The Odd Couple on Stage and Screen Book Review

[TJ]

Playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon has had many successes over a five decade period, mostly on stage, but one of his greatest successes on stage transcended to the big screen and to the small screen (and beyond): The Odd Couple. It's a story that almost everybody knows: two recently divorced men, Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, one a neat-freak and the other a slob, sharing an apartment, and trying to do so without driving each other crazy. What many don't know, though, is that The Odd Couple was based in part upon the real-life experiences of Danny Simon, the recently divorced brother of playwright Neil Simon. As it turns out, Danny Simon was much like a Felix himself, and found himself sharing an apartment with an Oscar type of person... and Danny's brother, Neil, knew that he had solid gold when it came to writing a play.

Of course, that play blossomed into much more. The play debuted on Broadway in 1965, and was a huge success. In fact, the stage production is regarded as a classic, and variations of it continue to be performed across the country to this day. By 1968, the play was turned into a movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattheau... which was also a success. And, of course, in 1970, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall became known as the sitcom version of The Odd Couple. The series which never was quite a hit series for the five seasons that it originally aired, but today, it is regarded as one of the greatest sitcom classics of all time. Bob Leszczak's book, The Odd Couple on Stage and Screen, talks about all of these.

Read our full review here:
http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2014/1...couple-on.html