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Why did the producer decide to end "The Odd Couple" after five seasons?

posted 9 years ago by chihuahuaboydh-724-612855
5 replies | jump to latest

It's such a shame a sitcom of the caliber that's "The Odd Couple" ended after five seasons on ABC. It's also an enigma as to why this magnificent sitcom was cancelled while it was still tops in the ratings. Did both Tony Randall & Jack Klugman just not want to do "TOC" anymore? It seems as if the writers were far from running out of ideas, & I'm curious as to what type of storylines would have been concocted had there been a Season 6? Well never know, sadly.

R.I.P., Tony Randall & Jack Klugman.

Larry Appleton: "I have..."
Balki Bartokomous: "Oh, God!"
Larry Appleton: "...a plan!"

[–] nlfan-1 9 years ago

The show seemed to lose steam in the final season-I think it was also moved to a different night as well,which didn't help the ratings. Plus I think Randall and Klugman wanted to move on-a year later they both had new shows. At least they wrapped up the show nicely in the final ep, unlike other shows that never give some closure.

[–] TVholic 9 years ago

By all accounts, it was not "tops in the ratings." It was very firmly in the middle of the pack, although it really deserved better. Go to sites like classictvhits.com and you'll see it never appeared in the top 30 shows for any of the years it was broadcast.

[–] nlfan-1 9 years ago

Like Star Trek it gained in popularity after it left network TV. After a time people tend to forget that such shows weren't highly rated when they first aired.

[–] SealordJohn 8 years ago

The Wikipedia web site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Odd_Couple_%281970_TV_series%29 reports that because of the poor ratings, the 1970s Odd Couple was cancelled at the end of each of its five seasons. However, because the summer reruns had higher ratings, the network brought it back the next season.

[–] TMC-4 (19386) 4 years ago

https://www.quora.com/Why-was-the-television-series-The-Odd-Couple-cancelled-after-just-5-seasons-Do-you-you-think-an-updated-version-of-that-series-would-do-well-today/answer/Jon-Mixon-1

Like most television series, the early 1970s version of The Odd Couple was cancelled due to low ratings. The final season mainly consisted of guest performers like Roy Clark and Howard Cosell to boost the sagging ratings; however none of that helped, and the series was cancelled as a result.