Obviously, things got better, but he was not laughing then, according to this TNG co-star.
Much like Star Trek: The Next Generation struggled to find its own voice during its first couple of seasons and get out of the shadow of Star Trek: The Original Series in the process, there were growing pains behind the scenes, too.
As it turns out, Patrick Stewart didn’t have much of a sense of humor, at least in the beginning. Why? Apparently, our beloved Captain Picard (Stewart) adhered to the motto “all work and no play” a bit too literally. Denise Crosby, who played Lt. Tasha Yar during TNG season 1 explained that she and many of her colleagues liked to blow of steam between takes. The actress also said Stewart didn't appreciate that behavior via TrekMovie.com:
“Between takes, it was a series of either Broadway show tunes or really bad dance moves or just loud commentary. And then we were right there when […] action was called and the scene would start. And there was one director who literally went to Rick Berman and just said, ‘I can’t, they are out of control. It is like nursery school in there. I can’t control them. They are nuts. They are laughing. It is screaming, it is chaos. You have got to go in there and just get these guys to calm down.’
Crosby continued:
"So, Rick Berman comes to the set and brings us all into Captain Picard’s little ready room, and sits us down and says, ‘Guys, guys, what in the—I’ve got the director complaining that… you’re unruly, he can’t direct you.’ And we were looking at each other, going, ‘You’re kidding. We got this.’ And I said, ‘Look, we’re here 15 hour days, 26 episodes a season. We’re just goofing off in between takes. You gotta have a little lightness here. We gotta have some fun.’ And that’s when Patrick turned to me, he said, ‘Fun? FUN? There’s no fun. I didn’t sign up for fun. You’re not being paid to have fun.'” (Continued...)