Several folks are writing me about the deal Neil Simon made that gave Paramount the right to do damn near anything they wanted with The Odd Couple and, as I understand it, almost damn near anything they wanted with Barefoot in the Park, as well. They turned them both into sitcoms in 1970 and Barefoot didn't last long. But The Odd Couple keeps coming back in different forms — once even as a Saturday morning cartoon show where Felix was a cat and Oscar was a dog. Honest.
Like most people who write things that audiences are (at least theoretically) supposed to laugh at, I've long admired the hell out of Neil Simon and would even if he'd only written about a fifth of the plays and screenplays he gave us. There was a period though when he always seemed to be complaining in every interview about the injustice of him not receiving money for The Odd Couple sitcom — the version with these guys, of course…
It bothered me, I suppose, because I know plenty of writers who have been outright swindled, cheated and otherwise screwed out of money for things they authored and Mr. Simon kept trying to portray himself as one of those. First off, it's not like the man wound up living on the street. Secondly, it wasn't like the people he made the deal with simply didn't pay him what the deal called for. He accepted an offer he later regretted, which is not the same thing. Most of us do that at one time or another. Some people I've met do it every single time they make a transaction larger than the purchase of an Egg McMuffin.
I'm not saying Simon wasn't wronged in some way but he was already a pretty wealthy guy when this happened. He had lawyers. He had financial advisers. He was not in such need of income that he was trapped into taking what might not have been the best offer. This one was brokered by Irving "Swifty" Lazar, one of the top agents in the entertainment business at the time…and at that time, the terms probably sounded terrific.
Most writers I know who are wronged don't have a lawyer (or at least a good one), don't have advisers, etc. Someone takes advantage of their neediness and/or lack of business acumen and/or options. Someone may promise them lots of benefits that aren't spelled out in the contract…that is, assuming there even is a contract. Sometimes, the exploiter consciously exploits the fact that it would be difficult for the exploitee to engage an attorney.
I will always love a high percentage of Neil Simon's work, especially from the first two-thirds of his playwriting career. I just feel bad for writers — any creative people, actually — when they do something that reaps rewards and they don't see anything that could be considered a fair share of those rewards. It's hard for me, to drum up much outrage when someone who has made millions and millions expects sympathy because he had a free choice, made a bad decision and therefore did not make even more millions and millions.