LEAVE IT TO BEAVER

'''Leave It to Beaver''' is an iconic American television situation comedy about an idealized American family of the 1950s and early 1960s. It stars Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers ("as The Beaver", as the opening credits put it).
CBS first aired the show on October 4, 1957, but decided to drop it within a year. ABC picked it up and ran it for another five years, from October 2, 1958 to June 20, 1963. It was produced by Gomalco Productions (1957-1961) and by Kayro Productions (1961-1963), and distributed by Revue Studios.

Contents

Premise

Cast

Main characters

Supporting characters

Cultural influence

Episodes

Musical theme

Syndication

Spinoffs

Feature film

House

DVD releases

Urban legends

References

External links

Premise

The show is built around young Theodore Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) and the trouble he gets himself into while navigating his way through an often-incomprehensible, sometimes-illogical world. When he was a baby, his older brother Wally (Tony Dow) mispronounced "Theodore" as "Tweedor". Their firm-but-loving parents, Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley), felt "Beaver" sounded better.
Beaver's friends include the perpetually apple-munching Larry Mondello (Rusty Stevens) in the early seasons, and, later, Gilbert Bates (Stephen Talbot), as well as the old fireman, Gus (Burt Mustin). His sweet-natured-but-no-nonsense elementary school teachers are Miss Canfield (to whom Beaver declares his love in the episode entitled "Beaver's Crush") (Diane Brewster) and Miss Landers (Sue Randall); Mrs. Rayburn (Doris Packer) is the principal. In the early seasons, Beaver's nemesis in class is Judy Hensler (Jeri Weil).
Beaver's brother Wally is popular with both peers and adults, getting into trouble much less frequently. He letters in four sports and has little difficulty attracting girlfriends, among them Mary Ellen Rogers (Pamela Baird) and Julie Foster (Cheryl Holdridge). His pals include the awkward Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford (Frank Bank) and smart aleck Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), the archetype of the two-faced wise guy, a braggart among his peers and an obsequious yes man to the adults he mocks behind their backs. Eddie often picks on the Beaver.
The family lives in the fictional town of Mayfield. Beaver attends Grant Ave. Grammar School, and Wally, Mayfield High School (after graduating from Grant Ave. in season one).

Cast

Main characters

★ Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver. Billingsley has said that June Cleaver's wardrobe was more than a fashion statement. The pearl necklace hid neck shadows and high-heeled shoes were employed to offset the boys' growing height.

★ Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver. Before he made Ward Cleaver his acting trademark, Beaumont sometimes played villains in film and television. He directed a number of ''Leave It to Beaver'' episodes in the last two seasons, including the final one, the retrospective "Family Scrapbook".

★ Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver.

★ Jerry Mathers as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver. The casting directors noticed that Mathers was uneasy at the auditions and asked him where he'd rather be. Mathers replied that he'd rather be at camp. That boyish youthfulness got Mathers the part of Beaver.

Supporting characters

★ Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell.

★ Diane Brewster as Miss Canfield (October 4, 1957 — March 21, 1958), Beaver's first teacher at Grant Ave. Grammar School, and later the school's principal. Brewster also played Miss Simms in the pilot episode.

★ Sue Randall as Miss Alice Landers (October 16, 1958 — June 20, 1963), Beaver's teacher, replacing Miss Canfield.

★ Stephen Talbot as Gilbert Bates (March 19, 1959 — June 6, 1963). Before settling in Mayfield, the Bates family traveled a lot due to Gilbert's father's work, and "Gil," as his father John Bates calls him, tends to make up stories about his family in order to get his classmates to accept him. In the episode "Beaver and Gilbert", Beaver and Gilbert become embroiled in a brawl on the Cleavers' front lawn, but eventually patch up their differences and become close friends.

★ Rusty Stevens as Larry Mondello. (November 22, 1957 — June 20, 1963)

★ Richard Correll as Richard Rickover. (April 30, 1960 — October 18, 1962)

★ Stanley Fafara as Hubert "Whitey" Whitney. (October 4, 1957 — June 6, 1963)

★ Jeri Weil as Judy Hensler. (October 4, 1957 — October 15, 1960)

★ Burt Mustin as Gus the fireman. (October 4, 1957 — February 24, 1962)

★ Frank Bank as Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford.

★ Richard Deacon as Fred Rutherford, Lumpy's pompous, demanding father and Ward Cleaver's equally pompous, smug co-worker.

★ Buddy Hart as Chester Anderson.

★ Tiger Fafara as Tooey Brown. Tiger is Stanley's brother.

★ Pamela Baird as Mary Ellen Rogers (April 16, 1958 — June 20, 1963), Wally's first girlfriend.

★ Cheryl Holdridge as Julie Foster (January 7, 1961 — April 11, 1963), another of Wally's girlfriends

Cultural influence

''Leave It to Beaver'' often aimed toward a moral lesson and is referenced even now as an emblem of simpler American times. Ward stated that his father "had a fine sense of values",^[1] and if Ward himself sometimes seemed possessed of the gentility of a man of the cloth, it may have come from Beaumont's own background: he had become an ordained minister before he took up an acting career. June Cleaver, likewise, became a model of the archetypal suburban 1950s mother who wanted nothing more than to stay at home and take care of the family.
The show strongly promoted the importance of family. The recurring themes expounded parental expectations for children, while the moral messages stressed the importance of teaching children proper behavior. Proper parenting techniques and methods for resolving problems and achieving consensus were demonstrated.

