COVER STORY : SHOW TIME : At television studios in the Valley, audiences get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how shows and their actors get the job done--gaffes, guffaws and all.

A lady in the back row wants to know Brett Butler’s reaction to making People magazine’s worst-dressed list.

“Oh,” Butler snaps, “they can bite me.”

The offhand exchange comes minutes before a taping of the comedienne’s ABC sitcom “Grace Under Fire.” She has climbed into the bleachers to chat with her studio audience. The conversation ranges from earthquakes to ex-husbands to the benefits of starring in a hit TV show.

“I got these,” she says, gesturing toward her recent and much-publicized breast implants. “They’re four-wheel drive.”

The audience applauds.

Over the next three hours, these people will watch the taping of an episode. They will see the machinations of lights and cameras, directors and actors. They will laugh at the scripted punch lines. But their response will be loudest when Butler slips out of character: when she talks with them or tosses an ad-lib their way. It is the same on the set of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” as Will Smith raps before taping. At the Walt Disney Studios, the crowd roars when Ellen DeGeneres dissolves into laughter during a serious scene.

“This is my second time to this show,” a man in the “Ellen” audience says. “I love it when she makes mistakes.”

Sitting in a studio audience is a uniquely Hollywood experience. It offers a side of television that most of America never sees--the quips and gaffes made for recounting to co-workers around the water cooler or the family back in Iowa. And it is free.

So the waiting list to see the top-rated “Home Improvement” stretches into December, 1995. Other programs have shorter waits but, on the day of the show, people stand in line for hours to get the best seats.

With the new TV season in full swing, and production sets located from Burbank to Agoura, the San Fernando Valley offers dozens of sitcoms and talk shows. A sampling of these programs suggests that each one provides a slightly different brand of entertainment.

“THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR”

Will Smith’s grinning face flickers on television monitors suspended above the audience.

“Welcome to Willy’s playhouse,” he says. “Here we have actors who very rarely say their lines right and I’m going to lead the pack.”

Errors from previous tapings are replayed. They set the mood for this loose and friendly set. Smith arrives in person a few minutes later, climbing over the railing to get to the people.

“Are you ready to party?” he shouts. “Where’s my party section?”

The audience numbers 285, which is average for a sitcom. Some are tourists hungry for a taste of celebrity. Some are locals wanting a behind-the-scenes look at their favorite program. Once the taping begins, they wait through a fair amount of inaction--camera adjustments, set and wardrobe changes. Some scenes are repeated. And some of the sets are out of view, forcing the crowd to watch on monitors.

But Smith and his co-stars keep the evening interesting by turning their attention to the people. Alfonso Ribeiro, who plays Carlton, offers a Michael Jackson impersonation. James Avery, the father on the NBC show, dances ballroom-style. Even the production executives tap their feet to music that thrums over loudspeakers.

And when someone in the audience breaks out in a song between takes, Smith dances along on the set.

“I’m backing you up,” he tells the singer. “I’m here for you.”

“ELLEN”

Television producers insist that it is vital to keep the audience enthusiastic and happy. That is why they employ stand-up comedians to work between takes. The actors want a lively crowd, too. They say it energizes them.

“How are you guys holding up out there?” Ellen DeGeneres asks, squinting to see past the bright lights.

The filming of her ABC show, “Ellen,” has stretched past three hours and the sound stage feels only slightly warmer than a Minnesota winter day. The people cheer all the same.

DeGeneres does not pay as much attention to the crowd as do Smith and his cohorts. But she ad-libs from one take to the next. Each repeated scene brings the possibility of a surprise laugh.

The studio audience inspires such modifications, says Tom Cherones, the show’s director. During the first take, he says, both cast and crew listen for a response.

“It gives the actors the correct timing if the joke is working,” Cherones says. “And if it’s not working, Ellen will try something else or the writers will quickly come up with a new line for the second take.”

Says Mike Hernandez, who has brought his girlfriend, Ilene Vasquez, to see the show: “I like the little funny stuff she does. I like the modifications.”

“HANGIN’ WITH MR. COOPER”

Some producers go to great lengths to keep the audience buzzing. “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” is one of several shows, including Fox’s “Martin” and “Living Single,” that offer a comedian and a disc jockey.

Danno Metoyer spins records from a booth in the corner of the bleachers. The fans, young and boisterous, have come to see stars Mark Curry and Holly Robinson but Metoyer knows how to grab their attention.

He blasts 69 Boyz’ “Tootsee Roll” over the loudspeakers and the kids jump from their seats to dance.

“At a wedding or a club, you have to sustain the energy for hours,” Metoyer says. “Here, you hit ‘em. You snap ‘em. It is like an electric shock, like those things they use when you have a heart attack.”

The crowd’s enthusiasm is infectious and nearly as entertaining as the show itself. Warm-up comedian Lewis Dix chimes in.

“Relax,” he shouts. “You’re like an out-of-control Tupperware party.”

But when Curry steps in front of the camera, everyone hushes. His ABC sitcom is funny and fast, even with repeated takes. And the audience gets some real-life drama: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Rodney Peete walks onto the set and, on bended knee, proposes to Robinson.

“Yes,” the actress shouts.

It is the sort of thing audience members can tell their friends the next day. It is the reason they have taken the trouble to attend.

And Metoyer promptly spins a romantic tune on the turntable.

“LATER WITH GREG KINNEAR”

Garnsey Sloan is making her second visit to “Later With Greg Kinnear” at the NBC Studios in Burbank.

“I’m going to keep coming here until I get him to call my girlfriend in Philadelphia,” she explains.

