1 CAMERA, NO STUDIO AUDIENCE, MORE WORK - AND PLENTY OF LAUGHS FOR NEW TV COMEDIES.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

On Paramount Studios' Stage 17, there's a dinner-table scene being filmed for ``Everybody Hates Chris,'' UPN's new hit half-hour comedy on Thursdays.

The mom is at one end of the table, the dad at the other, and the kids are along the sides - much like you'd see in any American home.

This more natural way of working is one of the beauties of single-camera comedy - shot like a movie or a drama series on a film set with no audience and (thank you!) no laugh track. It is a technique that has met with mixed success in the past (``Malcolm in the Middle'' and ``The Wonder Years,'' yes, ``Action,'' no), but it seems to have arrived in force this season with such critical and ratings hits as ``Chris,'' ``My Name Is Earl,'' ``The Office'' and ``Kitchen Confidential.''

But shooting a single-camera comedy means more adjustments than how you arrange the dinner table.

The scene being filmed for ``Everybody Hates Chris'' is shot multiple times with the camera situated at all four sides of the table. Everyone in this scene - Tichina Arnold as no- nonsense mom Rochelle, Terry Crews as dad Julius, Tyler James Williams as Chris, and Tequan Richmond and Imani Hakim as siblings Drew and Tonya - has lines, and each actor needs to be seen reacting to the others.

There are moments worthy of laughter, particularly the voice-over lines fed by a stand-in that will be recorded later by series creator Chris Rock and the frustrated mutterings of Julius. But as long as that red light is on, the set is whisper quiet.

``One of, I guess, the downsides to it is you don't get any immediate gratification,'' Crews says later. ``You just have to believe in the joke. You have to just ... say it. And then what happens is the crew has heard it, and they might have giggled, and then you do it again and you do it again and then nobody's laughing. And then you're like, 'Is this joke working? Is this OK?' But then, when you see it all together, and you see it all cut, you're like, 'Yeah!' ''

Arnold, who worked in the live-audience, multicamera format on ``One on One'' and ``Listen Up,'' notes that single-camera filming makes for much longer days, especially on a series that must accommodate children's work limits, meaning the adults are often first in, last out. But she appreciates the opportunities for retakes, close-ups and reaction shots.

``The only thing I don't like about single camera is that you've got to trust the editors,'' she says with a laugh. ``And that's not taking anything away from them, because we have wonderful editors on our show, thank God. But with a single camera, you know it's got to be pieced together.''

Rock and co-creator Ali LeRoi decided to pitch the show (first to Fox before UPN snapped it up) as a single-camera production to vary the settings, incorporate Rock's reflections on his youth in narration - and let the home audience do what comes naturally.

``We try to have our characters say things that are funny in context, and the trust is that the people who know what the contexts are will find them funny,'' LeRoi said. ``And they're at home laughing when they think something is funny. They don't need to be told, you know, 'Here's where you're supposed to laugh, you idiot, go!' ''

Director Linda Mendoza has worked both comedy formats, including several episodes of Fox's single-camera ``Bernie Mac Show.''

``The thing about the single-camera stuff is it allows the audience to feel like they're in the scene with the performer. It's more intimate. You're able to get into almost their real environment, whereas the multicamera stuff, you're forced to play that proscenium, if you will, so everything's kind of long lens, everything's compressed, and you feel like you're watching it from the outside.''

For a freshman series, the ``Chris'' set appears to be a remarkably well-oiled machine. There are no lengthy idle times because everyone is mindful that delivering the show within its estimated $1.2 million-per-episode budget is vital to its success. The cost is well above that of a routine multicamera show because the full crew works 12 hours a day for five days, not just a few hours on block and tape days.

The newest term among TV comedy producers is ``hybrid,'' describing a series like Fox's ``The War at Home,'' which aims for the best of both, with the affordability and audience reaction of a multicamera show and the flexibility of film-set inserts.

TV critics have spilled a lot of ink in the past couple of years about the death - or at least morbidity - of television comedy. Looking at the lackluster performance of NBC's ``Joey'' and the much warmer embrace viewers are giving to the network's ``My Name Is Earl,'' one might conclude that filmed comedies are coming back big time.

``I think people are trying to find the bones of comedy. People keep writing about 'What happened to the comedy?' '' says Bonnie Somerville, who plays Mimi, the nemesis to chef Jack (Bradley Cooper), on ``Kitchen Confidential.'' ``I think it'll be back. I think we just got oversaturated with a joke a second, a joke a second, a joke a second.''

Cable channels have for a while championed single-camera shows with such successes on HBO as ``The Larry Sanders Show,'' ``Sex and the City'' and ``Curb Your Enthusiasm.'' Add to that HBO's ``Entourage,'' ``The Comeback'' and ``Extras''; ``Fat Actress'' and ``Weeds'' on Showtime; and FX's ``Starved'' and ``It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''; and it becomes clear that single-camera comedies are growing in acceptance. Plus, one of last year's big success stories, ``Desperate Housewives,'' got an Emmy nomination as a comedy, meaning boundaries are changing.

Craig Erwich, executive vice president of programming at Fox, says his network seems to attract single-camera projects because of its long track record with them, from ``Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' to ``Arrested Development.'' ``I don't think we even think of it as a separate form anymore. It's part of the fabric of the comedy television landscape.''

He sees TV comedy as a fairly healthy genre, noting that all those death-knell stories were coming out while ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' was still on, while ``Will & Grace'' was strong, and while ``Bernie'' and ``Malcolm'' enjoyed loyal audiences.

``At the same time, I think even the staunchest defenders of comedy would have to acknowledge that there has been some staleness to the form. And whether that's about form or content, I don't really know,'' Erwich said.

He says some writers may be more inclined to submit single-camera pitches now that executives and viewers have warmed up to them.

``I don't think it'll get less - that's for sure,'' Erwich said. ``That doesn't mean that more of those shows are going to get on the air. It's still about what's good and what's not. No network is turning down a great multicamera show.''

LeRoi, Rock's production partner, says the appetite of the media beast is a significant factor in which programs succeed or fail.

``The thing about multicamera comedy is there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. There were only ever so many good shows. But what's happened in the last 20 years is there's been a proliferation of networks, so now you've got 57 channels and there's nothing on, so everybody's trying to do something.

``Comedy didn't get bad. You're just showing more of the stuff that never would have gotten on in the first place.''

Writer-producer Darren Star's success with the filmed show ``Sex and the City'' for HBO no doubt paved the way for Fox greenlighting his latest, ``Kitchen Confidential.''

``I think that it's always tough to make good comedies,'' Star said. ``You know, to be able to get away with doing single-camera film comedies without laugh tracks is fantastic. A number of years ago, nobody wanted to do it. I think networks are trying more sophisticated shows, and I think that's all to the audience's benefit.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- cover) Quiet on the set

TV sitcoms ditch the laugh track, move in closer, for a more realistic look

(4) Family members are seated around the dinner table, a more naturalistic arrangement, on the set of ``Everybody Hates Chris,'' one of several sitcoms being shot with a single camera.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(5) ``We try to have our characters say things that are funny in context,'' says co-creator/executive producer Ali LeRoi, with ``Everybody Hates Chris'' actress Tichina Arnold.

(6) Terry Crews

``Everybody Hates Chris''