THE ODDBALL COUPLE

 

THE ODDBALL COUPLE
(ABC, September 6-December 20, 1975)
 
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Paramount Television

 

 

MAIN CAST:
Frank Nelson – Spiffy, various
Paul Winchell – Fleabag, various
Joan Gerber – Goldie Hound
Joe Besser – Various
Bob Holt – Various
Sarah Kennedy – Various
Don Messick – Various
Ginny Tyler – Various
Frank Welker – Various

  

            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 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?

 

A playbill for the original performances of The Odd Couple.

            The Odd Couple began life as a stage play penned by legendary playwright Neil Simon. The story followed neurotic neat freak news writer Felix Ungar as he’s kicked out of his house by his wife and forced to move into the uptown New York apartment of his friend, slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison. While Oscar can’t keep house and spends and gambles too much, he seems to live a happy life; whereas Felix only seems to enjoy pointing out his own and other people’s mistakes to the annoyance of all involved. The clashing personalities drive Oscar to the point that he kicks Felix out, but soon takes him back in after realizing the positive effect Felix has actually had on him.

Inspiration and inspired: Roy Gerber, Danny Simon, Neil Simon, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

            There are conflicting accounts on where the idea for the play came from. One says the idea originated with Neil’s brother and one-time writing partner Danny, who was forced to move in with newly-single theatrical agent Roy Gerber in Hollywood while he and his wife were getting divorced. The two men had contrasting personalities—Danny was anal retentive while Gerber’s daughter, Pam, described his messiness as “clean clutter”—that inspired Danny to try and write some of their resulting antics down. However, he got stuck early on and passed it off to Neil to finish crafting. The play ultimately caused a rift between the brothers when Danny only got 1/6^th of the royalties and failed to receive a “from an idea by” credit. Another account from James Robert Parish’s biography of filmmaker Mel Brooks claimed that the play originated from Neil’s observance of Brooks’ time living with writer and artist Speed Vogel for 3 months following the separation from his first wife.

Ad for the 2005-06 version of the play starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

            The Odd Couple opened on Broadway in 1965 and ran until 1967, netting several Tony Awards and additional nominations. Directed by Mike Nichols, it originally starred Walter Matthau as Oscar and Art Carney as Felix. Jack Klugman and Pat Hingle would replace Matthau and Eddie Bracken and Paul Dooley would replace Carney during the show’s run. Proving a success, the play received multiple revivals and reimaginings over the years beginning in 1968.

            In 1967, Simon sold the film and TV rights to Paramount Pictures. A film adaptation came the following year, directed by Gene Saks and featuring Matthau reprising his role with Jack Lemmon as his co-star. The film largely followed the original story of the play with some additional scenes written by Simon to take some of the action out of the apartment and into the city. Released on May 2, 1968, the film was a critical and commercial success, earning $44.5 million to become the third-highest grossing film of the year.

            Looking to capitalize on the success of the film, Paramount ordered the production of a TV show adapting the play/film and expanding upon the story. Klugman reprised the role of Oscar, while Tony Randall reprised the role of Felix from another production of the play. Although the first season of the show used the same set as the film (moved to a larger set to accommodate a studio audience in season 2), a number of changes occurred: Felix’s last name went from “Ungar” to “Unger”; he now worked as a commercial photographer; he was more highbrow with refined tastes in food, music and the arts; his wife was renamed Gloria from Frances; and the ages of his two children were reversed. Oscar also went from having two children to none at all. The series debuted on ABC on September 24, 1970 and ran five seasons until March 7, 1975. Despite never reaching the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings thanks in part to ABC constantly shifting it around its schedule, the summer reruns rated particularly high and prompted the show’s renewal each year.

The Oddball Couple: Fleabag and Spiffy.

            Meanwhile, animation studio DePatie-Freleng was reeling from the monumental failure of Bailey’s Comets. As it featured 90 characters on roller skates requiring constant motion, a large animation crew working day and night was needed to get the show done on time. It ended up going overbudget and received poor ratings; being banished to Sunday mornings after only four months. The studio found itself without work for the following television season and decided the best way to forward was switching focus away from untested original ideas. The first entry in this new direction was an animated adaptation of The Odd Couple.

Getting some news at the door of their half and half house.

            Like the source material, the cartoon focused on the misadventures of two roommates and co-workers that couldn’t have been more opposite. You had Spiffy (Frank Nelson), a cat who was orderly, polite, and a stickler for cleanliness and organization. Then you had Fleabag (Paul Winchell), a lazy dog who was rude, obnoxious, inconsiderate and sloppy in every way imaginable with an appetite for unusual food concoctions. These differences extended to their shared environments as well; with their home being half nice house and half rattrap, their car being half pristine and half junker, and their office being half clean and tidy and half dirty and sloppy. They worked together as freelance reporters—Spiffy was the writer and Fleabag the photographer, flipping the sitcom’s occupations—and had a slightly ditzy secretary named Goldie Hound (a play on Goldie Hawn, voiced by Joan Gerber). To help keep out of doing too much himself, Fleabag often rigs up Rube Goldberg machines to do chores for him. Despite the fact Fleabag, Spiffy and Goldie were anthropomorphic animals, the rest of their world was inhabited by normal humans and animals.

Fleabag in his natural habitat.

