| The Odd Couple | |
|---|---|
Title card from the first season (note the Neil Simon credit in the title) |
|
| Format | Sitcom |
| Starring | Tony Randall Jack Klugman |
| Theme music composer | Neal Hefti |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 114 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Garry Marshall |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 24, 1970 – July 4, 1975 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The Odd Couple The Oddball Couple The New Odd Couple The Odd Couple II |
The Odd Couple is a television situation comedy broadcast from September 24, 1970 to July 4, 1975 on ABC. It stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison. It is based upon the play of the same name, which was written by Neil Simon.
Felix and Oscar are two divorced men. Felix is a neat freak while Oscar is sloppy and casual. They share a Manhattan apartment, and their different lifestyles inevitably lead to conflicts and laughs.
In 1997, the episodes "Password" and "The Fat Farm" were ranked #5 and #58 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[1]
Contents |
The success of the 1968 film version of the stage play of The Odd Couple, which starred Jack Lemmon as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar, served as the catalyst to bringing the characters to television. The original casting considerations for the TV show included Mickey Rooney or Martin Balsam as Oscar and Dean Martin or Art Carney as Felix. (Carney had originated the role on Broadway.) Eventually, Tony Randall (as Felix) and Jack Klugman (as Oscar) were hired. Both had starred in different productions of the play. Randall, who was hired first, had still wanted Mickey Rooney to play Oscar. The show's co-executive producer, Garry Marshall, had to lobby to get Klugman successfully hired. Once the casting was in place, the show's writers (Marshall, Jerry Belson, Jerry Paris, Harvey Miller, Bob Brunner, Mark Rothman and Lowell Ganz, among others) came up with a multitude of situations for Felix and Oscar to be in, while staying true to the soul of the play, which always reverted to the human tensions between the two that created the comic situations.
The show premiered on ABC on Thursday, September 24, 1970, at 9:30 p.m. During the first season, the show was filmed using the single camera method. The apartment set resembled the film version. A laugh track was used (to which Tony Randall objected). Thereafter, the show was filmed with three cameras and performed like a stage play in front of a studio audience. The apartment set looked the same, but was reversed; the kitchen was now on the left of the stage, and the long hallway to their bedrooms was on the right.
Throughout its run, The Odd Couple was juggled around ABC's programming schedule, as seen below (all times ET):
The show struggled in the Nielsen ratings and was canceled at the end of every season. However, ABC renewed the show for each upcoming season because the ratings for the summer reruns were high.
The final first-run episode, aired on July 4, 1975, was titled "Felix Remarries." In it, Felix finally wins Gloria back and they remarry as Oscar regains the freedom of living alone again. Tony Randall once commented that most people missed their finale, due to the Independence Day celebration and evening fireworks. The final scene unfolds in this way, as the two say their goodbyes:
The 114 episodes quickly found a very successful life in syndication, where they continue to find new audiences.
There were some relatively minor changes made in the development of the series. In both tv series and play, Felix's last name was spelled Unger but in the film it is spelled Ungar. In the stage play, Felix is a news writer for CBS (in the film he writes the news for "television"), while in the TV series he is a commercial photographer. (His slogan, which he is quick to vocalize, is "Portraits a specialty.") His wife is Frances in the play and in the film, but is Gloria in the TV series. Oscar's son "Brucey," referred to in the play and the film, is never mentioned. He has at least one other child, who is likewise not mentioned in the series.
During the first season, the show was shot on the sets used for the movie, but for the second season (partially necessitated by the switch to a three-camera setup and the addition of a studio audience), the sets were changed, giving their apartment a new layout, something which was never explained nor even mentioned within the show.
The Pigeon Sisters (Monica Evans as Cecily and Carole Shelley as Gwendolyn, reprising their roles from the film and stage play) made a few appearances during the first season. Their characters were phased out by the end of the first season. Also in the first season, Oscar had a girlfriend, Dr. Nancy Cunningham (played by Joan Hotchkis), but her character disappeared after the second season. Bill Quinn appeared occasionally as Dr. Melnitz, Nancy's colleague and the boys' physician. Felix gained a girlfriend in the second season, Miriam Welby (played by Elinor Donahue), and they lasted into the fifth season, presumably breaking up before Felix remarried Gloria in the series finale. Christopher Shea also appeared in three episodes of the first season as Philip, Felix and Oscar's 11-year-old neighbor. Oscar's occasional good-time girlfriend, "Crazy Rhoda Zimmerman" is referred to but never seen.
The TV show also featured their ex-wives. Janis Hansen played Felix's ex, Gloria (named Frances in the play and film) and Jack Klugman's real life wife at the time Brett Somers as Blanche, Oscar's ex. (The real couple separated during the run of the show.) There were many episodes in which Felix felt he had made a mistake by granting Gloria a divorce and took comedically drastic measures to try to win her back. In contrast, Oscar was happy to be divorced from Blanche and the two constantly traded sarcastic barbs. The only major drawback from Oscar's point of view was the alimony he was ordered to pay.
