I have a little bet with a friend concerning "Get Smart."

My friend insists "Get Smart" didn't have a laugh track, but I say that it did.

Anyone know the answer?

;)

I don't see any mention of a laugh track in Joey Green's GET SMART HANDBOOK
(1993). I also have the GET SMART LP record album (with excerpts from the
show). It has laughter on it and, to me, it sounds like canned laughter (or
enhanced laughs with the volume going up at certain points). Since the show
was shot in several outside locations, I don't see how it could have been filmed
in front of a live audience. So my guess is yes, it used a laugh track. Does
anyone know for sure??

watching some episodes now, yes it has a laugh track

Thank you, my friends!

I am now ten dollars richer.

;)

..."GET SMART" that didn't have a "laugh track" when originally telecast, and first shown in syndication during the '70s, 'TJL'. The three-part episode, "A Man Called Smart" [April 1967], which was originally planned as a theatrical feature, did NOT have a laugh track...but eventually, an alternate version with one DID turn up in syndication. The episode where Max is programmed to kill the "Chief" had none, either...but now, it does.

The show was NEVER filmed before a live audience! I believe NBC insisted on a laugh track for "GET SMART" because they didn't want to deviate from their other sitcoms using one at the time. It wasn't until "JULIA", in 1968, that NBC finally permitted a sitcom to be shown regularly without a laugh track (although NOW it has one in the current reissues).

:read:

Yeah, i kinda figured that the laugh track was added during the syndication years.

GET SMART definately had a laugh track throughout its 5 seasons as it was shot on film.

I believe the MONKEES (in their second season '67-'68) was the first sitcom that didn't have a laugh track. I don't know if that required permission from the network or not (it was on NBC as well) but there are approximately 13 episodes in the second season that don't. The first one that didn't was titled Hitting the High Seas which was first aired on 11/27/67.

I think in those days the only sitcoms that didn't have laugh tracks were those filmed on a soundstage - for instance, the Dick Van Dyke show, which almost never had an outdoor scene. Obviously this wouldn't have worked for Get Smart, so I'm sure they just put in a laugh track like every other show of its type.

Honestly, as long as the show is good, I don't mind laugh tracks nearly as much as Network Logos and now those dreadful "Pop Up"s from other shows!