Aristophanes? The Odd Couple, still freakin' hilarious

Great run of episodes this week and last on The Odd Couple on Me-TV. They're currently airing season three of the show which ran for five years on ABC from 1970 to 1975 and is notable in that it's the rare TV cast that is more identified with these lead roles of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison than the cast of the movie on which it was based.

Yes, yes, I respect Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and their respective places in the pantheon of the movie industry ... but when you think Felix and Oscar they aren't the first people in your head. You gotta respect not only Tony Randall and Jack Klugman for that but also creator of the TV show and producer Garry Marshall who crafted a what is in my mind is one of the great sitcoms of all time and nominated for Outstanding Comedy for three of its five years.

Even if it did start out a little shaky (and it did, those single camera episodes in season one pretty much lay flat for me) it's at this point that the show is finally finding it's legs and gaining some notoriety, enough to book a run of guest stars starting with David Steinberg in season two and then Howard Cosell, Deacon Jones and finally Allen Ludden and Betty White which aired two nights ago.

Here Jack Klugman talks about the episode and Tony Randall's performance:



There's so much on this show at the Archive of American Television, click here for that.

Coming up next week if the shows run in sequence is the ticket scalping episode that created this remarkable piece of comedy that has stood the test of time.: