Imagine two guys whose marriages go south, end up living together, and have quite interesting lives. Well, that’s a great set-up for The Odd Couple.
For five seasons between 1970-75 on ABC, The Odd Couple gave TV viewers an inside look at New York City sportswriter Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) and photographer Felix Unger (Tony Randall). Oscar and Felix had different lifestyles. Oscar was cool with eating day-old sandwiches and drinking semi-cold beer. Felix needed to have clean sheets, clean towels, and a tidy kitchen to be sane. And his pesky sinuses didn’t help him, either.
This show took its original premise from Neil Simon’s Broadway hit 1965 play. That starred Walter Matthau as Oscar and Art Carney as Felix. Carney did this while appearing on The Jackie Gleason Show as Ed Norton. Klugman, at one point, replaced Matthau in the play. In 1968, a film version starred Matthau and Jack Lemmon as Felix.
Each episode saw Oscar and Felix do their best to live in relative peace. Felix, though, could not help himself when it came to cleanliness. It drove Oscar wild, leading to arguments between both men. Ultimately, though, they found a common bond in their divorces. They also had active dating lives with their girlfriends showing up regularly.
Sitcom Stars Were Familiar To Viewers
Randall and Klugman were familiar faces to the viewership. Randall starred in Mister Peepers on TV in the late 1950s. He did feature films with Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Klugman had four memorable appearances on The Twilight Zone. Other TV work included guest spots on The Untouchables, The F.B.I., The Name of the Game, The Fugitive, and Ben Casey. His movie work included 12 Angry Men.
The TV version of the Broadway play had a creative mind behind the scenes. It was the first sitcom put together by Garry Marshall, who went on to create Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork and Mindy, and others. Being involved deeply with The Odd Couple also gave an “in” to Marshall’s sister Penny Marshall. She played Myrna Turner, Oscar’s secretary, for 27 episodes. Marshall went on to star as Laverne DeFazio in Laverne & Shirley.
Besides Marshall, this sitcom has a who’s-who of actors and actresses pop up:
- Al Molinaro played New York City police cop Murray Greshler, who stopped by to play cards. Later on, Molinaro played Al Delvecchio on Happy Days.
- Garry Walberg played Speed, another card player. Klugman fans probably remember Walberg from his seven-season tenure as Lt. Frank Monahan on Quincy, M.E.
- Brett Somers appeared in seven episodes as Blanche, Oscar’s ex-wife. In the sitcom’s run on ABC, Somers was married to Klugman in real life. Yet fans of this TV era know her best from sitting next to Charles Nelson Reilly on Match Game.
- Comedian Herbie Faye played different roles in the series. Faye was one of Sergeant Ernie Bilko’s (Phil Silvers) soldiers on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s. He also showed up in numerous sitcoms in the 1960s and ’70s.
- Elinor Donohue appeared as Miram Welby, Felix’s girlfriend. Donohue’s face was a familiar one thanks to her time on Father Knows Best. She briefly played Ellie Walker, Andy Taylor’s girlfriend, on The Andy Griffith Show.
While these faces are familiar, The Odd Couple had other sports and entertainment stars. Former NFL stars Alex Karras, Bubba Smith, and Deacon Jones appear once each. Tennis players Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King show up. Howard Cosell made two stops on the show, while ABC Sports president Roone Arledge appeared once. That was a great tie-in because the show, Cosell, and Arledge were connected to ABC.
‘The Odd Couple’ Had Lots Of Guest Stars
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, Password game show host Allen Ludden and his wife, Betty White, Bernie Kopell, Pat Morita, and Let’s Make A Deal host Monty Hall also appeared. Richard Dawson, after Hogan’s Heroes and before Family Feud, shows up. Country music legend Roy Clark plays “Wild” Willie Boggs, a close friend of Oscar’s who also has great musical talent. Clark shows off in a great scene of him playing Malaguena on the guitar. Pernell Roberts (after Bonanza and before Trapper John, M.D.), Jack Soo (en route to playing Detective Nick Yemana on Barney Miller), and Reta Shaw also guest-starred here.
TV Guide recognized the greatness of The Odd Couple when listing its Top 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. Password, where Oscar and Felix play the game while Ludden watches on, and The Fat Farm earned spots on the list.
A notable change in the show’s production took place between the first and second seasons. In the first season, a laugh track was used to enhance the funny moments. But this didn’t please Randall and Klugman at all. When the show started its second-season production, episodes were filmed before a live studio audience. That gives the sitcom an authentic audience reaction instead of a taped laugh.
During its original run on ABC, The Odd Couple found itself tossed around the network primetime schedule. It didn’t have a solid set time. Yet summer reruns were doing so well that the network brought the sitcom back again and again. Upon its finish on network television, the show ended up in syndication. These days, TV fans can catch reruns on Pluto TV. Episodes are available on DVD.
Networks tried to recapture the original show’s success. The New Odd Couple, starring Demond Wilson and Ron Glass putting an African-American spin on it, aired for half a season in 1982. Between 2015-17, The Odd Couple returned to TV with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon starring in it.
While these shows might have drawn their own fans, they weren’t able to recreate the Klugman-Randall magic. Both actors worked extremely hard to make the sitcom work. They’d go on to have more success themselves. Klugman pretty quickly dove in to playing a medical examiner on Quincy, M.E., on NBC. Randall found work in the stage world. Other TV work included The Tony Randall Show and Love, Sidney. He also became a regular guest on Late Show with David Letterman.
Randall died in 2004 at 84 years old. Klugman died in 2012 at 90 years old. Despite both wonderful actors not being around anymore, their sitcom work remains alive.
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