Michael J. Fox's pause was always noticeable on Family Ties.

Laugh tracks don't really bother me with my favorite sitcoms. But I couldn't imagine the Simpsons having a laugh track...(Didn't the Flintstones have a laugh track?)

Someone better than I should write a comprehensive history of the laugh track and studio audiences someday, but I think that the reason why we have audience laughter on TV and not in movies is because TV started off as an extension of radio, not film. The companies that got into TV were radio companies (RCA, NBC, CBS). Hollywood initially stayed away, fearing the new competitor. A lot of the first talent for TV came from radio, not film. And radio comedies had live studio audiences. Also, TV sitcoms were originally performed live, due to the lack of good recording equipment, and thus played a lot like plays, typically on one set, maybe two, and with an audience. So looking at the progression from radio to live TV, it's easy to see why sitcoms had studio audiences.

Another thing to think about is that films in this era did have audience laughter, from the audience you were watching the film with. Filmed comedies didn't exist on TV yet, and movie studios initially declined running their films on TV, so there really was nowhere that audience laughter wasn't present for a comedy.

However, performing TV live has it's drawbacks, and producers eventually looked into the advantages of recording. However, at this time, the best available recording format was still film, and recording video to film was sub-standard at best. So, shows like I Love Lucy recorded straight to film, later transferring the film to video, with good results. Film can't be edited live though, so the shows were shot ahead of time and edited for broadcast. These sitcoms still kept the original shooting arrangement of 3 cameras shooting at once though, and they kept the live studio audience.

So, now sitcoms were shot on film. With the lack of being live came more creative freedom: more set/dress changes, more elaborate shots, special effects, etc. However, these changes made including a live studio audience more and more cumbersome. Also, on F/X heavy shows like Bewitched, the live audience wouldn't be seeing the finished effect, which would come much later. Also, the three-camera setup became much more expensive on film, since each camera was constantly recording footage, yet it was guaranteed that you'd only end up using one camera's shot, meaning 2/3's of the shot footage was wasted. A one-camera setup was more cost effective, but it meant that the shoots would take much longer, with a lot more down time between performances, killing audience mood and testing their patience. A lot of productions decided to eliminate audiences altogether.

This is where the laugh-track came in. When the first shows without live audiences started, they likely added it just to keep from standing out, as a way to transition the audience from the standard "live" format to something more edited and arranged. As more and more shows were shot without audiences, they added laugh tracks likely because, well, that's what they other shows had already done. Some of the audience probably noticed that the likelihood of a live studio audience being present for some of these shows was less and less likely, but for others they were probably just used to audience laughter.

Eventually films started to be shown on TV, including filmed comedies, now suddenly devoid of the audience laughter they had in theaters. Surprise! They still were funny (well, some of them at least). Now audiences had a real basis of comparison, and laugh tracks on non-live filmed sitcoms seemed less and less necessary. TV producers also felt they had become more sophisticated, and pushed the boundaries. Some opted to try and eliminate the laugh-track (MASH), while others went the other way and tried to make the sitcom more live again. All in the Family returned to the live-audience 3 camera format, due in part to the newfound affordability of video-tape.

Due to the success of All in the Family, live-audience shows flourished again, up through the 90s. Shows like Cheers even brought back 3 camera filmed sitcoms. Nowadays we're on a swing back to single camera shows. However, laugh tracks persist because the studio-audience persists, and some nervous execs don't want their shows competing without laughter. I think that a live studio-audience will always have it's place, but I feel that the laugh-track is, luckily, increasingly being viewed as less and less necessary.

I could not agree more. The laughtrack should have gone the way of the dinosaur long ago. I agree that it is condescending AND obnoxious.

I LOVE the option of turning off the laugh track on the MASH DVDs. It really elevates the show into something much, much more enjoyable, IMO.

Funny thing about How I Met Your Mother is that although it appears to be shot like your typical multi-camera sitcom, but its actually shot more in the nature of the typical single-camera sitcom, filiming over a few days time without an audience. The finished product is then shown to an audience and their reaction is recorded, much like what Seinfeld did when they had to shoot on location.