SOUTH BRUNSWICK - To satirist Jean Shepherd, Ken's Wash & Dry in the Kendall Park Shopping Center is really not that far from Africa. The coin-operated laundry was the scene yesterday of on-location shooting for a ''Shepherd's Pie" program on New Jersey Public Television. The program will feature not only the Kamissky Kazoo Quartet playing at the Palm Court, Shepherd doing his John Travolta imitation from " Saturday Night Fever" and equal time for the devil, but four American housewives doing their laundry. At Ken's Wash & Dry. This means viewers of the Tuesday, March 28 and Saturday, April I program on 31 public television stations from Ohio to New Jersey, from Boston to Washington, will not only see women doing their wash but discover Kendall Park is the name of a place, not a person. Although Shepherd was not in the laundry yesterday, his presence will be felt when the four- to five-minute segment airs. It will be about the ancient and modern "rites of the wash." according to Griggstown native Stephen Arnesen. He is a 1967 Franklin High School graduate who directs all the film segments for "Shepherd 's Pie.'' "The battle against dirt is as old as man himself," Arnesen said. That theme will be portrayed by film clips of African women dipping their clothes into a river and the housewives stuffing their socks and sheets into the dryer. For added emphasis. tribal drums and the hum of washing machines will provide background music, Arnesen said. The women - Doris Downey, Joan Farrell. Carolyn Zamborsky and Jean Andrusiewicz - all live in Ewing Town ship in Mercer County. They were selected after Arnesen asked Mrs. Downey to come up with, in her words, "three typical housewives.'' Arnesen said Ken's Wash & Dry was chosen "partly because we shoot a lot of things around Trenton. We wanted to spread things out a bit. . ." The four first-time actresses joked as Arnesen's crew set up their equipment. "Can we call this 'Soap?' asked Mrs. Andrusiewicz. "It won't be like that. This is a family show," the director said. "You haven't seen my dirty laundry yet," Mrs. Andrusiewicz replied. Shepherd, who has made fun of New Jersey gin mills, abandoned drive-in movies and even the stump of the Joyce Kilmer tree, should find rich material in Ken's Wash & Dry, which looks like the quintessential coin-operated laundry. A long triangular-ceilinged room with 20 washing machines down its middle, tiles on the floor and drug store oil paintings of rugged landscapes on its walls. the laundry is the spitting image of a thousand others. In such surroundings. the women appeared relaxed. As cameraman Michael O' Rourke and soundman Robert Biondi recorded the action. Mrs. Downey displayed one of the classic routines in the wash woman's repertoire: opening the door with a heavy basket of clothes in her arms. She dropped the basket while struggling with the door. Production assistant Laurel Spira called the moment " terrific." but the scene had to be reshot because reflections were caught in the glass door. Arnesen's crew spent about three hours positioning the women around the washing machines and filming them stuffing clothes, inserting quarters and dimes, lifting lids, paging through magazines, tuning radios and talking. (there was no script: the women were told to talk about whatever they wanted) Arnesen made sure O'Rourke filmed one of the magic moments in a housewife's day: pushing the quarters into the machine and waiting for the "wash" light to go on. The filming went quicker than expected, but there were a few mishaps. O'Rourke fell on the chair he was standing on, but managed to hold on to his videotape camera. "All I was thinking about was S3,000 going down the drain," he said. recovering his balance. Much of yesterday's action proved television is not always exciting. After the crew filmed Mrs. Downey stuffing her clothes into the machine, she asked, " Okay?" Arnesen replied, "Okay. but I want another shot of the lid coming down. And Ms. Spira discovered the production assistant's job is not always thrilling. After volunteering to trudge the snow and buy batteries for Mrs. Downey's radio. which featured a bent antenna. Ms. Spira discovered it didn't really need batteries. "It must have been that antenna I just twisted it, and it started playing," she said. When she was not describing the scenes on paper, Ms. Spira washed her clothes. (she brought three loads) and kept her sense of humor. The women seemed to themselves more as the filming neared its end. "This is going to be the most famous Laundromat in all or New Jersey when we finish with it,'' Mrs. Andrusiewicz said. The March 28 program will be the last in a 13-part series before reruns of "Shepherd's Pie" are shown this spring or summer. According to Arnesen, it will be another one of Shepherd 's looks at everyday places - baseball fields, hardware stores, the New Jersey Turnpike. "He takes ordinary activities and raises them a step or two" If Arneson and Shepherd are right, coin-operated laundries may never be the same.