The Odd Couple: Together Again

"The Odd Couple: Together Again" is a reunion movie for a 1970s TV series. This came out during a period in which quite a few TV shows of the 1960s-70s were having reunion movies....mostly very bad ones. The worst were "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres" because so many of the original actors were dead...or just looked dead on the screen. But the rest were, in general, a bad lot...such as "Return to Mayberry" and "Leave it to Beaver"...in which June talks to Ward by talking to his gravestone! A most cringe-worthy scene indeed!

So, is "The Odd Couple: Together Again" any different or is it just another painful and forced reunion? Well, at the outset it was hindered a bit as a few of the series regulars were not in the film...and although John Fiedler (Vinnie), Al Molinaro (Murray) and Janis Hansen (Gloria) were alive, they didn't participate in the project and I have no idea why.

The story is has two main plots. First, Felix is still with Gloria following the final episode of the series. But, his daughter is getting married and he's driving his 'Gloria' crazy....so she sends him to temporarily live with Oscar. As for Oscar, he's just had throat cancer surgery and he just wants to have EVERYONE leave him alone. Felix, on the other hand, won't let Oscar shut out the world and spends much of the film working hard to get Oscar involved with life.

So is it any good? Well, as far as the set goes, yes. Although the original sets no longer existed, they did a good job of recreating the first set from the old series. As far as actors go, I mentioned above that they lacked all the old actors...but I admire them for including Klugman and not shying away from his real life throat surgeries. He sounded like a gravely frog but was understandable and I'm glad he was in the movie...although it was a bit sad to watch as well. As for Tony Randall, he WAS Felix in every possible way and did a great job.

This brings us to the most important aspect of this made for TV movie....the plot. It's not as funny as the shows, which is understandable considering the throat cancer theme! Making it as funny would have been difficult...and a bit tacky. But it was poignant and sweet...which works for me.

Apparently, this project as well as a traveling show, were pet projects for Randall...as the way he acts in the film is similar to their real life relationship. In real life, he tried his best to help Klugman get out of the house and face the world...which was very sweet. Overall, a surprisingly good reunion movie even if it's not the comedy most would expect.

Getting the true odd couple together again was an inspired idea (I know, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmonn did the movie first and Matthau and Art Carney were the very first Odd Couple in the original play). They were the best with the truest chemistry. It was and still is one of my favorite television shows of all time. It was hilarious! So, what happened to the reunion? It was dreadful. I know the actors were twenty years older but that didn't matter. The actors were fine. The script was lousy! It was juvenile and made little sense at times. For anyone to believe that a wife who supposedly loves her husband would ban him from his own daughter's wedding was too much of a stretch.

Jack and Tony were still good and the script did incorporate Jack's voice into the story quite well, but these two guys could have done much better. I have seen them both acting together on Broadway after this show was made in two separate plays (Three Men On A Horse and The Sunshine Boys). Both were well done although "Boys" was the better of the two. The point is, why couldn't they have had a stronger script?

Like others, it bothered me a lot that Al Molinaro did not play Murray. I know he retired by I still don't get why he wasn't there. He is still living and doing commercials, so why couldn't they get him to play Murray again? It was a small part in this movie. I wish someone had the answer to that. Also, I understand why Dick Van Patten was one of the poker players (He played the role when they reprised the play for the opening of Tony Randall's national Actor's Theater on Broadway, but what about John Fieldler. Why wasn't he Vinny? He remained active until his death in 2005.

Most of the ODD COUPLE TV Series fans I speak to don't care much for this reunion film, but I think you need to consider a few things:

For starters, there were a few bad scripts roaming around for years but Tony Randall and Jack Klugman didn't want to bother reuniting if it wasn't an idea they believed in. A 1991 television interview with Klugman confirmed this, and he said he'd rather not come back to the series at all unless the script was something decent. When Klugman had throat surgery due to cancer, all chances for a reunion could have been lost. However, this turned out to be the perfect idea for a story to bring the duo together again: What could be more natural than using this real-life situation by having Oscar Madison, the carefree smoker and beer guzzler and likely candidate himself, ultimately contracting throat cancer while Felix Unger insists on taking care of him at his apartment as Oscar tries to recuperate, and only making his friend's life miserable all over again? While the illness itself is difficult to joke about, Klugman felt it could also show how people like Madison and himself can beat the disease. So it's a comedy that presents the Odd Couple not only driving each other nuts again, but at the same time also has something to say. Klugman is a cancer survivor, having lived late into his 80s (as of this writing), and that's something Jack wanted to pass along.

One of the complaints with this telefilm is that the characters of Gloria and the "poker pals" from the television show have been replaced by new actors. Sure, it would have been fun to see Al Molinaro return as bumbling cop Murray, but other than these relatively minor quibbles, the script manages to revisit just about all the familiar gags we'd come to love and expect from the series, and any die-hard fan of the TV show is bound to smile as the script manages to nail every one of the old chestnuts: Felix's sinus troubles, his annoying moans of "Oscar, Oscar, Oscar", that infamous half-eaten tuna fish sandwich that still seems to be hanging around Oscar's messy room, Felix trying to help his friend out but only managing to cause Oscar intense embarrassment, Oscar ultimately trying to return the favor by setting things right between Felix and his Gloria, and all kinds of other little details that pure fans of the program would be looking out for.

It's not the most perfect reunion we would have wanted; after all, it's almost 20 years after the show ended and our mismatched roommates haven't gotten any younger; but this is harmless good fun with a positive message of hope, too.

Randall and Klugman retain their chemistry. A lot of plot holes and inconsistencies, but that was always the case. Nice surprise to see Myrna and Speed again. My biggest complaint is the background music. I think this would play better with no music. As well, the added drama is unnecessary. It remains one of the best comedies of all time.

Tony Randall and Jack Klugman return as Oscar and Felix from the TV series. Twenty years have passed, and nothing has changed. Well, Klugman has had laryngeal surgery, so that's written into the story. And Randall's daughter, played by Pamelyn Ferdin in the show, has grown into Toni Kalem, who is about to be married. When Randall's insanity gets the wedding kicked out of the Plaza, Barbara Barrie, now playing his wife, kicks him out. So he goes to stay with Klugman.

By and large, it is an oversized episode of the 1970s show, with the usual neat/sloppy jokes, the poker game, and Penny Marshall reprising her role of Klugman's secretary. Clearly aimed at people who were nostalgic for what the network suits used to hyperventilate about because it was a coded gay comedy, it offers nothing new, and the pace lacks the snap of the TV series.