Happy ‘The Odd Couple Day’!

If you are of a certain age (like myself), you will remember that classic Friday night programming line-up on ABC: The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, The Odd Couple, and Love, American Style. It was “Must See TV” years before NBC established the theme. It was the originator, of sorts, of the ABC “TGIF” kids-driven programming brand. And, for a performer vying for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy, it meant you had to face The Odd Couple’s Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison and Tony Randall as Felix Unger for five consecutive years. Klugman won twice, and Randall once.

Debuting on September 24, 1970, and based on the 1968 film version of the Neil Simon stage play with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, today is a memorable day in TV history for The Odd Couple. It was on this date that Felix Unger’s wife kicked him out. More specifically…

On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence; that request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that some day he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his friend, Oscar Madison. Several years 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?“

Happy The Odd Couple Day!

Airing for five seasons, The Odd Couple, produced by Garry Marshall, was never a Top 10 hit. Nor did it ever finish a season even in the Top 30. And that was after the network changed to filming of the series from single-camera in season one to multi-camera in season two in the hopes of attracting a larger audience. But, at a time when Mary Tyler Moore was “making it after all” and Norman Lear introduced the grittier type of comedic storytelling, The Odd Couple endured and remains one of the most beloved classic comedies in TV history. Fifty-two years after premiering, today, in particular, we celebrate The Odd Couple.

Here are some factoids you may – or may not – know:

-Mickey Rooney was the first choice to play Oscar Madison. Rooney was also considered for the role of Archie Bunker on All in the Family.

-Art Carney and Dean Martin were considered for the part of Felix. Carney originated the role of Felix (opposite Walter Matthau as Oscar) in the Broadway play.

-Felix’s children were named Leonard and Edna. Tony Randall’s real middle name was Leonard, and his sister’s name was Edna. Edna was ultimately played by two actresses (Pamelyn Ferdin and Doney Oatman).

-The part of Oscar’s ex-wife Blanche was portrayed by Brett Somers, Klugman’s own wife. The real-life couple were separated during the run of the show. Somers, of course, was a staple on the comedic quiz show The Match Game.

-November 13 is producer Garry Marshall’s birthday. He was the brother of Penny Marshall (who played Oscar’s secretary, Myrna Turner, on The Odd Couple from 1972-74). He passed away in 2016 at the age of 81.

-After Al Molinaro met Penny Marshall in an improvisation class, she introduced him to Garry Marshall, who offered Molinaro the role of police officer Murray Greshler.

-The two actresses who played the Pigeon Sisters (Monica Evans and Carole Shelley) in the first season of The Odd Couple played the same parts opposite Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in the 1968 theatrical and in the original Broadway stage version.

-Elinor Donanue’s character on The Odd Couple was named Miriam Welby, an homage to the Robert Young medical drama, Marcus Welby, M.D. Young played Donahue’s father Jim Anderson in the classic family-themed comedy Father Knows Best.

-In the final episode of The Odd Couple, “Felix Remarries” (originally telecast on March 7, 1975), Felix wins his ex-wife Gloria (Janis Hansen) back and they remarry, as Oscar regains the freedom of living alone again. But their second time at the altar was short-lived. In the made-for television reunion movie, The Odd Couple: Together Again, 1n 1993, the fussbudget finds himself with his old roommate.

Not surprisingly, imitators – The New Odd Couple on ABC with Demond Wilson and Ron Glass in the 1982-83 TV season, and The Odd Couple with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon from 2015-17 — have come…and gone. Stage versions have been produced. And there was even an animated sitcom, The Oddball Couple, in the fall 0f 1975 (featuring the misadventures of a dog named Fleabag and cat named Spiffy, who live together under the same roof). But no other production could come close to the chemistry between the two – Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

At the nostalgia cable network TV Land’s fifth anniversary party in 2001, I asked Tony Randall what his thoughts were about the then state of television comedy. Like his alter ego, Felix Unger, Randall got right to the point. “There is nothing I find worth watching,” he said. “You can’t find anything to match what we did.”

Personally, I could not have agreed more. Happy The Odd Couple day!