The neatnik, the slob and their pal

 Anyone who remembers the 1970s TV sitcom “The Odd Couple” starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, a spin-off of Neil Simon’s Broadway play and subsequent movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, should be sure to tune in on Friday as a reboot of the series starring Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon airs on the small screen.

Perry, who made his name as Chandler Bing on “Friends”, plays the endearing slob Oscar Madison while Lennon portrays the uptight neat freak Felix Unger, as the two former college buddies become unlikely roommates after the demise of their marriages. It’s not long after Oscar lets Felix move in that Oscar fears he’s made a monumental mistake. Oscar’s jack-of-all-trades assistant, Dani, and his long-time agent, Teddy, have their hands full trying to keep Oscar’s career as a sports radio host on track as he deals with his new living situation. 

Aside from taking the leading role, Perry also serves as one of the show’s executive producers. Other cast members include Lindsay Sloane, Yvette Nicole Brown and Wendell Pierce, whose acting credits include “The Wire”, “Ray”, “Parker” and “Horrible Bosses”.

We had a chat with Pierce about his role, Teddy, just a few days before the show premiered in Thailand. 

 

HOW DID YOU COME TO JOIN THE SHOW?

I was working with Michael J Fox on another network last year and Matthew Perry contacted me. After seeing my work on that [project] they decided to reach out to me to see if I would be interested. I would be working with the cast, as well as Gary Marshall, who happened to be in the original show, so it was a no brainer for me to say yes. 

 

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR ROLE AS TEDDY?

When I got the role and started working on it I thought I would be Murray the Cop like in the original show but they changed it to be Teddy. That gives me chance to bring more of my ideas to this new character in the world of “The Odd Couple”. He’s a good businessman and a loyal friend. I’d like to say that I’m a loyal friend but for the business part, well I haven’t come round to it yet. 

 

HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS THIS VERSION COMPARED TO THE PREVIOUS ONES?

This one pays homage to the previous version – with the characters and the silly jokes they had on the original – but we knew that we wanted to make something different too because there would be a whole new generation of people that know nothing about it. There’ll also be a generation that has seen the original, so we needed to make something that would please both groups. After a few months I started having people came up to me and say, “hey you were in the show”. Before it was nothing like this because my roles were quite serious, violent and even risque [laughs]. So this show is something everyone can enjoy. It’s an honest, old school show but also a totally new reboot. 

 

YOU ARE MORE FAMILIAR WITH THEATRE AND FEATURE FILMS. HOW DIFFERENT IS IT TO BE ON A SITCOM SET?

You have to think fast on sitcom. You have to be quick on your feet and think fast when you’re filming because you can’t have this long, dramatic pause in between. Sit-com forces me to make choices faster to play with my cast mate, which is a lot of fun. 

 

DO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE FOR THAI AUDIENCES WHO MAY HAVE NEVER WATCHED “THE ODD COUPLE”?

Well, it’s like a cousin in Chiang Mai comes to live with a cousin in Bangkok. So you’ll have the country kid from the North and the city kid from Bangkok. One is very clean whereas one is very dirty. And you realise that they’ll never get along but ultimately at the end they’re the best of friends because friendship means more to them than anything. It’s going to be a lot of fun. You can sit down and enjoy with your family the new, updated version of “The Odd Couple”. And you’ll get to see Matthew Perry, who is one of the best comedy actors around. 

 UNLIKELY PAIRING

  “The Odd Couple” airs on RTL CBS Entertainment HD channel (TrueVisions 337) on Friday nights. Find out more at www.TrueVisionsGroup.com.