I didn't love my brief time in SoCal, but one thing I did which I really enjoyed which you can't do most other places is to go see a sitcom recorded live. I don't know how many are filmed in front of a studio audience these days, but some are. The one I went to see was Just Shoot Me, which wasn't the best show of all times but certainly wasn't the worst either. Can't go all that wrong with George Segal.
Anyway, the point isn't that sitcoms are awesome, the point is that seeing one being filmed live is actually pretty fascinating. It probably takes 3 hours plus to get 22 minutes in the can. The filming session I saw ran too long and they eventually kicked us out. There's an emcee/comedian and a house band to try to keep the audience energy level up. They do want you to laugh. It is a live theater production, but they do multiple takes for various reasons (including casts flubs of course). If a joke falls flat, the writers try to come up with a new one and they see how well that works. Just an interesting process.
