The Oddball Couple

Above average Saturday morning fare. Spoofed "The Odd Couple," popular sitcom of the time, based on the Neil Simon play and subsequent movie. Oddball Couple was on ABC during the "Funshine Saturday" phase, when they put more into Saturday morning than usual. Was pleasantly interrupted, on occasion, by Multiplication Rock.

Two months after the prime-time version of "The Odd Couple" ended its five season run as an ABC-TV prime-time nightly sitcom in 1975,this animated variant of the popular show(which was originally a Broadway comedy by Neil Simon,and also based on the 1968 theatrical version of the same title that starred Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon and the live-action television sitcom which was also from the same title that was also produced by Neil Simon that starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman that ran from 1970-1975 on ABC and produced by Garry Marshall) popped up as part of ABC's Sunshine Saturday schedule.

"The Oddball Couple" was the animated version of Neil Simon's play,which was co-produced by Simon himself and was produced by Depatie-Freleng Productions in association with Paramount Television for ABC-TV which ran from September 9,1975 until September 3,1977. Only 16 episodes were made of this series. Only the original 16 episodes ran for one season,while its second season consisted of repeated episodes from the first season.

This was great rendition of the show,with the exception of one major flaw: They couldn't get Tony Randall and Jack Klugman to do the voicework. However,this animated version premiered two months after the original prime-time series left the air so,when the cartoon version premiered,Randall and Klugman had other options. If would have been great if they did got Randall and Klugman to reprise their roles as the cartoon version of Felix and Oscar,but to no avail. However,this animated version consisted of Spiffy(the Felix Unger type,who was the exact opposite of Tony Randall)who was a prissy feline who roomed with Fleabag(the Oscar Madison knockoff and the exact opposite of Jack Klugman's character),who was a slobbish messy unkept dog. Goldie(voiced by Joan Gerber)was their secretary. The voices of Spiffy and Fleabag were done by Depatie-Freleng stockplayers Frank Nelson and Paul Winchell(Winchell was better known as one of the Disney stockplayers who was voice of Tigger in the Winnie The Pooh cartoon series). ABC-TV aired this on Saturday Mornings from September 9,1975 until September 4,1976. The network moved the show to Sunday Mornings where it ran from September 12,1976 until January 9,1977. Its final run came when of ABC returned it to Saturday Mornings from January 15,1977 until September 3,1977.

FYI: This was the first of Neil Simon's plays that went from being a Broadway play to a theatrical feature,a Emmy-winning prime time sitcom to finally getting its own Saturday Morning cartoon show.

While the other has a very special talent for messing up the team!

I'm talking about "The Oddball Couple"; they're a couple that's a couple of oddballs! And if all that sounds familiar - congratulations, you remember part of that show's theme!

Every week, neat-freak cat Spiffy (Nelson) and slob dog Fleabag (Winchell) did a cartoon variation on Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (or Tony Randall and Jack Klugman) and got on each others' nerves while sharing the same house/workspace. But as familiar as this "Odd Couple" variation may seem, the thought of a cat and dog trying to live with each other is funny enough.

And it didn't hurt to have vocal pros like Nelson and Winchell on board, either. They made the lines all the more enjoyable and the outlandish situations they got into (joining the Foreign Legion, babysitting a giant's baby, watching a talking plant, catching an unlucky leprechaun, etc.) all the funnier.

I know of NOWHERE to find these cartoons anymore. But at least I still remember them. VERY fondly.

Ten stars for "The Oddball Couple". Those eight-balls!