Felix & Oscar
Through the Ages

When The Odd Couple, Neil Simon’s fourth Broadway show, debuted in 1965, who could have predicted that it would spawn a whole cottage industry of adaptations and sequels:

n      1968: For the film version of the play, Walter Matthau, who had won the Tony for best actor, continued in the role of Oscar.  Jack Lemmon took over as Felix, originally created on Broadway by Art Carney.  The film debuted the now-famous Odd Couple theme music, which later was featured in the TV series. It was composed by Neal Hefti (who also wrote the theme for the iconic ‘60s TV series Batman).

n      1970: The ABC prime-time TV series debuts with Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar.  Produced by Garry Marshall, with no direct involvement from Neil Simon, it will run for a total of five seasons.  Though not a hit in prime time, the show blossomed in syndication and became very successful.  Klugman was honored with two Emmy awards for best actor. Randall won the Emmy for best actor in 1975 just after the series had been cancelled and famously quipped in his acceptance speech: “I'm so happy I won. Now if I only had a job.”

n      1975: An ABC-TV Saturday morning cartoon version debuts entitled The Oddball Couple, featuring a prissy cat named Spiffy and a messy dog named Fleabag.

n      1982: The New Odd Couple airs starring African-American actors Ron Glass (Barney Miller) as Felix and Demond Wilson (Sanford & Son) as Oscar. Using many of the same plots from the original series, it lasted only one season.

n      1985: A revamped, gender-reversed version of the show opens on Broadway with Rita Moreno as “Olive” and Sally Struthers as “Florence.”  The reviews are somewhat flat but supporting players Tony Shaloub (TV’s Monk) and Lewis J. Stadlen (The Producers) are singled out for their hilarious portrayal of two look-alike Spanish brothers (the distaff version of the Pigeon Sisters from the original).

n      1992: Randall and Klugman do a two-hour reunion episode of their TV show.  Also in the 1990s, they are featured in a series of Felix-and-Oscar TV commercials for a snack food company.  The pair also occasionally starred in benefit performances of the play.

n      1998: Thirty years after the original film, Lemmon, Matthau and Simon (as writer & producer) are reunited for The Odd Couple II, a “road movie” in which the former roommates journey to attend the wedding of Oscar’s son to Felix’s daughter. Though not well-reviewed, it marks the last time the pair appeared together on film. They had previously been teamed in eight films including The Fortune Cookie, Grumpy Old Men, and a remake of The Front Page. 

n      2002: Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple stars John Larroquette (Night Court) as Oscar and Joe Regalbuto (Murphy Brown) as Felix in a Los Angeles production, for which Simon updated the script for the new millennium and reduced the play from three acts to two.