Odd Couple Appreciation Thread

Cafe Society
1

Going by the responses in this thread, it seems to me that what this forum really needs is a remeberance of things coupley and odd.

According to Yesterdayland the series initial run was from '70 to '75. So even though I thought I saw it’s original run, it looks like I really saw it in syndication.

My favorite episodes include the one mentioned in that other thread in which Felix writes the song “Happy and Peppy and Bursting With Love” and then JP Morgan makes a torch song out of it.

The traffic court one were Felix draws the infamous chart “When you assume you make an ass out of you and me!”

The one when Oscar takes anger management classes and he’s nice to Felix, except he keeps waking up in the middle of the night to whack Felix across the head-- I don’t like pits, pits, pits in my juice, juice, juice!"

And one more-- the vacation one. Everybody sing-- Oscar, Oscar OSCAR. Oscar, Oscar, OSCAR.
I lied, I got one more, but this is from the movie. Felix tries to kill himself by taking a handful of birth control pills.

Do you have any favorites?

And woe to anyone who mentions the god-awful Black Odd Couple show.

2

I was actually in the stage version of The FEMALE Odd Couple. Oddly enough, I was the anal retentive neat one. But what was funny was the ‘clearing of the sinuses’ just like in the movie. God bless Jack Lemmon.

One of my clearest childhood memories is the opening credit sequence to the Odd Couple, with Tony Randall picking up the cigar butt with the tip of his umbrella. How strange that I would remember that out of everything. The mind is strange.

3

“Murray! Use your coaster!”

4

Oscar one time made the mistake of saving Felix’s life. So, of course, Felix is waiting on Oscar hand and foot and generally (and unintentionally) making his life miserable. So, Oscar decides he’s going to get revenge. He’s going to pretend that he’s in trouble and give Felix the chance to save his life so they’d be even and Felix would leave him alone.

So, at dinner, while eating the chicken dinner that Felix prepared, Oscar starts to pretend that he’s choking on a chicken bone. He puts his hands to his throat and wheezes out the words “chicken bones.” Felix calmly tells him he’s not choking on a chicken bone. How does Felix know? It’s boneless chicken.

Oscar replies: “Boneless chicken. How did it walk?” :slight_smile:

Then there was the time that Felix got laryngitis, so he acquired a blackboard to write on. His sinuses were really bothering him, but he couldn’t honk, so he wrote “HONK!” in big letters on the board.

That night, two thieves break into the apartment. They look at the board and one says to the other “Maybe they teach geese.”

Of course, there was the episode where Felix and Oscar fought over furnishings. Felix ended up getting the oddest furniture you ever saw. Chairs shaped like hands, “couches” in the shapes of potato chips, and a clock that no one understand.

Let’s not forget when Bobby Riggs was on the show and Oscar lost Felix to Bobby because he couldn’t type his name in 10 seconds. He spelled it “Oscar Madisoy.”

I also loved their parodies of 12 Angry Men (which Klugman starred in) and A Christmas Carol (“Ebeneezer Madison”).

Felix, as the ghost of Marley, wants to lead Oscar/Ebenezer out of the apartment by the window. “Just hold my hand and you’ll be able to fly with me,” Felix says. Oscar says he’s nuts and refuses. So Felix goes out alone and plummets to the ground. Oscar looks down and mutters about Felix being a nut. He turns around and Felix is standing there, in bandages. “This time we’ll take the elevator,” says Felix.

There are many, many others. I haven’t seen the show in a loooong time. I’d love it if this show came out on DVD.

Zev Steinhardt

5

There were so many great episodes. Among my favorite moments:

  1. In the “Let’s make a Deal” episode, there are two classic moments:

    “T-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ke the envelo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-pe!”

    And of course, when the “horse” face looks at the camera and deadpans, “A waffle iron?”

  1. In the final scene of the Playboy episode, remember the smile on Oscar’s face?
  1. Oscar calling the square dance.

Incidentally, remember that music that always played during a tense moment, a moment when something awful was about to happen? Just three notes repeated, over and over, sort of like:

“Leeeee deeee DOH… leeeeee deeee DOH…”

6

“Aristophones”

Zev Steinhardt

7

This is from the movie, but Felix trying to clear his Eustachian tubes in the diner is my favorite Odd Couple moment.

