John Astin Marty Ingels I'm Dickens He's Fenster 1962 ABC TV Episode Party Party Who's Got the Party

John Astin and Marty Ingels star in the "Party, Party, Who's Got the Party?" episode of the 1962-63 ABC TV sitcom I'm Dickens He's Fenster.
Aired on November 23, 1962, this episode finds Dickens (John Astin) refusing a party invitation from Fenster (Marty Ingels), after being the endless butt of jokes by their construction crew buddy (Henry Beckman).
In 1961, TV producer Leonard Stern (Get Smart) was having his house remodeled. As he observed the construction workers building a hood over his fireplace, he noticed they had sealed their steel ladder inside. It took hours for the workers to deconstruct the fireplace to retrieve the ladder. While watching otherwise intelligent and talented men endeavor to hastily rectify their incompetence, a light bulb lit up inside Stern's head.
With this incident in mind, Leonard Stern approached the ABC television network. With classic TV credits such as Sgt. Bilko, The Honeymooners, and The Steve Allen Show under his belt, Stern's new show was not a hard sell. I'm Dickens He's Fenster, starring John Astin (The Addams Family) and Marty Ingels (The Dick Van Dyke Show) was ultimately given the green light for the 1962-63 TV season.
Initially, the show was not a ratings bonanza. Playing opposite stiff competition -- Route 66 on CBS and Sing Along with Mitch on NBC -- and airing on a struggling network, D&F had difficulty finding its audience. However, one audience was finding the show and loving it-the television critics. Instead of Singing Along with Mitch, newspaper and magazine scribes from coast to coast were singing the praises of this hilarious little show about two skillfully etched, hilariously delineated construction workers named Dickens and Fenster.
One reason for their enthusiasm, and that of the show's relatively small but loyal audience, was that the show wasn't simply a series of slapsticky skits. While the emphasis was always on comedy, almost every episode commented on issues such as greed, mob mentality, conformity, and social inequality. But unlike the title characters, the audience wasn't hit over the head with the hammer of a preachy polemic every week.
Ironically, just as D&F was gaining popularity and winning its time slot, ABC canceled the series after only one season of 32 episodes. Without enough episodes for syndication, unfortunately, this little gem of a TV comedy show quickly faded from the public's memory--until now!

[@mastercheif117ize]

A very underrated show. Great cast too!

[@thetvtimemachine]

Agreed! And Dickens and Fenster featured some of the best comedy writers and directors in the business.

[@kt9166]

Thank you for posting this!

[@thetvtimemachine]

You're welcome!

[@JJJBRICE]

On previous vids released by the vlogger I have mentioned others in the cast but on this go around I will mention the support work done by Henry Beckman and Dave Ketchum . As far as I remembered Beckman was usually a menacing dramatic actor while I remember Ketchum doing some comedic roles .They were both great as supporting actors in this ensemble . From what I remember Marty Ingles was the only natural comic in the cast . Keep them coming !

[@thetvtimemachine]

Agreed. Of course, producer Leonard Stern brought Dave Ketchum over to Get Smart to play Agent 13. More to come!

[@JJJBRICE]

From what info I found in IMDB the young lady escort of Marty Ingles in this episode was played by Karla Most . She was the last wife of famous dance master Gower Champion in his latter years . She did not have many acting credits and she married Champion at forty .

[@JJJBRICE]

I suspect that Ms. Henry was wearing her evening attire under that bellowing house coat except for a few accessories .