Tony Randall did an interview where he mentioned he starred with several different actors as Oscar, and each actor brought their own spin on the character. Here, Ron and Demond seemed to be imitating Tony and Jack instead of making their characters unique and came across as overacting. The theme song was awesome though. Very funky.
I just wanted to express how much I appreciate this series. I actually found your channel because of the Supertrain video. The story of Supertrain's creation (and, well, everything) was just so weird and hilarious to me, I had to find out more. That introduced to the overall series, and I was instantly hooked. 13 Week Theatre has taught me a great deal. As a recently graduated media student, it is not only entertaining but incredibly useful. The reasons for a show's demise are always complex. Some problems are out of anyone's control, and some are very much the opposite. Some are almost comical, while others are very tragic. It's also taught me about different eras of television, and how their productions laid the groundwork for today's television. All of this info not only makes for a good story, but also a good lesson. Thank you so much and keep on keepin on. :)
Not only Randall/Klugman, let's us not 4get Lemmon/Matthau (& Carney). RIP to Garry Marshall and the other talented actors portraying Felix & Oscar. 🙏🙏✡️✝️🎭🙏 Thanks for the laughs.
So two problems with the recycled scripts: 1 - Glass and Wilson could play a neatnik and a slob easily, but they couldn't play it as Randall and Klugman. I remember watching this a bit, and thinking that these two could be these types of characters, but while Ron and Demond could play them, they would never be Tony and Jack anymore than those two could be Lemmon and Matthau. Randall and Klugman became cosmic avatars of uptight clean freak and complete slob. In fact, I would place Ron and Demond as being more like Matthau and Lemmon - people who were these things instead of being their embodiments, as Randall and Klugman were. I mean, Oscar's room was more like Oscar's trash can. 2 - Reruns, as in syndication. If an ep with a recycled near-verbatim script were shown, odds are within that same week on a major independent channel (of which there were plenty back then, and add in cable covering channels from multiple cities) you could see the original, and without real differences, which one you would watch? Demond should have gone back and done a show just called 'Son'. The Sanford Arms had neither Sanford nor Son, and 'Sanford' had only Fred. We needed to complete the set. Also, I nominate the Sanford Arms for this channel.
John Schuck, who was Murray the cop told the AV Club and Gilbert Gottfried on his podcast that the problem with The New Odd Couple is that they brought in the same writers who worked on the previous Odd Couple series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. So what you essentially got was writers penning in Schuck's words, Jewish jokes for a couple of black guys.
The reason the show was a virtual copy of the 70s show was due to a writers strike that year. In a hurry to have some shows air in time for the 82-83 season, scripts from classic shows got dusted off and were recast with current actors. The reboot of Mission Impossible (technically a continuation since Jim Phelps/Peter Graves returned as team leader with new team members) did this during it's first season back in '88.
Believe-it-or-else but between these two shows there was a short-lived Saturday morning animated version! The Oddball Couple! With the voices of Paul Winchel and Frank Nelson!
Oh, good you brought it back. However, 1:46 and 9:08 Keep the chain connection going like you did with Demond Wilson with a Holmes and Yoyo 13 week episode.
You know they're in trouble when their promotional video (2:19) is made up entirely of scenes from Barney Miller and Sanford and Son. It's like they knew the actual series didn't have any scenes that would excite people.
I read somewhere that during one recording, Glass and Wilson were given each other's script, and no one noticed until they finished the scene. Then, Wilson finally realized and blew up: "Oh, come ON! If WE can't figure out our characters, how do you expect the audience to do so?!" That said, I enjoyed their take on Felix and Oscar, and I did like the show. Perhaps I enjoyed it because at the time, I didn't recognize the redos. It wasn't like, say, American Coupling copying verbatim British Coupling, but taking out anything that proved they understood the original lines in the first place.
I can't believe someone as innovative as Garry Marshall could reboot such a classic series with so little originality. Even the initial scripts were line-for-line as shown. When you make other actors read the same lines, it doesn't create the same chemistry plus it seemed Wilson and Glass were "trying" to be someone else, overplaying it to be like Tony Randall and Jack Klugman and that only invoked pity not laughs.
