that request came from his wife

[in an authoritative voice, each syllable enunciated with clear precision] --

     On November 13, Felix Ungar was asked to remove himself from his place of residence.


That request came from his wife.


Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday, he would return to her.


With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison.  Sometime earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return.

Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" ... [cue:  MUSIC]

______________________________________
__________________________________

     Deaths of famous people sometimes come in threes.

Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul; 76

John McCain, U.S. Senator; 81

Neil Simon, playwright; 91

---------------------- Neil Simon -- like Johnny Carson, and Richard Nixon -- was one of the names that hovered over American life when I was in grade school.  Like wallpaper, school, chores, and elevator music, they were just there.  You have some awareness of them even if you don't know their work very well.  (Although by 1970, we were all pretty familiar with Nixon's work....)


     The smash hit Broadway plays with which Neil Simon established his prominent place in the cultural landscape:

Barefoot in the Park   (1963)

and

The Odd Couple   (1965).

     Simon had started out writing for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows in television's early days, along with Woody Allen (Annie Hall), Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles), Carl Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show), and others.

------------------------------------------

The Odd Couple was --

a play in 1965

a movie in 1968 (nominated / Academy Award)

a TV series, 1970 - 1975.


     I never saw the movie, and no one took me to see the play in New York, on Broadway.  (Things seemed far away and un-get-to-able, then, with no You Tube...)  But I watched the TV show sometimes because my parents did; it was "on."  
     I loved the music and visuals of the opening credits.  Neil Simon's name appeared onscreen -- on the opening credits, or at the start of the first scene.  

     His name was iconic and firmly fixed over the 1960s and 1970s, and his writing, popularity, and influence continued in subsequent decades.

Barefoot In The Park

The Odd Couple



-30-