Scrapheap Challenge events. Examples of challenges included making a jet car, a bridging machine, a car-crusher, and a machine to fling a British Leyland Mini as far as possible. Assistant producer Eve Kay had the idea for the show after watching a scene in the movie "Apollo 13", where NASA engineers had only a short period of time to construct a carbon dioxide filter out of parts available on the space capsule. The show also draws its inspiration from the 1980s TV series "The Great Egg Race". The UK show was originally presented by Robert Llewellyn, joined in series 2-4 by producer
Sitcom The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. During filming productions, the laugh track is usually prerecorded. The terms "situational comedy" or "sitcom" were not commonly used until the 1950s. There were prior examples on radio, but the first television sitcom is said to be "Pinwright's Progress", ten episodes being broadcast on the BBC in the United Kingdom between 1946 and 1947. In the United States, director and producer William Asher has been credited with being the "man who invented the sitcom", having directed over two dozen of the