The Odd Couple appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.33:1 on these Blu-ray Discs. Though the episodes showed their age at times, they usually looked pretty good.
Sharpness seemed mostly fine. The occasional slightly soft shot emerged – usually during edits/transitions – but the shows largely delivered appealing accuracy.
I detected no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes appeared absent. The episodes came with decent grain.
In terms of print flaws, occasional specks and marks materialized. These never became heavy, however, so they only created minor distractions.
Colors tended to work well. The series opted for a natural palette that the discs replicated with warmth and fidelity.
Blacks seemed fairly deep, while shadows appeared smooth. While the episodes didn’t look great, I thought they seemed more than fine overall.
As for the series’ DTS-HD MA monaural audio, it came across with the kind of quality I expected. In other words: mediocre.
Which made sense for 50-year-old mono TV episodes. In this chatty series, speech became the most crucial element. The lines could be a little flat or edgy, but they showed reasonable fidelity and always remained perfectly intelligible.
Music seemed less than dynamic, but the score lacked shrillness at least. Effects lacked much to do but demonstrated adequate clarity. Nothing about these mono tracks excelled but they didn’t disappoint either.
Note that due to the massive amount of content in this package, I could not watch every episode for this review. I viewed all 110 shows when I wrote up the DVDs, but those came out over a period of 19 months, not all in one fell swoop like the Blu-rays.
To allow me to review this set in a timely manner, I watched four episodes per season. Here are the shows I viewed:
Season One: “The Laundry Orgy”, “The Big Brothers”, “Engrave Trouble”, “A Taste of Money”.
Season Two: “Hospital Mates”, “Sleepwalker”, “The Odd Couple Meet Their Host”, “You Saved My Life”.
Season Three: “Gloria, Hallelujah”, “Password”, “Sometimes a Great Ocean”, “Take My Furniture, Please”.
Season Four: “Gloria Moves In”, “The Pig Who Came to Dinner”, “Cleanliness Is Next to Impossible”, “The Flying Felix”.
Season Five: “The Hollywood Story”, “Two On the Aisle”, “Two Men On a Hoarse”, “Felix Remarries”.
Also note that some episodes come with edits related to music rights. This was the case with the DVDs as well. It stinks that we find these alterations but at least they don’t impact the series in a frequent manner.
How do the Blu-rays compare to the DVDs? Though lossless, the audio seems pretty similar. Let’s face it: there’s not a lot of room for growth with 50-year-old TV soundtracks, so the BDs’ DTS-HD MA material shows only minor improvements over the DVDs’ lossy Dolby.
Shot on film, visuals benefit some from superior resolution and colors, but I can’t call the differences revelatory. Still, the BDs present the episodes in the best manner to date, so I’ll pick them as the preferred version.
Only Season One comes with extras, and we find four audio commentaries spread throughout that collection of shows. Here’s the roster:
The Laundry Orgy Track One: Executive Producers/Writers Garry Marshall and Writer Jerry Belson. They discuss adapting the play for TV, the cast, issues with the studio and network, the opening credits and why they changed mid-season, and writing topics.
Marshall makes some crummy movies, but he’s almost always funny as a commentator, and that trend continues here. With Belson, they demonstrate fine chemistry as they tell us about the series’ origins and related subjects. Their chat for “Orgy” is informative and fun.
The Laundry Orgy Track Two: Actor Carole Shelly. She tells us about how she got the role in the original play as well as her casting in the movie and TV series.
Shelly also offers lots of notes about working with various actors and aspects of the different Odd Couple productions. Shelly lets us know a lot of good facts about her experiences.
It’s All Over Now, Baby Bird: Actor Jack Klugman. The actor talks about working with Tony Randall, some aspects of the production, his thoughts about his character and doing the role, and a few other notes.
Though Klugman gives us some decent content, this is the spottiest of the four S1 commentaries. Too much of the material seems somewhat general, and there’s a bit too much dead air. It’s not a bad track, but it’s not as good as the others.