Schmmmmaaaaa
Schma
Schmmmmmmaaaaaa
Schma Schma

8

Ridiculous!

Does anyone remember the opening narration? The only part I remember is: Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?!

9

I had to look it up, but it was:

“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 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?”

Da da da da da da…da da da da da DA da…

10

Man, I loved this show. It rarely gets mentioned in discussions of “funniest” shows. Used to watch the re-runs with my mom.

Upon opening the thread, Aristophanes was the first thing to come to my mind. And I frequently flash to the image of them opening the little peephole door in response to a knock, and having Murray stick his nose through it.

11

I liked the episode in which Oscar’s friend, a fiddle playing rodeo clown played by Roy Clark, visits. Felix totally snubs him until he realizes the man’s a violin virtuoso, then the rest is a mess as Felix tries to make him turn to the classical circuit.

The “Little Orphan Annie” on David Steinberg Show was also great.

12

Reading the Odd Couple intro posted by mobo85 really brings back memories. As I’m reading it I am hearing it exactly as spoken by the narrator!

I seem to remember that The Jury Story episode shows where Felix and Oscar first met. If this is true then they were not childhood friends. This has always bothered me. Am I remembering that episode incorrectly?

One of my favorite lines: Felix has fallen asleep/passed out and wakes up with a hot-water bottle/compress (or something to that effect) on his head. As he wakes up he feels the top of his head, and whines: “My hair feels funny.”

Another: Felix brings his daughter to work and is setting up for a photo shoot of a family comprised of two little-people parents and their not-little-person son. “Everyone smile and say midget.”

13

The Password episode is definitely my favorite. Still makes me smile just to think of it.

I have a habit of bursting into “happy, and peppy, and bursting with love,” every once in a while, too.

The ballet episode is another classic.

Ironically, Jump the Shark has a great page of Odd Couple memories. (The vote is 148-22 that the show never jumped the shark!)

14

quote: And one more-- the vacation one. Everybody sing-- Oscar, Oscar OSCAR. Oscar, Oscar, OSCAR.

i think that that scene was the funniest in all of television.

15

My wife works for Tony Randall. He’s a really nice guy but don’t let him see this post! He hates it when people remember him solely for The Odd Couple.

Good thing he doesn’t own a computer… :slight_smile:

16

This was lifted, at least partly I think, from an Andy Griffith Show episode wherein Andy saves Gomer’s life and becomes the subject of Gomer’s unwanted gratefulness. In that episode Andy pretends to be a victim of a gas leak so that Gomer can “rescue” him thus making them even-steven. I can’t remember if that’s what Oscar ended up doing with Felix.

17

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by SpoilerVirgin *
The Password episode is definitely my favorite. Still makes me smile just to think of it.

I thought of that when I read in a Lincoln biography that yes, he really did like Mayonaisse.

Sorry to hear Tony Randall doesn’t like being remembered for Felix; I know that the stage is his first love, but more people saw the lowest rated episode of TOC than have seen all of his stage plays combined. (Personally, I’ll always remember him for Sidney Shorr; not to be ferklempt, but that was the character that first made me think that maybe being gay wasn’t an evil thing.)

18

Just to bump this thread again…

Felix had a pet bird who died. He was heartbroken. He wanted to do the right thing for him (Oscar just wanted to dump him in the East River).

After searching for a solution, eventually they came to a pet funeral home. The owner of the home was more than happy to take their business. He asked if there would be any mourners. Felix begins ticking off the names of friends. When he gets to the Pigeon sisters, the proprietor’s face lights up. “Pigeon sisters?” he asks.

“They’re people! They’re people!” says an annoyed Oscar.

Flash forward to the service. As the propietor is conducting the service there is a squaking from the coffin. It turns out that Felix merely overdosed him on medication. Felix is overjoyed. Oscar asks for his money back since there isn’t going to be a funeral.

“Sorry, no refunds.”

So Oscar looks in the air for a second and swats a fly.

“Oh, that was my pet fly. My poor poor pet fly…” says Oscar who starts to put the fly into the coffin.

“I’m not doing a funeral for a fly.” The proprietor says. Oscar threatens him with the local BBB. “Did the deceased have a name?” He asks.

“Sol,” deadpans Oscar.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to pay our last respects to … [deadpan voice]Sol [/deadpan voice]. Beloved fly of Oscar Madison, friend to Felix…”

Zev Steinhardt