Most nights in my early teens I would lay awake in my room too anxious to fall asleep.

As a way of trying to shut out the imagery in my head I would focus on certain points in the room; the corner to the left of the closet, the center of the ceiling, the edge of the open door.

On nights that seemed worse than others, my dad would let me lay on the couch in the living room and watch reruns of M*A*S*H with him.

Usually, I would lay there with my head hanging off of the edge of the couch listening to the recorded laughing coming from the periphery of the intended view of each scene, staring at his face looking at the thing, a blue light sort of flickering in and out around his glasses.

My mom would clear her throat in the other room.

Over a decade later and it is still difficult for me to fall asleep without blue light and intermittent electronic laughter.

* * * * * * *

(Re Charles Douglass' "laff box")

"The one-of-a-kind device -- affectionately known in the industry as the "laff box" -- was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ. Only immediate members of the family knew what the inside actually looked like (at one time, the "laff box" was called "the most sought after but well-concealed box in the world"). Since more than one member of the Douglass family was involved in the editing process, it was natural for one member to react differently to a joke than another. Charley himself was the most conservative of all, so producers would put in bids for other editors who were more liberal in their choice of laughter. Douglass used a keyboard to select the style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a foot pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the machine was a wide array of recorded chuckles, yocks, and belly laughs; exactly 320 laughs on 32 tape loops, 10 to a loop. Each loop contained 10 individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up. Since the tapes were looped, laughs were played in the same order repeatedly. Sound engineers would watch sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were viewing an episode for the first time. Frequently, Douglass would combine 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."

"The modern equivalent of the laff box is a digital device approximately the size of a laptop computer which contains hundreds of human sounds."


Hogan's Heroes
Broadcasted from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971
Network: CBS
No. of episodes: 168













"Network research suggested that the laugh track was required in order to brand a single-camera show as a comedy. The experiment to see if a comedy fared better with a laugh track was tested in 1965 when CBS showed its new single-camera sitcom Hogan's Heroes to test audiences in two versions: one with the laugh track, the other without. Partly due to the somewhat cerebral nature of the show's humor, the version without the laugh track failed while the version with laughter succeeded. The show was broadcast with the laugh track, and CBS utilized a laugh track for all comedies afterwards."

Bewitched

Broadcasted from September 17, 1964 to March 25, 1972
Network: ABC
No. of Episodes: 254

"Sol Saks, who received credit as the creator of the show, wrote the pilot of Bewitched though he was not involved with the show after the pilot. Creator Saks, executive producer Harry Ackerman, and director William Asher started filming the pilot on November 22, 1963; it coincided with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Asher felt personally affected by the event as he knew Kennedy, he had produced the 1962 televised birthday party where Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday, Mr. President. But the show had to go on. The pilot concerned "the occult destabilization of the conformist life of an upworldly mobile advertising man". 

The Munsters
Broadcasted from September 24, 1964, to May 12, 1966
Network: CBS
No. of episodes: 70

The Beverly Hillbillies
Broadcasted from September 26, 1962 to March 23, 1971
Network: CBS
No. of episodes: 274

"The ninth season during the 1970–71 television season placed 33rd out of 96 shows. Despite the respectable ratings, the show was cancelled in the spring of 1971 after 274 episodes. The CBS network, prompted by pressure from advertisers seeking a more sophisticated urban audience, decided to refocus its schedule on several "hip" new urban-themed shows and, to make room for them, all of CBS's rural-themed comedies were simultaneously cancelled. This action came to be known as "the Rural Purge". Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney on Green Acres, famously remarked, "It was the year CBS killed everything with a tree in it."

The Andy Griffith Show
Broadcasted from October 3, 1960 to April 1, 1968
Network: CBS
No. of episodes: 249

In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Andy Griffith Show #15 on their list of the 60 Greatest Shows of All Time.

The Brady Bunch
Broadcasted from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974
Network: ABC
No. of episodes: 117

M*A*S*H
Broadcasted from September 17, 1972, to February 28, 1983
Network: CBS
No. of episodes: 256

The opening//ending theme to the show is a song called "suicide is painless".

I Love Lucy
Broadcasted from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957
Network: CBS
No. of episodes: 181

I love Lucy and she loves me.
We're as happy as two can be.
Sometimes we quarrel but then
How we love making up again.
Lucy kisses like no one can.
She's my missus and I'm her man,
And life is heaven you see,'Cause I love Lucy, 
Yes I love Lucy, and Lucy loves me!

The Flintstones
Broadcasted from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966
Network: ABC
No. of episodes: 167

"The first two seasons were co-sponsored by Winston Cigarettes and the characters appeared in several black and white television commercials for Winston (dictated by the custom, at that time, that the star(s) of a TV series often "pitched" their sponsor's product in an "integrated commercial" at the end of the episode."

The Muppet Show
Broadcasted from September 5, 1976 to March 15, 1981
Network: syndicated broadcast
No. of episodes: 120

A guest star never appeared twice on the muppet show.

The Odd Couple (first season only)
Broadcasted from September 24, 1970, to March 7, 1975
Network: ABC
No. of episodes: 114

Roseanne
Broadcasted from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997
Network: ABC
No. of episodes: 222

Seinfeld
Broadcasted from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998. 
Network: NBC
No. of episodes: 180

"As a body, the lexicon of Seinfeldian code words and recurring phrases that evolved around particular episodes is referred to as Seinlanguage."



Frasier
Broadcasted from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004
Network: NBC
No. of episodes: 264

Moose, the dog who played Eddie, received more fan mail than any other actor on the show.

Friends
Broadcasted from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004
Network: NBC
No. of episodes: 236

"Although the producers thought of Friends as "only a TV show", numerous psychologists investigated the cultural impact of Friendsduring the series' run. Aniston's hairstyle was nicknamed "The Rachel", and copied around the world. Joey's catchphrase, "How you doin'?", became a popular part of Western English slang, often used as a pick-up line or when greeting friends. The series also influenced the English language, according to a study by the University of Toronto that found that the characters used the emphasized word "so" to modify adjectives more often than any other intensifier. Although the preference had already made its way into the American vernacular, usage on the series may have accelerated the change. Perry's habit of ending a sentence unfinished for sarcasm also influenced viewers' speech. Following the September 11 attacks, ratings increased 17% over the previous season."