Updated: February 27, 2026

The Odd Couple is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970, to March 7, 1975, on ABC. It ran for five seasons and has become one of the most acclaimed sitcoms of its era. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, was the first of several sitcoms developed by Garry Marshall for Paramount Television. The series is based on the 1965 play The Odd Couple, written by Neil Simon, which was also adapted into a 1968 film. The story examines two divorced men, Oscar and Felix, who share Oscar's Manhattan apartment, and whose contrasting personalities inevitably lead to conflict and laughter.

In 1997, the episodes "Password" and "The Fat Farm" were ranked numbers 5 and 58, respectively, on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. The show received three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

The success of the 1968 film ( Adapted from the stage play ), which starred Jack Lemmon as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar, catalyzed the production of the television show. Mickey Rooney and Martin Balsam were also considered for the part of Oscar, and Dean Martin and Art Carney for Felix ( Carney had originated the role on Broadway ).

Eventually, Tony Randall ( As Felix ) and Jack Klugman ( As Oscar ) were hired; Klugman had replaced Walter Matthau as Oscar in the original Broadway production, and Randall had appeared as Felix in other productions of the play. Randall, who was hired first, wanted Mickey Rooney to play Oscar. Co-executive producer, Garry Marshall, had to lobby hard to get Klugman successfully hired. Once the cast was in place, the show's writers ( Marshall, Jerry Belson, Jerry Paris, Bob Brunner, Mark Rothman and Lowell Ganz, among others ) came up with a multitude of situations for Felix and Oscar, while staying true to the soul of the play, which always reverted to the human tensions between the two that created the comic situations.

The show premiered on ABC September 24, 1970. The first season was filmed at Paramount Studios using the single camera method and a laugh track, utilizing the same apartment set seen in Paramount's 1968 film version. Klugman and Randall both expressed displeasure with using a laugh track without a live audience. Marshall also disliked the practice; theater veteran Randall particularly resented the process of having to wait several seconds between punchlines to allot enough space for the laughter to be inserted. The production team eventually experimented with omitting the laugh track for the first season's 21st episode, "Oscar's New Life" ( Laughter was subsequently added for syndication ). By the second season, ABC relented; the show was subsequently filmed with three cameras and performed like a stage play in front of a live studio audience, with laugh sweetening completed during post-production.

The change also required construction of a new, larger apartment set with a new layout, within a theater at Paramount.

Randall and Klugman both enjoyed the spontaneity that came with performing in front of a live audience; any missed or blown lines usually passed without stopping ( They would be reshot during post-production ). In addition, it gave the show a distinct edge that had been lost during the first season ( Aalthough the actors had to deliver lines more loudly, for they were on a larger sound stage, as opposed to a quiet studio with only minimal crew present ).

Klugman recalled, "We spent three days rehearsing the show. We sat around a table the first day. We tore the script apart. We took out all the jokes and put in character. The only reason we leave in any jokes is for the rotten canned laughter. I hated it. I watch the shows at home, I see Oscar come in and he says, 'Hi', and there is the laughter. 'Hey', I think, 'what the hell did I do?'. I hate it; it insults the audience."

During its five seasons on ABC, The Odd Couple was juggled several times around the network's programming schedule, never reaching the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings. However, ABC continually renewed the show because the ratings for the summer reruns were consistently high.

In the final episode, "Felix Remarries", Felix finally wins back his ex-wife, Gloria, and they remarry, and Oscar regains the freedom of living alone again. The final scene unfolds as the two say their goodbyes: