Let's talk The Odd Couple tv show 1970 - 1975

here is the calypso scene

It was a terrific sitcom. Great writing, and the chemistry between Klugman and Randall was unmatched.

Loved the theme song.

Great show.

OP, why do you act like you think we’ve never heard of it?

While this show had a successful five year run and is so fondly remembered, none of the attempts to relaunch this series have ever been successful.

The original was too good to be duplicated, R6. The chemistry between Randall and Klugman was a one-in-a-million phenomenon.

Wasn't it better than the film? I'd honestly much prefer Randall and Klugman to Lemmon (only in small doses) and Matthau

It was happy and peppy and bursting with love,

R8. I think the casts were perfect for each medium. Lemmon and Matthau are perfection for the two hour film, but, as you suggest, you would not invite either into your house every week. Conversely, Randall and Klugman were wonderful for the weekly “visit,” but toned down sufficiently that they might not have really had the opera bouffa magnitude the play and film needed.

Think of the series as picking up where the play and movie ended.

Love the movie and the tv show, OP.

Thanks for reminding me of it because I want to order the entire series.

Makes me feel all cozy.

The tv series also starred DL icon, Pamlyn Ferdin as Felix's daughter, Edna who on social media refers to Tony Randall as her mentor.

All five seasons of The Odd Couple are on Paramount+.

Wasn't "Odd Couple" responsible for the popular phrase about "never assume anything because when you do, you make an 'ass' out of 'U' and 'Me'"?

It's on Catchy weekdays after The Love Boat. One of today's episodes was...That Is The Army Mrs. Madison

Don't forget Stan Zbornak plays the cop.

R15 - That is mentioned on The Odd Couple but I have seen it elsewhere too (Bad News Bears?).

R17 Murray. Herb Edelman plays Murray in the movie, and Al Molinaro plays him in the series.

It was overshadowed by the more groundbreaking shows like All In The Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi, but The Odd Couple was definitely among the 10 best sitcoms of the 1970s.

I adore Tony! There's a scene where he jumps on a desk from the standing position like Nureyev, I never forgot that. Oscar's pretty disgusting but he comes with Myrna Turner! Penny was so young! Nice, OP, this thread is going in my watch list now!

“I tawk nasal?”

"Felix, if you don't stop, I'm going to flatten you, roll you into my typewriter, and type 'I hate you' all over your body!"

Felix's son Leonard is played by two future twinks. First Willie Aames and then Leif Garrett.

LOVED IT.

And, I come to realize how handsome Jack Klugman was....my type but didn't realize until I got older. There seems to be some bulge in the intro which I always loved seeing some of his package.

It's better than the dreary 1968 film which I saw after seeing the series.

When Jack and Tony did a touring production of The Sunshine Boys in 1999, my sister (who was just a local theater actress) got a part in the supporting cast and we all (myself, my mother, my other sister and my niece) got to go backstage after the show and meet them. They were both very nice.

[Quote] Wasn't it better than the film? I'd honestly much prefer Randall and Klugman to Lemmon (only in small doses) and Matthau

R8 Yes

R12, if you buy the physical DVDs, seasons two through five have certain songs and music sequences edited out of the episodes. I believe the first season was released by Time Life (not sure) and it's supposedly intact. The rest of the seasons were released by Paramount.

I bought the set and I did notice the edits but it's not the end of the world and there's yet to be a reissue with the series intact so I'll take what I can get. I noticed they also did this with Gomer Pyle USMC and That 70s Show. The latter is glaringly obvious as the show had so many iconic songs from that era and they're missing from the DVD release.

I think Tony Randall’s Felix was unique because in many ways, the character became Tony Randall. Watch Tony Randall as a guest panelist on “What’s My Line?” and you’ll see it. The questioning of contestants as if he were a prosecutor (see the “ASSUME” courtroom scene from the ticket scalping episode of The Odd Couple); his supercilious manner; the moaning and groaning when he got a “no” answer from a contestant, and by the mid-60s, his anger and petulant physical outbursts when he guessed a contestant’s line incorrectly. Randall was born to play Felix.

1971/72

Friday night, ABC lineup starting at 8:00 p.m.:

The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, The Odd Couple, Love, American Style

Me laying on the floor in front of the tv eating apple Now and Later candy.

I

[quote]The tv series also starred DL icon, Pamlyn Ferdin as Felix's daughter, Edna who on social media refers to Tony Randall as her mentor.

I beg your pardon!

By coincidence, I just heard Pamela Ferdin voice Lucy van Pelt in A Boy Named Charlie Brown that ran last Sunday on MeTV.

Ethel Merman was insulted when they offered her the role as Klugman's aunt. Klugman was Merman's leading man in Gypsy. Poor Merm looked like Klugman's mother at this stage in her life.

No one's mentioned this, so maybe it's just me, but I remember homosexual undertones that were unspoken when this show aired. It was a big hit when I was in grammar school.

My best friend, Jimmy, who lived across the street, and I were inseparable from pre-school through the 6th grade. He was athletic and I was brainy. We had "sleepovers" every weekend in the same bed, cuddled tightly together like puppies, and were allowed to sleep together during school nights if it was stormy or if there was something scary in the news . Teachers, classmates, parents, and siblings all called us "The Odd Couple". We used to innocently joke with each other that we'd get married when we were grownups. Someone called us "fags". We didn't know what that meant, but understood that we needed to avoid it.

