POP CULTURE Q&A Are we getting more ‘Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries’?
Question: Why did Netflix stop making “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” and will they start making more?
Answer: While Netflix has commissioned a lot of original series, it also carries programs acquired from other networks. That was the case with “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” made for Australian television by Every Cloud Productions from 2012-’15. Since the original series ended, fans have cried for more. Every Cloud ultimately launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to finance a theatrical film, “Miss Fisher & The Crypt of Tears.” The film should start production in the fall of 2018.
Q: Why must we be victims of hearing the same laugh track (canned laughter) over and over when the show we are watching would be much better without that constant interruption?
A: The laughter may be prerecorded, or from the show’s studio audience, or a combination of audience reaction and electronic effects “sweetening” the reaction. As Jennifer Keishin Armstrong wrote on BBC.com awhile back, producers often want “some sort of audience reaction to make the viewing experience more communal,” as could be had in a theater.
And just the right reaction, too. Armstrong noted that Charley Douglass, the sound engineer credited with the first use of prerecorded laughs, “hated that the studio audiences on the U.S. TV channels’ shows laughed at the wrong moments, didn’t laugh at the right moments or laughed too loudly or for too long.” Thus an electronic companion was born. Many producers, writers and actors have thought their work generated laughs just fine without help. “M*A*S*H” did regular battle over laugh tracks, and its DVDs have offered each episode with and without laughs. Still, some shows believe that if you laugh electronically, the world laughs with you.
Q: This has bugged me for a while. One of my favorite Westerns is “Cheyenne” with Clint Walker. On several episodes he sang. Was that really his voice or was it dubbed?
A: He sang well enough to record an album, “Inspiration,” that has made its way to CD with 13 tracks including “I Believe” and “Silver Bells.”