I think you summed it up perfectly; not new enough for new audiences and too new for most of us old guard. I've liked Ron in everything he's done before and since and liked Damon in Sanford and Son but watching this Odd Couple just made me miss the original TV one (which was not only a favorite but Im pretty sure still in sindication at that time). They had no chance with me; looking back, I should've given it a chance since back then I was already complaining about how "modern" sitcoms weren't as funny as what I grew up on and that they "Should make them like they used to"; turns out in this case that's exactly what they did.
Just discovered this video.I have seen some episodes of this show, I thought it was fun, great acting by Ron Glass and Demond Wilson!I believe one reason "The New Odd Couple" didn't work was because Tv and pop culture were changing, and Garry Marshall's Tv work was maybe seen as old hat to some, fortunately he moved on to a highly successful film career!I liked the show!RIP Ron Glass and Garry Marshall!
VCRs werent readily available yet, so availability of the episodes for comparison wasnt as easy so they hoped it wouldnt. Now, everything is pretty much at the push of a button
Did putting "new" in any title of a TV show ever work? They don't do that anymore, but back then they did it all the time, and it always seemed like a guaranteed cancellation...
Only with game shows it seems...The Price is Right was The "New" Price is Right when it first came back in 1972, and there was The "New" $25,000 Pyramid in the 80s
The strike was what put them under such a time crunch and kept them from using the new writers, but the recycling was done in an artless way. Show runners were allowed to keep working and writing during WGA strikes. The two could have just taken a basic premise from the old series and used it as a jumping off point. They finally did just that by taking the premise of “Felix gets Oscar fired by asking for more money.” But where the original (“Oscar’s New Life”) had Oscar go write for a girlie magazine, the new one “Brother Can You Spare a Job?” had Felix trying to find Oscar a new job through his girlfriend. Throw out everything after the teaser and go. But most of the rewrites, as seen in this episode, were just freshening up the dialogue (and not all that much either). By the time new scripts written for the actors came down the pipe, no one cared.
Never saw the show but I’m sure I wouldn’t have liked lol. 13 Week Theater, is always sheer brilliance! I always watch the episodes as they premiere on Patreon and then later UA-cam. Keep up the great work Pab! 🤘
Isn't it funny that Esther Rolle did a guest spot on the new version and it was technically her fault "Baby, I'm Back" was cancelled because she was talked into coming back to do one last season of Good Times.
Ron Glass also didn't succeed in the dreadful "Rhythm & Blues", a show about a radio station aimed at an African-American audience that hires a White DJ (Roger Kabler). Glass, as you stated went on to "Firefly", which, according to an interview on the DVD, he considered to be some of his best work. Kabler, by the way, was a VERY good impressionist and deserved better. See Kabler here: ua-cam.com/video/k55XW1UfDXk/v-deo.html
the casting for this - though nothing than a stunt - was actually spot on despite that fact. Glass's already established prissiness in Barney Miller made him a perfect Felix - and though Ive always felt Demond Wilson's acting to be limited at best, he's fits into the Oscar role pretty well. Too bad the relied to heavily on the past series, which could not help draw unwanted and unflattering comparisons
The great thing is that both Glass and Wilson were trying to develop their own interpretations of the characters instead of impersonating Randall and Klugman. That was also a drawback with the recycled scripts. For example, look at the “patriotic American” line. That was written for Klugman who did the best deadpan on television as Oscar. It had a completely different meaning the way Wilson delivered it. Personally I thought Wilson’s different take was a nice breath of fresh air.
@@PabSungenis I was thinking the same while rewatching this episode- only Wilson doesnt have Klugman's timing (which is impeccable) but he does make the part his own. Glass, by comparison, is almost a mirror image of Randall, but that in no way takes away from what he is doing - he's not copying, they just having very similar and complementary styles.
When are they going to learn that it's a curse to remake an iconic show; especially giving it the same name? A couple shows used the Odd Couple template but didn't call themselves The Odd Couple, and were successful.
I did not see this new version of the "ODD COUPLE". I do know and did like the 2 guys that played. It is very dificult to top the original. It was in a class of its own!!
Randall and Klugman were made to play Felix and Oscar. They were perfect. Once perfection was achieved all other attempts to revive the show should have been shelved.
