History of the laugh track

Here's an interesting piece -- the history of the laugh track, complete with video examples of how it has evolved over the years.

Many popular sitcoms today -- The Office, Scrubs, My Name is Earl -- don't use a laugh track. I've been watching Cheers and Coach reruns lately, both of which used a laugh track, and for those shows I'm used to it, but I didn't realize how much I had gotten used to NOT having one on urrent shows until I watched Back to You, a new Fox sitcom, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. It used a laugh track, and it was very jarring to me, and kind of strange. It's disturbingly effective though.

Check ot the piece and the video slide show on Slate.com. Very interesting.