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[martinuzz]

In a nursing home in our town we lived in in iowa it was always a cat. There were no cats in the building, in anyones rooms, recorded on any camera in the halls, or reported by any of the staff or visitors, windows were kept closed etc. But they said there was a cat in their room with them.

"The Return of Schödinger's Cat II: I am not dead, you are". Would make a great B movie.

[Eric Blank]

That would be hilarious yeah

[Kagus]

In a nursing home in our town we lived in in iowa it was always a cat. There were no cats in the building, in anyones rooms, recorded on any camera in the halls, or reported by any of the staff or visitors, windows were kept closed etc. But they said there was a cat in their room with them.

"The Return of Schödinger's Cat II: I am not dead, you are". Would make a great B movie.

Especially if it had the same cover and box art as Shrödinger's Cat I, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference until you watched the movie.

[Robot Parade Leader]

That show Roseanne got canceled, cause she made a bigoted tweet.

Pro: Potentially less bigotry? I hope.

Con: All the people working behind the scenes, camera operators, sound techs, other actors, writers, everyone, is out of a job, because of something their boss said....

I don't know how to feel. I've worked for some bigoted jerks before; I didn't like it; they were just mean people all around too. There wasn't a damn thing I could do about it, because I had to make rent and food.... Actually I'm not sure what the other actors are contractually bound to, like not talking bad about the show no matter what, and what the penalties for that would be. I'd say her remarks were VERY BAD, and certainly NOT OK. Still, you'd hope the freaking camera operator wouldn't starve because of it. I have no idea what the right answer is here. This is just a terrible situation.

It's a bad thing (clearly). I don't have answers or know what to do. To be clear what she said was bigoted, not ok.

[Yoink]

...Better than M*A*S*H reruns? The hell are you smoking?

M*A*S*H is an outlier and should not be counted. Also unless you have it on dvd it might not be available.

It's always seemed like a mid-afternoon mainstay around here, whenever I've had reason to watch public broadcast telly for any period of time.

@Frumple: what's wrong with commercials? I mean, if you're watching something smack-bang in the middle of prime-time the ad breaks probably drag on unbearably long, but in little snack-sized chunks a lot of the ads can be mildly, or even (in extreme cases of pure advertising genius) moderately entertaining.   

And that's the thing: even the shittiest comedy anime isn't going to assault you ears with a laugh track

*snrk* Yeah, they'll only assault your ears with garbage dialogue and the horrible screeching of their voice actors.
If it's all the same to you I'll stick to laugh tracks - Seinfeld, at least (and presumably M*A*S*H since I can't even remember its laugh track), is an uncommon example of a bearable laugh track. I used to think I hated all shows with a laugh track, but then I watched shows that did it well. Laugh tracks should be phased out, not put to death - and scrubbing them out of existing shows leaves a bunch of awkward silences.   

[Lord Shonus]

In the case of M*A*S*H, you very likely never heard it with the laugh track. The laugh track was used only at the studio's insistence, and it was only used on domestic CBS broadcasts. The international syndicated version (which is almost certainly the one that a non-American would be familiar with) never used it. Unlike most examples, removing it doesn't leave an awkward pause, because the show was framed without it.

[Egan_BW]

I won't tolerate even mildly entertaining media if it's literally engineered to most efficiently plant memes in my head that will make me irrationally favor certain brands over others, causing the unnecessary expenditure of funds. And also making an embarrassing security hole of my mind.

[Yoink]

In the case of M*A*S*H, you very likely never heard it with the laugh track. The laugh track was used only at the studio's insistence, and it was only used on domestic CBS broadcasts. The international syndicated version (which is almost certainly the one that a non-American would be familiar with) never used it.

Huh! Now that's an interesting li'l nugget of trivia, I did not know that.
So you'd end up with recorded voices laughing away over actual dialogue? That sounds pretty awful, yikes.   

Edit:

I won't tolerate even mildly entertaining media if it's literally engineered to most efficiently plant memes in my head that will make me irrationally favor certain brands over others, causing the unnecessary expenditure of funds. And also making an embarrassing security hole of my mind.

I rarely buy any of the things I see in ads. Indeed, a piss-poor ad makes me far less likely to purchase the advertised product, indeed, I will regard it with disgust if it crosses my path in the supermarket or elsewhere. The only time an ad inspires me to buy something is if it is certified Comedy Gold and deserves a pat on the back... and even then, there's only a small chance the product is even relevant to me.

[Lord Shonus]

In the case of M*A*S*H, you very likely never heard it with the laugh track. The laugh track was used only at the studio's insistence, and it was only used on domestic CBS broadcasts. The international syndicated version (which is almost certainly the one that a non-American would be familiar with) never used it.

Huh! Now that's an interesting li'l nugget of trivia, I did not know that.
So you'd end up with recorded voices laughing away over actual dialogue? That sounds pretty awful, yikes.   

The producers were pretty good at avoiding that. It almost never intruded on a joke (although it would occasionally spoil the reaction dialogue a bit), and they used it as little as they could get away with. Even in Season 1, it was never used in the surgery scenes (the producers held adamant on that), and there were entire episodes where it was only used once or twice.

There was also some effort to deliberately fit space for the laugh track in. If you watch very closely, a lot of early episodes have the timing in the dialog ever so slightly off in a few places. Not enough to be noticeable if you're not paying attention, but they are there.

[Pancakes]

Man, it's been a while since I even thought of M*A*S*H, does it hold up?

[Lord Shonus]

As a comedy, it holds up fairly well.

As a drama?

You be the judge.



If anything, it is more relevant today than it was back then, thanks to Operation Bomb Useless Dirt. The old Vietnam War allegories (while set during the Korean War, it was pretty openly about Vietnam) are even more applicable to today than they were then.

[Baffler]

You might see some of the plots or character dynamics as a bit dated but it still holds up okay. It's still funny and it still manages to make you feel for the characters when it wants too, and like Lord Shonus says it even still manages to hold some of its anti-war commentaries up in the current year, although some of it is very directly Cold War related. All in all I'd say it shows its age, but gracefully.

[JoshuaFH]

I try to imagine what it's like on the surface of other planets, and when you see pictures and you're reminded that nearly every other planet is either a featureless wasteland like Mars or uninhabitable superhell like Venus, I'm slightly depressed that the universe besides us (that we know of) is totally lifeless. Just so much cool shit happening in the universe, but there's noone else to share it with. Come on cosmos, get your shit together.

[Egan_BW]

Either there's not a lot going on close to us, we're bad at looking, or everyone else is good at hiding. My bet is on a mixture of the latter two.
(With the understanding that by "close to us" I don't mean the solar system. Or really anything all that close by. Space is big.)

[bloop_bleep]

Either there's not a lot going on close to us, we're bad at looking, or everyone else is good at hiding. My bet is on a mixture of the latter two.
(With the understanding that by "close to us" I don't mean the solar system. Or really anything all that close by. Space is big.)

There might indeed still be life in our solar system, if not intelligent life. Europa in particular looks somewhat promising.