In an era where NBC is struggling to find a comedy brand to call their own after critically acclaimed series like “Parks and Recreation” and “30 Rock” left the airwaves, “The Carmichael Show” was a surprise last summer.
Airing its initial run of six episodes across a three week period, NBC saw there was an audience that enjoyed Jerrod Carmichael’s commentary on issues like gun control, the “Black Lives Matter” movement and most recently, people’s stances on Bill Cosby. The show frequently invokes dialogue without necessarily gratifying or insulting the audience’s opinions.
Taped in front of a live studio audience, the laughter people hear on the show is genuine as opposed to a laugh track. The multi-camera sitcom genre has received a lot of criticism from people as they supposedly believe that the laughter they hear is fake, but everything you hear and see on The Carmichael Show is very real.
Filmed at stage 20 of Fox Studios, an audience of 300 people is able to enter a taping of the show in Los Angeles. Inside stage 20, viewers can see the sets of The Carmichael Show that will be used throughout the episode and comedian Lewis Dix warms up the crowd with his stand up. At first, the audience is treated to a commercial free episode of the show to make those who are not familiar with the series to get comfortable. After that, Dix introduces the cast members that will be featured in the episode that is about to be taped, and throws it over to the house DJ to play music for the crowd.
The Carmichael Show is a great experience to see what it takes to do a multi-camera production. The tickets are free on the On Camera Audience website, and will be available until late April. Right now, The Carmichael Show is one of the highest-rated comedies NBC currently has. The show’s success makes it likely that it will run for a third season. The Carmichael Show is a very intelligent comedy, which tackles what is going on in popular culture in a well-crafted way that only the writing staff and Carmichael himself could do.
The entire taping takes about four hours from start to finish. The crew members on set have four different cameras; all used to get different shot angles to help in the editing room. Actors will improvise their lines frequently, trying to see what works best for the home audience. Improvisation includes making jokes to the cast members when they forget their lines or poking fun at the director when they need to get another take. No matter what goes on, the audience is always entertained.
In between takes, Dix will walk around where the audience is sitting to interact with people coming from out of town to visit or tell some of his stories from his own observations in life – very similar to what Jerrod Carmichael does. While my family and I were there, a group of students from Savannah, Georgia offered to sing in front of the entire audience. People enjoyed the rhythm of the song and Dix and comedian David Alan Grier – who plays the Carmichael siblings’ father on the show – offered their praises to the two lead women of the group. It was very fun and there were a couple of times where the audience could not stop laughing, which help lead into the jokes for the show.