The Odd Couple is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970, to March 7, 1975, on ABC. It ran for five seasons and has become a notable sitcom of its era. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Alex Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Trevor Madison, was the first of several sitcoms developed by Garry Marshall for Paramount Television. The series is based on the 1965 play The Odd Couple, written by Neil Simon, which was also adapted into a 1968 film. The story examines two divorced men, Oscar and Felix, who share Oscar's Manhattan apartment, and whose contrasting personalities lead to conflict and comedy.
In 1997, the episodes "Password" and "The Fat Farm" were ranked numbers 5 and 58, respectively, on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. The show received three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
History
The success of the 1968 film (adapted from the stage play), which starred Jack Lemmon as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar, catalyzed the production of the television show. Mickey Rooney and Martin Balsam were also considered for the part of Oscar, and Dean Martin and Art Carney for Felix (Carney had originated the role on Broadway).
Eventually, Tony Randall (as Felix) and Jack Klugman (as Oscar) were hired; Klugman had replaced Walter Matthau as Oscar in the original Broadway production, and Randall had appeared as Felix in other productions of the play. Randall, who was hired first, wanted Mickey Rooney to play Oscar. Co-executive producer, Garry Marshall, had to lobby hard to get Klugman successfully hired. Once the cast was in place, the show's writers (Marshall, Jerry Belson, Jerry Paris, Bob Brunner, Mark Rothman and Lowell Ganz, among others) came up with a multitude of situations for Felix and Oscar, 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 September 24, 1970. The first season was filmed at Paramount Studios using the single-camera method and a laugh track, utilizing the same apartment set seen in Paramount's 1968 film version. Klugman and Randall both expressed displeasure with using a laugh track without a live audience. Marshall also disliked the practice; theater veteran Randall particularly resented the process of having to wait several seconds between punchlines to allot enough space for the laughter to be inserted. The production team eventually experimented with omitting the laugh track for the first season's 21st episode, "Oscar's New Life" (laughter was subsequently added for syndication). By the second season, ABC relented; the show was subsequently filmed with three cameras and performed like a stage play in front of a live studio audience, with laugh sweetening completed during post-production.
The change also required construction of a new, larger apartment set with a new layout, within a theater at Paramount.
Randall and Klugman both enjoyed the spontaneity that came with performing in front of a live audience; any missed or blown lines usually passed without stopping (they would be reshot during post-production). In addition, it gave the show a distinct edge that had been lost during the first season (although the actors had to deliver lines more loudly, for they were on a larger sound stage, as opposed to a quiet studio with only minimal crew present).
Klugman recalled, "We spent three days rehearsing the show. We sat around a table the first day. We tore the script apart. We took out all the jokes and put in character. The only reason we leave in any jokes is for the rotten canned laughter. I hated it. I watch the shows at home, I see Oscar come in and he says, 'Hi', and there is the laughter. 'Hey', I think, 'what the hell did I do?'. I hate it; it insults the audience."
During its five seasons on ABC, The Odd Couple was juggled several times around the network's programming schedule, never reaching the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings. However, ABC continually renewed the show because the ratings for the summer reruns were consistently high.
In the final episode, "Felix Remarries", Felix finally wins back his ex-wife, Gloria, and they remarry, and Oscar regains the freedom of living alone again. The final scene unfolds as the two say their goodbyes:
The 114 episodes went into syndication, and the series has been released on home video.
Differences between the series and the play/film In the TV series, Felix's last name was spelled Unger, but in the play and 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 promote, is "Portraits a specialty".) Felix's wife is named Frances in the play and in the film, but named Gloria in the TV series. In the play and film, Oscar has at least two children (including a son, "Brucey") who are referred to but not seen. In the series, Oscar is childless. In the play and film, Felix has a son and a younger daughter. In the series, the children's birth order is reversed, and they are named Leonard and Edna, after Tony Randall's middle name and the name of his sister, respectively. In the series, Felix is portrayed as being rather highbrow, with refined tastes in food, music, and the arts in general; he is baffled by much of popular culture. In the play and film, Felix is much more of a "regular guy": He ogles go-go dancers, plays poker, goes bowling and shoots pool. Although the pre-TV Felix enjoys cooking and prepares well-crafted sandwiches for his friends, he occasionally mentions preparing rather simple dinners, like meatloaf, franks and beans and cole slaw. When the dinner he has prepared for the Pigeon Sisters burns (meatloaf in the film, London broil in the play), he suggests substituting corned beef sandwiches from the local delicatessen.
Supporting characters
The Pigeon Sisters (Monica Evans as Cecily and Carole Shelley as Gwendolyn, reprising their roles from the Broadway stage play and the film) make four appearances during the first season. The sisters are never seen again, but are occasionally mentioned. During the latter part of the first season and half of the second, Oscar's steady girlfriend is Dr. Nancy Cunningham (portrayed by Joan Hotchkis), a physician whose colleague Dr. Melnitz (played by Bill Quinn) is a curmudgeonly and sardonic older doctor who treats both Felix and Oscar. Beginning in the third season, Felix also has a girlfriend, Miriam Welby (portrayed by Elinor Donahue), and they last into the fifth season, presumably parting ways before Felix and Gloria remarry in the series finale. Christopher Shea appears as Phillip Wexler, Felix and Oscar's 11-year-old neighbor, in three episodes of the first season. Oscar makes frequent references to "Crazy Rhoda Zimmerman", his occasional good-time girlfriend, but she never appears onscreen.
