Tony And Jack And Felix And Oscar

About nine years ago Tony Randall died.  Jack Klugman, Tony's friend and partner--but not an author--decided to write a book about him, and in 2005 Tony And Me came out.  It's just barely a book--141 short pages, about half of which are photos, but it's heartfelt and entertaining (and somewhat similar to, if much shorter than, another tribute to a dead partner, Dean And Me, by Jerry Lewis--except Jerry still felt bad about how he grabbed all the attention, while Jack never outshone Tony).

The book isn't even that well organized, but it does tell the story of the two stars--how they got started, how they knew each other, how they worked together in the TV version of The Odd Couple and how they remained friends afterward, often working on stage projects.  I'm tempted to tell some of the stories, but the book is so short I don't want to steal its thunder.

Randall was the bigger star when the show debuted in 1970.  Klugman was respected and worked regularly, but wasn't exactly a household name. (Klugman had actually replaced Walter Matthau as Oscar in The Odd Couple on Broadway, but it turns out the TV show's producer Garry Marshall hired Klugman because he'd seen him in Gypsy.) For Randall, TV may have been a bit of a comedown.  He'd been a regular in movies for years, sometimes as a star.  (He was handsome, but not leading-man handsome unless it was a comedy).  But the two worked well together and became fixed in the public's mind as Felix and Oscar. And in fact, during season breaks, they'd tour in the original Neil Simon play.

Years later Klugman had an operation for throat cancer and lost his voice.  He almost gave up on acting, but he saw a therapist (untrained--do I smell a King's Speech sequel?) and Randall convinced him to come back on stage to do a benefit performance of The Odd Couple. With his old friend's encouragement, Jack started acting again.  I actually saw their Broadway production of another Neil Simon work, The Sunshine Boys.  It was great seeing them live, and after a few minutes you got used to Klugman's harsher voice--which actually fit the character of a retired Vaudevillian. (If anything, it was Randall's old-style, Yiddish-inflected comic that was harder to accept).

Both men had intimacy issues, though they helped each other get through them, so that by the end of their lives they could be open with each other.  Randall's long-time wife died in 1992 and he married a woman about a third his age.  They had kids and Randall became a doting father in his dotage.  He was always an energetic guy, and Klugman explains it was tough to see him bedridden in his final days.  He spoke movingly at Randall's funeral but this book is probably a better tribute.

PS.  This has nothing to do with the book, but I've been watching reruns of The Odd Couple (I'm surprised how well I remember the plots) and I just watched the episode where Felix has a band and needs Oscar's help to get on a TV show.  He plans to have Oscar sit in on drums to get him involved, but Oscar is horrible. So as Felix plays a sprightly version of "How High The Moon" on piano he has Oscar miming the drums, saying they can get someone offstage to play the actual drums.  This is specially funny because Tony Randall is clearly not playing the piano, but someone offstage is.