That's British TV. They make it work by averaging like 3 hours a year of programming to focus on quality. A single season of an American-style 3-wall sitcom has a longer runtime than most British sitcoms have in their entire run.

It's a live audience and a laugh track.

Yes, The majority of Friends was filmed in front of a live audience, with the exception of a few shots filmed on location here and there. I saw a recent interview with Lisa Kudrow where she talks about being frustrated on stage because of all the pauses for audience laughter, where the actors would have to pause and do some idle animation. That a television show taped before a live audience is expected to be different than a stage play.

I've also seen a "behind the scenes" video, I think as a special feature of the DVD releases, where they would swap out audience reactions. Because, for example, the take where Monica pops out from under the sheets with Chandler, revealing the two were sleeping together, the live audience went nuts for several solid minutes. For the broadcast version, they inserted an uproarious but brief cheer to keep the pacing up.

Compared to MASH or the Flintstones (!!?!), Friends' laugh track is a lot more genuine but it was at least somewhat engineered.

It's still a laugh track. The laughing is captured live, but presumably with a different microphone. They then mix the laugh track with the character's voices to get the levels they want.

I hate laugh tracks - but most of the show (as far as I can tell) is in front of a studio audience

So it was great in 2008 and now it's bad. Because?

because novelty is a significant factor for enjoyment of media, and influential projects lose that novelty when the formula gets dissected, cloned, and repeatedly beaten to death

Not what was being said at all but ok

If you're really into fast cars, and you've gone to like Speedways and driven state-of-the-art race cars and muscle cars and all that stuff, then you go and drive a Model T it ain't going to hit the same. You're not going to appreciate it because it's not really the thing you're into it's the thing what you're into evolved from. You can like it from a historical perspective, but it isn't going to give you the same thrill driving it as a car that can go 250 mph.

It's the same thing with a lot of visual mediums like television. Things that were groundbreaking and amazing in their day can still be enjoyed from historical context but don't always work for people who are fans of the modern product. Not I Love Lucy though that still works fine.

I saw it back then and didn't think it was funny. The laugh track felt forced and I found the characters obnoxious. Watching Friends felt like being around someone who thinks purposely misunderstanding things is funny, so they keep doing it, and people keep giving them pity laughs. Meanwhile, you have to just stand there and tolerate it, even though you're getting more and more irritated every time it happens.

It made me cringe in the 90s, and I'm not touching it with a 10-foot pole today.

I love parks and rec, because every character is interesting. The office has like 3 and a half good characters

I like how Steve Carell plays out Michael, and I enjoy Dwight as well. But the rest really is nothing special. The whole Jim and Pam story arc was more annoying than anything.

It is crazy how good Parcs & Rec is compared to the office.

What did you think of Brooklyn 99 then?

I'd also include season 1 in there. It was rough around the edges, but it was memorable for me.

Don't watch Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's purely cringe comedy with very little in the way of other humor. I personally like that style, and even I have to stick to a single episode in a sitting. There's something wrong with Larry David because he's said many episodes were based on things he really did.

Humans being stupid?

Yes, that's part of the point, like with Michael Scott being grossly underqualified for his job but landing it by accident and thus doing some unethical shit all the time. That's where this meme comes from.

Just like Seinfeld pivots on narcissistic and selfish people living in a terrible world who don't seem to grow from their experiences.

The cringe is the original point of the show. It's even very toned down in the US version compared to the UK one.

The original The Office is a very niche thing, definitely not for everyone, and i was always a bit surprised that the US remake got the success it got.

If you want to be deeply infuriated you should watch "Extras" which is the show Gervais and Merchant did after the Office. It's like a horror movie that's so terrifying you have to hit pause - except with cringe.

OMGF you would have hated Laverne and Shirley. When I was a small child mom had a diary entry of me saying it was hard to watch because I felt embarrassed for them. Stay far away from 70s TV my friend.

Bro, chill out, people are just discussing what they like and don't like. It's like a point of social media.

Brussels sprout hate is a funny take for us olds because they used to be bitter when I was a kid. Got sweeter and sweeter and we bred them along. They're a totally new vegetable now! (I got the joke BTW.)

Tbf no one likes Brussels sprouts /s

Never noticed before that even the abbreviation for the show is like a raspberry fart noise

That does not explain it at all, a "good" job?! It was like a 3000 sq feet apartment in new York, where they astronaut stripper day trading porn stars?!

Also many of the plot directions don't work if they have access to money (hell you did not even touch on Phoebe). I get that it was TV and they needed good shots but at least Fraser made some sense with it.