I actually like when they had the laugh track in the earlier seasons. Did anyone else like the laugh track also?

I also liked when they had the laugh track as well

Actually, "The Flinstones" [1960-1966] has always had a laugh track for the original prints of all of its seasons and all of its episodes. Allegedy though, "Sheriff for a Day" [1965?] doesn't, but I've heard it before on that episode. But, the laugh track WAS as we all know, missing. Technically, the laughs,voices,music,and sound FX are done on different reels going by what I've read for over 30 years! Voice, SFX and music archived were used, just not the laughs or they were faded.

This was done for many "Laugh track" Hanna Barbera series.

On "The Jetsons", when it premiered as a 1980s series with new
episodes [September 17,1985] with no laugh track for those, they
had the episodes cut so as NOT to have them., thus you miss a lot of footage
save for Episode 24 of the original one, "The Flying Suit" [1962].
This was apparently done to match the new ones [much like how, a few years later, those awful synth cues for the new version of Art Clokey's "Gumby" also appeared on the ORIGINAL series which HAS turned up, largely thanks to DGMI.com in its original form, by the way, right down to the original libary cues that Hanna Barbera also used, though the 1980s revival DOES have sound FX and music, from the original series for the early chapters with Gumby on the moon,but his voice is the bad impersonation of Clokey/Filmation/Walt Disney/Sam Singer/Walter Lantz vet Dallas McKennon's version of Gumby).(See my upcoming post in the accompanying general Cartoons forum on GUmby. These are on YouTube .comIn2TV.com

...it was ABC that insisted "THE FLINTSTONES" have a laugh track in every episode from the very beginning. The 1960 "demo reel", featuring rough animation from "The Swimming Pool" that was later reworked and included in that episode, had none. Apparently, the network decided that, since this was a full half-hour cartoon, it should be treated like any other "situation comedy" and make viewers more comfortable by having "canned laughter" (and applause during the original end title) react to every funny line and situation. Same situation with "THE JETSONS".

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At least the laugh track on the Flinstones was light, not overbearing like some shows.

I hate it when I hear people complain about laugh tracks. I love them. There was a period on Cartoon Network where they were airing "The Flintstones" and "Josie and the Pussycats" without them and it just wasn't the same.

They could use laugh tracks today, too. The canned laughter would be funnier that complete dead silence.

I hate it when I hear people complain about laugh tracks. I love them. There was a period on Cartoon Network where they were airing "The Flintstones" and "Josie and the Pussycats" without them and it just wasn't the same.

They could use laugh tracks today, too. The canned laughter would be funnier that complete dead silence.
I agree. A lot of times when I watch sitcoms without laugh tracks its like I'm watching a drama.

I like the laugh tracks.

I always thought The Flintstones was filmed before a live audience!

I like the laugh tracks, but then again I like everything about the Flintstones.

I actually liked when Cartoon Network aired the series without the laugh track, and was quite disappointed when Flintstones DVDs didn't provide an alternate audio track without without the laugh track (a'la M*A*S*H).

If I remember correctly, Jay Ward's classic Rocky & His Friends had a
laugh track even when it debuted on ABC's daytime schedule in 1959, before it switched to NBC, in prime-time, on Sunday nights as The Bullwinkle Show, in 1961. I thought the canned laughter seemed to fit, simply because
the show was so different from any other cartoon on the air at the time. (But
I don't think producers Jay Ward and Bill Scott cared for it, and the canned
laughs were dropped from later episodes.)

I just find it funny how on other H-B-produced shows like Josie and the Pussycats and even Scooby Doo (the 1st incarnation from 1969-71) had laugh tracks and they were more in the lines of serious drama-like cartoons, but other H-B shows like Jonny Quest (which had a much more darker tone than Scooby or Josie) didn't use a laugh track.

I really like The Laught Track

I never understood the point of laugh tracks in cartoons, but to each his own! :confused: :lol:

I really like The Laught Track
I do too Aaron.

