Here’s a profile of laugh-track maestro/audio engineer Carroll Pratt working his magic on a decidedly unfunny scene from a show called “Webster” in 1983. Pratt added canned laughter to TV shows using a custom ‘laff box’  which he designed and built. He began doing ‘laugh sweetening’ in the late 1950s with Charley Douglass, developer of the original ‘laff box’ sound effects device. By the 1980s Pratt’s company was providing prerecorded laughter for about 80% of all sitcoms on TV in the U.S. Watching the laugh-free scene take on a life with the addition of the fake laughter really is quite fascinating, though in a way its more like watching an interesting medical experiment than the crafting of a creative work. Then again, who can begrudge an honest technical craftsman the work? Especially if the show–like ‘Webster’–isn’t in need of sweetening, but in fact needs a blood transfusion to stay alive…