Classic TV Christmas Festival Part 1: The Odd Couple

I'm gonna kick off the Fest with an underrated Christmas gem. I don't know why I don't hear more about "The Odd Couple" season 1 episode "Scrooge Gets an Oscar." Is the series off the collective radar? Are people sick of reworkings of "A Christmas Carol"? Well, this is a great reworking of that oft-oft-oft-told tale.

The thing that makes Dickens' story so desirable to adapt to other formats is...that it's in the public domain. But it's also a story that allows, say, a TV series to showcase its characters with a few minor changes here and there. In this case, it doesn't take a great leap of faith to picture Oscar Madison as a Scrooge character or Murray as a pitiable Tiny Tim. Too easy? Perhaps, but it's a funny installment of a classic show.

Oscar is grumpy because Christmastime reminds of him his ex-wife (he says they got married on December 25). Perhaps more aggravating, Blanche has just split with her beau, shattering Oscar's dreams of not having to pay any more alimony. So he takes it out on everybody else, wishing he had a giant candy cane so he could "beat the wings off a sugar plum fairy, " and he also refuses to play Scrooge in a version of "A Christmas Carol" Felix is directing. After rousing his ulcer with some spicy food, Scrooge Madison dozes off on the couch and is visited by 3 spirits, all of whom look an awful lot like Felix Unger...

I know for many fans, "The Odd Couple" really begins when they go to a studio audience in season 2, but "Scrooge Gets an Oscar," within the confines of a formulaic Christmas outing, offers many series elements I consider quintessential:

*The poker guys are all here, and in fact, they are playing poker at the beginning.
*Oscar throws Felix out of the apartment (and right before Christmas, too! What a Scrooge!).
*Felix is pompous.
*Oscar gripes about his ex-wife.
*Great takes from Tony Randall and Jack Klugman: See Felix's exasperated eye rolls when "Tiny Tim" Murray keeps repeating "God bless us all, everyone." And definitely see Oscar's double takes when a ghost surprises him.

On a DVD intro, executive producer Garry Marshall marvels that this is the only "Odd Couple" episode with special effects--like smoke! In addition to the mood-setting fake fog, there are Victorian costumes galore, making this an offbeat episode for such an urban 1970s TV series. Yet I should also mention another great touch: early on, there are a few great contemporary outdoor shots of a snowbound New York City.

The "Christmas Carol" takeoff plays just the way you'd expect to, with genuine good cheer and warmth at the end. But the writers don't have to strain to force the Christmas concept on us. In fact, in addition to those elements I mentioned above, there are all sorts of great character touches. The exchange of gifts between Felix and Oscar is touching, funny, and totally relevant. It's a kick to see Oscar, sitting in front of the tube, irritated because a TV broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" preempts roller derby. When the gang is rehearsing the play, Speed hides a cheap pulp novel inside his copy of the script.

"Scrooge Gets an Oscar" is a fine example in a seemingly limitless category of "Christmas Carol" knockoffs. It may have been an old gimmick even then, but it works for "The Odd Couple," giving this classic series an Xmas episode that holds up well alongside its regular ones. Those of you who get WPIX in New York can see it late late Christmas night (technically the 26th) at 2:0o A.M., but though I grew up watching "The OC" on that channel, I'm happy to have the show uncut on the season 1 DVD set.