Back to Earth now has a laugh track!…..

[Mr-Stabby]

Well some of it……

I did it just to see what it’s like. I think it works actually!

[Mnoooah]

Oh, now I really miss them.

[peas_and_corn]

For me it didn’t add much. I can understand why people would prefer it, but I’m perfectly fine with the no laugh track in BtE

[Mnoooah]

For me it’s the familliar pacing I think; the laughter felt like part of the dialogue so it feels as if entire words or sentences are missing from the scene. I don’t watch series 7 much, obviously.

[budfox666]

You need the canned laughter it makes comedy’s work. Red Dwarf is brilliant and the format shouldn’t have been changed. With part 1 and 2 of the special I was cringing in between some of the jokes wanting to hear some canned laughter – I guess its all those US sitcoms have made me this way ;-p The 3rd part though was so funny, i didn’t notice !

[thomasaevans]

Its good. Im split on this. Both have benifits.

[Pete Part Three]

>You need the canned laughter it makes comedy?s work.

Quoted for wrongness.

[Ben Paddon]

The problem here is that the laugh track has been added in using laughter of appropriate length. There’s no way to gauge how much an actual studio audience would laugh, which would result in dialogue potentially being eaten (as has happened in the past with episodes in series VI and VII).

I didn’t like it, personally.

[SkyAndSun]

Wasn’t needed, glad it wasn’t there.

If this was sitcom RD I’d have a different view.

[Ilinga]

I just caught DNA on telly. While the laughter works with the older shows, and is as much a part of them as anything else, watching it made me even more happy that the new shows didn’t have any. I actually enjoyed the more serious tone of BtE, and having laughter would have taken away from that.

[Dax101]

they needed some background sound of some sort

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Whenever I see a new sitcom with a laughter track…….it immediately seems old-school comedy.

[NoFro]

>they needed some background sound of some sort

I agree. It was only really awkward in the bunkroom scenes in part one so maybe a hum of the engine just ongoing in the background. A sound that you’d only notice really being there if it was taken away but makes the scenes feel less empty.

However, I thought most of BTW worked perfectly without a laughter track.

[Dessie]

I didn’t like it. I laughed without it and a laughter track that isn’t from a live audience watching the show being filmed doesn’t fit in right. The actors haven’t left pauses for it to be fitted in making the final effect feel cheap and tacked on. Thats one thing i don’t like about series 7 and i prefer the episodes on the DVD without the laugh track.

[Nakrophile]

Eh, it’s alright but the show really didn’t need it.

[Ilinga]

Actually, there are engine/energy noises in the background. The third time I watched part one was with headphones on and I could clearly hear a low thrumming in the background. Listen closely during quiet bits in the bunkroom and corridor scenes. Maybe they just need to be slightly louder then, as nobody seems to have noticed them.

[ori-STUDFARM]

I think it highlighted the long periods in Ep 1 inbetween gags. I didn’t notice in Ep 2 or 3 the laughter track. I was too busy laughing myself

[ChrisM]

I missed the laugh track a bit in the first episode. During 2 and 3 I hardly even thought of it.

[Another Phil]

I agree, Chris. There are definite points where part one suffers from a lack of a laugh track (I think it’s the weakest of the 3 eps) but in 2 and 3 there are large parts where it would if anything have got in the way.

And of course the main argument for not putting it in front of an audience beforehand was that it would have led to the ending being blown for all of us, guaranteed.

[Carlito]

I think it could have worked if there was a laugh track up until the point they arrived on Earth, adding to the idea they were being dragged out of a TV show into reality.

[James]

Awful! It makes it sound like a US version of My Family. I would recommend everyone listen to the Docco on Series VIII, it gives the whole cast, including Doug, their views on the studio audience.

[Mnoooah]

@Bobbyllew: @MacabreMagpie Yes, have seen it, discussed it with Doug N today. imagine if we had added true canned laughs like this!! Outrage city.

[Mr-Stabby]

Ha, should i be insulted or honoured that Bobby commented on it in that way, i dunno :P Be nice if Doug saw it.

[Mnoooah]

The only reason I mentioned it is b/c I believe he specifies *canned* laughter as being the outrage, and if he’s that nice about Norm, he couldn’t be mean about *that*. I kind of like that they’ve seen at least one remix, I do hope they’ve seen P2P’s stuff, not sure how they’ll take the fan edits though.

[Phil]

I’m following you, scooter.

[Mr-Stabby]

Yeah very true. I think putting actual ‘canned’ laughter would be an outrage. But i think a properly recorded laugh track like they had in Series 7 could work. But then i’m in the camp of people who did actually think it worked well without it. Just a few parts in it which had jokes which would have sat better in an audience sitcom.

Nice to know our stuff’s getting a look in by them though :)

[Mnoooah]

ah, cheers Phil.

[Mnoooah]

Stabby, your laugh track is getting famous! I’ve read a couple of reviews now where the lack of audience is front and centre and the people really do want to know what it would have looked like –

From I09’s comments section:
There’s a fanedit going round with inserted laff tracks, FYI.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Why did the BBC copystrike it?  They didn’t have anything to do with BtE and they’ve never done that with any other Dave episodes…

[Flap Jack]

UKTV is wholly owned by BBC Studios, and was 50% owned by them at the time that Back to Earth was made, too.

Honestly the BBC are infamous for abusing YouTube’s copyright systems and claiming anything with even a second of BBC content in it no matter the context, so if Dave era Red Dwarf episodes are otherwise available unofficially on YouTube without being struck, then that’s luck, not the BBC respecting jurisdiction.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Given the BBC is publicly funded I wouldn’t be at all surprised they have stricter rules about content of theirs online and the licensing of it, and if it appears unofficially they have to be see to go after it to protect their product/brand in a way commercial entities can and will be more flexible on.

[Flap Jack]

Hmm, I wouldn’t have thought so. BBC Studios is the commercial subsidary of the BBC, and thus is motivated to protect its copyright as strictly as any other commercial entity – and other commercial entities aren’t really that flexible in practice. (I mean, some might be, but not as a rule.)

If anything, being publicly owned and funded should lead to the BBC being more transparent and by the book when it comes to enforcing copyright – strike stuff which is blatantly reproducing BBC content wholesale (which to be fair the OP video might have been, hard for me to say), but leave anything which would be legally considered fair dealing alone.

Instead, the BBC is breaking YouTube’s terms of service every day to strike and claim as much as possible for as long as possible. I can only assume that the people in the BBC who decide these policies are just cunts.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Instead, the BBC is breaking YouTube’s terms of service every day to strike and claim as much as possible for as long as possible. I can only assume that the people in the BBC who decide these policies are just cunts.

And that’s basically how the YouTube Content ID system works, corporate entities and individuals in the know can wantonly abuse the system for their own gain with complete and utter impunity.

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