[With] the premiere of [United States] …, it should be clear that a TV breakthrough has occurred worthy of heavy study…. Yet no one seems to be noticing.

On paper, it's a simple proposition. United States is about marriage…. Familiar as it may sound, though, Larry Gelbart has given us a show that violates all the rules of sitcom, a game as rigid as pinochle.

By American TV standards, Gelbart is a radical, a madman, a bomb-thrower. Instead of the usual frantic half-hour punch-punch of jokes, the scripts of United States, by Gelbart and Gary Markowitz, have an altogether different rhythm. The show is a comedy of observations and insights; it looks for involvement, identification and a laugh. There is a lot of dry material leavened by something that used to be called "wit." Genuine wit coming off the screen today is like a foreign language. My ear needed...