The Odd Couple
Never mind Matthew Perry, in this remake of a classic, it's all about Thomas Lennon.
- Published by David Knox
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Question: How can you improve on The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall?
Answer: You can’t.
Question: Does that make it entirely off limits?
Answer: No. But you’d better have a bloody good reason for trying.
I came to this 2015 remake fearing the worst, but I am generously acknowledging that it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I loved the 1970s TV original and I’m generally not a fan of current multicam comedies where the audience is laughing so hard I feel like an outcast for not joining in (Frasier was probably the last rolled gold one for me).
So there were two key factors that were unnerving me before the credits had even rolled: a new cast, and a ‘laugh track’ (of sorts).
But I remind myself that The Odd Couple was of course based on Neil Simon’s 1965 stage play, performed on Broadway with Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison (Klugman later took over the role) and Art Carney. So if the source material lends itself to various casts, is it so terrible that others are now assuming the same roles? Theatre does it all the time.
Now that I’ve seen two episodes I completely get why CBS has decided to give this classic another go -and it’s not Matthew Perry as Oscar Maddison. It’s Thomas Lennon. This guy is pitch perfect as the neurotic Felix Unger. There are plenty who could play the slovenly sports-journo, Oscar. But only Jim Parsons or David Hyde Pierce could tip Lennon as Felix.
The premise has changed little: Felix has been thrown out by his wife and arrives at the apartment of his best pal (always at the most inopportune time, when his latest conquest is about to submit). Before long the two are impossible roommates. In one sign of the times, Oscar is no longer a print sports reporter, but a sportscaster (complete with an electronic ticker above his bedroom). Felix is still a photographer. Oscar also has an assistant, Dani (Community‘s Yvette Nicole Brown) who spends more time in the apartment than any office, clearly for economic purpose.
There are also the usual ensemble pals to Oscar, one of whom is NewsRadio‘s Dave Foley.
While the punchlines are laid on thick, some thankfully hit their target, due to the comic timing of the two leads. I could take or leave Perry, who seems to be constantly striving for a star vehicle since the demise of Friends (I quite liked the short lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), but Lennon, better known for Reno 911!, hits the physical and verbal comedy with ease.
Reassuringly, the series also has original producer, the legendary Garry Marshall, as a consulting producer and Frasier writer Joe Keenan on board.
The premise of two polar opposites under one roof is one of the great sitcom classics. The Odd Couple has been revived before, animated, turned into a female version, an African-American version and hijacked by all kinds of shows including Will and Grace, New Girl, Dharma and Greg -even Frasier Crane was an odd couple with his working class father.
I don’t see this version hitting the heights of Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, but if Neil Simon’s play can be revived time and again (you listening, Shaun Micallef and Francis Greenslade?) then it could do a lot worse than Matthew Perry & Thomas Lennon.
The Odd Couple airs with a double episode 7:30pm Monday on TEN.
20 Responses
Remakes are never as good as originals
I know
Exception : Battlestar Galactica. Not only surpassed the original but became a classic in its own right.
I wanted to love it, but didn’t get a laugh from me. Will Big Bang be the last for sitcoms? Will comedy ever return to our screens? I can only live in hope.
I wanted to like this coz I love Matthew Perry, and having never seen the original, I’m not precious about it. I gave it a shot on TenPlay and found it unbearable. The gags were forced, the canned laughter sounded too fake. I switched off ¾ of the way through.
From Lennon’s appearances on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson he seems a natural for Felix.
Pretty much every live audience sitcom has used editing in a laugh track to some degree. It’s just a question of how much. The modern style is to add laughter after every line in the hope that someone will find it funny, because that’s easier than writing good lines and building a scene.
The worst laugh track has to be the first season of Sorkin’s Sports Night. That was a character based comedy filmed without allowing for laughs, which then had a laugh track laid over the top by the network.
Frasier was the peak of the “filmed in front of a live audience” sitcom. It had a production team with decades of experience in the 70s, 80s and a cast who worked well together and loved performing live. Grammer also refused to rehearse the scenes, so the reactions all seemed fresh…
I remember in a special on the early days of Friends success, Matthew Perry, mentioned that he used to watch The Odd Couple in reruns as kid. So he’s always been a fan. Interesting too, that Friends Chandler and Joey could also be seen as a version of the Odd Couple. Although Chandler would have been considered more the Felix, to Joeys Oscar.
I always wondered if Felix was secretly gay. Or is that reinforcing a stereotype?
He was a forerunner to Niles. Straight but delicate.
“Fastidious” also fits.
That’s what I was thinking. The fact the set looks like a replica of Frasier’s apartment made it feel even more so.
I will watch…saw the trailers and liked what I saw…..I also was around for the earlier incarnation…but I will critique this one on it own merits….and I will also wait until I see it …before I pass any comment…if at all.
Yes, you can improve on Klugman and Randall.
Go back to the original source – Broadway, with Walter Matthau and Art Carney.
And then to the first movie, with Matthau and Lemon.
We should never forget that Friends was ‘sweetened’ for ten years. Even to a point where the players would redo certain takes with the audience waiting to give the reaction the writers wanted.
Just finished reading all of your review.
Micallef and Greenslade would be paradise. Please add Kit and the current MAH multi-character fem as Gwendolyn and Cecilly and I’d be first in line for tix.
We’ll give the revamp a go – but, like you, I think Perry has had his 15 mins of fame – even though it lasted ten years.
D
Couldn’t get through 3 minutes of it here… I don’t think it will do well at all…
I will give it a go but I hate laugh tracks, unless the show is filmed live.
I used ‘laugh track’ in inverted commas. I suspect it is filmed live, possibly with sweetening. But they still expect the audience to laugh at every third line….
Thomas Lennon is the only reason I would watch this. Good to hear he’s what makes the show.
Still don’t know if I’ll watch.
The IT Crowd from the UK (2006-2013) was a really good multicam sitcom with a laugh track. They don’t have to be as crap as Two & A Half Men.
The IT Crowd was a hybrid. They used pre-recorded bits for location stuff to flesh out the story and filmed the basement and office scenes live.