1049 Park Avenue: An Odd Couple Podcast

This week, Ted and Garrett  hand out The Murray Awards for various "best of" categories regarding The Odd Couple.  Examples include - Best Use Of Honking, Best Scene Where Felix Gets Mad at Oscar (and vice verse), Best Performance by a Male Celebrity Playing Themself, and many others. Yes, we could have just called it "The Oscars", but we have been using Murray as a metric since early on the podcast so we stuck with it.  

With the episode by episode recap now over we look back and discuss our most and least favorite episodes by season and of the series overall.  We focus on S2-S5 but do have some discussion of S1.   

Felix and Gloria get back together in the series finale “Felix Remarries”.  In our discussion we cover 1) some new info our listeners provided to fill in the gaps on our prior episode about Laugh Clown Laugh, 2) the return of Janis Hansen / Doney Oatman / Leif Garrett 3) the multiple classic lines in the episode – some of which came from the play/movie 4) goop mélange 5) who is and who is not at the wedding, 6) the behind the scenes planning for the finale 7) and our plans for future episodes of the podcast now that the episode-by-episode analysis is over.

Felix has a feud with Oscar’s latest TV show co-host Richard Dawson in the series’ penultimate episode Laugh Clown Laugh.  We cover 1) Dawson’s career and how he came to appear on this episode 2) the resume of guest star magician Mark Wilson, the quality of his on-air tricks and the way he comes out onto the show 3) the mystery of who wrote this episode 4) Felix’s history in WWII 5) the multiple funny bits with Murray 6) the acrobats /  teeter-totter scene, the actors involved and the connection to a prior episode, 7) the unintentional appearance of Tony Randall in an establishing shot 8) the history of the song Laugh Clown Laugh, 9) the origins of the vaudeville song at the end, 10) Garrett talks about meeting Tony Randall

Felix feels old after finding out his high school sweetheart is a grandmother, and drags Oscar into his misery, in S5E20 “Old Flames Never Die”.  We discuss 1) the production order of this episode 2) the implications of this storyline on how old Felix and Oscar are; 3) the second appearance of Oscar’s “new” secretary Tina; 4) the numerous guest stars including the return of some old favorites; 5) how one of those guest stars, Leonard Barr, breaks the fourth wall and does his stand-up act for the studio audience; 6) the dancing in the episode; and 7) the reference to the wreck of the Hesperus.

Roy Clark guest stars on an episode named after him in S5E19 “The Roy Clark Show”.  We discuss the many songs and pieces of music in this episode; Clark’s resume and his time on Hee Haw; the return of John Wheeler a Mr. Felscher; guest star Albert Paulsen; edits on the version airing on Decades TV; our observations of ad-libs and laugh tracks in the episode.

Oscar and Felix both lose their voice in “Two Men On A Hoarse” - S5E18. We discuss 1) guest star Dick Cavett 2) Jack Klugman’s real appearance on The Dick Cavett Show and discussion of his real-life throat issues, 3) guest star Phil Foster,  4) The return of guest actors Louis Guss, Filip Field, and Joshua Shelley, 5) a mention of The Odd Couple on the new Paramount+ series The Offer 6) Laurence Oliver’s Polaroid TV ads, 7) the music cut in this episode, 8) Jack Klugman singing “Together" on the cast album of Gypsy, 9) Tony Randall breaking the 4th wall and Jack Klugman visibly laughing on camera at Al Molinaro, 10) TV edits of this episode, 11) how the doctor dresses down Felix AND supports Oscar which is unusual for the series, 12) how often the apartment is robbed. 

Felix organizes a rent strike against 1049 Park Avenue after its new manager fails to keep up the building in S5E17 “The Rent Strike”.  Topics covered include 1) The Library of Congress receiving Neil Simon’s archives 2) Jerry Lewis' failed talk shows 3) guest star Victor Buono 4) the potential tie-in of his character’s name and The Wild Wild West 5) guest star Rodney Allen Rippy and his Jack In The Box ads 6) the song “Buckle Down Winsocki” 7) Miriam knowing that Felix sees other women 8) the music edit on the DVD 9) the return of actors Ed Peck, Herbie Faye, and Peter Hobbs  10) the weird way Christmas is referred to twice in one small section 11) the building’s doormen 12) the way Oscar wants Felix to leave only when it won’t make Oscar feel guilty 13) the use of the word “chiffonier” 14) the tag that wraps up everything too nicely 15) the weird way extras walk away in the background of a scene 16) David Janssen 

Oscar and Felix use inside source Harry Tallman, a horse exercise rider, to make a lot of money at the track in “Felix The Horse Player”, S5E16. Topics discussed include 1) guest player Jerry Maren, 2) the two entrances of the San Remo which stands in for 1049 Park Avenue, 3) the many uses of the Press Box restaurant exterior, 4) guest star Fritz Feld and his “popping” noise, 5) the return of OC guest stars Johnny Silver and Robert Ball 6) the use of NYC exteriors and obvious stand-in for Jerry Maren in those scenes, 7) Felix’s lucky sweater, 8) the very memorable lines in this episode overall.  

Howard Cosell and opera singer Martina Arroyo co-star in the infamous “Your Mother Wears Army Boots”, S5E15.  We discuss and/or debate: 1) Other appearances of TV show creators on their own shows in reference to last week’s Neil Simon appearance 2) how this episode came together 3) when it was filmed 4) similarities to the prior Cosell episode 5) Arroyo’s background 6) guest star Jack Carter 7) guest star Roone Arledge, 8) an instance where Felix now refers to them living on CPW although we hold 1049 Park Avenue as canon 9) the logistics of Arroyo’s entrance into the living room after being introduced by Felix 10) the stock footage of the football game and conflicting implications of where the game is being played, Cincinnati or NYC.