The two other major supporting characters, Murray the Cop and Myrna Turner, Oscar's secretary, were played by Al Molinaro and Penny Marshall (Garry's sister) respectively. Alice Ghostly appeared as Murray's wife Mimi in an episode during the first season. Garry Walberg, Ryan McDonald and Larry Gelman played Oscar's poker player friends Homer "Speed" Deegan, Roy and Vinnie Barella and rounded out the rest of the regulars. Ryan McDonald left the show after the first season and the character of Roy vanished afterwards. Gelman played the bald bespectacled Vinnie. Walberg later co-starred with Klugman on Quincy.
Willie Aames and later Leif Garrett made a few appearances as Felix's son, Leonard. Pamelyn Ferdin and later Doney Oatman made a few appearances as Felix's teenaged daughter, Edna. Actor Herbie Faye appeared five times on the series in different roles.
Richard Stahl appeared in nine episodes as, among other things, a monk, pet-shop salesman, florist, doctor, and priest, never playing the same role twice.
The show would frequently have celebrity guest stars that would reflect both Oscar's and Felix's opposing cultural leanings either playing themselves or fictional characters. For Oscar, country guitar legend Roy Clark played an old practical joke-playing friend. Sportscaster Howard Cosell played himself in two episodes and pop singer Jaye P. Morgan played herself as Oscar's girlfriend. For Felix, two renowned opera singers Marilyn Horne as a co-worker of Oscar's and Richard Fredericks as himself along with ballet star Edward Vilella also as himself. Many others who also appeared were Monty Hall, Richard Dawson, Hugh Hefner, James Millhollin, Bobby Riggs, Billie Jean King, Deacon Jones, Allen Ludden, and Betty White among others. [2]
During its original run the show had mediocre ratings at best (the show never cracked the Top 25 programs Nielsen ratings list during its entire run). Nonetheless, both actors were nominated for Emmy Awards in each year of the show's run. Jack Klugman won two Emmy Awards for his work (in 1971 and 1973) and Tony Randall won an Emmy as well (in 1975, in which, upon acceptance of the award, he commented on the fact that he wished he currently "had a job", since the show had been cancelled). Klugman was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1972 and won one in 1974. The show itself was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in the years 1971, 1972 and 1974.
"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. (Unger's unseen wife slams door, only to reopen it and angrily hand Felix his saucepan) That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday, he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Sometime earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?"
This opening narration was featured during the show's first and second seasons (in the U.S. DVD release, it is also used in the third season set). It was narrated by voice actor Bill Woodson. The "childhood friend" reference was only used during the first season and was later changed to simply "friend" (in fact, the "childhood friend" reference was added partway through the first season, as the fourth episode explains that Felix and Oscar met during jury duty – such inconsistencies were common for the show [1]). Also, "sometime earlier" was changed to "several years earlier" followed by Madison's wife throwing him out, requesting that he never return. The opening credit sequence consisted of Felix and Oscar in various humorous situations around New York City such as cavorting around a Maypole. In later seasons, the opening sequence featured highlights from past episodes mixed with the previous footage. The closing credit sequences for the first four years of the show consisted of more of the gents' zany antics or a scene where Felix meets Oscar by a big fountain in New York City's Columbus Circle: Oscar throws a cigar butt in the fountain, Felix barks at him to pick it up, and Oscar scoops it up with his shoe then places the wet and soiled cigar butt in Felix's pocket. During later seasons, a clip was incorporated into the credits (a retaping of a scene from an actual scene) in which Oscar washes his hands in the kitchen sink and begins to dry them on the curtains; Felix protests this, and so Oscar instead dries his hands on Felix' shirt. For the final season, the credits were shown against a blue background.
Klugman and Randall did a series of commercials for different products as Felix and Oscar. In 1972, they appeared in TV commercials for Yoplait yogurt. (Klugman also did commercials without Randall for the product in the early 1980s.) In 1974 they appeared in ads for the game Challenge Yahtzee; for a while; their likenesses also appeared on the game's packaging, with the slogan "You play your way—I'll play mine!" ([2]) In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Klugman and Randall reprised their characters in a series of commercials for Eagle Snacks, although they called each other by their real names.
They also reprised their roles as Felix and Oscar in regional productions, this time performing the original Neil Simon play, from the late 1980s until the mid 1990s. They had also performed the Simon play on a few road shows during the TV version's off season during the summer in the early to mid 1970s. In 1997, they appeared in a Broadway revival of another Simon play, The Sunshine Boys.[3]
In the 1980s, while starring in the NBC drama Quincy, M.E., Klugman did commercials for Canon copiers. Minolta countered by hiring Randall, then on the NBC sitcom Love, Sidney, to do a commercial where he channeled his Felix role, mentioning that he "can change copy colors without getting that disgusting black powder all over my hands!" He closed by saying, "But that doesn't mean I'm a neat freak. Of course, I'm not a slob, either, like, uh... " and waved his hand, to suggest Klugman as Oscar.