The TV series also features their ex-wives. Janis Hansen appears as Felix's former wife Gloria (named Frances in the play and film), and Jack Klugman's wife Brett Somers portrays Blanche, Oscar's acerbic ex-wife (the couple separated in real life during the final season of the series). There are several episodes in which Felix feels that he has not tried hard enough to reconcile with Gloria and takes comically drastic measures to try to win her back. In contrast, Oscar seems quite happy to be divorced from Blanche, and she from him, as the two constantly trade sarcastic barbs. The only major drawback from Oscar's point of view is the alimony that he has been ordered to pay.
Willie Aames and Leif Garrett appear as Felix's son Leonard. Pamelyn Ferdin and Doney Oatman appear as Felix's teenaged daughter Edna.
The two other major supporting characters, Officer Murray Greshler and Myrna Turner, Oscar's secretary, are portrayed by Al Molinaro and Penny Marshall (Garry's sister), respectively.
Alice Ghostley plays Murray's wife Mimi Greshler in one episode of the first season, when Felix quickly outstays his welcome after moving out of Oscar's apartment. Jane Dulo appears as Mimi in an episode from the third season. Garry Walberg, Larry Gelman and Ryan MacDonald portray Oscar's poker buddies, Homer "Speed" Deegan, the balding, bespectacled Vincent "Vinnie" Barella, and Roy, Oscar's accountant, respectively. MacDonald left the show after the seventh of the first season's eight episodes in which there was a poker game, and the character of Roy is occasionally mentioned afterwards but never seen again. Both Walberg (who later worked with his friend Klugman from 1976 to 1983 on the series Quincy, M.E.) as "Speed" and Gelman as Vinnie make several scattered guest appearances after the first season.
Character actor Richard Stahl appears in nine episodes as, among other things, a florist, a pet-shop owner, a psychiatrist, a volunteer fireman and a non-denominational monk, never playing the same role twice. Veteran character actor Herbie Faye appears in six episodes, including four in which he plays Harvey Faffner, the superintendent of Oscar and Felix's apartment building. Character actor Phil Leeds appears three times on the series in various roles.
Oscar's mother Elizabeth Madison appears in two episodes, played once by Elvia Allman and once by Jane Dulo, both veteran actresses. Tina Andrews appears in two fifth-season episodes as Tina, Oscar's new secretary, following Penny Marshall's departure from the series. Character actor John Fiedler, who portrays Vinnie in the 1968 film version, makes two guest appearances in different roles. Veteran stand-up comedian Leonard Barr appears in five episodes.
Celebrity guest stars As themselves
The show often has celebrity guest stars, most of whom reflect the cultural leanings of either Oscar or Felix, whether playing themselves or fictional characters.
Sportscaster Howard Cosell (two episodes) and ABC television producer Roone Arledge play themselves. ABC News anchorman Howard K. Smith appears as himself in an episode in which Oscar runs for city council. Pop singer Jaye P. Morgan plays herself as one of Oscar's many girlfriends. Opera singers Martina Arroyo and Richard Fredricks appear as themselves. In one episode, noted tennis frenemies and real-life competitors Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King appear as themselves.
Singer-songwriter Paul Williams appears in an episode in which Felix's daughter Edna runs away to follow Williams on tour.Odd Couple infosite, oddcouple.info; accessed April 7, 2014. Dick Clark makes an appearance as himself, a radio disc jockey who phones Oscar with a quiz in which he wins a new car. Neil Simon (the author of the play on which the series is based) makes an uncredited cameo appearance during the fifth season in "Two on the Aisle", as does Bob Hope in "The Hollywood Story".
Other celebrities appearing as themselves include David Steinberg, Monty Hall, Richard Dawson, Wolfman Jack, Hugh Hefner, Edward Villella, Rodney Allen Rippy, John Simon, Bubba Smith, Deacon Jones, John Barbour, Allen Ludden and Betty White.
Fictional depictions Marilyn Horne as Jackie Hartman, a very talented but shy singer, who is a coworker of Oscar's. Roy Clark as "Wild" Willie Boggs, an old practical-joke-playing friend of Oscar's, who nonetheless has enormous musical talent, impressing Felix. Jean Simmons as Princess Lydia from the fictional European country of Liechtenbourg (Peggy Rea plays her lady-in-waiting), who meets Felix in a photography session but goes on a date with Oscar, and he comes home boasting of a wonderful time. He proudly relates that the princess had a wonderful time also, and that "she knighted a wino". Pernell Roberts as Billy Joe Grissom, a country music impresario to whom Oscar owes a lot of money in gambling debts, and who does not take IOUs. Jack Soo as Chuk Mai Chin, a Chinese wrestler.