MGWCC #946 — Friday, July 17th, 2026 — Week 3 of 5 — “They Shall Return”

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Digital Programming”
Prompt: This puzzle’s contest answer is a classic TV show.
Answer: THE ODD COUPLE, found by 380 solvers, 320 of whom were solo solves

[NOTE: For some reason my laptop won’t let me highlight SEVEN AND SEVEN in the grid above, but just imagine it green-colored.]

A little bit tricky, especially since we’re pushing the boundaries of the younger crew’s pop-culture-zone with a show that ran from 1970-75. Our four theme entries, scattered rather elegantly around the grid considering their weird lengths, were:

28-Across: [Highball cocktail] = SEVEN AND SEVEN
15-Down: [Nice count for the batter] = THREE AND ONE
5-Down: [Like the odds of choosing the king from a bag of one player’s chess pieces (assuming you don’t cheat)] = FIFTEEN TO ONE. Pretty random. So often you get three tight theme entries and the fourth is…clearly the one the constructor thought of fourth.
21-D: [Dolly Parton working hours] = NINE TO FIVE

From those hints, all odd numbers, 380 solvers (an even number, come on do better folks!) figure out we were looking for THE ODD COUPLE, a sitcom which ran from 1970 to 1975, starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall as the eponymous roommates.

Mikey G says:

I can’t even with this one!

Tommer says:

Thanks…now I’ll have that song stuck in my head for a week!

Da-nuh-dan-uh-dah-nuh…

And finally, Evan writes:

Me, before seeing the update to the instructions: “Hmm, that’s odd.” Me, after seeing the update to the instructions: “Aha, that’s odd.”

Today’s puzzle is Week 3 of 5 in July. Instructions:

This puzzle’s contest answer is a five-letter word describing some successful MGWCC solves.

Good luck!

–Matt

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