After the 6th grade, my family moved a few blocks away. Jimmy's parents sent him to Catholic school. We drifted apart as we entered puberty. One day while in high school, I rode my bike over to his house after school and spent the afternoon with him watching a baseball game on the couch until his father came home and sent me home, making some excuse about how we shouldn't be an "Odd Couple". I vaguely recall that he was smiling and being funny, but he was insistent. I was only welcomed there on Sundays if I went to church with them, which I used to do and it was appalling.

I Google stalked Jimmy and learned that he'd died 23 years ago at age 40, from "cancer," single, never married, which seemed odd for such a devout Catholic.

Haven't thought of the "Odd Couple" TV show since back then.

R34 Wow, Brett Somers played his ex; imagine Ethel Merman as his aunt. I’m reminded of the incident on “Match Game” when Ethel was a guest panelist: Brett suddenly imitated her singing “Curtain Up,” and Ethel yelled “Oh, shut up!” at Brett.

Pick a note Brett. Any note.

[quote] I remember homosexual undertones that were unspoken when this show aired.

R35 There was an oblique reference to trying to not look gay in an episode in which Felix was coaching Oscar about something to do with his appearance. Felix told Oscar to put his hands on his hips. Oscar did so with his thumbs facing forward, and Felix says quietly, “Not that way, it makes you look like a [pause] you know,” and Oscar changes his hands on his hips so his thumbs are facing backwards.

[quote]By coincidence, I just heard Pamela Ferdin voice Lucy van Pelt

It's PAMELYN, bitch!

Is "The Tony Randall Show" streaming anywhere? It was great--actually a "watercooler show" where I worked.

This show didn’t have enough glamour for me when I was little. It just looked drab.

[Quote] No one's mentioned this, so maybe it's just me, but I remember homosexual undertones that were unspoken when this show aired. It was a big hit when I was in grammar school.

The homosexual undertones in the living arrangements were discussed when it premiered on Broadway and in the 1968 film

What the fuck is "Catchy?"

Tony Randall's son, now 25

It's the title. My mother didn't take my brother and me when she went to see a touring production of it. I'm pretty sure she assumed they were gay. She had no qualms about taking us to Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

[quote]What the fuck is "Catchy?"

Catchy Comedy Network; the re-branded DECADES.

R46 thank you.....really had no idea DECADES was no more.

They just dropped the dramatic series for the comedic ones, r47.

ABC took a chance on The Odd Couple with a mostly all Black cast with Sanford and Son's Demond Wilson and Barney Millers Ron Glass - It was short-lived.

Here's the series theme:

Same with Barefoot in the Park, r49.

I like when Felix has his sinus fits.

I saw Rita and Sally in the female version on Broadway. It was directed by Gene Saks who directed the 1968 film version. Some reviews at the time felt Sally was more slovenly in appearance than the trim and neat Moreno who played the slob

It was rebooted with the late Matthew Perry

So why did they lose touch?

There was something about those two guys

[quote] Tony Randall's son, now 25

R44 If he was conceived by natural means, he is the product of sperm from a 77 year old man. Yikes!

R49, that "New Odd Couple" was able to stay in production during a writer's strike by reusing scripts from the old series and just refilming them with Glass and Wilson.

R52, the tour of that Female Odd Couple is infamous. Though Rita Moreno doesn't talk about it in her book, it's described as being hellacious in both ML Wilson and Lewis J. Stadlen's books. And Struthers has gone on record in interviews, even recently, about how awful Moreno was to work with. Gossip was that Moreno and Saks got together. Moreno also got together with Stadlen for what sounds like a multi year affair, though he does not name her, he writes of slipping "down beneath her stomach to the smooth parchment between her legs" and being "the most pussy-whipped man in America."

A memorable quote from Stadlen: "Anyone holding on to the romantic notion that the world's problems would dissolve in a society controlled by women should have stepped on the bus I was riding on [the tour bus with the cast of The Female Odd Couple]."

Felix, when Edward Vlillella is running late and Oscar advises him to wait: "My curtain goes up on time, not like those clowns at Lincoln Center!"

[quote]Gossip was that Moreno and Saks got together.

That bitch! And she wanted to be my NEIGHBOR!

There was also the remake a few years ago with Matthew Perry as Oscar and Thomas Lennon as Felix. For that version I really thought it would've been so much better had they actually made Felix gay but I guess they either never considered it or just didn't have the nerve.

Anything Thomas Lennon plays is per se gay.

Thomas Lennon was excellent as Felix. And yes, he automatically came across as gay.

Matthew Perry was the weak link in that. He just wasn't Oscar. Yes, he went through the motions but somehow didn't capture the essence of Oscar.

Was glad when this series was canceled.

Even looking at the commercial, you'd swear that Sally is playing Oscar and Rita is playing Felix.

From the commercial, it looks like Sally might eat Rita at any moment.

Roy Clark starred in this episode. Klugman looked like he was genuinely in awe (and in love with) Roy Clark. Tony Randall also looked impressed.