What is this silence that surrounds us? Can it be measured? Can it be heard? More importantly, is Roommates—the ABC Family sitcom that is basically a parody of a sitcom made real—filmed in a void?

I ran into an old episode of Hogan’s Heroes the other day that stuck me as odd. It didn’t have a laugh track. Ironically, the show was one where two pilots were shown, one with and one without a laugh ...