Oscar, Oscar, Oscar!

It just might be that Jack Klugman was my favorite actor of all-time.

Better than DeNiro, better than Pacino, even better than Nicholsan.

With the possible exception of James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano nobody played a better part than Klugman did when he was Oscar Madison, and I'm telling you, he was the number one reason why I wanted to be a writer.

When the Buffalo News interviewed me and did the longest feature story of my writing career - 18 years ago - this is the quote that appeared under my photo:

Growing up I wanted to be Oscar Madison. I wanted to eat like a pig, dress like a slob, and write things people want to read. I've achieved two out of three and my writing career is picking up steam.

And I still love to watch the show. They run it every now and again on TV Land and I wait for the episode when Felix and Oscar are robbed and tied up in chairs in the kitchen. They start to make faces to get each other to laugh and Klugman just had the perfect face.

I laugh hard every time I see it.

He made it to 90.

That's a real good run, but there was a moment when it crossed my mind, again...that it is all temporary. It doesn't really matter how great an actor you are or how many words I can write in my lifetime.

It's just temporary, and even 90 years doesn't seem like quite enough.

Of course, the best thing about the Odd Couple was that it was an experience that I shared with Mom and Dad and all of my siblings.

Oscar Madison was the king as we grew up. We all loved his character.

I think of that sort of thing every time one of my kids comes in and asks me to watch a show with them.

We laugh together.

Life is better lived when you're sharing laughs with the people you love.

Oscar showed me that early on in my life.

But he really showed me how to eat like a pig and dress like a slob too.

He'll live on through me, in my dedicated tribute to how he dressed, for sure.

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