View Full Version : Why did they stop taping in front of a studio audience during the last season?


TMC
11-27-2022, 05:01 AM
Remember Carroll O'Connor announcing during the end credits, All in the Family was played to a studio audience for live responses"?

They shot and edited it first, then showed the finished show to the studio audience of another Norman Lear show, recorded their reactions and put them on the show before it went out to air. Barney Miller did something similar.

Jean Stapleton once explained that each episode of All in the Family was performed twice, before two different audiences (on the same day) and they edited the two recordings into one show, using the best takes.

When Sally Struthers came back to guest star in the final season of All in the Family, she had a hard time adjusting to not having an audience there. She requested that the crew laugh out loud. All of Archie Bunker's Place was taped without an audience.

sm95fan
12-11-2022, 11:40 AM
The live studio audience was dropped at the suggestion of CoC. It reduced production time from 5 to 4 days. It also resulted in a cleaner final product. It allowed them to rewrite or reshoot scenes more easily.

TMC
02-25-2023, 06:03 AM
All in the Family got rid of ''live laughs'' and the live studio audience (https://www.metv.com/stories/all-in-the-family-got-rid-of-live-laughs-and-screened-episodes-for-a-studio-audience)

The show changed for its ninth season. Apparently, people in the live audience didn't enjoy the jokes.