The Odd Couple - The First Season
by Harvey Miller
from Paramount
Jack Klugman and Tony Randall give an advanced course in chemistry in the auspicious first season of The Odd Couple, which would only get better as the veteran character actors made themselves at home in their signature roles and the series switched from a laugh track to a live audience. In these first episodes, The Odd Couple hews pretty much to the voice and spirit of Neil Simon's play about mismatched roommates, sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison and "miserable, picky, irritating" photographer Felix Unger ("That was the point," defends series executive producer and writer Garry Marshall, who provides lively audio introductions for each episode and commentary for the pilot). Playing pivotal roles this first season are Felix and Oscar's poker playing buddies, Murray the cop (Al Molinaro), Vinnie, Roy, and Speed, the fabulous Pigeon sisters (Monica Evans and Carole Shelley reprising their Broadway and film roles), and, of course, Neil Hefti's jaunty, jazzy theme, which was introduced in the 1968 film. As with M*A*S*H, the series would establish its own identity and supplant previous incarnations in the public's consciousness. The Odd Couple was never a ratings smash before it became a syndication staple.
The series' loyal following is amply rewarded with this five-disc set. In addition to all 24 first season episodes, a bonus disc contains four billed as "Tony and Jack's Favorite Episodes," including the one where Oscar attacks Felix in his sleep, and the duo are paired as contestants on the game show Password. In a clip from The Mike Douglas Show, Tony Randall promotes the series, and somehow ends up challenging Douglas and Pat Boone to a push-up contest (Boone wins!). A reunited Randall and Klugman, his voice a rasp following his throat cancer surgery, are seen in a priceless clip from a 1993 performance of The Odd Couple to benefit Randall's National Actor's Theatre. A gag reel is negligible, but Klugman contributes home videos of a book tour and he provides commentary for a clip of him winning his first Emmy Award ("I've never seen this," he says delightedly). The Odd Couple is the very model of a classic character-driven comedy. From its dream-team casting to the literate, witty writing, there is nothing odd about why this series' remains one of the most beloved in all TV Land. --Donald Liebenson
Beyond The Odd Couple
 The Movie |  More DVDs with Jack Klugman |  More `70s TV Series |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Follows the comic adventures of roommates Oscar, a sloppy sportswriter, and Felix, a compulsively clean photographer.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: ODD COUPLE
Title: SEASON 1
Street Release Date: 04/24/2007
Genre: TELEVISION
The Odd Couple - The Second Season
by Harvey Miller
from Paramount
In its second season, "The Odd Couple was filmed before a live studio audience," and a good sitcom was well on its way to becoming a great one. Jack Klugman, as sloppy Oscar, and Tony Randall as fussy Felix, two divorced men trying to live together without driving each other crazy, was casting alchemy, and as time goes by, we appreciate the fundamental things that still apply: smart, character-based writing and indelible performances. While there are no episodes that can be said to be truly classic, several are fan favorites, including "Sleepwalker," which was included as one of the bonus episodes on the first-season set, "Felix the Calypso Singer," in which Felix becomes the third wheel on Oscar's romantic getaway with his girlfriend, and "You Saved My Life," in which Felix almost kills Oscar with kindness after Oscar rescues him. This season fleshes out the mismatched friends' backstory with two fun flashback episodes. In "Speak for Yourself," Oscar is forced to step in when Felix develops laryngitis on the night he was to propose to his future ex-wife Gloria, and in "A Night to Dismember," a season benchmark, Oscar, Felix, and Oscar's ex-wife, Blanche, have different memories of the fateful night on which Oscar and Blanche split up.
Gone this season are the daffy Pigeon sisters. Introduced are Janis Hansen as Gloria, Joan Hotchkis as Oscar's girlfriend, Dr. Nancy Cunningham, and Brett Somers, a perfect match, as the dread Blanche. A pre-Laverne and Shirley Penny Marshall makes her first appearance as Oscar's secretary, Myrna, and in the episode, "Security Arms," that's John Fiedler, who portrayed Vinnie in the original 1968 Odd Couple movie (he is also the instantly recognizable voice of Piglet in the Disney Winnie the Pooh shorts). In later seasons, The Odd Couple overindulged on stunt casting (remember the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs episode?) This second season offers comedian David Steinberg ("The Odd Couple Meets Their Host") and opera singer Richard Fredricks ("Does Your Mother Know You're Out, Rigoletto?"). The Odd Couple was a series that got better with each season. This live incarnation of the show is the one that is most fondly remembered, making the second season one that, unlike Felix, will never wear out its welcome. --Donald Liebenson
No Description Available.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 15-JAN-2008
Media Type: DVD
Taxi - The Complete First Season
by Harvey Miller
from Paramount
Hail, Taxi. It's great to finally have one of the defining sitcoms of the 1970s available on DVD to take out for a spin. This character-driven humane comedy from the creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show rolled out of the garage with a full tank of gas: a lightning-in-a-bottle ensemble, smart, witty, and compassionate writing, and extraordinary characters. The Sunshine Cab Company was a much grittier workplace than the sunny WJM newsroom. Its down, but never out employees--single mother Elaine (Marilu Henner), aspiring actor Bobby (Jeff Conaway), hapless boxer Tony (Tony Danza), reptilian dispatcher Louis (Danny DeVito), naive rube John (Randall Carver), and indeterminately foreign mechanic Latka (comic iconoclast Andy Kaufman)--struggled to keep rolling along. Judd Hirsch's salt-of-the-earth cabbie Alex Rieger solved everyone's problems but his own. Half hours don't get more moving than the Humanitas Prize-winning episode, "Blind Date," in which Alex tries to befriend an embittered overweight woman, or funnier than "High School Reunion," in which Bobby impersonates Louie at Louie's reunion to impress his mean former classmates.
