| The Odd Couple - The Fourth Season | 
 enlarge | Actor: Tony Randall
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.98
Buy New: $26.49
You Save: $13.49 (34%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 3969
Format: Box Set, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 4
Running Time: 562
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD132754D
UPC: 097361327549
EAN: 0097361327549
ASIN: B0014FAIXO
Release Date: June 10, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/10/2008 Run time: 562 minutes
Amazon.com
Even at its guest-starringest, Will & Grace had nothing on The Odd Couple's fourth season stunt casting. Just two months after their epic "Battle of the Sexes" drew the largest-ever live audience for a tennis match, Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King squared off against each other at the ping-pong table in the episode, "The Pig Who Came to Dinner." Ballet superstar Edward Villella performs in "Last Tango in Newark" and Marilyn Horn, as a baker with an operatic voice and an unrequited crush on Oscar, sings selections from Carmen, as well as "People," in "Vocal Girl Makes Good." "The Songwriter" features legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack and entertainer Jaye P. Morgan, who performs the ever-popular Felix-penned ditty, "Happy and Peppy and Bursting with Love." Playboy emperor Hugh Hefner drops in for the flashback episode, "One for the Bunny," in which a jealous Felix is undone when he must photograph his future wife, Gloria, for a possible Playmate spread. But the chemistry between Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, Best Actor Emmy nominees in each of this series' five years, is the real attraction. They are so thoroughly at home in their roles that they elevate the more over-the-top material, as witness their ill-fated presentation as glue entrepreneurs in "A Barnacle Adventure." Among the season's best episodes are the ones that go back to the basics of Neil Simon's warhorse play: Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy? In "The Insomniac," Felix cannot get to sleep ("I'm up as a pup") despite Oscar's best efforts. In "Cleanliness is Next to Impossible," Felix hypnotizes the unwitting Oscar into becoming a neat freak after Oscar's new girlfriend calls him sloppy (Felix's heartbreak at having to bring Oscar out of it is palpable. "It's like a dream come true," he moans). Elinor Donahue's Miriam, Felix's girlfriend, is conveniently forgotten in the episodes in which Felix tries to win back his ex-wife ("Gloria Moves In"). Zinger-queen Brett Somers also returns as Oscar's ex-wife, Blanche, in flashback episodes that continue to play havoc with Felix and Oscar's backstory (so now they were in the Army together?) Randall, Klugman and company (including Penny Marshall as Oscar's secretary, Myrna) clearly relish playing to their enthusiastic live audience, and this richly entertaining season is brimming with classic moments and bits of comic business that continue to bring down the house. --Donald Liebenson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 agree with everyone: what's with the cuts? November 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
now, surely, paramount MUST know that the audience for these DVDs are those of us who LOVE this series... it's amazing the little things they cut out... WHY?? a few words here, a phrase there... it makes NO sense. it really hurts. i have to say, i know almost all the episodes by heart. and i have old vhs tapes; i have old mass-market columbia house VHSs (my bf is constantly asking me if we need to really keep these 25+ vhs cases around our small nyc apartment) and i was SO excited when it was revealed the greatest show ever would be available on DVD. as many others did, i expected these to be the COMPLETE episodes. if not, why bother? i agree that "extras" would have been nice (i actually have the originally-released first season in the big, fold-out cardboard case, and there are some Gary Marshall, Jack Klugman commentaries, some intros and extras -- The Mike Douglas show is nice) but what these releases are really about are the excellent episodes. they deserve to be preserved in their entirety. (i give a star for the color restoration and a star for the show's untaintable genius.) but now this DVD goes down as the canonical version, and many little hilarious touches and phrases will be lost forever. WHY???? so sad.
 Still a winner even with the cuts! October 18, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful show even WITH cuts. I think it is awful to give such a wonderful show one star because of the cuts. Where we are reviewing a product overall, it is difficult to know where to land with the star reviews. Granted the cuts are an assault to the show, but the show itself is still wonderful.
I may not be getting any kudos for this review...but wanted to at least try to even out the star ratings. I think this is a wonderful show and I liked it the first time around when it first aired on TV. It is funny, entertaining and creative :)
 The Odd Couple Season 4 musical cuts October 4, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I,too, am very disappointed with the obvious deletion of just about every song in Season 4. I absolutely LOVE this show and couldn't wait until all seasons were released. Now I'll have to pay closer attention to seasons 1-3 and 5. Only true Odd Couple fans will catch the obvious substitutions. For example, in the episode, "This is the Army, Mrs. Madison, Felix and Murray serenade Oscar and Blanche with "I Love You Truly"....deleted on DVD and dubbed with Murray playing "Birmingham Jail" on the harmonica...you hear the audience laugh at Felix singing, but on this release, he's NOT singing, so you're not quiet sure why the audience is laughing. The purpose of purchasing DVDs is to watch the episodes in their entirety, the way they were originally aired on TV. CBS/Paramount should never have released the Odd Couple if there was a problem with Hopefully they will re-release all 5 seasons again, without cutting a single minute. I just wanted to give a heads up to other Odd Couple fans, that they, too, will be disappointed with the editing.
 Thankful for the shows, Upset about the Edits September 3, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I watched this show endlessly on WPIX in New York, growing up in the 1970's and 1980's. I have all 4 seasons so far, and I will pick up season 5. I was showing an episode, "Odd Holiday", to my kids, who, by the way, love the show. It's a flashback episode, and before going into the flashback, Murray asks Oscar if the picture was going to go all wavy. The flashback, I can remember from WPIX, had Felix singing "gotta get going, gotta get going...", and hitting his knee with a magazine. On the DVD, there was no "wavy" going into the flashback, just a jump cut to the past. It jumps straight over Felix and the magazine, and goes straight to Gloria picking up the magazine and tapping her knee - Felix says that's annoying. Without Felix's tapping, there is no joke - the irony that Felix is annoyed at what he was doing before her. I don't know if anybody caught that, but that little snippet missing (for no apparent reason), ruined the joke.
On the plus side, every episode in this set (plus the previous 3) had about 3-4 minutes of footage that I have never seen before, so that is a good thing. I just don't know why little snippets like the one above was cut. I don't think it was a music issue.
The show gets 5 stars, but it loses a star for the nonsense editing. Overall, it's still better than syndication.
Growing Up with the Odd Couple August 30, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
I love this show and was thrilled that now I could add it to my DVD collection. I can't wait to finish my collection with season 5. For anyone who grew up in the "Seventies, New York City," the Odd Couple is a must have.
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