I am just discovering that two different girls played "Felix Ungar"s daughter, Edna. Does anyone know the details on why this was?
I have no idea why, but I decided to look up who played Edna. The main one seems to be Pamelyn Ferdin, and wow, she was in like 75 different shows, many in a recurring role (including the voice of Lucy in A Boy Named Charlie Brown, and on the opposite end, The Toolbox Murders).
WAG, she was a very, very busy actress and just wasn’t available.
I met Pamelyn Ferdin a few years ago at a science fiction convention (where she was invited because she appeared on one episode of the original Star Trek, “And the Children Shall Lead”), and I asked her about this.
She was the original Edna on The Odd Couple, but they had to replace her when she accepted the role of the daughter on The Paul Lynde Show. When Tony Randall heard the news, he approached her with mock heartbreak, saying “How could you pick Paul Lynde as your father over me?”
Holy crap that’s why I like this place.
Felix’s children were Leonard and Edna. Tony Randall’s real name was Leonard and his sister was Edna. I don’t know if he asked to have his on-screen kids named that or if the producers did it. I think it’s cute.
The Odd Couple is on every night here on MeTV. I DVR and watch. It’s still hysterical, although a bit dated in some aspects. The Password episode was on earlier this week. Aristophanes. Ridiculous!
Pamelyn Ferdin actually played a totally different character in a season one episode of The Odd Couple (the season that was shot single camera w/a laugh rack). Felix & Oscar are stuck in a cabin in the woods with a group of Girl Scouts and she played one of them (who I think was kind of nasty to another girl who was the main subject). Starting in season two she then appeared in two episodes as Felix’s daughter Edna. She was replaced by actress Doney Oatman who play Edna in three further episodes, including the series finale where Felix remarries her mom (his ex-wife).
Not only was she in that episode of TOS (one of the fans’ lesser favorites I might add) but she was also in the Saturday morning kid’s sci-fi show Space Academy with Lost in Space’s Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith).
That other girl was Lisa Gerritsen, who later played the daughter of John Monroe (William Windom) on My World and Welcome To It, and the daughter of Phyllis Lindstom (Cloris Leachman) on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
During the early 70s, she was certainly ubiquitous. It seemed then that if you ever saw pre-teen girl character on TV, it was either her or Jodie Foster.
Not only that, but when she started, she was quite young, and she continued to play that part even when the character was in college on Phyllis.
There were also two different actors who played Leonard - IIRC, Willie Aames and Leif Garrett. (Coincidentally, they also both played boyfriends of Kristy McNichol’s character on Family.)
I saw an interview with Pamelyn Ferdin, with other child actresses and she said, she wanted to leave the business as she has a typical stage mother, and while she didn’t mind acting, she didn’t care for it either.
She said, her mother actually got mad at her when she turned 18 and said, she was taking all the money she earned from acting as a child and going to school to become an RN.