“Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?” That was the tantalizing kicker to the opening credits of the television show that followed the film adaptation of the Broadway smash-hit play written by Neil Simon. Starring Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, the shirt-stained sportswriter who takes in his recently divorced friend, the persnickity Felix Ungar (Tony Randall), The Odd Couple stands as one of television’s great buddy shows, in line with Kramden and Norton in The Honeymooners, and David and Maddie in Moonlighting, and even, when you think about it, Friends. Because this is a show about the value of friendship and how the laughs we get from our best friendships are what sustain us. Sure, Oscar and Felix bicker like an old married couple, but they also connive and scheme, two bachelors determined to have a good time in late-60s Manhattan. The show shines because season in and season out the writers maintained the same high bar of humor that Simon laced through his script. The laughs come fast, turning off a dime at times, and other times arriving in unexpected ways. Like a great friendship, it endures. —Michael Hainey

Michael Hainey is a Writer at Large at AIR MAIL