...the first four episodes of "ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS" originally featured laugh tracks (even in the opening title!). But Jay Ward [and his partner Bill Scott] insisted the show stand or fall on its own without any "artificial reaction"- and his sponsor, General Mills, backed him up. The laugh tracks disappeared at the end of December 1959, and were never heard again, although some segments from those first four episodes were syndicated in later years with the "canned laughter" still in evidence.

Other series, however, didn't have the same clout. Hanna-Barbera's "TOP CAT" and "THE JETSONS" had laugh tracks [although the latter was reissued without them in the '80s], but "JONNY QUEST" had none, as it was deemed an "adventure series". Gosden & Correll's "CALVIN & THE COLONEL" {the animated version of "Andy and the Kingfish"}, on ABC's 1961-'62 season, had one. But Bob Clampett insisted no artificial laughter would be heard during "MATTY'S FUNNIES WITH BEANY & CECIL", as did Ross Bagdasarian {"David Seville"} on "THE ALVIN SHOW".

As for laugh tracks on "JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS", the various "SCOOBY DOO" series, "PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM" and the many "ARCHIE" incarnations, that was Fred Silverman's idea. As the executive in charge of CBS' Saturday morning schedules in the late '60s and early '70s, he believed kids responded more to laugh tracks (as they did during live-action sitcoms) in "funny" cartoons than those without it. He even applied this technique to "THE LOVE BOAT" and "EIGHT IS ENOUGH"- for "grownups"- on ABC's prime-time schedule in the late '70s.

:tv:

...the first four episodes of "ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS" originally featured laugh tracks (even in the opening title!). But Jay Ward [and his partner Bill Scott] insisted the show stand or fall on its own without any "artificial reaction"- and his sponsor, General Mills, backed him up. The laugh tracks disappeared at the end of December 1959, and were never heard again, although some segments from those first four episodes were syndicated in later years with the "canned laughter" still in evidence.

Other series, however, didn't have the same clout. Hanna-Barbera's "TOP CAT" and "THE JETSONS" had laugh tracks [although the latter was reissued without them in the '80s], but "JONNY QUEST" had none, as it was deemed an "adventure series". Gosden & Correll's "CALVIN & THE COLONEL" {the animated version of "Andy and the Kingfish"}, on ABC's 1961-'62 season, had one. But Bob Clampett insisted no artificial laughter would be heard during "MATTY'S FUNNIES WITH BEANY & CECIL", as did Ross Bagdasarian {"David Seville"} on "THE ALVIN SHOW".

As for laugh tracks on "JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS", the various "SCOOBY DOO" series, "PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM" and the many "ARCHIE" incarnations, that was Fred Silverman's idea. As the executive in charge of CBS' Saturday morning schedules in the late '60s and early '70s, he believed kids responded more to laugh tracks (as they did during live-action sitcoms) in "funny" cartoons than those without it. He even applied this technique to "THE LOVE BOAT" and "EIGHT IS ENOUGH"- for "grownups"- on ABC's prime-time schedule in the late '70s.

:tv:

And wehat's more ironic is that when Scobby and the Gang followed Fred Silverman to ABC and1st began their season at ABC in 1976, some episodes during the The Scooby Doo Show incarnation. would contain a few traces of a laugh track.

The laugh track in episode one (The Flintstone Flyer) is loud. After that, the laugh track is more subdued: giggles and twitters. Once in a while you can hear a guy laughing pretty hard. I like the more subdued laugh track because we can hear all the trademark snippets of music. The background music is great!

I believe "Monster Fred" (1964) didn't have any, or MUCH of one!(The Dr.Frankenstone one, the Ben Casey spoof).

I believe "Monster Fred" (1964) didn't have any, or MUCH of one!(The Dr.Frankenstone one, the Ben Casey spoof).Todays' cartoons don't need the laugh track. It would look bad because the jokes aren't funny on certain shows.

Todays' cartoons don't need the laugh track. It would look bad because the jokes aren't funny on certain shows.
LOL Boy, is THAT ever so true!!!!

Would've preferred no laugh track, but as far as LTs go it was more subtle and not loud and obnoxious like some of the ones on other shows.

Would've preferred no laugh track, but as far as LTs go it was more subtle and not loud and obnoxious like some of the ones on other shows.
Amen to that!