Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy? That was the question that fueled a play, a movie, and a classic sitcom. Neil Simon's 1965 play The Odd Couple and the subsequent 1967 movie, starring Walter Matthau as the sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison and Jack Lemmon as the fastidious photographer Felix Unger (Art Carney had the role on Broadway), spawned a popular and well-written television series that ran on ABC from 1970 to 1975.

In the television series, Oscar was played by Jack Klugman (who had taken over the role from Matthau on Broadway), Felix was played by Tony Randall, and the spirit of the play remained intact. Oscar was a happily divorced New Yorker who thought of ketchup as "tomato wine," and who slept with his wardrobe and his meals. Felix, still pining away for his ex-wife, was a neat freak, constantly spraying...