It is actually a lovely bookend for Gary Marshall that his final TV series was the Odd Couple. The Matthew Perry version was pretty good. But your narration makes it sound like Marshall had no big hits after the New Odd Couple failed. Yes, he didn't have another big TV series but he produced several hit movies.
A few years ago when they announced the latest reboot, the news came with the info that Matthew Perry had been cast. I was optimistic, as I felt he would make the _perfect_ Felix Unger. I couldn't believe it weeks later when I learned that he was playing Oscar. "Doomed from the start."
There is 3 versions of the taxes episode of the odd couple cause the original episode did it the new odd couple did it and the 2015 odd couple did it with the second version being almost a shot for shot recreation of the original episode with the third on modifying it by not actually showing Felix going down to the local irs office first just telling us he did and got Oscar in trouble while down there then it’s pretty much the same episode from then on
This episode has some especially cringe moments lol. Those poor actors, they deserved so much better. As a young teen I read all of Simon's plays, and there's just something really special about The Odd Couple, but the original series was a travesty (I loved the actors, it just wasn't well written). The movie is excellent. Lemmon's Felix is so indelible to me, it's hard for me to imagine Art Carney in the role. Thanks!
So wait... They just redid the same scripts? How stupid. No wonder it was cancelled... Demand Wilson was a terrible actor.. He wasn't that good as Lamont either...
There's this irony now that people complain about Race-Swapping IP'S Even though this was going on going back to the late 60's with the Black Version of Neal Simon's Barefoot in The Park (yes, That Existed and episodes are on UA-cam)
i saw this i think on nick at nite about 30 years ago---same scripts i had watched with the white boys---kinda cool and kinda flopped with the black guys shame they had no more creativity than to recycle scripts
I don't know how Ron Glass could ever have passed as str8, he came across as "super gay," in his performances and Demond Wilson's acting is just plain lazy, he could have done any of this roles over the phone.
Thank. I wondered what all odd couple shows about with white n black few days ago? Did UA-cam AI find out from comments or somebody tag me that? To me those shows are boring not funny at all.
Ron Glass was great on Barney Miller. This show really could have worked if original scripts had been written and tailored for these two.
I totally agree.
Once you are called “the new” you have a 80% chance of failing
New Coke?
Tony Randall did an interview where he mentioned he starred with several different actors as Oscar, and each actor brought their own spin on the character. Here, Ron and Demond seemed to be imitating Tony and Jack instead of making their characters unique and came across as overacting.
The theme song was awesome though. Very funky.
Yes! Overacting
I just wanted to express how much I appreciate this series. I actually found your channel because of the Supertrain video. The story of Supertrain's creation (and, well, everything) was just so weird and hilarious to me, I had to find out more. That introduced to the overall series, and I was instantly hooked. 13 Week Theatre has taught me a great deal. As a recently graduated media student, it is not only entertaining but incredibly useful. The reasons for a show's demise are always complex. Some problems are out of anyone's control, and some are very much the opposite. Some are almost comical, while others are very tragic. It's also taught me about different eras of television, and how their productions laid the groundwork for today's television. All of this info not only makes for a good story, but also a good lesson. Thank you so much and keep on keepin on. :)
This channel does an excellent job at making me feel bad for Demond Wlison :(
He was a TERRIBLE actor...
@@lewisjl9867 I wouldn't say he was terrible, but he was more suited as a straight man. People have strengths and weaknesses.
Shows how good Klugman/Randall were...made the script come alive.
Not only Randall/Klugman, let's us not 4get Lemmon/Matthau (& Carney). RIP to Garry Marshall and the other talented actors portraying Felix & Oscar. 🙏🙏✡️✝️🎭🙏 Thanks for the laughs.
So two problems with the recycled scripts:
1 - Glass and Wilson could play a neatnik and a slob easily, but they couldn't play it as Randall and Klugman. I remember watching this a bit, and thinking that these two could be these types of characters, but while Ron and Demond could play them, they would never be Tony and Jack anymore than those two could be Lemmon and Matthau. Randall and Klugman became cosmic avatars of uptight clean freak and complete slob. In fact, I would place Ron and Demond as being more like Matthau and Lemmon - people who were these things instead of being their embodiments, as Randall and Klugman were. I mean, Oscar's room was more like Oscar's trash can.
