Maybe the fourth time's the charm for Matthew Perry.
Yes, we all loved him for 10 years as Chandler Bing on Friends, but Perry has had a problem making anything stick for long since his enormously popular series (living forever in reruns) folded in 2004.
Perry, now 45, lasted one season on NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-07), 13 episodes with ABC's Mr. Sunshine (2011), and a season on NBC's Go On (2012-13).
That these shows fizzled wasn't for a lack of pedigree or talented co-stars. The ensemble of Studio 60, for example, included Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet and Steven Weber. It was created and written by none other than Aaron Sorkin (Sports Night, The West Wing, The Newsroom) and holds the distinction of being Sorkin's only TV series not to air for more than one season.
Mr. Sunshine, co-created by Perry, co-starred the inimitable Allison Janney, and Go On, well, that one was doomed from the start.
Now Perry returns with a new multicamera sitcom that has a proven track record. The Odd Couple was a rousing success on ABC from 1970 to 1975, thanks largely to the talents of Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison.
It's now 40 years later and we'll find out if America is ready for a reboot with Perry co-starring with Thomas Lennon (Lt. Jim Dangle on Reno 911!) and going for a "Bert and Ernie dynamic."
The Odd Couple premieres at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on CBS immediately following The Big Bang Theory and before the one-hour series finale of Two and a Half Men.
Program note: Beginning Feb. 26, the CBS' Thursday prime-time schedule will be The Big Bang Theory, The Odd Couple, a Big Bang Theory rerun, Mom (in a new time period) and Elementary.
But do we really need another Odd Couple? Several incarnations have had various degrees of success since Neil Simon created the Broadway play in 1965.
Simon's masterpiece, directed by Mike Nichols, initially starred Walter Matthau as Oscar and Art Carney as Felix. It ran for two years and earned three Tony Awards. The 1968 film version again starred Matthau, with Jack Lemmon as Felix.
The 1970-75 sitcom is what most older viewers recall; certainly not the 13-episode bust that was ABC's black version, The New Odd Couple, (1982) starring Ron Glass and Demond Wilson.
Going once more to the well in '85, Simon tried a theatrical twist with The Female Odd Couple starring Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno.
And I'm not even going to count the 1975 ABC cartoon version titled The Oddball Couple. It starred a cat and dog named Spiffy and Fleabag and lasted 16 episodes.
All the above means most viewers over a certain age should be familiar with the Odd Couple premise. In case you're not, here it is.
Perry plays "endearing slob" Oscar, and Lennon is the "uptight neat freak" Felix, two totally opposite former college buddies who become unlikely roommates after the demise of their marriages.
The series opens when, after couples therapy for eight years, Felix's wife finally leaves him. It's not long after Oscar lets the emotionally crippled Felix move in that Oscar fears he has made a monumental mistake. The first clue is when Felix turns Oscar's comfy, trash-strewn man cave of an apartment into a spotless showplace.
Oscar's jack-of-all-trades assistant, Dani (Yvette Nicole Brown, Community), and his longtime agent, Teddy (Wendell Pierce; The Wire, Treme), have their hands full trying to keep Oscar's career as a sports radio host on track while he deals with his new living arrangement.
Fortunately, their quirky next door neighbor (there's always a quirky next door neighbor) Emily, played by Lindsay Sloane (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch), helps Felix adapt to his new life as a bachelor and rein in his many eccentricities.
Those eccentricities include making everyone wear booties in the apartment and eat his exotic gourmet vegan snacks instead of nachos during the big game. Felix is so fastidious and effeminate that Oscar's friend Roy (guest star Dave Foley) wonders if he's gay.
Oscar: "He's not gay."
Roy: "Are you sure? He seems a little gay."
Oscar: "He seems incredibly gay, but he's not."
Roy: "That's a shame. I always wanted to have a gay friend. They just seem more evolved."
That got the biggest laugh from the alleged "live studio audience" that surely was augmented by an exceedingly annoying laugh track (despite a producer's claim to the contrary).
Perry joked at the recent Television Critics Association winter press tour, "I'm doing The Odd Couple because my attempt at being a movie star failed." He then added, "What's cool about this show is it's just trying to be funny. We're just trying to make people laugh. It's based on chemistry and we're really lucky that Tom and I have great chemistry."
We'll see if the audience agrees.
Style on 02/15/2015