That friend, Karin, visited Los Angeles several months ago and got tickets to see Kinnear on a night when the taping was unexpectedly canceled. So Sloan pursues a personal quest. And when Kinnear pays his usual visit to the audience, answering questions before the show, she makes her plea.

“You want me to call somebody?” Kinnear asks.

The talk show host agrees. Sloan scampers onstage to sit at his desk as he dials. But they get an answering machine.

“This is exciting,” Kinnear quips to the crowd. “Isn’t it?”

Actually, “Later” is a blur of activity compared to other shows. After Kinnear’s visit, warm-up comedian Bob Perlow works the crowd into a lather. The ensuing half-hour program runs straight through with no repeats. The commercial breaks are filled with blistering rock music.

“With a show like this,” Perlow says, “they want to hear the excitement.”

Judging purely by decibel level, that excitement comes through loud and clear. Sloan, however, remains unfulfilled.

“I’m going to keep coming back until he gets through.”

“BLUE SKIES”

Some sitcoms tape each episode twice, once in the afternoon and again at night. “Blue Skies” is one of those shows.

Afternoon tapings draw smaller audiences, says Steve Sheets, a guest relations coordinator for Audiences Unlimited, a company that distributes tickets for most of the television shows in Los Angeles.

“If someone is from out of town, the afternoon is a better time to see a show,” Sheets says. “It’s easier to get in.”

For the early version of “Blue Skies,” a new entry in ABC’s fall lineup, Audiences Unlimited has enlisted a busload of Marines from Camp Pendleton to fill the bleachers.

“Personally, I’ve never seen this show,” said Lance Cpl. Matthew Landvatter. “But it sounded like a good idea.”

Afternoons pale in comparison to evenings, the sitcom’s producers say. The actors treat the session as a dress rehearsal. There are differences in the crowd, too.

“It’s more of a tourist attraction in the afternoon,” said John Peaslee, the executive producer. “In the evening, they come to see a show. They get the jokes faster.”

It is up to the warm-up comic to inspire. He pleads. He offers $20 to whoever claps loudest. He glares at row after row of military men.

“Did you guys think this was ‘Major Dad’?”

“DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN”

This set, located at the public-owned Paramount Ranch, offers fresh air and no waiting in line.

“It’s a wonderful place to be able to work, in the unspoiled wilderness of the Santa Monica Mountains,” Jane Seymour, the show’s star, recently told The Times.

But catching a glimpse of the filming is a hit-and-miss proposition.

Paramount Pictures first opened the ranch in 1926, building a colonial Salem village, a historic San Francisco set and an old German village across 436 acres. In 1952, the studio destroyed the sets and sold the property to a private owner who constructed a Western town for his own amusement. Producers soon returned to film television Westerns such as “The Cisco Kid” and “Bat Masterson” at the site.

In 1980, the National Park Service acquired the land, making it public property, but producers continued to come. CBS’ “Dr. Quinn” uses both the Western town and several adjacent sound stages.

“You can watch, but only sometimes,” explains Katherine Saunders, a spokeswoman for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “It depends on whether they are filming indoors or outdoors.”

The park’s visitor center keeps track of the production schedule but not which type of scenes will be filmed on a given day. When the action strays outdoors, onlookers can stand within earshot to watch both spoken scenes and horse riding. Rangers offer tips on the best vantage point.

However, guards are on hand to keep visitors from getting too close and from taking pictures or asking for autographs.

“GRACE UNDER FIRE”

Fans are not the only ones who crave interaction.

On the set of “Grace Under Fire,” Butler says the studio audience’s laughter amounts to a payoff after a week of rewrites and rehearsals. And laughter is not the only thing she listens for.

“There are the non-sounds, the times when we do something serious and you can hear a pin drop in here,” she says. “As a comedienne, I never heard that.”

The actors on this show commiserate with the audience between takes. Co-star Julie White, who plays Nadine, laments about a plumbing problem. She wants to know if there is a plumber in the crowd. Butler, like other sitcom actors who started in stand-up comedy, likes even closer contact.

That is why she wanders into the bleachers. She recalls a recent taping that came on the heels of a troubling story about her in a tabloid.

“Somebody asked me about it in a real nice way and I got to say something funny about it,” she says. “I know this sounds corny . . . it just feels like some authentic way to bond.”

Valley Productions

* CBS Studio Center, 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City

“Grace Under Fire,” “Dave’s World,” “Double Rush,” “Hardball,” “Hearts Afire,” “Love & War,” “Roseanne,” “Seinfeld.”

* NBC Studios, 3000 W. Alameda Blvd., Burbank

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Friday Night Videos,” “Later With Greg Kinnear,” “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

* Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City

“Blue Skies,” “Coach,” “Martin,” “The Suzanne Somers Show.”

* Walt Disney Studios, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank

“Ellen,” “All-American Girl,” “Boy Meets World,” “Home Improvement,” “Thunder Alley.”

* Warner Bros. Studios, 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank

“Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” “Family Matters,” “Friends,” “Full House,” “Living Single” (at Warner Ranch), “Murphy Brown,” “Something Wilder,” “Step by Step,” “The George Carlin Show,” “The Ties That Bind.”

* Paramount Ranch, Paramount Ranch Road, Agoura

“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

Tickets available through Audiences Unlimited, (818) 506-0067, unless otherwise listed:

* for “Ellen” and “Martin,” call (213) 956-5575.

* for NBC Studios shows, call (818) 840-3537.

* for “Seinfeld,” call (310) 795-5254.

* for “The Suzanne Somers Show,” call (818) 777-3959.

Some shows enforce a minimum age and prohibit cameras.