The Original Edna Unger!: An Interview With Pamelyn Ferdin

It's A Biggie!  Ted and Garrett are delighted to welcome Pamelyn Ferdin to the podcast. We discuss her incredible television career before The Odd Couple; her path to becoming Edna; her two episodes "Surprise, Surprise" and "Good, Bad Boy"; why she left the show; her incredible television career after The Odd Couple; and her career switch into nursing and animal activism.

In this episode, we compared a final draft script of S1's The Hideaway and a first draft script of the first episode filmed for S2 Hospital Mates to the filmed versions.  And before we get into the scripts, we discuss four new instances of The Odd Couple IP / the cast in the zeitgeist.  

In this new episode, we discuss the differences between the filmed episode and the "Revised Final Draft" script for the third-to-last episode aired Old Flames Never Die.    If you want to read the script along with us, please email us at [email protected] for the Dropbox link.

In this episode we discuss a trove of documents from the Garry Marshall archives at Northwestern University.  Topic covered are - Testing of the episodes Hospital Mates and Felix's Ex-Wife's Boyfriend. - A bombshell of a memo about what S2 of The Odd Couple could have been. - The Writers room needs for a "script girl" - Episode budget details - Script needs for the back half of S1 - A mysterious script written by legendary TV creator Susan Harris   If you would like to see PDFs of these documents please email us at [email protected] 

In this episode we discuss a script we have obtained for an unproduced episode for S4 of The Odd Couple entitled The Decision Of The Judge Is Final in which Oscar judges a beauty contest.  We also cover some clips of The Odd Couple in pop culture and a TV Guide cover article from 1972.  If you would like a PDF of the article/script discussed here please email us at [email protected]    

In this episode of 1049 Park Avenue we review two very important documents: 1) Courtesy of the Garry Marshall archives at Northwestern University is the actual pilot testing report for the first episode of The Odd Couple – “The Laundry Orgy”. 2) The script for The Rain In Spain which we compare to the actual filmed episode. Also, Garrett has a new book out about the famous screenwriter and playwright Ben Hecht which can be purchased on Amazon or here

Scott Marshall returns for part two of our interview with him to celebrate his father’s legacy.  In this second installment we discuss Laverne and Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Angie, Joanie Love Chachi, The New Odd Couple, the 2010s Odd Couple reboot, failed pilots and hit on Garry’s movie career too especially Nothing in Common / Jackie Gleason.  We also cover Scott’s acting work on the sitcoms and his career.

In this episode we are joined by Scott Marshall, Garry Marshall’s son, who provides us an inside, charming and humorous look at his father’s legendary career and his exposure to all of it growing up.  This is only part one of our interview as there is so much to cover.  We discuss: Garry’s upbringing in the Bronx and his family His college days at Northwestern University Writing for Jack Paar and Joey Bishop Moving to LA and meeting his wife / Scott’s mother Barbara Writing on Dick Van Dyke, The Lucy Show, and I Spy Garry’s first series Hey Landlord How Garry got to work on The Odd Couple; Scott’s memories being on set; Jack and Tony; the writers; casting Penny & nepotism; Albert Brooks Other shows he worked on during The Odd Couple including the terrible Me & The Chimp. The origins of Happy Days; Scott acting on the show; studio and network interference; his friendship with the cast.

This week we welcome Lowell Ganz back for part two of our interview.  In these two hours we cover: The trouble with The Odyssey Couple The furniture in Take My Furniture Please The stories behind the appearances of Hugh Hefner, Bobby Riggs and Rob Reiner Why there was a series finale when most 5-season shows don’t get that chance What the plans were if there was a S6 Lowell’s move to Happy Days How he and Mark Rothman accidentally created Laverne and Shirley Some of his shorter-lived such as Busting Loose, Making It, and Joanie Loves Chachi Casting of two of his earliest movies – Night Shift and Splash How three of his movies were turned into TV shows: Gung Ho, A League Of Their Own and Parenthood. The latter two were turned into TV series – twice! Feedback or questions?  Please email [email protected]

In this episode we are honored to be joined by Lowell Ganz who, with his partner at the time Mark Rothman, wrote more episodes of The Odd Couple than anyone else - 12.  They were also on the writing staff for S3-S5 so they have a hand in all episodes for those seasons. In this first of a two-part interview we discuss Mr. Ganz's background and the incredible story of how he got his first job in showbiz which was on The Odd Couple; a week in the life of The OC writing staff and how an episode went from script to film; and go into detail on each of his 12 episodes which are: - The Ides Of April - The Hustler - My Strife In Court - Gloria Moves In - The New Car - Barnacle Adventure - Cleanliness Is Next To Impossible - The Flying Felix - Shuffling Off To Buffalo - The Odd Candidate - The Subway Story - Two On The Aisle   Please note that at one point there was a Wifi outage which forced the interview to move from Zoom Video to phone and you may hear the quality of Mr. Ganz's audio change a bit.