...the thing about Wikipedia is you can decide for yourself how truthful/accurate an entry is by judicious use of the References and External Links at the bottom of the page.
As for plans to make a film, they did go for it (and failed) numerous times.
This is the first occasion that I have encountered an argument for "canned laughter".
I personally find that audience participation placed on staged comedy (i.e. storyboarded scenes) detracts from the whole experience as I certainly do not require a prompt when to find something is humorous.