The it crowd is one of my absolute favorite shows. Maybe it will work better without a laugh track but there are a lot of British shows id rather have with a track than without the show in my life.
There's a lot of stuff filmed outside the studio though I'm certain they don't have a live audience for. The IT Crowd does use a laughter track a lot of the time.
Yeah, they film those parts before the live recording and then show them on a screen to the audience to get reaction audio, and also so the audience has context for later live scenes. It's a surprisingly involved process.
I can never get over how ahead of its time the IT crowd was. I just went back and watched a couple episodes and it still nails many things right on the head
I didn't like the IT Crowd but if you want something ahead of its time, track down Nathan Barley. It kind of foreshadows the rise of vlogging, memes and 'lad culture' but was released in 2005. Written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris.