There is a lot that goes into filming a sitcom, and that holds true for the live audience. Take Friends for example, extras were discouraged from talking to the main cast and if they would, the directors would switch their places.
As for Seinfeld, they also had a particular process as we're going to reveal in the following. Larry David in particular had certain rules he wanted to follow as it related to an audience reaction. David rarely used a laugh track for the show, and did his best to avoid it. However, there were moments in which he had no choice but to edit the crowd noise. We'll reveal what those moments were, and why Larry David discouraged loud or lengthy cheering.
Seinfeld Rarely Used A Laugh Track But There Were Exceptions
Seinfeld had strict rules behind the scenes when it came to the laughter of the audience. Most would assume that scenes shot outside of the normal Seinfeld locations used a laugh track, however, this was not the case. According to Quora, Seinfeld would use the footage from the scenes in front of the live audience, and use their candid reactions for the show.
The Quora user writes, "The Seinfeld DVD set includes a notes about nothing feature found in the Extras section of the DVD. In addition to maintaining a count for the number of times that Kramer enters Jerry’s apartment, the feature also supplies information about each episode, and the guest actors appearing."
"The notes about nothing pop-ups explain that the laughs are all from the live studio audience. They managed this by pre-recording certain remote scenes, then during the night of the performance, played those scenes over the studio monitors for the live audience. So, there would be a scene in Jerry’s apartment, then a break in the live performance where the studio audience would watch the monitors for the pre-recorded segments, so that their real laughs would be included."
However, this doesn't mean a laugh track wasn't used throughout the series. There was a moment in particular that would cause edits behind the scenes, and it was heavily discouraged by Larry David.
Larry David Didn't Want The Audience To Cheer For Extended Periods Of Time Given The Amount Of Content In An Episode
Edits at times were made due to the audience's reaction. Particularly when Kramer came out, the live audience would give an extra loud cheer, which would also interfere with a certain line. In this event, a laugh track was used, or the audience's cheering was lowered.
Larry David advised the audience not to cheer for long stretches, particularly given how much dialogue was packed into an episode of Seinfeld.
The Quora user adds, "Larry David demanded that the audience not waste time by applauding, or cheering for people—especially Kramer—when they entered the scene for the first time. This is because Seinfeld had a lot more content than most other sitcoms. In order to get that extra needed time, he quashed the standard cheering when some has been guest star makes an appearance. And, it is likely that Larry did not waste words if the audience displeased him on this account."
It is entirely possible that a laugh track was used during other moments on the show, particularly when there were too many locations to keep up with. Nonetheless, Seinfeld did its best to keep things as organic as possible.
Jerry Seinfeld Revealed That If A Line Was Funny For Him And Larry David, That's All That Mattered
In terms of the thought around Seinfeld and writing aspect, if it was funny to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, in all likelihood that was good enough to make it onto the show.
Jerry revealed alongside Variety, “Larry and I were so good together, if we both thought something was funny, that was good enough for us. If it can get through those two filters, and we both think that’s funny, I wouldn’t even care if it wasn’t funny.”
Jason Alexander agreed that Jerry and Larry were pivotal towards the show's success, and that things changed when Larry left during season 7.
“Larry and Jerry were the parents of our show — they gave birth to this thing. And then Larry had gone off to explore other things, and the show sailed along beautifully under Jerry’s supervision, but there was always that feeling that we lost one of our creators."
"You have to understand that the ‘Seinfeld’ organization was a very unsentimental group in a lot of ways. It doesn’t mean we didn’t care about each other. We cared about each other, it just meant we didn’t hang out a lot together. So the fact that we were all back was very, very exciting.”
It all worked out in the end as Larry David returned for the Seinfeld finale.