Klugman and Randall reunited in the 1993 CBS TV movie The Odd Couple: Together Again to limited success. Klugman had lost a vocal cord to throat cancer and this struggle was included in the script. In the film, Felix tries to help Oscar recover. He also becomes overly involved in Edna's upcoming wedding, much to her and Gloria's dismay.
A cartoon version of The Odd Couple premiered on September 6, 1975 on ABC titled The Oddball Couple during their Saturday morning kids' programming block, Funshine Saturday. The characters were renamed, "Spiffy" (a cat voiced by Frank Nelson) and "Fleabag" (a dog voiced by Paul Winchell). It was directed and produced by the same team that produced the Pink Panther cartoons: David DePatie and Friz Freleng were executive producers, Gerry Chiniquy, and Robert McKimson among others, directed several episodes. The characters' professions in this version were reversed, with the fastidious Spiffy working as a reporter and the rumpled Fleabag a photographer, often working together. The show was canceled in 1977.
In 1982, ABC aired a new version of The Odd Couple, this time with two African-Americans, Ron Glass as Felix and Demond Wilson as Oscar. It was called The New Odd Couple and ran less than half a season.
A Chilean version titled Una Pareja Dispareja started on January 2009 on TVN. There are many differences in this new version, such as Oscar and Felix are brothers instead of friends.
The Complete First Season of The Odd Couple was released on DVD in Region 1 on August 18, 2006 by Time Life Video under license from Paramount Home Entertainment (Paramount Television was the program's original distributor). Some episodes, mainly from the first season, were available on a VHS videotape set during the 1990s, and distributed by Columbia House.
Each episode on the First Season DVDs contain an introduction from the show's producer Garry Marshall. Also included as extras are Emmy Awards speeches, bloopers, TV interviews with the show's stars and a clip of The Odd Couple on Broadway.
Paramount/CBS DVD have since released the remaining seasons (two through five) of The Odd Couple on DVD in Region 1. Season 1 was released in Region 2 on April 28, 2008. While the Time/Life Season 1 DVD release contained only unedited episodes as originally broadcast, CBS Home Entertainment opted to edit their DVDs of seasons two through five, removing short segments or occasionally entire scenes which included music sung by Felix or some other character. A notable example of this can be seen in the Season 5 episode, "Strike Up the Band or Else" where, in the epilogue, guest star Pernell Roberts' character is going to sing, and the episode abruptly ends and closing credits roll. Fans and critics alike lambasted CBS Home Video for the shoddy treatment The Odd Couple DVD releases received, concluding that Paramount/CBS DVD has misled consumers by labeling their DVD sets as "complete" when they have been intentionally edited to avoid paying royalties required by the music publishers.[3] To date, there are no plans to re-release the series utilizing the uncut master prints. The Rights go to Disney And ABC
| DVD name | Ep # | Release dates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | |||||
| The First Season | 24 | April 24, 2007 | April 28, 2008 | |||
| The Second Season | 23 | August 28, 2007 | TBA | |||
| The Third Season | 23 | January 22, 2008 | TBA | |||
| The Fourth Season | 22 | June 10, 2008 | TBA | |||
| The Final Season | 22 | November 18, 2008 | TBA | |||
| The Complete Series 1–5 | 114 | November 18, 2008 | TBA | |||
The episode "The One with the Dozen Lasagnas" of the first season of Friends begins with the six friends spontaneously singing the theme song from The Odd Couple.
In 1997, when Wayne Gretzky joined the New York Rangers and was reunited with his old Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier, Fox ran a commercial promoting the two with the theme from "The Odd Couple".
The episode "I, Roommate" of the first season of Futurama features a montage where Fry and Bender, after moving in to their new apartment, change it to suit their tastes, set to the theme song from "The Odd Couple".
During the 2000 election impasse, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch called "The Presidential Couple" involving George W. Bush (Will Ferrell) and Al Gore (Darrell Hammond) as roommates, or possible co-Presidents. The sketch contains a parody of the show's narrative opening credits, complete with its theme song.
On a 1999 episode of Mad About You, Jamie reminisces to Paul about Felix and Oscar's song, "Happy and Peppy and Bursting With Love".
In the episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Make Room for Lisa", Lisa is forced to move into Bart's room due to a cellphone tower being installed in her room. As Homer introduces Lisa to her new "roommate," he asks what her favorite movie and - despite her actual answer - exclaims "The Odd Couple!" He immediately begins humming the show's theme, while Bart threatens to make her life a living hell.
In the 2000 season finale of "Will & Grace" titled "Ben? Her?", Jack gets a divorce from his fake marriage to Rosario after which he shows up at Will's door to move in causing Will to say "Can two gay men share an apartment without driving each other crazy? Probably not." while "The Odd Couple" theme music plays in the background.