2 - Reruns, as in syndication. If an ep with a recycled near-verbatim script were shown, odds are within that same week on a major independent channel (of which there were plenty back then, and add in cable covering channels from multiple cities) you could see the original, and without real differences, which one you would watch?
Demond should have gone back and done a show just called 'Son'. The Sanford Arms had neither Sanford nor Son, and 'Sanford' had only Fred. We needed to complete the set. Also, I nominate the Sanford Arms for this channel.
John Schuck, who was Murray the cop told the AV Club and Gilbert Gottfried on his podcast that the problem with The New Odd Couple is that they brought in the same writers who worked on the previous Odd Couple series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. So what you essentially got was writers penning in Schuck's words, Jewish jokes for a couple of black guys.
The reason the show was a virtual copy of the 70s show was due to a writers strike that year. In a hurry to have some shows air in time for the 82-83 season, scripts from classic shows got dusted off and were recast with current actors. The reboot of Mission Impossible (technically a continuation since Jim Phelps/Peter Graves returned as team leader with new team members) did this during it's first season back in '88.
EXACTLY. People need to stop getting their info from you tube videos lol
Believe-it-or-else but between these two shows there was a short-lived Saturday morning animated version! The Oddball Couple! With the voices of Paul Winchel and Frank Nelson!
Spiffy and Fleabag!
The theme song is happening.
Oh, good you brought it back. However, 1:46 and 9:08 Keep the chain connection going like you did with Demond Wilson with a Holmes and Yoyo 13 week episode.
You know they're in trouble when their promotional video (2:19) is made up entirely of scenes from Barney Miller and Sanford and Son. It's like they knew the actual series didn't have any scenes that would excite people.
They probably hadn't started shooting the new show yet.
Glad to see this got reuploaded. Thanks!
The opening credits feel more like the original Siskel and Ebert show, At the Movies.
Mathau rhymes with math-how
Was it a requirement in the 1980s that every TV series opening had to feature the lead/leads walking on crowded city streets?
I read somewhere that during one recording, Glass and Wilson were given each other's script, and no one noticed until they finished the scene. Then, Wilson finally realized and blew up: "Oh, come ON! If WE can't figure out our characters, how do you expect the audience to do so?!"
That said, I enjoyed their take on Felix and Oscar, and I did like the show. Perhaps I enjoyed it because at the time, I didn't recognize the redos. It wasn't like, say, American Coupling copying verbatim British Coupling, but taking out anything that proved they understood the original lines in the first place.
So I guess I shouldn't come to the networks with my idea for a show called "The Motherf***ing Oddest Couple You've Ever Seen!" then?
Actually, that sounds pretty good.
Your videos are entertaining and great, worthwhile tv history. Thanks!
I can't believe someone as innovative as Garry Marshall could reboot such a classic series with so little originality. Even the initial scripts were line-for-line as shown. When you make other actors read the same lines, it doesn't create the same chemistry plus it seemed Wilson and Glass were "trying" to be someone else, overplaying it to be like Tony Randall and Jack Klugman and that only invoked pity not laughs.
I think you summed it up perfectly; not new enough for new audiences and too new for most of us old guard. I've liked Ron in everything he's done before and since and liked Damon in Sanford and Son but watching this Odd Couple just made me miss the original TV one (which was not only a favorite but Im pretty sure still in sindication at that time). They had no chance with me; looking back, I should've given it a chance since back then I was already complaining about how "modern" sitcoms weren't as funny as what I grew up on and that they "Should make them like they used to"; turns out in this case that's exactly what they did.
Just discovered this video.I have seen some episodes of this show, I thought it was fun, great acting by Ron Glass and Demond Wilson!I believe one reason "The New Odd Couple" didn't work was because Tv and pop culture were changing, and Garry Marshall's Tv work was maybe seen as old hat to some, fortunately he moved on to a highly successful film career!I liked the show!RIP Ron Glass and Garry Marshall!
You knew the show was doomed when the only clips of Ron Glass in the promo were from Barney Miller
And the only clips of Demond Wilson were from “Baby, I’m Back!”
Thank you for making wonderful, well-researched videos.
