Thomas Lennon will play fussy Felix Unger to Matthew Perry’s Oscar Madison in the CBS remake of “The Odd Couple,” Variety has learned.
The half-hour multi-camera comedy pilot based on the famous Neil Simon characters comes via CBS Television Studios and is exec produced by Perry, who penned the pilot with “Frasier’s” Joe Keenan, with Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum and Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman.
Lennon, who appeared in “Sean Saves the World” and “Reno 911!,” is also known for his work behind the scenes. He’s an exec producer, with writing partner R. Ben Garant, of Chris Hardwick’s Comedy Central show “@midnight.” He also appeared with Perry on “Friends” and in the 2009 New Line film “17 Again.”
Lennon is represented by CAA, Peter Principato at Principato-Young and Karl Austen at JTWAMM.
“The Odd Couple” originated as a theater production and was adapted into the 1968 Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau feature film before seeing two runs on ABC, the first of which starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. The second, titled “The New Odd Couple,” went after a minority audience and starred Ron Glass and Demond Wilson. A femme-focused version of the play opened on Broadway in 1985 and starred Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno.
