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Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

The Odd Couple

21 votes

The Honeymooners

12 votes

Frayed Knot Feb 14 2011 07:47 AM

#4 seed 'Odd Couple' meets #6 seed 'Honeymooners' The 1950s classic 'Honeymooners' lasted just 39 episodes (until more "lost" shows were found) but lived on in reruns forever had to get past first the higher-rated 'Taxi' in the round of sixteen and then defeat its contemporary 'I Love Lucy' in the quarters. The 'Odd Couple' snagged the final bye in the round of sixteen and then held off a hard-charging 'Bob Newhart Show' to get to this spot. So ... do you prefer your Jack mixed with Art or mixed with Tony? Voting ends Wednesday morning.

Edgy DC Feb 14 2011 07:55 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

I just go with the Odd Guys because they gave us more goodness. More Met content also.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 14 2011 07:55 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Love the Odd Couple, but love the Honeymooners a lot more.

themetfairy Feb 14 2011 09:55 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Love Felix and Oscar. Never liked The Honeymooners. This was the easiest choice for me in the entire tournament.

sharpie Feb 14 2011 10:26 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Brooklyn over Manhattan.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 14 2011 10:39 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

UWS 4 Life. Quantity plus quality beats quality.

G-Fafif Feb 14 2011 12:37 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Too much template was perfected in Bensonhurst.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 14 2011 12:40 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

When you're deciding who makes the best chocolate-chip cookie, does the guy who invented the chocolate-chip cookie automatically win?

batmagadanleadoff Feb 14 2011 12:46 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

The Honeymooners or The Odd Couple? Koufax or Sutton?

Benjamin Grimm Feb 14 2011 12:54 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

I'm solidly with the Kramdens and Nortons here. Timeless comedy is priceless comedy.

batmagadanleadoff Feb 14 2011 12:58 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Me too. Gleason decided to end The Honeymooners after its only season because he didn't think he could sustain the show's quality any longer. Gleason had high standards.

TheOldMole Feb 14 2011 01:00 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Has to be The Honeymooners.

Frayed Knot Feb 14 2011 01:06 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Me too. Gleason decided to end The Honeymooners after its only season because he didn't think he could sustain the show's quality any longer. Gleason had high standards. Except that he wasn't averse to mining the format further, both in the "lost episodes" that showed up later and in (vastly inferior) Honeymooners skits that were standard as part of 'The Jackie Gleason Show'. Same Art Carney as Ed, different women.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 14 2011 01:17 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The Honeymooners or The Odd Couple? Koufax or Sutton? Come now. If The Odd Couple is Sutton, then The Honeymooners is Catfish Hunter without a decline phase. I'm not saying that's where I'd actually put them, but don't stretch the truth to make your point.

G-Fafif Feb 14 2011 01:26 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: When you're deciding who makes the best chocolate-chip cookie, does the guy who invented the chocolate-chip cookie automatically win? If it was an incredibly funny chocolate chip cookie, yes.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 14 2011 01:28 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

I wouldn't say the Odd Couple is Don Sutton. It's more than that. It might even be Steve Carlton. It's at least Jim Palmer.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 14 2011 01:31 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Feller or Spahn. Maybe even Lefty Grove.

HahnSolo Feb 14 2011 01:37 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

And I'm not so sure the Honeymooners is Koufax.

G-Fafif Feb 14 2011 01:46 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Don Newcombe: 20-5 in 1955, 27-7 in 1956 -- overlapping the Honeymooners' championship season in Brooklyn, no less.

cooby Feb 14 2011 04:28 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Gonna break this tie.

TheOldMole Feb 14 2011 05:18 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Only two votes down! Come on, Norton fans!

Rockin' Doc Feb 14 2011 06:31 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

I cast my vote for Ralph and Norton earlier. I always enjoyed the Odd Couple, but the Honemooners is simply classic in my view.