Please do an episode on the 1999 CBS series "Thanks" it's a sitcom about the pilgrims that lasted just six episodes
I would love to hear your take on the 1982 show “Square Pegs!”
I absolutely love your series. Keep up the great work!
Wow, the amount of recycling in those clips is incredible. How did they think no one would notice?
VCRs werent readily available yet, so availability of the episodes for comparison wasnt as easy so they hoped it wouldnt. Now, everything is pretty much at the push of a button
I do remember watching this version as a kid as well as the Randall/Klugman version on syndication.
A case of two great actors let down by a stale writers.
I can probably guess the "No Thanks" to CBS but, did Sony/Columbia have anything to do with this?
Did putting "new" in any title of a TV show ever work? They don't do that anymore, but back then they did it all the time, and it always seemed like a guaranteed cancellation...
The New Statesman. However, it had nothing to do with being a newer version of an older show.
Only with game shows it seems...The Price is Right was The "New" Price is Right when it first came back in 1972, and there was The "New" $25,000 Pyramid in the 80s
The New Adventures of Superman was pretty awesome, though.
The New Leave It To Beaver had a good run, but that first was canceled by the Disney Channel and then picked up by TBS.
I remember reading somewhere once that they recycled so many of the episodes because of a writers strike
The strike was what put them under such a time crunch and kept them from using the new writers, but the recycling was done in an artless way.
Show runners were allowed to keep working and writing during WGA strikes. The two could have just taken a basic premise from the old series and used it as a jumping off point. They finally did just that by taking the premise of “Felix gets Oscar fired by asking for more money.” But where the original (“Oscar’s New Life”) had Oscar go write for a girlie magazine, the new one “Brother Can You Spare a Job?” had Felix trying to find Oscar a new job through his girlfriend. Throw out everything after the teaser and go. But most of the rewrites, as seen in this episode, were just freshening up the dialogue (and not all that much either).
By the time new scripts written for the actors came down the pipe, no one cared.
Never saw the show but I’m sure I wouldn’t have liked lol. 13 Week Theater, is always sheer brilliance! I always watch the episodes as they premiere on Patreon and then later UA-cam. Keep up the great work Pab! 🤘
Thank you!!
Isn't it funny that Esther Rolle did a guest spot on the new version and it was technically her fault "Baby, I'm Back" was cancelled because she was talked into coming back to do one last season of Good Times.
The show sucked, but the rearrangement of the theme song was very good.
I'm curious as to why this was removed and re-uploaded
Pab made a post about it, glad to see it up and keep up the good work.
Ron Glass also didn't succeed in the dreadful "Rhythm & Blues", a show about a radio station aimed at an African-American audience that hires a White DJ (Roger Kabler). Glass, as you stated went on to "Firefly", which, according to an interview on the DVD, he considered to be some of his best work. Kabler, by the way, was a VERY good impressionist and deserved better.
See Kabler here:
ua-cam.com/video/k55XW1UfDXk/v-deo.html
There's lyrics to this theme?? Incredible.
The New Odd Couple and Baby I'm Back featuring Demond Wilson aired on BET back in the late '80s/early '90s.
the casting for this - though nothing than a stunt - was actually spot on despite that fact. Glass's already established prissiness in Barney Miller made him a perfect Felix - and though Ive always felt Demond Wilson's acting to be limited at best, he's fits into the Oscar role pretty well. Too bad the relied to heavily on the past series, which could not help draw unwanted and unflattering comparisons
The great thing is that both Glass and Wilson were trying to develop their own interpretations of the characters instead of impersonating Randall and Klugman. That was also a drawback with the recycled scripts.
For example, look at the “patriotic American” line. That was written for Klugman who did the best deadpan on television as Oscar. It had a completely different meaning the way Wilson delivered it. Personally I thought Wilson’s different take was a nice breath of fresh air.
@@PabSungenis I was thinking the same while rewatching this episode- only Wilson doesnt have Klugman's timing (which is impeccable) but he does make the part his own. Glass, by comparison, is almost a mirror image of Randall, but that in no way takes away from what he is doing - he's not copying, they just having very similar and complementary styles.
And does anyone besides me think he looks just plain weird without his moustache?