            Developed under the title Fleabag and Spruce, then The Odd Couple, The Odd Ball Couple and finally The Oddball Couple, the series debuted on ABC on September 6, 1975. It was the first DFE series to air on the network, since they had previously aired the sitcom. Each episode contained two segments. The series was written by Bob Ogle, Joel Kane, David Detiege, Earl Kress and John W. Dunn, with Ogle serving as story editor. The characters and main titles were designed by Art Leonardi. The music was done by Doug Goodwin, with the theme arranged by Joe Siracusa and conducted by Eric Rodgers.

Coloring book showing their half wreck of car.

            The Oddball Couple only lasted a single season; remaining on the schedule in reruns until the fall. Not much was done for the series in terms of merchandise beyond several coloring books published by Lowe in 1977. The series wouldn’t even see a home media release for 42 years until it was brought to DVD by CBS Home Entertainment via Amazon’s CreateSpace in 2017 (CBS is currently owned by Paramount). As for The Odd Couple franchise, there had been several more television and film adaptations to accompany the continuing stage versions. In 1982, ABC aired The New Odd Couple for a season, recasting the main characters as Black (earlier stage versions had done this as well). In 1998, Neil Simon wrote and produced The Odd Couple II, reuniting Matthau and Lemmon for their 10^th and final collaboration, that unfortunately proved to be a critical and commercial flop. The latest continuation came in 2015 when CBS aired a reboot again called The Odd Couple, which was created, developed, produced, written and starred Matthew Perry as Oscar, with Thomas Lennon playing Felix. It was cancelled after 3 seasons.

 

 

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Spiffy’s Man Friday / Who’s Zoo” (9/6/75) – Fleabag convinces Spiffy to try and cross the ocean in a canoe to sell their story for big bucks, only for them to end up shipwrecked. / A witch turns Fleabag into a frog to prove that she’s actually a witch.

 

“A Day at the Beach / Fleabag’s Mother” (9/13/75) – When Spiffy forces Fleabag to spend their day off at the beach, Fleabag uses a magical genie to show up Spiffy in various activities. / Spiffy sends Fleabag to Hawaii so he can do an important interview in peace, but Fleabag’s mother drops by for an unexpected visit.

 

“Spiffy’s Nephew / To Heir is Human” (9/20/75) – Spiffy’s nephew Catnip turns out to be a real menace for Fleabag. / Fleabag sets up a phony inheritance to get Spiffy off his back about being clean and tidy.

 

“A Royal Mixup / Paper Airplane” (9/27/75) – When they’re invited to interview royalty, Spiffy seeks to refine Fleabag so he won’t embarrass them. / Fleabag ends up turning a check into a paper airplane and sending it out the window.

 

“The Bighouse and Garden / The Talking Plant” (10/4/75) – Fleabag and Spiffy must break into prison in order to get a valuable interview with an inmate. / Spiffy agrees to a story on a plant that ends up taking a disliking to Fleabag and causes him trouble.

 

“Family Album / Hotel Boo-More” (10/11/75) – Fleabag and Spiffy go through the family album Fleabag finds in the attic. / When the car breaks down, Spiffy and Fleabag find themselves in a ghost town inhabited by real ghosts.

 

“Irish Luck / Who’s Afraid of Virginia Werewolf?” (10/18/75) – Fleabag accidentally buys a leprechaun at an auction that turns out to be anything but lucky. / Fleabag and Spiffy go to interview a woman turning 100-years-old, not knowing she suffers from spells of lycanthropy.

 

“Dive Bummers / Do or Diet” (10/25/75) – Spiffy and Fleabag end up trapped on alone an airplane when all of the skydiving crew accidentally jumps out. / Fleabag resolves to go on a diet to get back into a decent shape.

 

“Klondike Oil Kaper / Old Bugeyes is Back” (11/1/75) – Fleabag drags Spiffy to the Klondike to claim the oil well he’s told he won. / Spiffy must get out of the noisy city to create his poetry, but finds out nature isn’t as peaceful as he hoped.

 

“Mugsy Bagel / TV or Not TV” (11/8/75) – Trying his hand at crime reporting, Fleabag believes some keys he found will lead him to a notorious criminal. / While interviewing a big star, Fleabag gets roped into taking over for the stunt double that quit.

 

“Ali Cat / Joker’s Wild” (11/15/75) – Fleabag tries to convince Spiffy to let him keep the cat that saved him from the neighborhood bully dog. / A bothersome man moves himself into Fleabag and Spiffy’s house promising them a lot of money to take down his life story.

 

“Cinderbag / Mama Fleabag” (11/22/75) – A fairy godfather helps Fleabag clean up so he can go to a royal ball with Spiffy. / Two tired old storks decide to leave a giant baby with Fleabag and Spiffy.

 

“Do It Yourself, Fleabag / Roman Daze” (11/29/75) – Fleabag gets the home improvement bug—unfortunately, he’s not very good at it. / Fleabag and Spiffy end up in ancient Rome and as Emperor Nero’s chefs.

 

“Fleabag’s Submarine / Foreign Legion” (12/6/75) – Inspired by a hit underwater film, Fleabag decides to buy a submarine to make a film of their own. / Fleabag and Spiffy accidentally join the foreign legion when they go to do a story on it.

 

“Bats in the Belfry / Superhound” (12/13/75) – Fleabag and Spiffy are assigned to spend a night in a haunted castle whose vampire master is still very much present. / Some food in Fleabag’s care package from his mother turns him into a superhero.

 

“Jungle Bungle / Talent Scouts” (12/20/75) – Fleabag and Spiffy head to the jungle to find a missing explorer. / Fleabag and Spiffy are tasked with hosting the annual variety show to replenish their club’s coffers.