (though they hardly qualify nowadays!) and surrealism that couldn't be pulled off live.

George Burns' (and Jack's, I believe, at least for the early filmed shows without a studio audience) choice as far as laugh tracks was to show the completed film to a real audience and record their laughter. They would only used the canned laughs if a joke really died and there was no way to edit it out.

My vote for most annoying canned laughter is "The Addams Family". There's a show that could have been a quirky delight if they didn't crank their awful machine every time a character said "Hello". I still like it but I'm hoping, like "MASH" they have the option of turning off the laugh track if and when it hits DVD...

[LukeJB]

I got my proof that the laughing and clapping is real people on jack's radio shows from the 1-11-53 show. Where the audience starts clapping and raise a holler for Bob Hope before we have any clue who it was. It was like they saw him. So I'm convinced.

[Roman]

I have to disagree with Maxwell's comment about the "lack of success of comedy shows that dare go without a laugh track." I don't think any comedy today uses a laugh track. Of course, the comedies that are filmed before an audience don't use a laugh track. But the many comedies that aren't done with an audience (The Office, Scrubs, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Everybody Hates Chris, My Name is Earl, etc.) all film without a laugh track. As far as the success of these laugh track-less comedies, well, it's hard to beat The Simpson's record of nearly 20 years and still going strong.

[Maxwell]

I have to disagree with Maxwell's comment about the "lack of success of comedy shows that dare go without a laugh track." I don't think any comedy today uses a laugh track. Of course, the comedies that are filmed before an audience don't use a laugh track. But the many comedies that aren't done with an audience (The Office, Scrubs, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Everybody Hates Chris, My Name is Earl, etc.) all film without a laugh track. As far as the success of these laugh track-less comedies, well, it's hard to beat The Simpson's record of nearly 20 years and still going strong.

Take a look at the vintage of the shows you've identified and take a look at the nearly two-year-old date on my post. Of those, The Simpsons and Family Guy are animated, and therefore not uincluded in my discussion. Of the rest, I think only Scrubs was on the air when I posted, and it had marginal ratings.

My challenge to you is to find any live action comedies from before June 2005 that were successful without laugh tracks.