Customer Reviews

The Odd Couple - The Complete Series, Seasons 1-5

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

These words were used in the opening credits of every Odd Couple episode ...

"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his wife. Deep down he knew she was right. But he also knew that someday he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Some time earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return.

"Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?"

... but you won't hear them on this set of DVDs! I've waited until the release of the final season to see if perhaps they only appeared in that one year. Not so - they've been completely edited out of the entire series. Surely that was part of the charm of the show - the expectation of hearing those words in the opening titles. In those few seconds the entire premise of the show is set up. Many other little things have been cut, clipped and altered in this DVD set and the other reviewers (on this listing and on the individual season listings) have touched on many of them. The one that bothers me is the complete removal of Pernell Robert's singing of "In Some Secluded Rendezvous" which is the whole punchline of the "Strike Up The Band or Else" episode during which, in the final seconds of the episode, he steals the theme song of Felix' band, The Sophisticados. It simply fades to black just as he's about to sing and that's the new ending of the show. That's all, folks. It just trails away to nothingness leaving us with a hopelessly lame ending never imagined by the original writers.

This original series gets my 5-stars but this DVD release gets only 4. I'm totally baffled and frustrated as to why anyone would want to edit these episodes. Don't they realize that customers are buying them to see exactly what they saw when these great shows first aired on TV? When you watch a comedy more than once you know what you're about to see and hear so there's an expectation on the part of the audience that the producers of the DVD have completely failed to realize. There's no such thing as "better" when you tinker with nostalgia.

i for one am disapointed with this boxed set of so called complete series.how the heck can you call it the complete series when it is severely edited. we who bought the odd couple boxed set were cheated."how can it be a complete series when its edited all to hell" to call it the complete series is fraud.complete series means complete series not an edited version. i read the actor from kentucky's review and he says we odd couple die hards are wining because we got cheated. well buddy im glad you are happy with your boxed set but know this. you got cheated and suckered out of you money when you bought your boxed set. fact is fact."COMPLETE SERIES MEANS COMPLETE EPISODES NOT EDITED EPISODES. AND THIS IS A FACT.

THEY ARE CUT,EDITED. DELETED SCEENS HOWEVER YOU WANT TO SAY.... IT'S A RIP OFF. I CALLED & E-MAILED PARAMOUNT, THEY SAID: THEY DID NOT KNOW THIS.
COME ON TELL THE TRUTH.

Count me in as one of the dissatisfied customers who has patiently waited for so long to get The Odd Couple on DVD. When it's finally released this is all we get?! There is no way on earth you could get me to buy anything past season 2. Season 1 was excellent, season 2 had a few edits but nothing too noticeable. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 were edited to such a degree that the show was no longer enjoyable. Paramount, you blew it! Do yourselves a favor and look elsewhere for the proper versions of the show. (If you still have a VCR you might be able to get a Columbia House set.) But do not buy this set. Doing so will only encourage more sloppy releases from Paramount.

Yes, it's true. Some dolt with nothing but a calculator for a brain decided to cheat fans by editing these DVDs to avoid royalty dealings. It's as simple as that.
Shame on Paramount for damaging a sweet slice of TV history and showing zero respect for fans.

Five stars because it is, after all, the Odd Couple.

But seriously? After waiting THIRTY THREE years to have all the episodes in a collection and spending over a hundred dollars for the privilege, you would THINK that Paramount would have the good grace (made a few profits lately, Paramount?) to include a freakin' BOX?

You'd be wrong. Five lousy pieces of cardboard, imprinted and glued together. That's all I'm asking for -- but nope. Here's your DVDs, shrinkwrapped (one facing the wrong way mind you), cheap as can be, now go away.

Freakin' amazing.

This is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. The DVD releases, for the most part, are a disgrace. Season 1 was originally put out by Time Life and had unedited episodes and extras. The rest of the seasons put out by Paramount have no extras whatsoever. Season 2 had no major edits - I think some unrecognizable background music was changed. Seasons 3 - 5, the edits get worse and worse. They are VERY noticeable. For instance, there are scenes where someone will be in the middle of a sentence and the scene will just jump ahead. Jokes and comedic timing are ruined, important scenes are left out.

I bought the first 3 seasons. After noticing a handful of edits in the third season I decided to rent the rest first. There are so many edits in the last two seasons, I refuse to buy them. I would have never thought a show of this stature would be treated this way. Word is Paramount also messed with the last few seasons of Cheers as well.

If only Time Life could have released all the seasons, they gave the show the treatment it deserves. I would have rather Paramount not release the show at all instead of these butchered versions. I hope one day this show will be released unedited but it doesn't seem likely.

Save your money unless you enjoy shelling out full-price for damaged goods. These are edited even more than the reruns on TV!

Oh, and if they ever do release the unedited versions, are you gonna buy those too?

What a disgrace!

From the reviews I have read regarding this box set, I think I will stick with a set of really complete episodes that I bought years before on Ebay. These are DVD-R discs and they were taken from TV broadcasts, but there is every episode, complete and in the proper running order. Even at his sloppiest, Oscar Madison would have done a better job with the set Paramount put out. At least he knew that complete means complete. After all, he worked for a newspaper.

First some remarks about the series itself. This show proves that opposites may not attract, but, with some work, they can at least peacefully coexist. Felix is not just compulsively neat, he literally worships at the altar of order. Oscar's philosophy is not to sweat the small stuff and thinks everything is small stuff. One of the reasons this show is still funny today is that most people have personalities that lie between these two extremes and can therefore sympathize and laugh at the actions of both men. The first season focuses on the relationship between Oscar and Felix, pretty much stays in the same neighborhood as the 1968 movie from which it sprang as to storylines, and even has the same actresses from the film playing the Pidgeon Sisters. The first season is good, and helps establish the complete personalities of Oscar and Felix in a way a two hour film just doesn't have time to do, but I think it lacks something in the way of the energy and pace that the subsequent seasons had. "The Odd Couple" had the misfortune of premiering right before shows like "All In the Family" would give birth to modern television as we know it today, along with the frank discussion of controversial subject matter in a comic context.

Quite frankly, I think the show would probably have been canceled after its second season if it had not changed to the live set it used from seasons two forward and started breeching more modern topics like it did to help keep pace with the great changes that were taking place in television during the early 70's. I have to give credit to producer Garry Marshall - if he saw something that wasn't quite working in one of his shows, he wasn't afraid to make drastic changes to try and get things back on track. I would say that the "Odd Couple" is one of the few shows that managed to never jump the shark during its five year run. Considering the fact that it aired during a period of great change in American culture - 1970-1975 - that is saying something.

Now for the presentation of the series. The first season, which is probably its weakest, is the only one worth purchasing. If there are edits, I haven't noticed them. That is because the modern music starts getting inserted into the show in the second season, part of the effort that I previously mentioned to keep the show current. Unfortunately, it has also been its undoing in syndication and on home video. The RIAA, demanding outrageous royalties for anyone as much as humming a copyrighted song, ruined the video release of WKRP in Cincinatti, and is responsible for Ally McBeal on DVD being an impossibility in the U.S. If Paramount were to pay what the RIAA wanted, it would have to charge us two hundred per season. However, Paramount decided to deface this show anyway and release cut up sets from season two onward. That part of the blame definitely lies at their feet.

In short, avoid this set, and buy season one if you haven't. Subsequent seasons are so cut up it will ruin your enjoyment if you remember this series in its original run.