grasshopper54

I started to watch this series on PBS a couple of weeks ago. All I can say is "WOW!!!" I was lucky enough to be around in 1973. In fact '73 was one of the best years of my life! This series brings back some fond memories, especially the music and the cheesy way they used to dress back then! This show is carefully crafted; from the music, the cars, even the "minor" things like the people being clueless about cell phones, PCs, and iPods! Even the televisions are ancient! I got a kick out of the Bobbie who thought a Jeep Cherokee was a "military vehicle"! And the way the main character screams about graduating from the police academy in 1988 and saying that '88 was "Star Trek" compared to 1973! And also the way he said, "You could have at least put me in a year from A.D. not. B.C.!" The irony of it all rests with the young kids today who are just as "clueless" about that way of life just as those living back then would be "clueless" about today's technology and changes. Highly entertaining, refreshing for us "old folks" and tremendously recommended to everyone!

I saw the same episode on History Detectives. Originally the detective tracked down the principal as Ed Polo, a big star of silent westerns who is all but forgotten. Some excellent sleuth work on the part of the History Detectives revealed that this film was made from stock produced in 1921 by Kodak. They then traced the film to that same year and discovered through visual identification that the actor was indeed Jack Hoxie, another famous western star of the silent screen. Helen Rossen made her only appearance with Hoxie in this film so the mystery of the 38 second movie was solved. It is a shame that over 90% of movies made before 1951 were made from nitrate which is flammable or degrades quite rapidly. Also, many of the movie theaters back then did not have to return the films so many of them were thrown away.

Yes, 1962 was part of that great golden era of television when creativity was crisp and original. Like "The Honeymooners", "I'm Dickens He's Fenster" was a short-lived comedy that should have lasted much longer. I was eight years old when this program aired on ABC and watched it every week (I think it was on a Friday night right after the Flintstones). I always remembered the ending that showed their tools, but thought that they used to hang on a pegboard. I was wrong; looking at YouTube, they're scattered about.

I also learned that this program outdrew the competition of NBC's "Sing Along with Mitch" and CBS's "Route 66". The latter program was extremely popular, by the way.

I finally got the chance to view some of the shows on YouTube and couldn't get over how fresh this program was. The opening tune resembled Laurel and Hardy's introductory music and that was understandably so since Leonard Stern was a huge admirer of that comedy duo. It was also refreshing to know that Stan Laurel was a great fan of the show. It's unfortunate that he wasn't instrumental in attempting to influence the executives of ABC to keep this show on the air.

Two things should be done: 1) this show SHOULD be on DVD and 2) there should be an attempt to redo this program for modern TV. The possibility of seeing it on DVD is very real, but redoing it probably is not a realistic move since modern television could never duplicate the originality of it.

Please join Imdickenshesfenster.com to make this show a reality on DVD.