Reno 911! star Thomas Lennon re-boots an old TV favourite
Thomas Lennon made his name as an cult comedy star with shows like The State and Reno 911! Now he's the lead in a re-boot of one of the most beloved sitcoms ever, The Odd Couple, which he stars in alongside Matthew Perry.
Lennon, who plays fusspot Felix Unger to Perry's slovenly Oscar Madison, talks about tapping into his obsessive tendencies for the character, why he thinks the odd couple story has endured after so many years, and whether there's a difference between mainstream and alternative comedy.
"I wondered, 'Was it attemptable to do another Odd Couple? Why?'" he says, preferring to call the latest CBS reincarnation a continuation rather than a re-boot. "And then the more I thought about, the more I thought 'No, maybe I do have something to bring.'"
Lennon says he can relate to the uptight Felix Unger, originally played on television by Tony Randall in 1970. "There are none of his tendencies that I don't have, I'm afraid," he says. "I'm a bit of a neat freak, I hate clutter, it makes me absolutely bananas."
Lennon also joined Hawco for the Q News, where they talked about the suspension of Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson and the Blurred Lines plagiarism ruling against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. You can listen to the clip below.
*Click on the listen button above to hear the full segment (audio runs 18:49).