For Fans Of 'The Odd Couple,' What Are Your Thoughts On The "New" Odd Couple?

[king of comedy]

I'm surprised they never mentioned The new odd couple which was a female version. It was on Broadway in 1985 but just for the heck of it.

[treky]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

I'm surprised they never mentioned The new odd couple which was a female version. It was on Broadway in 1985 but just for the heck of it.

I remember that; it stared Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno

[JR1]

Never watched this version, though I read it redid a number of plots from the original show.

[Dr. Thong]

I've only seen clips of The New Odd Couple, but it was from episodes that were reshoots of the old scripts, so it just seemed like warmed over classic Odd Couple.

You can't establish a new show by rehashing old scripts.

[treky]

they did that because of a writers strike

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by treky

they did that because of a writers strike

I'm well aware of that, but redoing the old scripts certainly didn't help them.

Actors have to put their own stamp on a part previously played by other actors and it just appeared to viewers that they were just rehashing the classic series.

[TMC]

I was listening to director Joel Zwick on the TV Guidance Counselor Podcast and he discusses working on The New Odd Couple (at the 00:38:37 mark). Zwick starts off by saying point blank, that The New Odd Couple was a mistake.

The series according to Zwick suffered from miscasting, in particular, casting Ron Glass in the Felix role (the Jack Lemmon/Tony Randall role). The assumption was that since Glass could play pristine and fussy, he could do exactly what Tony Randall did on the prior incarnation of The Odd Couple. Except, according to Zwick, Ron Glass really wasn't.

And in Zwick's own words, black men of that era more than likely couldn't relate the same way that that Jewish men of age 45, especially if they get into an argument. Plus, Glass was still inherently cool and non-neurotic even if he had a fussy side to him. Whereas according to Zwick, Ron Glass didn't have a neurotic bone in his body, the original characters played neurotic up the core.

To make matters worse, they were going to use all of the original Odd Couple sitcom scripts to save money. But within the first episode, they realized that these stories weren't going to hold.

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by TMC

I was listening to director Joel Zwick on the TV Guidance Counselor Podcast and he discusses working on The New Odd Couple (at the 00:38:37 mark). Zwick starts off by saying point blank, that The New Odd Couple was a mistake.

The series according to Zwick suffered from miscasting, in particular, casting Ron Glass in the Felix role (the Jack Lemmon/Tony Randall role). The assumption was that since Glass could play pristine and fussy, he could do exactly what Tony Randall did on the prior incarnation of The Odd Couple. Except, according to Zwick, Ron Glass really wasn't.

And in Zwick's own words, black men of that era more than likely couldn't relate the same way that that Jewish men of age 45, especially if they get into an argument. Plus, Glass was still inherently cool and non-neurotic even if he had a fussy side to him. Whereas according to Zwick, Ron Glass didn't have a neurotic bone in his body, the original characters played neurotic up the core.

To make matters worse, they were going to use all of the original Odd Couple sitcom scripts to save money. But within the first episode, they released that these stories weren't going to hold.

Excellent breakdown of what went wrong.

Yes, the concept of two divorced men living together is fairly universal, but you have to adapt it to the actual people who are playing the roles and recycling old scripts was a very bad idea.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

I had previously noted elsewhere that director Joel Zwick said that The New Odd Couple suffered from miscasting, in particular, casting Ron Glass as Felix Unger. The assumption was that since Glass could play pristine and fussy, he could do exactly what Tony Randall did on the prior incarnation of The Odd Couple. Except, according to Zwick, Ron Glass really wasn't.

And in Zwick's own words, black men of that era more than likely couldn't relate the same way that Jewish men of age 45 could relate, especially if they get into an argument. Plus, Glass was still inherently cool and non-neurotic even if he had a fussy side to him. Whereas according to Zwick, Ron Glass didn't have a neurotic bone in his body, the original characters played neurotic up the core.

Meanwhile, this is what John Schuck, who was Murray the cop on The New Odd Couple had to say:

The idea was to take the Odd Couple premise and have two black guys do it, Demond Wilson and Ron Glass. But they hired all the same writers, so they were writing Jewish jokes for black guys! A friend of mine once said, “They would have been better off just showing the negatives of the original.” [Laughs.] But I had fun. I was playing Murray the cop. Most of the rehearsal was sitting around rewriting this stuff, which actors have no business doing, but… Joel Zwick was very lenient with us, and Garry Marshall was the producer, but he was fairly laissez-faire with us. We did what we wanted.