47 Fun Facts About The Odd Couple

Who wrote the 1965 play The Odd Couple?

Neil Simon won the 1965 Tony Award for Best Author for The Odd Couple, even though the comedy itself lost the Best Play prize.

In The Odd Couple, what is the surname of Oscar's neat, uptight roommate Felix?

Ungar is the spelling on stage and film. Felix signs his nagging pillow notes with his initials, and Oscar says it took him three hours to work out that F.U. meant Felix Ungar.

In The Odd Couple, what is Oscar Madison's profession?

Sportswriter Oscar misses a rare triple play in the film because Felix phones the press box at that very moment to talk about dinner.

In the original play The Odd Couple, what does Felix do for a living?

News writer Felix works for CBS in the play. One friend recalls the night he got locked in the office bathroom and wrote out his entire will on half a roll of toilet paper.

In The Odd Couple, why does Oscar invite Felix to move in?

Oscar offers the spare room because he fears his friend may kill himself: the film adds an opening in which Felix, newly thrown out, checks into a Times Square hotel planning to do exactly that.

In The Odd Couple, which pasta does Felix insist his dinner is after Oscar calls it spaghetti?

Linguini, Felix corrects him with a laugh, so Oscar hurls the plate against the kitchen wall and announces, "Now it's garbage."

In The Odd Couple, which of Oscar's poker buddies is a New York City policeman?

Murray the cop is the first to fret when Felix is late for the game, and it is his wife who phones to say that Felix has gone missing.

In The Odd Couple, what surname do Cecily and Gwendolyn, the giggly English sisters upstairs, share?

Pigeon. Monica Evans and Carole Shelley played the sisters on Broadway, in the film and on television, until the sitcom dropped them after a few first-season episodes.

The Odd Couple's third act was rewritten after critic Elliot Norton's advice during a tryout in which city?

Boston critic Elliot Norton said on his TV show that he missed the upstairs sisters in the last act; the playwright said a light bulb went off, and he wrote them back in.

The Odd Couple is usually traced to which of the playwright's relatives sharing a flat after a divorce?

His brother Danny, a TV comedy writer, moved in with a newly single agent named Roy Gerber, and the two opposites soon drove each other crazy, which planted the seed for the play.

In the 1985 female version of The Odd Couple, which game do the friends gather to play each week?

Trivial Pursuit, the craze of the mid-1980s, is the women's weekly game, and the giggly English sisters upstairs turn into two Spanish brothers, Manolo and Jesus.

Who directed the original Broadway production of The Odd Couple?

Mike Nichols, famous only a few years earlier as half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, won the Tony Award for directing it.

Who originated Oscar in The Odd Couple on Broadway and won a Tony for it?

Walter Matthau left the hit to shoot The Fortune Cookie and suffered a serious heart attack during filming, yet he was back as Oscar for the screen version.

Which Honeymooners star originated Felix in The Odd Couple on Broadway?

Art Carney played the fussy Felix for seven months, then handed the part on to Eddie Bracken and to Paul Dooley, the understudy who had been playing Oscar's pal Speed.

Which three future comedy stars appeared in a 1970 McMaster University student production of The Odd Couple?

Short, Levy and Thomas all took part. Martin Short, then studying social work, played Felix, and classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas later talked him into the comedy career that reunited them on SCTV.

Which All in the Family star played fussy Florence in the 1985 female version of The Odd Couple?

Sally Struthers played Florence opposite Rita Moreno's slovenly Olive after the playwright rewrote his own hit for women, twenty years after the original opened.

Which duo starred in the 2005 Broadway revival of The Odd Couple?

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, reunited after The Producers, played Oscar and Felix; when Lane fell ill, Brad Garrett, who had been the production's policeman, stepped in as Oscar.

Which game show host played Felix in a 2001 Hawaii benefit production of The Odd Couple?

Pat Sajak played Felix opposite Honolulu news anchor Joe Moore, a close friend since they served together on the Army's radio network in Vietnam, to raise money for a local theater.

Where did The Odd Couple film open?

Radio City Music Hall held the comedy for a record fourteen weeks. Paramount had bought the screen rights before a word of the play was even written.

Who directed the 1968 film of The Odd Couple?

Gene Saks had just filmed the same playwright's Barefoot in the Park, and in 1985 he came back to stage the female version of the comedy on Broadway.

Who played Felix in the 1968 film of The Odd Couple?

Jack Lemmon got the part, though Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason were at one point reported for the film's two leads.

In The Odd Couple film, what is the name of Felix's estranged wife?

Frances is her name on stage and in the film. The 1970s sitcom renamed her Gloria, but the 1982 remake changed her back to Frances.

At which ballpark did The Odd Couple film its staged triple play in 1967?

Shea Stadium lent its field shortly before a real Mets-Pirates game in June 1967, and big-league players from both clubs acted out the triple play for the cameras.

Which Pirates star was first asked to bat in The Odd Couple's staged triple play?

