The Odd Couple originated as a 1965 stage play about opposites Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison, who become roommates after Ungar splits up with his wife. Written by Neil Simon, the initial Broadway show starred Art Carney as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar. The success spawned several stage, film, and television versions, beginning with the 1968 movie adaptation starring Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Nearly three decades later, Matthau and Lemmon appeared in a sequel that would not only be their last collaboration but also Simon’s final film.
The concept was also famously spun off into a successful sitcom featuring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman as Felix and Oscar, respectively. The series ran for five seasons on ABC between 1970 and 1975 and led to a 1993 reunion with its two stars. Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon even took a crack at a revival show for CBS in 2015. Simon’s old idea proved to be strong enough to get three more seasons’ worth of material out of it that time around.
One version we unfortunately never got to see, however, would’ve involved the legendary Dick Van Dyke. The sitcom veteran, who turned 100 earlier this month, revealed during a Q&A this past May that he was planning to reboot The Odd Couple with Ed Asner at one point. Asner played the boss of Van Dyke’s former TV wife, Mary Tyler Moore, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s (and Santa Claus in Elf, for the younger readers). “That would’ve been such fun, and we lost it,” Van Dyke said. “I’ve lost a lot of friends.”
It’s unclear when their take on The Odd Couple was supposed to have happened, but Van Dyke’s reference to losing friends seems to imply that the idea was still on the table up until Asner’s death. Van Dyke also shared recently that he and Asner had a bit of a friendly rivalry during their television days. “I remember Ed Asner had seven Emmys, and I had six,” Van Dyke explained. “And one year, I won two Emmys…and I called him up, and I said, ‘I gotcha, buddy!’ He was the greatest guy, Ed.”
The two would continue to work in both television and movies into their 90s. Asner passed away in 2021 at the age of 91.
The post Dick Van Dyke Wanted to Remake ‘The Odd Couple’ With One of the Stars of ‘Elf’ appeared first on VICE.
