My pop loved that show. And he really liked the intro. Watch it, and then watch it again. Especially at 20 seconds in on the right split of the screen. Felix, ever the pompous ass, insist on helping an old lady cross the street (even though a Boyscout was already helping her). At 23 seconds in she hits him with her purse, and then at 25 seconds in the Boyscout nails him with a hard right into his chest/shoulder.
The question that my Old Man kept wondering is, was this acting or did they have that kid really give Tony Randall a good poke to the uppers?
Watch it, watch it, watch it again. And then…watch it again. And then, watch it in slow motion. Don’t go to church tomorrow, take a couple of days off of work this week, and blow off your kids open house at school. Just watch this video.
It definitely looks like a real punch to me.
Or not.
I’m no video expert.
Either way I’m still not going to work, church, or my kids school.
It’s clear from the slowish speed of the blow that there was relatively little power behind it. Tony Randall was fairly good physical comedian. His reaction and mouthing the word “OW” is what makes you think there’s a much more impressive impact.
In Barry Williams book called, I think, Growing Up Brady, he relates a ‘before the Bunch’ story of working with Shelly Winters in which he has a scene where she has to hit him for whatever reason. He says she about took his head off with the slap.
So sometimes it’s real.
But that one in the Odd Couple? Not real. Randall was good at what he did.
Lucille Ball said in her famous scene at the conveyor belt at the candy factory, the woman was an actual candy factory worker and when it came time for her to slap her back the woman wasn’t doing it right. So Lucy said she told her to not hold back and let her have it. So in the used take, she actually hit Lucy harder than Lucille Ball expected her to
Alison “Nellie Olsen” Arngrim says in her book Confessions of a Prairie Bitch (a great read BTW), that even though her and Melissa Gilbert were very good friends in real life, Gilbert would often get carried away and give her more than she bargained for.