Fman99 Feb 14 2011 07:28 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Picked Oscar and Felix over Ralph and Norton.

batmagadanleadoff Feb 14 2011 07:59 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Feb 14 2011 08:20 PM

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: The Honeymooners or The Odd Couple? Koufax or Sutton? Come now. If The Odd Couple is Sutton, then The Honeymooners is Catfish Hunter without a decline phase. I'm not saying that's where I'd actually put them, but don't stretch the truth to make your point. Fine by me. Koufax or Catfish? My point wasn't to tarnish TOC, but simply to illustrate that The Honeymooners had a brilliant but brief peak, while The Odd Couple, brilliant in its own right, was longer lasting, but with a lower peak. On a desert island, would you rather have the 10 best Honeymooners episodes or the 10 best Odd Couples? Do you prefer the Odd Couple brand of chocolates because they taste better than The Honeymooners chocolates, or because, for the same amount of money, you get more chocolates in a bag of Odd Couples?

batmagadanleadoff Feb 14 2011 08:15 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wouldn't say the Odd Couple is Don Sutton. It's more than that. It might even be Steve Carlton. It's at least Jim Palmer. I still love The Odd Couple, some 35 years after it was canceled. It probably makes my personal list of top 10 favorite sitcoms, all-time. But I don't see the shame in it being compared to Sutton -- a dependable pitcher, a Hall of Famer who, at his peak, pitched like a Cy Young Award candidate. Sutton never won the Cy, but that's not because he didn't pitch some great seasons. It's just that there was always someone more deserving. As good as TOC was, and I'd say that it was among the best of its peers, the overwhelming critical, if not personal, consensus, was that TOC was never quite as good as All in The Family or Mary Tyler Moore -- your Seavers, Palmers and Carltons. Sutton never won the Cy, but The Odd Couple never won the Emmy for best comedy series, either.

soupcan Feb 15 2011 07:31 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Odd Couple. I have never seen a sitcom with two lead actors that so easily played off one another.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 15 2011 07:43 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Mets references put it over the top!

Benjamin Grimm Feb 15 2011 08:03 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Holy Crap, The Odd Couple is running away with it. (20 to 10 at this point.) I never would have anticipated that.

Vic Sage Feb 15 2011 08:05 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

demographics, baby.

MFS62 Feb 15 2011 08:08 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Vic Sage wrote: demographics, baby. Exactly. We've got more crotchety men and neatniks here than we have married bus drivers. Later

Lefty Specialist Feb 15 2011 08:32 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Any show where Howard Cosell gets to abuse both main characters gets my vote.

HahnSolo Feb 15 2011 08:36 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Doesn't look to me like Felix and Oscar will be pushovers against Archie and Edith.

HahnSolo Feb 15 2011 08:38 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Lefty Specialist wrote: Any show where Howard Cosell gets to abuse both main characters gets my vote. "The man is an inane drone!" [Oscar gets camera shy on Monday Night football, can't speak] "There's nothing wrong with your television sets, ladies and gentlemen. It's just Oscar Madison telling you everything he knows about football"

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 15 2011 08:39 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

He called you a dull bee!

Frayed Knot Feb 15 2011 09:08 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Lefty Specialist wrote: Any show where Howard Cosell gets to abuse both main characters gets my vote. I'd prefer a show where the main characters get to abuse Howard Cosell but whatever.

HahnSolo Feb 15 2011 09:22 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Frayed Knot wrote: Lefty Specialist wrote: Any show where Howard Cosell gets to abuse both main characters gets my vote. I'd prefer a show where the main characters get to abuse Howard Cosell but whatever. "A babbling baboon? Gentleman Jerk? The mouth that roared? Kid Nausea?"

Frayed Knot Feb 15 2011 11:38 AM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

I could go either way on this one. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, even though the Honeymooners was before my time I went through periods as a kid, as a teen, and as a young adult when I was watching it regularly. A completely original show that never had a bad episode and if any pair could match Klugman/Randall for playing off each other it was Gleason/Carney. Of course it helps the quality that there were so few of them so it does lose a bit on the longevity scale. The OC was more in my time. Don't think I was on it from the very beginning but pretty close and certainly caught up on enough of them in syndication that I could recite dialog as it was happening. Very different show in that there was little to create seeing as how they had a successful play & movie as a lead-in. But not only didn't they blow that advantage but almost certainly enhanced the life of the brand (other TV shows followed: all black cast; two women in the roles) by proving themselves able to move beyond a first good season when they could simply mine the plot and even some direct lines ("Murray, I'll give you fifty dollars for your gun") set up by Simon . The downside of the longer run is that it did hang around long enough start to embarrassing itself at the end with third-rate guest stars (Monty Hall, Richard Dawson) and cheesy stories about how Felix and/or Oscar knew them from way back when in order to weasel them into the plot. Currently mine is one of the Odd Couple votes although (even as it looks increasingly like it won't matter) I still could change my mind on this.

Kong76 Feb 15 2011 06:14 PM Re: Final Four of Sit-Coms: Odd Couple vs Honeymooners

Huminah, huminah, huminah ... I took Osc and Feel.