[eluser]bretticus[/eluser]
Did you try putting garbage in your production .htaccess file to see if you even get a server error? If you don't get an error, it means .htaccess is not even enabled (see the debugging link above.)
Also, look at the results from running phpinfo() on both servers. Make sure mod_rewrite is even enabled.
I have nothing else to offer without more feedback. However, the links I shared above should be all you need to get it working.
Good luck!