1 Hardcover (141 pages)

Book

0.0

Goodhill Press

8/31/2005

4/11/2006

Jack Klugman / Burton Rocks

0976830302

9780976830306

$24.95

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=mediaman08-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0976830302%2526tag=mediaman08-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0976830302%25253FSubscriptionId=19N8ASR5JTVVE953BSR2

5.0

22

• Not Odd at All (5)
  Very entertaining book about two great actors who may have starred in "The Odd Couple" but are not odd at all. It's a story of friendship and how important it is to reach out to others and not focus on yourself or your problems. It's easy to read. Jack Klugman was great on that show and as "Quincy" too. He talks about Tony Randall's life, about his own life and those great years on "The Odd Couple". I couldn't put it down. I was surprised by the life lessons at the end and I will remember them. I highly recommend this fun to read book!
• Jack, Tony calling >>> (5)
  I'm not much of a reader, but I always loved the "Odd Couple"
  movie & TV series.
  When I heard about this book written by Jack Klugman about his
  special & most dear friend Tony Randall, I just had to read this
  book!
  I finished just short of (2) days, & found it hard to put down.
  It made me feel really glad to know how truly unique & special
  their friendship meant to each other.
  I was literally crying towards the end of the book. I can totally
  relate this remarkable story with my own life, and my very
  close & endearing friendships (that I can count on one hand).
  I truly hope & pray, that Tony's mission comes true, & his
  National Actor's Theatre will endure & eventually bear his name!
  Thanks again,
  Steven R. Gettman
  srgett@earthlink.net
  
• BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT!!! (5)
  After reading the other 19 reviews, I don't have much to add.
  
  This book is totally wonderful. Being from Oklahoma, I already knew a lot about Tony Randall's life, but not much as to how it related to his friendship with Jack Klugman.
  
  This book is wonderful and healing for anybody who lost a close friend, as well as fans of these two wonderful men and actors!
  
  Most of the money of the books' sales goes to the National Actors Theater, which Tony founded and Jack has helped financially through the years. America is the only modernized (can't remember the actual wording) country in the world that did not have a national theater, so Tony devoted his later years to this cause.
  
  Basically, this is a touching book whose writer had no ulterior motives except to memorialize his friend and help keep his friend's dream alive!
• LIFE CHANGER: (4)
  "This is funny guys, but where is the love scene?" That's a question Jack Klugman used to ask the writers on The Odd Couple, having discerned on first seeing Walter Matthau do the role on Broadway that the key to the Felix and Oscar relationship was not the bickering between them but the mutual love. This short and punchy memoir, though filled with anecdotes and almost a primer for aspiring actors, is then very much a love story. It's about how Jack Klugman came to love Tony Randall, to trust him completely. At the heart of the tale is one deeply affecting, and for Mr. Klugman life-changing, moment, when Tony Randall coaxed him into a benefit performance of original play The Odd Couple, despite his struggles to restore his voice after a bout with throat cancer. By the end of the performance, when the two came out for a prolonged and tear-jerking curtain call, Randall had given him his acting life back and taught him just how profoundly one man could support another. It's a truly beautiful vignette in an always charming book.
• The Power of a Friendship (4)
  If you are a fan of the 1970's sitcom, The Odd Couple, "Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship" is a must buy book - whether you read it or not. I never missed one episode of The Odd Couple - I, like many other fans have seen them a thousands times. Jack Klugman's book is the story of friendship, poignantly written and all too human; it is worth reading.
  
  In this book, Jack Klugman shows the reader that he's not the tough guy he has portrayed in many of his gangster roles, but a thoughtful and reminiscent individual who is secure enough in himself to write a warm-hearted tribute to his long-time chum, Tony Randall.
  
  In watching Tony Randall (Felix Unger) and Jack Klugman (Oscar Madison) in the hilarious TV show, "The Odd Couple", I would ask myself, are these guys for real? Are they really like this in life? Well, Jack Klugman sets the record straight in his book while disclosing other interesting tidbits of trivia and stories, but he makes it perfectly clear that his is not a kiss and tell book, just a short brief, honest, no-holds-barred biography and tribute. Jack Klugman writes of his difficult childhood and how acting became the key to his escape from danger and poverty. He describes how he and Tony Randall met and how they both overcame the bumpy roads along the road to their friendship. Klugman illustrates how he and Tony Randall were so perfectly matched in the roles of sportswriter (Oscar) and photographer (Felix), how he (Jack Klugman) struggled with, accepted and triumphed over his cancer. It's just like Oscar Madison to make a simple yet direct statement concerning smoking. "Don't smoke!!".
  
  Jack Klugman writes that he and Tony Randall were from different worlds; Klugman grew up in a rough and dangerous neighborhood, in Philadelphia while Tony Randall was raised in a safe one in Oklahoma, but Klugman illustrates how these and many other differences did not set them apart, but cemented their long-time friendship.
  
  "Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship" by Jack Klugman is a short and very readable book, but it conveys wonderful feelings of honesty, love and friendship in the life of Jack Klugman and his friend Tony Randall. In the end, we, along with Jack Klugman were "gypped". All fans of The Odd Couple should buy this book.