We continue our countdown of my favorite 1970s Christmas TV episodes with 1970’s “Scrooge Gets an Oscar” from The Odd Couple.
Now, if you’ve been reading my posts long enough, you know that I generally dislike TV episodes that do the whole “Or maybe Santa IS real!” routine. However, even HACKIER than that is when TV shows do episodes based on A Christmas Carol. However, at the same time, just like how I’ve given good rankings to episodes that DID do the “Santa is REAL!,” so, too, can I certainly admit that there ARE some shows that manage to pull off A Christmas Carol parodies without being terrible.
The most famous example is likely from The Odd Couple, who had their first, and only, Christmas episode in the first season, in an episode titled “Scrooge Gets an Oscar,” which is based around the concept of Felix (Tony Randall) directing the local police charity performance of A Christmas Carol for a local orphanage. Obviously, Felix (and everyone else) thinks that Oscar (Jack Klugman) would make for the perfect Ebeneezer Scrooge, but he is not interested.
There’s a great sequence where Felix tries to see if any of their other poker buddies can pull off the role with Oscar out of the running, and they all do terrible jobs (Al Molinaro’s Murray isn’t even allowed to audition, as he’s so loveable that no one would ever believe him as Scrooge. Felix jokes that he could kick a puppy and everyone would still love him. Murray explains that he would NEVER kick a puppy). My favorite audition is Vinnie (Larry Gelman), who does Scrooge as sort of a madman…
In any event, Oscar and Felix argue about the play so much that Oscar kicks Felix out of the apartment, abruptly ending their cohabitation arrangement halfway through the first season!
However, of course, Oscar has eaten a lot of spicy meat before bedtime, so he suffers a nightmare, and is visited by Felix as Marley’s Ghost. There’s some good gags about Felix being there because they couldn’t get Marley, as this is his busy season. Also, when they go to fly, Ghost Felix falls out the window, and is back with a sling on his arm. They take the elevator, instead.
All of the regular routines are there, but Klugman is such a good actor that he really throws himself into it (like playing himself as a little boy for the vision of Christmas Past).
In the visions of Christmas Present, we see the play without Oscar, and Molinaro is a standout as an awful Tiny Tim, repeatedly saying “God bless us, everyone.”
Once he awakens from the nightmare, Oscar redeems himself, and he asks to be allowed to be in the play, and he asks Felix to move in with him fulltime again.
It’s a very nice episode. It only isn’t higher because, well, it’s still A Christmas Carol riff, ya know? That’s not really all THAT creative, when all is said and done.
