[Lew]

They did that with some of the later series of Red Dwarf. It still doesn't quite work as with a live audience the actors can time their lines to the audience. When they screen a pre-filmed episode to an audience they can sometimes laugh over the actors' lines. A case in point is the beginning of Psirens where the audience laughs over the punchline of one of the gags (where you're meant to think one of the characters' blood has splattered over the screen the audience laughs over the line "You've squeezed the ketchup out of my burger"; if it had been filmed live then the actor would have waited to deliver the punchline).