January 14, 2003
What Happened to the Laughter on Red Dwarf?
[Film Discussion]As I watched Red Dwarf, Season 7, Episode 1 ("Tikka to Ride") I noticed that the episode was somehow less funny than what I am used to. I was not laughing as much and I could not put my finger on exactly why. I watched the episode closely for clues as to what was going on. The jokes were funny, the acting was good, but somehow the timing seemed wrong. It was not until I started into the next episode ("Stoke Me A Clipper.") that I realized what was wrong: The laugh track was missing.
Going back to "Tikka," it became evident that the actors were delivering their lines expecting a laugh track to be added. After Rimmer gave out a joke everyone would wait two beats before the next line was delivered. Without a laugh track this created eerie, unnatural silences that broke the pacing of the show.
The special edition "Season 7, Byte 1" tape had a third episode, "Ouroboros," also without a laugh track. The difference between the two laugh track-less episodes and the one with a laugh track is drastic.
Wondering at the cause or the reason I asked my friend Enrika (a fellow Red Dwarf aficionado) what she thought of it. I postulated that the lack of a track might be due to episodes one and three being filmed partially on location and away from an audience, or that during the re-mastering for the 'special edition' re-release they may have decided to leave the track out for some aesthetic or artistic reason. Enrika answered that she was sure the episode had a laugh track, something we were able to demonstrate from a videotape she had captured from the TV broadcast.
So the question is this: What happened to the laugh track? Was it removed for the special edition? Why? Do I have a faulty tape? If anyone knows or has any theories I would love to hear them. I have posted this same question to the Red Dwarf Message Board. Perhaps someone there can clue us in.
This is the response I got on the RD Message Board:
On 14/01/2003 05:54:03, Rimmer's Spare Light Bee wrote:
>On 14/01/2003 05:13:38, Leopoldo Marino
>wrote:
>
>>Do you know why the decision to leave
>>the laughter out was made?
>
>According to the info in the Series 7
>section of the Time Hole Deck (on this
>site) the Xtended tape included extra
>scenes not originally aired. Since the
>extra scenes had not been shown to the
>studio audience when they recorded the
>laughter, there was no laughter in those
>scenes.
>
>To quote Andrew's info...
>
>"Rather than add 'fake' laughs to the
>sequences not shown to an audience, the
>laughter track was removed entirely. "
>
>Tons of info can be found by heading to
>the Time Hole Deck. The series are
>discussed in great detail. All kinds of
>interesting stuff there.
>
>>Watching
>>with and without I must say that it
>>works much better with.
>
>I agree. It's very odd to watch those
>episodes. It is definitely missing
>something.
>The fact that there is room left for
>laughs just makes it odder since it
>becomes obvious that it is missing.
>
>Rimmer's Spare Light Bee
>
>This space for rent.
Guess that explains it...
MMMmmmmm, Red Dwarf....such a great show. I've already got my DVDs preordered, they come out in America this month! WOOT!
Posted by: Flava on February 7, 2003 11:21 AMI have been salivating for those DVDs since they were announced last year. I have my order in and hope to have my season 1 soon! :-)
Posted by: Leopoldo on February 7, 2003 12:45 PM