Retired from acting to become a preacher. So…still acting. 😂
Lmao
The Munsters Today was Such Silly FUN!
I probably would have watched this… if I had been older than 3 at the time it aired. 😂
Hollywood never learns. You can't take a classic movie or TV show and change the race of the actors.
When are they going to learn that it's a curse to remake an iconic show; especially giving it the same name? A couple shows used the Odd Couple template but didn't call themselves The Odd Couple, and were successful.
I did not see this new version of the "ODD COUPLE". I do know and did like the 2 guys that played. It is very dificult to top the original. It was in a class of its own!!
Randall and Klugman were made to play Felix and Oscar. They were perfect. Once perfection was achieved all other attempts to revive the show should have been shelved.
It is actually a lovely bookend for Gary Marshall that his final TV series was the Odd Couple. The Matthew Perry version was pretty good. But your narration makes it sound like Marshall had no big hits after the New Odd Couple failed. Yes, he didn't have another big TV series but he produced several hit movies.
A few years ago when they announced the latest reboot, the news came with the info that Matthew Perry had been cast. I was optimistic, as I felt he would make the _perfect_ Felix Unger. I couldn't believe it weeks later when I learned that he was playing Oscar. "Doomed from the start."
and unfunny. Perry performed it like he was intoxicated, Maybe he was?
Your assumption makes sense seeing that Perry and Matt LeBlanc had been doing a version of the Odd Couple on Friends.
What a stinkeroo. Fortunately, for all of us, ABC mercifully pulled the plug on this horrible series.
I remember this they were the 1st gay couple on TV. It was a departure from the original Tony Randall Classic.
There is 3 versions of the taxes episode of the odd couple cause the original episode did it the new odd couple did it and the 2015 odd couple did it with the second version being almost a shot for shot recreation of the original episode with the third on modifying it by not actually showing Felix going down to the local irs office first just telling us he did and got Oscar in trouble while down there then it’s pretty much the same episode from then on
Still, was this better than the recent reboot?
I always thought Two and a Half Men was closer in the spirit of The Odd Couple than the Perry/Lennon version.
They couldn't hire black writers for that show!?
Robert Townsend would've been head writer for the 1982 revival.
Lazy script writers doomed this show.
This episode has some especially cringe moments lol. Those poor actors, they deserved so much better.
As a young teen I read all of Simon's plays, and there's just something really special about The Odd Couple, but the original series was a travesty (I loved the actors, it just wasn't well written). The movie is excellent. Lemmon's Felix is so indelible to me, it's hard for me to imagine Art Carney in the role. Thanks!
The theme song pretty good though.
You should consider doing an episode on 1984's Sara with Geena Davis, Alfre Woodward, Bronson Pinchot, Matthew Lawrence and Bill Maher.
Actually, that was on in '85, but still, I'd like to hear about that myself.
So wait... They just redid the same scripts? How stupid. No wonder it was cancelled... Demand Wilson was a terrible actor.. He wasn't that good as Lamont either...
Demond Wilson didn't do much after Sanford and Son except for a couple of episodes of the Love Boat.
@@GeminiladyJackson-xq6hcDemond Wilson actually became a preacher.
@@BrotherDerrick3X I already knew that. He's a preacher in Atlanta, Georgia.
There's this irony now that people complain about Race-Swapping IP'S Even though this was going on going back to the late 60's with the Black Version of Neal Simon's Barefoot in The Park (yes, That Existed and episodes are on UA-cam)
Wilson n his buddy become not handsome?
I really enjoyed this iteration. It was brilliant casting, but the writing was kind of flat.
Loved Ron Glass on Barney Miller. Such a great actor. Too bad they had such poor scripts.
I thought the show was great
D:
i saw this i think on nick at nite about 30 years ago---same scripts i had watched with the white boys---kinda cool and kinda flopped with the black guys shame they had no more creativity than to recycle scripts
I don't know how Ron Glass could ever have passed as str8, he came across as "super gay," in his performances and Demond Wilson's acting is just plain lazy, he could have done any of this roles over the phone.
Thank. I wondered what all odd couple shows about with white n black few days ago? Did UA-cam AI find out from comments or somebody tag me that? To me those shows are boring not funny at all.
TV series was and still is NOT funny.