From its beginning, the artificial laugh track was controversial, with those who liked it and those who didn't. Most wanted or tolerated the laugh track. By and large, those shows whose creators and/or stars objected to laugh tracks or live audiences had their shows canceled after short runs. A notable exception was Charles Schultz; his Peanuts specials were met with critical acclaim, sans the canned laughter.
In the summer of 1967, CBS executives decided to try an experiment. They chose a sitcom with both comedic and serious elements, "Hogan's Heroes," and made two versions: one with and one without a laugh track. Then they screened them to different audiences. The versions with a laugh track were well-received, and those without largely failed. The shows with the laugh track were aired (I remember them well), and CBS ended the experiment, although they did tone down the laugh track in select future series.
Through an error, some of the shows without the laugh track were distributed to certain outlets (i.e. METV), including this one, and they're shown as-is. The United Kingdom went a step further: they removed the canned laughter from all episodes (which is possible if the laugh track has its own channel), preferring to emphasize the serious aspect of the show.
M*A*S*H was made this way, with the laugh track made optional to distribution points, and it's well-known that it was eliminated from operating room scenes early in the series.