About every six months, I run into TV producer Leonard Stern at some event and I ask him what's up with the planned DVD release of I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. That was the one season (1962-1963) situation comedy starring John Astin and Marty Ingels as not-the-most-ept carpenters in the world.
A lot of shows I recall enjoying as a kid don't hold up very well years later. (Somewhere here, I must have mentioned my theory that all the old episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. have been secretly refilmed to make them look cheap and clumsy.) But I'm Dickens, He's Fenster endures nicely, at least for me…a bit slapsticky but it's a good slapstick. Actor-bandleader Frank DeVol was especially funny in it.
Leonard Stern created the show and though it was but one of many credits, and he did others far more successful, I gather he still has a warm feeling for it. At least, he seems pleased when I ask about it and he always says, "Soon, we're close to a deal." I suspect that's wishful thinking but sometimes wishful thinking comes true.
Here's the pilot which sold the show…a somewhat typical episode, though it doesn't have nearly enough of Frank DeVol. No episode did. This one is somewhat redeemed with a nice, pre-Batgirl appearance by Yvonne Craig.
