This is BrainLog, a blog by Dan Sanderson. Older entries, from October 1999 through September 2010, are preserved for posterity, but are no longer maintained. See the front page and newer entries.
September 5, 2000
comments...
Yes, very much worth mentioning. The scene is in Annie Hall:
Alvy: Do you realize how immoral this all is?
Rob: Max, I've got a hit series.
Alvy: Yeah, I know; buy you're adding fake laughs.
...
Rob: We do the show live in front of an audience.
Alvy: Great, but nobody laughs at it 'cause your jokes aren't funny.
Rob: Yeah, well, that's why this machine is dynamite.
(See the script and do a Find for INT. TV CONTROL ROOM.)
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"History of the laugh track" is good but incomplete without mention of Woody Allen's "Manhattan" (I'm pretty sure that's the one--Allen's films tend to bleed into each other). The Allen character (all the same) quits his comedy writing job when he finds sound engineers mixing in a laugh track--as I recall, he says it's immoral. Later, of course, he regrets quitting...