Favale Media Names The Odd Couple's 'Scrooge Gets An Oscar' TV's Greatest Christmas Episode Of All Time On The 50th Anniversary Of Its Broadcast

NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Just about every TV pop culture junkie knows the significance of November 13th. That was the day that "Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence…"

But here's another significant date…on December 17th, 1970 (fifty years ago today) at 9pm, ABC aired what Favale Media has just named THE greatest Christmas themed TV episode of all time…the Odd Couple's "Scrooge Gets An Oscar."

Every sitcom that's been on the air for more than one season has done a Christmas/Holiday themed episode. Vinnie Favale says there have been some great ones including the Honeymooners' "Twas The Night Before Christmas", Seinfeld's classic "festivus for the rest of us" and the Office has seven of them with "A Benihana Christmas" the best. "But none of them can hold a holiday candle to "Scrooge Gets An Oscar."

Favale goes on; There is so much to love about this episode. It's from the first season so it more closely captures the look and feel of the movie. There is an excellent score Christmas music, and all of the supporting players get wonderful moments to shine. There's also a beautiful "meta" ending to the episode and to top it off, there is a classic music moment.

Here's how Ron Friedman, the writer of "Scrooge Gets An Oscar" described the genesis of this episode: "Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson called me in a frenzy, needing a Christmas episode, and even though it was hurriedly written, it came out really good. I worked on both the single-camera and multi-camera scripts. Tony and Jack liked my writing, and very little rewriting was necessary."

This is how Odd Couple creator Gary Marshall introduced the episode on the Odd Couple DVD; "We always figured we should do a Christmas show. We finally went for "Scrooge Gets An Oscar" … we do a version of the scrooge story with Oscar and Felix in very elaborate costumes. This is one of our few episodes with special effects…SMOKE."

You can watch the entire episode on Hulu or on the first season DVD.

You can read more about "Scrooge Gets An Oscar" at www.vinniefavale.com

SOURCE Favale Media

Related Links

www.vinniefavale.com