MASH

         Set in the Korean War, filmed between 1972-1983, MASH is about a group of doctors living and working in one of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals run near the front lines of the war. Sitcoms were usually about blue collar families, with a patriarch who works hard and obeys the law to get ahead, but partly because of the war setting, MASH was able to break this mold.

          It could point out the ridiculousness of the war being fought and showed characters who couldn't wait to just go home as opposed to the usually patriotic stance of fighting it through. The doctors also never took sides, they did triage where people were prioritized by the seriousness of their wounds, not which side they fought on.

         Another way it broke through the average sitcom was its main character, Hawkeye Pierce, who is a prankster looking for fun and games (and often dressing in his red bathrobe instead of his military uniform) to lighten the dark mood created by the wartime situation. However, when the situation called for it, he was almost always sober enough to step in and save a person's life.

          MASH also pioneered having characters talking through their thoughts, but we hear their thoughts voiced when they read aloud the letters they are sending home as in "Dear Dad" and "Dear Uncle Abdul". With the newer shows, the format where the character is talking over is often formatted more like Modern Family where the family members talk through their thoughts to a videographer.

         The last, and perhaps most important contribution MASH made to modern comedies is dual plots in 30 minute episodes because the episodes of MASH often split time on what was going on with all the characters at a time. For an example there could be the Hot Lips and Frank plot, the Hawkeye and Trapper plot, and the Henry Blank and Radar plot, that were all happening in the one episode and being cut between throughout.