John Trumbull sent me the following in response to this post, which was a follow-up on this post…
Just thought I'd write to mention that November 13th is only Felix Unger Day in the TV version of The Odd Couple. The original 1965 play by Neil Simon (and the 1968 movie version directed by Gene Saks) begins on "a warm summer night" in July. Oscar Madison's air conditioner is out and his refrigerator has been broken for two weeks, prompting lots of complaining from Murray, Speed, and the other poker players. As someone who's been in two productions of the play (once as Vinnie and once as Felix), the November 13th date has long sounded "wrong" to me.
This was one of a number of small changes the TV version made, along with changing Felix from a news writer for CBS to a photographer and altering the spelling of his last name from "Ungar" to "Unger." So, obviously, Art Carney and Jack Lemmon were playing the Earth-Two Felix Unger, while Tony Randall was playing the Earth-One Felix Ungar. Really, it's the only possible explanation.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go finish my Crisis on Infinite Ungars pitch for DC Comics. Ron Glass and Thomas Lennon are traveling to Earth-Three, where Oscar's the neat one and Felix is the slob.
That is, of course, all true…and there are Earths where Oscar and Felix are female and named Olive and Florence, and one where they're a neat cat and a sloppy dog.
I have a friendly disagreement with my pal Ken Levine, who likes the Randall/Klugman Odd Couple more than I do, whereas I prefer Lemmon/Matthau. I think we decided that it didn't matter which we preferred because if we could see the original with Walter Matthau and Art Carney, that would be the definitive version forever to us. The few lucky people I know who saw the show when it debuted on Broadway certainly felt like that.
Someone told me there is a professionally-shot video of the revival with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, not to be confused with the various bootleg, shot-on-iPhone-from-the-balcony bootlegs around. If this is so, I wonder why CBS/Paramount hasn't broadcast or marketed it.