Editing Laugh track (section)

===Charley Douglass and the mysterious "laff box"===
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Douglass had a monopoly on the expensive and painstaking laugh business.<ref name="Washpost"/> By 1960, nearly every [[prime time]] show in the U.S. was sweetened by Douglass. When it came time to "lay in the laughs", the producer directed Douglass where and when to insert the type of laugh requested.<ref name="Hobson"/> Inevitably, disagreements arose between Douglass and the producer, but the producer had final say.<ref name="Hobson"/> After taking his directive, Douglass went to work at creating the audience, out of sight from the producer or anyone else present at the studio.<ref name="Hobson"/>

Critic Dick Hobson commented in a July 1966 ''[[TV Guide]]'' article that the Douglass family were "the only laugh game in town."<ref name="Hobson">{{cite news |first=Dick |last=Hobson |title=The Hollywood Sphinx and his Laff Box |work=TV Guide |date=July 2, 1966}}</ref> Very few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass using his invention, as he was notoriously secretive about his work,<ref name=benglenn>{{cite web | last = Sacks| first = Mike| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2010/07/20/canned-laughter-ben-glenn-ii-television-historian/ | title=Canned Laughter: Ben Glenn II, Television Historian | publisher=The Paris Review | date = 2010-07-20| access-date=2015-07-31}}</ref> and was one of the most talked-about men in the television industry.<ref name="Iverson"/>

Douglass formed Northridge Electronics in August 1960, named after the [[Northridge, Los Angeles|Los Angeles suburb]] in the [[San Fernando Valley]] where the Douglass family resided and operated their business in a padlocked garage.<ref name="Hobson"/> When their services were needed, they wheeled the device into the editing room, plugged it in, and went to work.<ref name="Hobson"/> Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production.<ref name="Washpost">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A27715-2003Apr23¬Found=true |date=April 24, 2003 |page=B06 |title=Charles Douglass, 93; Gave TV Its Laugh Track |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The technological advancements pioneered by Douglass closely resembled those found in musical instruments such as the [[Chamberlin|Chamberlain Music Master]] and [[Mellotron]].<ref>{{cite news |first = Justin | last = Beckner | title = The Story Behind The Laff Box, a Weird 'Instrument' That Has Changed Television Forever | work= [[Ultimate Guitar]] | date = March 15, 2023 | url = https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/the_story_behind_the_laff_box_a_weird_instrument_that_has_changed_television_forever-145769 |access-date = December 3, 2023}}</ref> His sophisticated one-of-a-kind device&nbsp;– affectionately known in the industry as the "laff box"&nbsp;– was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ.<ref name="Hobson"/> Douglass used a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter to select the corresponding style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the machine was a wide array of recorded chuckles, yocks and belly laughs: 320 laughs on 32 [[tape loops]], ten to a loop. Each loop contained up to ten individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up.<ref name="Hobson"/> Since the tapes were looped, laughs were played in the same order repeatedly. Sound engineers could watch sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were viewing an episode for the first time. Douglass frequently combined different laughs, either long or short in length. Attentive viewers could spot when he decided to mix chuckles together to give the effect of a more diverse audience.<ref name="Iverson"/> Rather than being simple recordings of a laughing audience, Douglass's laughs were carefully generated and mixed, giving some laughs detailed identities such as "the guy who gets the joke early" and "housewife giggles" and "the one who didn't get the joke but is laughing anyway" all blended and layered to create the illusion of a real audience responding to the show in question. A man's deep laugh would be switched for a new woman's laugh, or a high-pitched woman's giggle would be replaced with a man's snicker.<ref name="Iverson"/> One producer noticed a recurrent laugh of a woman whom he called "the jungle lady" because of her high-pitched shriek. After regularly complaining to Douglass, the laugh was retired from the regular lineup.<ref name="Hobson"/>

There was also a 30-second "titter" track in the loop, which consisted of individual people laughing quietly. This "titter" track was used to quiet down a laugh and was always playing in the background. When Douglass inserted a hearty laugh, he increased the volume of the titter track to smooth out the final mix. This titter track was expanded to 45 seconds in 1967, later to 60 seconds in 1970, and received overhauls in 1964, 1967, 1970, and 1976. Douglass kept recordings fresh, making minor changes every few months, believing that the viewing audience evolved over time.<ref name="Hobson"/> Douglass also had an array of audience clapping, "oohs" and "ahhhs," as well as people moving in their seats (which many producers insisted be constantly audible).<ref name="Hobson"/>

Only immediate members of the family knew what the inside of the device looked like<ref name="Hobson"/> (at one time, the "laff box" was called "the most sought after but well-concealed box in the world").<ref name="Iverson"/> More than one member of the Douglass family was involved in the editing process, and each reacted to a joke differently. Charley Douglass was the most conservative of all, so producers often put in bids for Charley's son Bob, who was more liberal in his choice of laughter.<ref name="Hobson"/> Subtle textural changes could have enormous consequences for the ethical situation suggested by a laugh track.<ref>McCarthy, David. "Textured Voices and the Performance of Ethical Life in the Case of the Laff Box (1966)." ''Twentieth-Century Music'' 13, no. 1 (March 2016): 109–137.</ref>
Douglass knew his material well, as he had compiled it himself. He had dozens of reactions, and he knew where to find each one. Douglass regularly slightly sped up the laughter to heighten the effect. His work was well appreciated by many in the television industry.<ref name=benglenn/> Over the years, Douglass added new recordings and revived old ones that had been retired and then retired the newer tracks. Laughter heard in sitcoms of the early 1960s resurfaced years later in the late 1970s. Especially starting in the 1970s, Douglass started alternating the updated laugh track with an older laugh track and even sometimes combined the two together.<ref name=benglenn/> Up to 40 different laugh clips could be combined and layered at one time, creating the effect of a larger, louder reaction when in fact the same laughs were later heard individually.<ref name=long/> As the [[civil rights movement]] gained momentum, Douglass also started making his laugh track more diverse, including examples of laughter of people from other cultures, whose sounds were noticeably different from white Americans.<ref name=long>{{cite news |first = Starre | last = Vartan | title = The long, strange history of the laugh track |work=[[Mother Nature Network]] | date = March 31, 2015 | url = http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/the-long-strange-history-of-the-laugh-track |access-date = July 14, 2015}}</ref>

Douglass's "laff box" was purchased, unseen, at auction in 2010 when its owner failed to pay rent on the storage locker where it was housed. It was later discussed, and demonstrated in a June 2010 episode of ''[[Antiques Roadshow (U.S.)|Antiques Roadshow]]'' from San Diego, California, where its value was appraised at $10,000.<ref>{{cite video |date=2010-06-12 |title=Antique's Roadshow: 1953 Charlie Douglass "Laff Box" |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/201001A13.html |format=flash |publisher=WGBH Boston |location=Boston, USA |access-date=2011-02-09}}</ref>