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''Leave It to Beaver'', a Television Situation Comedy ( CBS , October 4 , 1957 to 1958 ; ABC , 1958 - June 20 , 1963 ), became even more popular in syndicated reruns than it already was in first-run production, as well as becoming a pop culture icon referencing idealised, even homogenised suburban American life as the 1950s crossed to the 1960s . But if that side of the show could be (and often is) considered flawed and even unrealistic, ''Leave It to Beaver'' was daring on its own terms---for being perhaps the first such show on television to present its stories as if through the eyes and mindset of young children. SIMPLE GENTILITY The show hooked around young Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (played by Jerry Mathers ; exactly how the character gained his famous nickname was never made entirely clear), and his awkward but earnest attempts to navigate an older brother, Wally 's ( Tony Dow ) pre-teen and teenage growing pains, while heeding his gently firm but loving parents, Ward and June Cleaver ( Hugh Beaumont , Barbara Billingsley ). Adding to the boy's curiosity, chagrin, and education were his own spunky friends, particularly Larry Mondello ( Rusty Stevens ) in the early seasons and Gilbert Bates ( Stephen Talbot ) in the later seasons; his sweet-natured but no-nonsense elementary school teacher, Miss Landers ( Sue Randall ); and, older brother Wally's pals, equally awkward Clarence (Lumpy) Rutherford ( Frank Bank ) and rebel-without-a-clue Eddie Haskell ( Ken Osmond ). The Archetype of the Janus-like wiseguy who was the rebel among his peers and the obsequious yes-man ("Why, good evening, Mrs. Cleaver") to the elders he mocked behind their backs, Eddie Haskell ended up becoming at least as iconic as the show itself became. ''Leave It to Beaver'' usually but not always aimed toward a moral lesson, causing its reference even now as an emblem of simpler American times, and the gentility with which the Cleaver parents delivered such lessons presented a parental ideal that may have appealed to television viewers but may also have been impossible to live up to, in a time when actual parents began having to struggle between sustaining the actual or alleged nuclear family and adapting to changes---economically and culturally---they may not have been prepared to make. Co-creator mother, but that kind of mother assumed a climate in which one parent could run the house while the other earned its keep; that climate had begun to dissipate, for numerous reasons, even while the show held its place in the prime time lineup. In telling the stories through the lens of a child, ''Leave It to Beaver'' had picked up on a hint from an earlier radio classic, '', an actor and writer who co-wrote some Aldrich episodes midway through its radio life, eventually became ''Beaver's'' primary director for its first three seasons, and probably helped influence the viewpoint of the show's action. SYNDICATION After 234 episodes, ''Leave It to Beaver'' ceased first-run production, just as Beaver Cleaver had begun his transition from all-boy to awkward pre-adolescent beginning to struggle between holding onto some of his younger boyhood while learning girls weren't as "creepy" as he formerly believed. Co-creators Connelly and Bob Mosher , ironically, developed and launched a classic if campy send-up of ''Beaver's'' kind of family comedy with ''The Munsters'' a year later. But the show never really stayed off the air for very long; reruns were part of CBS affiliates' lineups in the mornings for several years to come, and once Nickelodeon bought its rerun rights in the latter 1980s ---first for its Nick At Nite channel and, later, its TV Land channel---''Beaver's'' permanent presence was pretty much secured. Today NBC Universal Television owns the syndicated rights and all properties related to the series. BEAVER GROWS UP That presence wasn't hurt when a made-for-television reunion movie, ''Still the Beaver'', appeared in 1983 . The entire main original cast appeared except for Hugh Beaumont, who had died a year earlier. But Ward Cleaver was still a presence: the film's story used numerous flashbacks to the original show, as it followed young adult Beaver's struggle to reconcile divorce and newly-minuted single fatherhood, straining to cope by what his father might or might not have done, while facing the possibility of widowed Mom selling their childhood home. It was as if to say that even America's old suburban archetypes didn't always have it so perfect. And its reception led to a new first-run, made-for-cable series, ''The New Leave It to Beaver'' (1984-86), with Beaver and Lumpy Rutherford running Ward's old firm (where Lumpy's pompous, demanding father---played memorably by Richard Deacon in the original series---had been the senior partner), Wally as a practising 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, and Eddie Haskell being . . . well, Eddie Haskell, running his own contracting business and raising a son, Freddie, who was every inch his father's son---right down to the dual-personality obsequiousness and rambunctiousness. The most familiar Cleaver house (into which the family moved for the show's third season) can still be seen at '' star Robert Young .) The fictitious Cleaver address was 211 Pine Street, Mayfield, which many believe to have been Mayfield, Ohio . Other recurring characters on the original show included Beaver's friends and classmates Judy Hensler, Whitey Whitney, and Richard Rickover; Gus the Fireman (memorably played by veteran character actor Burt Mustin ), an elderly gent who befriended Beaver and his pals; and, Tooey Brown and Chester, a pair of Wally's other friends. (Whitey and Tooey were played by real-life siblings Stanley and Tiger Fafara.) BEAVER GOES TO THE MOVIES Considering young Beaver's love for hitting the movies on Saturdays, with or without Wally, it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise that a full-length feature film based on the show would be made in due course. 1997 's Leave It to Beaver starred Christopher McDonald , Janine Turner , and Aleisha Andria (as "The Beaver"), but it was panned by many critics (although Roger Ebert gave it a favorable three star rating) and flopped at the box office, earning only $11,713,605, low by 1997 standards. Original TV co-stars Barbara Billingsley and Ken Osmond made Cameo Appearance s in the film, but they couldn't have helped. TRIVIA
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