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"Roseanne is taped in front of a live audience" - is this a joke?

posted 6 years ago by [deleted]
6 replies | jump to latest

I was wondering why this tagline, which we used to hear before the 90s, was included? I just checked a 90s episode and they didn't say it. Anyone know why?

[–] artguylarry (498) 6 years ago

Because most sitcoms nowadays are not shot on a three wall sound stage anymore, but rather are shot on location, in a real house or office, with no audience. I guess they felt the need to differentiate. Who knows why. Sitcoms from the '70s to '90s were almost all shot in front of an audience.

or...

Yes, it's a joke. Hell bent on mercilessly tormenting people traumatized by a three second voice-over at the start of a sitcom.

[–] Gubbio (3893) 6 years ago

"Roseanne is taped in front of a live audience"

As opposed to a DEAD audience ??? 😬 🤢

[–] Iaaat (44) 6 years ago

The new Will & Grace has the same kind of voice over despite it not having it in the old episodes. The only reason I can think of is the recent rise in single-camera comedies and a millennial (or even post-millennial) generation who grew up with them and often complain about old sitcoms and their "laugh track" (them not realizing it's usually a "live audience") - a "laugh track" which is "insulting" because they, in their superiority, "don't need to be told when to laugh."

[–] Stratego (29246) 6 years ago

Ha, so true!😆

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

That’s true, most shows have no audience or laugh track. I think Curb Your Enthusiasm started this trend.

[–] strangluv (58) 6 years ago

I agree, though I have to say the millennial generation WERE exposed to a TV landscape of laugh track sitcoms growing up. They are children of the 90s after all, who were experiencing it in both sitcoms of this era and the thousands of reruns from older eras (Nick at Nite anyone?). It just seems like people nowadays are pretending they don't really remember them. Even much older TV viewers are exhibiting this behavior.

I can kind of understand finding audience laughter a bit irritating and sometimes distractingly overdone, but more as a mild passing annoyance than something actually infuriating. Like for me I'm just too used to it from so much of the TV I watched growing up to be so phased let alone viscerally disturbed by it. The way some are so vocal in their outrage makes them sound like they're ragging on a new TV trend rather than one of the oldest/longest existing ones in TV history, widespread enough through the likes of old reruns over the decades that there's little excuse for virtually any TV viewer to be overreacting to it.