Along for the ride in this Emmy-winning first season are a pre-MagnumTom Selleck and Mandy Patinkin ("Memories of Cab 804") and life force Ruth Gordon, who was honored with an Emmy for her performance as one of Alex's most memorable fares ("Sugar Mama"). The poignant episode "Paper Marriage" features Christopher Lloyd as burn-out Reverend Jim, who would join the ensemble in season 2. Regrettably, this three-disc set is a stripped down model, with no commentary or interviews. But there is nothing hack about Taxi itself. This is "must-own" television fare. --Donald Liebenson
Set in New York City, TAXI follows a group of cab drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company through the daily but far from ordinary routine as cabbies. The sitcom features a multitude of extroverted persons such as a frustrated actor, strained boxer, ex-hippie and cynical dispatcher.
Taxi - Seasons 1-3
by Harvey Miller
from Paramount
No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: TAXI
Title: SEASONS 1-3
Street Release Date: 09/13/2005
Genre: TELEVISION
Taxi - The Complete Second Season
by Harvey Miller
from Paramount
Set in New York City, TAXI follows a group of cab drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company through the daily but far from ordinary routine as cabbies. The sitcom features a multitude of extroverted persons such as a frustrated actor, strained boxer, ex-hippie and cynical dispatcher.
Taxi - The Complete Third Season
by Harvey Miller
from Paramount
From the melancholy opening notes of the theme song, Taxi promised to be a different kind of sitcom, epitomized by the show's central character, Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch, Ordinary People): down to earth and compassionate, with neuroses that smacked of real life and not the forced zaniness of too many television shows. Alex was the conscience and emotional caretaker of a makeshift family of cab drivers working out of a grungy garage in New York City, run by the domineering Louis De Palma (Danny DeVito, who would go on to be a bigger star than the rest of the cast in movies like Get Shorty and Batman Returns). Taxi didn't always maintain a degree of realism--if you haven't seen it in a long time, you may be surprised by some of the cornier jokes and bits of slapstick--but at its best, the show managed to merge sadness and humor into rich and satisfying stories.
The third season has many standout episodes. Alex learns that his daughter is getting married but hasn't invited him to the wedding, which leads to a surprisingly sparky confrontation with his ex-wife (guest start Louise Lasser, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman). When single mom Elaine (Marilu Henner) is embarrassed by meeting a more successful high-school friend in her cab, she lies to save face and Alex steps in to back her up. Aspiring boxer Tony (Tony Danza, Who's the Boss?) can't decide how to tell Elaine that her new boyfriend made a pass at him. Tony's sister (guest star Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge on The Simpsons) falls in love with the addled but affable Jim (Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), much to Tony's dismay. Also crucial to the show's success was the oddball presence of Andy Kaufman, whose quirky, unspecifically-Eastern-European mechanic Latka Gravas sometimes made an awkward fit with the rest of the ensemble. But even at his most eccentric, Kaufman was always weirdly watchable, especially in his bizarre, season-closing transformation into the loungy Vic Ferrari. All in all, the third season is an excellent sampling of this sterling sitcom. Sadly, there are no commentaries or other extras. --Bret Fetzer
Set in New York City, TAXI follows a group of cab drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company through the daily but far from ordinary routine as cabbies. The sitcom features a multitude of extroverted persons such as a frustrated actor, strained boxer, ex-hippie and cynical dispatcher.
Getting Away With Murder
by Harvey Miller
from Hbo Home Video
Loving thy neighbor has become impossible for Jack Lambert (Dan Akroyd) and there's only one answer. If society won't punish Max Mueller (Jack Lemmon) then Lambert will! With the help of a seemingly innocent apple Jack sets out to rid the world of a man he believes- but can't prove- is a monster. But who is really GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER?? Find out in this hilarious comedy of justice injustice and just learning to love thy neighbor.Running Time: 94 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 026359120527
+++
