BROOKE GLADSTONE: For half a century, TV sitcoms have been seasoned with artificial bursts of laughter and applause. It all goes back to 1953 when the Laff Box was invented to beef up anemic reactions from live audiences or when a show was taped without a live audience. The inventor of the Laff Box, Charles Douglass, recently passed away at the age of 93. Claes Andreasson, a freelance reporter for Swedish National Public Radio, offers this evaluation of the legacy of the Laff Box. [CASCADING EXCERPTS OF SITCOMS WITH LAUGHS] [SEINFELD THEME MUSIC] [LAUGHTER]

GEORGE: Had a dude?!

JERRY: Yeah! When I went to pick her up there was this dude! [LAUGHTER]

GEORGE: How do you know it was her dude?

JERRY: Well you think it could have been just some dude?

GERRY: Sure, dudes in this town are a dime a dozen! [LAUGHTER] [WILL AND GRACE THEME MUSIC]

WILL: Woody had enough? Jack, Karen, seconds? Grace? Fourths? [LAUGHTER] [FRIEND'S THEME MUSIC]

JOEY: A couple - like two people - like one, two people. [LAUGHTER]

MAN: I hate Los Angeles.

WOMAN: Why? Bad experiences?

MAN: No, I've never been there. [LAUGHTER] [CHEERS THEME MUSIC]

MAN: The Internet?! That thing still around?! [LAUGHTER]

CLAES ANDREASSON: Laff Box may sound like some sort of poetic shorthand, but Charles Douglass's original invention met that description. Leo Chaloukian used to own Ryder Sound Services and is now treasurer of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. [THEME MUSIC FROM M*A*S*H UP & UNDER]

LEO CHALOUKIAN: Physically it was a box he came in with! It was about -- probably this big or so. And he had a lot of - in those days these cartridges in there, and as he required some sort of a laugh or applause or whatever the case may be, he would hit those buttons and the thing would -- he would hold down that button, and he'd go for a period of time and let it go - it would stop. And then he'd go into another laugh track. And-- that's how it worked! It was a, it was a peculiar-looking thing, but it worked.

CLAES ANDREASSON:Douglass would travel with his Laff Box from studio to studio because everyone wanted Charlie, Chaloukian says, although there were those who tried to imitate his peculiar machine.

LEO CHALOUKIAN: You didn't do that to Charlie. It was his thing, and people left him alone. I think there were some tried it, and they just couldn't get the work cause everybody wanted Charlie! It's like Hollywood is the type of place where once you get involved with an individual, and he's known overall in the business, everybody sticks with him!

CLAES ANDREASSON: Did Charlie make a good living on this?

LEO CHALOUKIAN: You bet your life he did. I know he did well! [LAUGHS] Cause he was paying his people pretty good! [LAUGHTER]

CLAES ANDREASSON:According to legend, much of the laughter in Charlie's Box came from the Red Skelton Show. Since Red Skelton also did pantomimes, it was easy for Charlie to get nice, clean recordings of laughter and applause without disturbing dialogue. The Laff Box may be retired now, [GLASS BREAKING] but to this day, sitcoms are still adding sound effects. Sound designer Steve Lee.

STEVE LEE: A lot of these shows will tape the one episode twice, with an audience and without an audience, [AUDIENCE OOOING AND AHING] and editorially they'll determine which is the best performance. Sometimes the comedic timing of a gag in an episode is better without an audience, because they are able to get through it quicker. But maybe with an audience there's a lot more laughter, and actors tend to hold for their laughter.

CLAES ANDREASSON:You mainly supervise movies, the sound design for movies and motion pictures here. How come we don't need it when we go to the movie theater?

STEVE LEE: Probably because when you're seeing a movie in a theater, you're sharing this experience with-- with dozens, maybe even hundreds more people than you would in your own living room. [LAUGHTER]

CLAES ANDREASSON:Laugh tracks have appeared in movies, but mostly for ironic effect, like in this scene from Robocop. The owners of a convenience store are watching a game show on television [LAUGHTER] just as an armed robber enters the front door.

WOMAN: Will there be anything else, sir?

MAN: Yeah, empty the register and put the money in the bag.

WOMAN: Excuse me? [BACKGROUND LAUGHTER]

MAN: I said give me your money and all of it and don't [BLEEP] with me!

STEVE LEE: When the, the bad guys comes in with the gun--the crowd starts reacting to what's going on in the actual scene in the movie and in the grocery store-- [RUMBLE] and so the bad guy is waving his gun around and threatening the people -- you know he points the gun to the mom's head and says I'm going to blow her brains out!--

MAN: Come on, come on! I'm gonna blow her brains out. [LAUGHTER/APPLAUSE]

STEVE LEE: And all of a sudden you hear a swell of laughter on the, on the TV!

CLAES ANDREASSON: Robocop's gag was meant as a comment on the shallowness of television, but even TV veteran Leo Chaloukian finds all that canned hilarity grates on the nerves.

LEO CHALOUKIAN: I, I don't like laugh tracks. [LAUGHS] I mean I'm sorry - I don't like 'em at all. It's very annoying-- to me, when a certain laughter comes up and I, I've heard it - I watched it - I don't think it's funny and they're laughing! For what?! I don't know!

CLAES ANDREASSON:Well, exactly, I mean to me it says either you're too stupid to understand the joke or the script is too bad and we have to tell you that business was actually meant--

LEO CHALOUKIAN: You don't want me to comment on that one, do you? [LAUGHS] You don't - I mean that's not fair! You know? You want me to say that the script was stupid?! [LAUGHS] Well that's what it -- it just wasn't funny, that's all. [LAUGHS]

CLAES ANDREASSON: For On the Media, I'm Claes Andreasson. [SITCOM CLIP]

WOMAN: Oh -- my -- God!!! [LAUGHTER] [THEME MUSIC]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Janeen Price, Katya Rogers, Megan Ryan and Tony Field; engineered by Dylan Keefe, Rob Christiansen and George Edwards, and edited by me. We had help from Andy Lanset. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Arun Rath is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and get free transcripts at onthemedia.org and e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media from NPR. Garfield will be back next week. I'm Brooke Gladstone.