Thomas Lennon will be Felix to Matthew Perry’s Oscar in CBS Odd Couple pilot

By Gwen Ihnat | March 14, 2014 | 3:32pm

Aux Features TV

Although his sitcoms Go On and Mr. Sunshine both failed to reach a second season, Matthew Perry is not about to be left out as his Friends (sans an Aniston) all flock or have flocked back to television. As previously announced, Perry will star in CBS’s new reboot of The Odd Couple (the original sitcom starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman ran in the ’70s, following the popular 1968 Neil Simon movie with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau). But those who had pegged Matthew Perry as a neatnik Felix instead of a slobby Oscar are about to be disappointed. Deadline reports that Thomas Lennon has just been cast in the pilot as the Felix to Perry’s Oscar, capitalizing on the duo’s cinematic chemistry—previously seen in the better-than-it-sounds Zac Efron vehicle 17 Again (pictured above). It’s possible that a backward baseball hat will somehow be involved to highlight the slovenly habits of the rather tidy-appearing Perry.

Both performers are racking up recent behind-the-scenes credits as well. Lennon, a former member of the comedy troupe The State and the cowriter of the Night At The Museum movie series, is also the executive producer of @midnight, a new late-night show on Comedy Central. Perry, who penned some episodes of his previous solo sitcoms, will also be cowriting and executive-producing for The Odd Couple, in an effort to avoid his third failed-sitcom strike.