Roberto Clemente was the first choice, but accounts differ on why he dropped out: a report at the time cites the $100 fee, others his pride as a hitter. Bill Mazeroski grounded into it instead.

Who composed the jazzy theme of The Odd Couple, heard in the 1968 film and the TV series?

Neal Hefti, who also wrote the Batman TV theme, composed it for the film. Sammy Cahn supplied lyrics for the tune, but they were almost never heard.

In The Odd Couple, where has Felix gone when Oscar's poker pals fail to find him?

Felix has gone upstairs to the sisters' apartment. His weeping over his family wrecked the double date for Oscar, but it won both women over, and they took him in.

On which network did The Odd Couple sitcom air from 1970 to 1975?

ABC never saw the show finish in the Nielsen top 30 in any of its five seasons, yet it became an even bigger success in reruns.

Who played Felix in the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple?

Tony Randall won his Emmy for the role only after the series had been cancelled, and told the audience he was grateful but wished he had a job.

Who played Oscar in the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple?

Jack Klugman had already taken over as Oscar on Broadway in 1965, yet his co-star, hired first, pushed for Mickey Rooney until the producers got their way.

Which producer developed The Odd Couple for television, the first of his sitcoms for Paramount?

Garry Marshall and writing partner Jerry Belson stayed close to the film at first, even giving Oscar an apartment set modelled on the movie's; Happy Days followed four years later.

What is Felix's profession in the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple?

Commercial photographer Felix plugs his slogan, 'Portraits a specialty', at every chance, and one flashback has him shooting for Playboy when his own fiancee turns up as a model.

Who played Myrna Turner, Oscar's secretary, in the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple?

Penny Marshall's Myrna spends one episode winning back her boyfriend Sheldn, whose name lost its 'o' on his birth certificate; he was played by Rob Reiner, her husband at the time.

Which future Happy Days regular played the policeman pal on the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple?

Al Molinaro played the beat cop through the whole run, and a year after it ended he was hired to replace Pat Morita as the malt-shop owner on Happy Days.

Which actress played Oscar's ex-wife Blanche on the sitcom The Odd Couple while married to its Oscar?

Brett Somers sparred on screen with her real husband as his acid-tongued ex, and life caught up with the script: the couple separated during the show's final season.

What are the names of Felix's two children in the 1970s sitcom The Odd Couple?

Leonard and Edna were named for the actor who played their father: Leonard was his own middle name, and Edna was the name of his sister.

How did The Odd Couple sitcom's production change in season two?

It switched to a live studio audience because both stage-trained stars hated performing to season one's canned laughter; from then on it was shot with three cameras, like a play.

Which Odd Couple episode ranked fifth on TV Guide's 1997 list of the 100 greatest episodes?

Password puts the roommates on the real game show with host Allen Ludden and Betty White, where Felix's clue for the word 'bird' is 'Aristophanes' and a baffled Oscar can only answer 'Greek?'

How does The Odd Couple sitcom end its five-season run?

Felix remarries his ex-wife Gloria in the last of the 114 episodes, having finally talked her into taking him back, and Oscar gets the apartment to himself again.

Which crime drama did The Odd Couple's Emmy-winning Oscar go on to lead?

Quincy, M.E. kept him solving cases from 1976 to 1983, with Garry Walberg, who had played Oscar's pal Speed on the sitcom, at his side for the whole run.

Which tennis rivals appeared as themselves in one episode of the sitcom The Odd Couple?

Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King turned up in 1973, the year of their Battle of the Sexes match: Oscar stakes everything on a ping-pong game against Riggs, and King walks in at the end.

In the 1975 cartoon The Oddball Couple, what animals are the two roommates?

A dog and a cat: the sitcom left the air in 1975, and that same year its network kept the idea alive on Saturday mornings with sloppy Fleabag the dog and fussy Spiffy the cat.

Which two actors led the 1982 reboot The New Odd Couple?

Ron Glass and Demond Wilson played Felix and Oscar in a version that recycled scripts from the 1970s series for its early episodes, and it was cancelled after one season.

In The Odd Couple: Together Again, Felix helps Oscar recover from surgery for what?

Throat cancer had cost the actor a vocal cord in real life, so the script gave Oscar the same operation and had Felix coach his rasping friend through the recovery.

In The Odd Couple II, what event brings Felix and Oscar back together after 17 years?

Their children's wedding: Oscar's son is marrying Felix's daughter Hannah in California, and on the drive there the pair manage to lose the directions, the luggage and the rental car.

In which Florida city is Oscar living at the start of The Odd Couple II?

Sarasota is where Oscar still hosts a poker game, and where the film ends with Felix at his door, suitcases in hand, asking to move in all over again.

Who played Oscar in the 2015 CBS revival of The Odd Couple?

Matthew Perry did more than star: the remake was his own project, which he co-wrote and executive produced, updating Oscar into a talk radio host.

In the 2015 CBS version of The Odd Couple, what kind of class does Felix guest-instruct?

Yoga: Felix brings his friends along when he fills in for his own instructor, only for the students to walk out on his pushy teaching style.