CBS' updated 'Odd Couple' strives for a fresh dynamic

Felix and Oscar are together again.

Anyone who knows that combination of names must be familiar with the stage, screen, and/or earlier television versions of “The Odd Couple,” Neil Simon's comedy about hugely dissimilar college roommates who end up sharing quarters again years later. The premise gets a fresh workout when Matthew Perry (“Friends”) and Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911!”) assume the roles in CBS' new variation premiering Thursday, Feb. 19.

Garry Marshall, who executive-produced ABC's 1970s “Odd Couple” show, is an executive consultant on the new take. “When I was doing it,” he recalls, “the network was so afraid that the audience would think there was two gay characters. Every week, they said, 'Put more girls in. Put more girls in.' So on purpose, (with) Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, I used to shoot little moments where they hugged and kissed and sent it to the network just to make them crazy. Now they deal with it. They talk about it. It's a much, much more modern show.”

Though his Chandler Bing of “Friends” might make Perry seem ideal as the prissy Felix Unger, he's the slovenly Oscar Madison instead. “In real life, I'm much more of an Oscar,” he maintains. “I mean, it's big shoes to fill, but we're doing our own thing and playing it differently. I do a slight Walter Matthau impression in the pilot, but I think the funniest joke in the pilot was from the original source material, that was in the play.”

Lennon admits he “thought long and hard” about whether the revival “was even attemptable, because Tony Randall is a major hero of mine, and I was worried that I might be doing an impression of Tony Randall or something. But then, when I remembered that he was really the third Felix Unger and I might be something like about the fifth, I felt like maybe there was something new to bring to it.”

Lindsay Sloane and recurring cast member Leslie Bibb play contemporary versions of the Pigeon sisters, Felix and Oscar's new romantic interests. Wendell Pierce and Yvette Nicole Brown also are featured in the show, on which Perry has an executive-producer credit as well.

“It's really weird how this whole thing started,” Perry reflects. “I had a cast in mind, a network in mind, and then found out that it was actually being developed at CBS. I thought it would be a good idea, and I thought it would be a good time to do 'The Odd Couple' again. I wanted it to be on CBS because they are able to launch shows better than any other network, and it all just sort of magically came true.”