They Use Horseradish, Don’t They?: Garry Marshall. This episode marked Marshall’s debut as a director, so he mostly discusses it from that point of view. He relates notes about shooing TV series along with a couple of tidbits related to casting and writing.
Marshall tries less hard to amuse us here than with Belson. That makes the commentary less lively but tighter. Marshall always offers nice insights into directing when he chats about that topic, and this turns into another useful piece.
Marshall offers introductions for all 24 episodes. These are cute but fairly pointless.
Marshall tosses out a few jokey comments about the shows but he doesn’t tell us a lot. We get a few slightly useful notes – like how “Trapped” was a “stuckina” show to save money, since it keeps things stuck in one set – but not many good bits. Though they’re a nice option, the intros don’t contribute much to the package.
Note that to hear the intros, you have to visit the episodes from the menu pages. If you view the shows through the “Play All” option, you won’t get the intros.
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In addition to a one-minute, three-second series promo - with very brief Marshall intro - S1 Disc One features a Tony Randall appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. Marshall offers an audio introduction to this five-minute, 59-second clip to set up the segment.
Aired before the series premiered, Randall discusses The Odd Couple and goes against Douglas and fellow guest Pat Boone in a push-up competition. Though Randall was one of the all-time great talk show guests, this isn’t a particularly sterling appearance. Nonetheless, it’s fun and a nice extra.
Similar material pops up on S1 Disc Two, where we get a 55-second promo for “Baby Bird” and a visit with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman on The Mike Douglas Show. From 11/19/70, this seven-minute, 13-second piece comes with another quick Marshall intro.
Here Klugman chats about his background in South Philadelphia and both men discuss their relationship and the show. Klugman isn’t particularly interesting, but Randall is more fun here.
Maybe I’m just a dope, but I never realized Klugman wore a hairpiece on the series. Here we see his hair in its naturally thin state.
On S1 Disc Three, we find Jack Klugman’s Book Tour Home Videos. In this six-minute, 23-second snippet, we learn of Klugman’s book about his relationship with Randall and view a little of Q&As he did to promote it.
Klugman’s damaged voice remains tough to hear, but he’s still bright and informative, and he offers a few fun notes here.
Next we get a Gag Reel. Opened with yet another short intro from Marshall, the one-minutw, 13-second clip gives us a smattering of amusing moments. I normally don’t like blooper collections, but this one actually makes me want to see more,
Referenced elsewhere in the set, we find a two-minute and 54-second excerpt of Tony and Jack On Stage in The Odd Couple (1993). As expected, Marshall sets up this clip with a brief intro before we watch a few scenes from the production.
Obviously the guys seem awfully old for the roles, but they still manifest their old charm and chemistry with each other. It’s great to get to check out part of their work on the play.
Note that this snippet appears to come from a rehearsal. We hear no reaction from an audience, so it seems unlikely anyone attended this performance.
Klugman won an Emmy in 1971, and we see that part of the Emmy presentation. We can watch the one-minute, four-second clip with or without comments from Klugman.
Marshall introduces that version of it and Klugman gives us a few remarks, though he doesn’t say much more than “I’ve never seen this” until the snippet ends.
The commentary edition runs one minute, 46 seconds as Klugman continues to chat over black screen. He presents a couple moderately interesting notes at the end.
Although I indicated Seasons Two through Five don’t include extras, this doesn’t prove entirely true. S2’s “Sleepwalker”, S3’s “Password” and S4’s “Last Tango in Newark” and “The New Car” come with more short intros from Garry Marshall.
These actually appeared on the S1 DVD set. That package included them as “bonus episodes”.
I loved The Odd Couple as a kid and I continue to adore it as a middle-aged adult. The series maintained a high standard across its five seasons and remains a delight. The Blu-rays come with generally positive picture, acceptable audio and a mix of good supplements for one season but not the rest, unfortunately. I’m not sure the Blu-rays do a lot to upgrade the DVDs, but I’m still happy to have this package.
DVDs, but I’m still happy to have this package.
