I can't believe there wasn't some editing of the laughter post show. They were QUICK with the laughs after every line (seriously, is EVERY line supposed to kill? Not 5% of them were remotely funny) and then VERY quick to go back to silent. I find that incredibly challenging for a live studio audience to achieve.
Somebody else want to chime in? I am utterly convinced that was manipulated laughter.
I don't work on Whitney, but I've worked on lots of live-action "in front of a live audience" sitcoms, and there's a few things going on. First, at least 80% of the show is probably indeed shot in front of a live audience. Anything with a weird set or one-off location would be taped ahead of time for logistical reasons, but then edited overnight and shown to the live audience while their laughter is recorded.
However, the main problem is that the live audience are just average jerks off the street, most of whom have grown up watching bad laugh track TV, and when they get to Hollywood and sit in one of these audiences, they instantly forget their own natural laugh and laugh like they think they're supposed to. So they end up sounding fake anyway. You have no idea how weird it is, there's usually a stand up comic to "warm up" the crowd and get them in the mood, and they all sound normal, then the action starts and suddenly they're all braying like donkeys.
(Most shows don't go to the expense of hiring "professional laughers" (this job really exists) to seed the audience, and they should. Pros can give a natural laugh on cue, and can also do some funny giggles and laughs that are so unique that people who hear it laugh at
them. It does help sometimes to get a pro but they're not cheap.)
Anyway, once the live audience's laughs, which now sound fake because they're imitating the "laugh track" sound they
think we want, is recorded, it goes into the post process. At this point different takes have to be edited together, and some fake laughs are used to bridge cuts between the takes. Otherwise we'd only be able to use one take of each entire scene. Then when the editing is done, we do the sound mix, and a "laugh man" comes in to "sweeten" the sound. He's got special "laugh box" with faders on it, so he can push one for the number of people laughing and another for the intensity of the laughter... so he can do one guy laughing a little (both faders down) or a crowd laughing a lot (both faders all the way up). He's there to "punch up" and smooth the natural laughs with a little enhancement so the joke gets exactly the amount and duration of laughter the executive producer (would not be Whitney herself) wants. These "laugh men" will prepare for the sound mix by laying down a laugh after
every possible thing in the show that could maybe be considered funny, and will usually leave it up to the producer to ask for a laugh to be taken out. I've occasionally heard a producer ask 'is that the laugh box or the recording?', but since these guys are usually the joke writers, it's rare they take out laughs.
So what you end up with is a live audience acting like a fake audience, supplemented by fake laughter in post.
all I've seen are the commercials and I thought it sucked.