Episodes

The pilot episode, which aired on April 23, 1957, was titled ''It's a Small World''.^[2] It featured Max Showalter as Ward Cleaver, and Paul Sullivan as Wally Cleaver. TBS re-aired the pilot on October 4, 1987, to commemorate the show's 30th anniversary.
After 234 episodes, ''Leave It to Beaver'' ceased first-run production.

Musical theme

The show's playfully-bouncy theme tune, which became as much of a show trademark as Beaver's baseball cap or Eddie Haskell's false obsequiousness, was "The Toy Parade," composed by David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard, and Mort Greene. For the final season, however, the song was given a jazz-like arrangement by veteran composer/arranger Pete Rugolo. The lyrics to the theme song, which are not heard on the program, are:
:Hey! Here they come with a rum-tee tum they're having a toy parade.
:A tin giraffe with a fife and drum is leading the kewpie parade.
:A gingham cat in a soldier's hat is waving a Chinese fan,
:A plastic clown in a wedding gown is dancing with Raggedy Ann.
:Fee fie fiddle dee dee they're crossing the living room floor
:Fee fie fiddle dee dee they're up to the dining room door.
:They call a halt for a choc'late malt or cookies and lemonade
:Then off they go, with a ho ho ho, right back to their toy brigade.

Syndication

Reruns of the show became part of CBS affiliates' lineups in the mornings for several years to come. TBS showed it for many years in the late 1980s, and it currently airs on TV Land—where it has been shown since July 1998. Today, NBC Universal Television owns the syndication rights and all properties related to the series.

Spinoffs

A made-for-television reunion movie, ''Still the Beaver'', appeared in 1983. The main original cast appeared, except for Beaumont, who had died the previous year. Ward Cleaver was still a presence, however: the film's story used numerous flashbacks to the original show, as it followed young-adult Beaver's struggle to reconcile divorce and newly-minted single fatherhood, straining to cope by what his father might or might not have done, while facing the possibility of his widowed mother selling their childhood home. June Cleaver is later elected to the Mayfield City Council.
Its reception led to a new first-run, made-for-cable series, ''The New Leave It to Beaver'' (1985–1989), with Beaver and Lumpy Rutherford running Ward's old firm (where Lumpy's pompous, demanding father — played by Richard Deacon in the original series — had been the senior partner), Wally as a practicing attorney and expectant father, June having sold the old house to Beaver himself but living with him as a doting grandmother to Beaver's two small sons. Eddie Haskell runs his own contracting business and has a son, Freddie, who is every inch his father's son — right down to the dual-personality.

Feature film

Main articles: Leave It to Beaver (film)

1997's movie adaptation of the series starred Christopher McDonald as Ward, Janine Turner as June, Erik von Detten as Wally, and Cameron Finley as Beaver. It was panned by many critics, except for Roger Ebert, who gave it a three-star rating. It performed poorly at the box office, earning only $11,713,605. Barbara Billingsley, Ken Osmond, and Frank Bank made cameo appearances in the film.

House

The Cleavers moved from 485 Mapleton Drive to 211 Pine Street, both in Mayfield, for the start of season three. In 1969, the house was reused for another Universal-produced television hit, ''Marcus Welby, M.D.'' This house can still be seen at Universal Studios, though the original façade was replaced in 1988 for the following year's ''The 'Burbs'' and sits in storage elsewhere on the Universal lot. The façade was replaced again for the 1996 ''Leave it to Beaver'' movie.

DVD releases

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released Seasons 1 and 2 of ''Leave It to Beaver'' on DVD Region 1. It is expected the remaining four seasons will follow.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete First Season	39	November 22 2005
The Complete Second Season	39	May 2 2006
The Complete Third Season	39	TBA
The Complete Fourth Season	39	TBA
The Complete Fifth Season	39	TBA
The Complete Sixth Season	39	TBA

Urban legends

In the mid 1970s, Mathers appeared on ''The Tomorrow Show'' hosted by Tom Snyder. Snyder pointed out that he hadn't worked for a long time and that there was rumor going around that he had been killed "in the war in Southeast Asia". Mathers replied that he had heard that rumor and that he had no idea how it got started. The earliest appearance of the story in print was in a student newspaper at the University of Kansas in 1972. The author later admitted that she had only heard the story from someone who had heard it a party in Omaha, Nebraska earlier that year. The paper printed a retraction, but by then the story had spread throughout the U.S. The story was later attributed to a member of a defunct Omaha comedy improv group whose hobby was concocting outrageous stories and then convincing people they were true. "Beaver died in Vietnam"[1] was a classic urban legend, memorable for its juxtaposition of idyllic 1950s imagery with the chaos and violence of the late 1960s.
Another urban legend was that actor Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) became porn star John Holmes. Holmes took Osmond's name and did several movies satirically under the name "Eddie Haskell". It started because there was some facial resemblance between the two men, which porn distributors exploited by using the name Eddie Haskell in advertising Holmes's films. "It was a pain in my butt for eleven years," says Osmond, who brought a $25 million defamation suit against porn houses, producers and distributors. The suit went all the way to the California Supreme Court. The court ruled for Mr. Holmes, saying the name was protected as a satire. This case set a precedent in the matter, and is still referred to in other cases in California today.^[3]

References

1. Quote taken from the episode "The Broken Window"
2. http://www.geocities.com/alcus2/smallworld.html
3. Osmond v. EWAP, Inc.

External links

★

★ TV.com

★ LeaveIttoBeaver.org

★ List of ''Leave It to Beaver'' episodes

★ Sitcomsonline.com

★ Colonial Street (Beaver house set) history: The studio tour forum discussions

★ ''Leave It to Beaver'' on TVLand.com

★ ''Leave It to Beaver'' website from Vintage TV & Movies