Garry Marshall on "The Odd Couple" at TCA 2015: "Women Writers Weren't Allowed"

[JamesG]

Garry Marshall: "Women Writers Weren't Allowed on the Original 'Odd Couple'"
1/12/15
by Lesley Goldberg


Much has changed since "The Odd Couple's" original run in the 1970s.

As CBS prepares to reboot the comedy that starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, executive producer Garry Marshall — who worked on the original series and ABC's '80s reboot— stressed that the time (and chemistry between leads Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon)was right for the reboot.





Among the changes, Marshall told reporters at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour, are the addition to women in the writers' room for his new CBS show (launching Feb. 19).

"They weren't allowed, they wouldn't hire any," Marshall recalled of the original series. "I had three of the greatest writers: Susan Silver, who went on to 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show,' Susan Harris who did 'Soap', 'Benson' and 'The Golden Girls', who became one of the best writers in the world, and Susan Miller who was the head writer on SNL, all not hired."

"The network didn't want them. The new show has three great female writers … and they help balance it out," said Marshall. He later stressed that the addition of women in the writers' room has "improved the whole show."






The new take will see Oscar single and exploring dating and his feelings about re-entering that scene following a divorce.

"I'm from the '70s, we didn't talk so much about our feelings in the '70s. Now, that's all we talk about," Marshall said. "So now girls talk about feelings better than boys, so there's more women shows."

Marshall, who joked that Perry was his "favorite character from 'Friends'" and Lennon — whom he "didn't know from Adam" before the pilot — would be in his next movie, said that the chemistry between the duo gets right what ABC's 1980s incarnation got wrong.





Other changes include Oscar and Felix addressing the elephant in the room: two adult men living together who aren't gay.

"The network was so afraid the audience would think it was two gay characters so every week they said put more girls on it," an animated Marshall recalled of the original series. "We did scenes where they hugged and kissed it would drive the network crazy. Now they can talk about it!"

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...-werent-763092

[comedyfreak]

I liked what I seen in their promo's.

[Babalu]

The Odd Couple was one of the best TV shows in history so they obviously didn't need them.