Leave It to Beaver
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Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy (CBS, October 4, 1957 to July 16, 1958; ABC, October 2, 1958-September 12, 1963) that became more popular in syndicated reruns than it already was in first-run production, as well as becoming a pop culture icon referencing idealized, homogenized suburban American life in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The show was built around young Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (played by Jerry Mathers; he was given the nickname as a baby when his older brother mispronounced "Theodore" as "Tweedor" and their parents felt "Beaver" was better), 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; the old fireman, Gus (Burt Mustin), his sweet-natured but no-nonsense elementary school teachers, Miss Canfield (Diane Brewster) and Miss Landers (Sue Randall); later, Mrs. Rayburn (Doris Packer); in the early seasons, Beaver's nemesis, Judy Hensler (Jeri Weil); and, older brother Wally's pals, equally awkward Clarence (Lumpy) Rutherford (played by 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.
The family lived in the town of Mayfield. Beaver, attended Grant Avenue Grammar School and Wally, Mayfield High School. At Mayfield H.S., Wally lettered in four sports: football, basketball, baseball and track. Wally's most well-known girlfriends were Julie Foster (Cheryl Holdridge) and Mary Ellen Rogers (Pamela Baird).
Leave It to Beaver often aimed toward a moral lesson, causing its reference even now as an emblem of simpler American times. Co-creator Joe Connelly was once quoted as saying he modeled Ward Cleaver's firm but wisely unimpositional style on the kind of father he himself wished to have had; if Ward sometimes seemed possessed of the gentility of a man of the cloth, it may have come from Hugh Beaumont's personal influence: Beaumont had become an ordained minister before he took up an acting career. (Beaumont also directed a number of the show's episodes in its final two seasons.) June Cleaver likewise became a model of the archetypal suburban 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.
Years later, beginning especially in the 1980s, people began to reference "Leave It to Beaver" as an example of a show that had failed to deal with serious topics, as it was produced during an early era before such topics were commonly discussed on television. While it is true that this show did not have the kind of progressive themes that a show like "All in the Family" had, "Leave It to Beaver" had episodes that dealt with the effects of divorce on children and alcoholism.
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[edit] Syndication
After 234 episodes, Leave It to Beaver ceased first-run production. 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. Nickelodeon bought its rerun rights in the latter 1980s—first for its Nick at Nite channel and, later, its TV Land channel—where it has been shown since July 1998. Today NBC Universal Television owns the syndication rights and all properties related to the series.
[edit] Beaver Grows Up
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 minted 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 did not always have it so perfect. And its reception led to a new first-run, made-for-cable series, The New Leave It to Beaver (1985–89), 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 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, 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 Universal Studios (though this is the facade built for the 1996 production of the Leave it to Beaver Movie—the original facade sits in storage elsewhere on the Universal lot and is not shown on the tour); it was later (1969) used as the house for another Universal-produced television hit, Marcus Welby, M.D.. The fictitious Cleaver address was 211 Pine Street, Mayfield, which many believe to have been Mayfield, Ohio.[1] The address of the house from the first two seasons was 485 Maple Drive, also in Mayfield.
[edit] Movie Version
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 flopped at the box office, earning only $11,713,605. Original TV co-stars Barbara Billingsley, Ken Osmond, and Frank Bank made cameo appearances in the film.
[edit] Trivia
- In most polls, the scene most fondly recalled by fans involves Whitey encouraging Beaver to climb into a giant soup bowl mounted on a high-standing billboard in order to see where the smoke comes from. The phrase "Put your foot on the lady's thumb!" became a common punch line, and most show historians agree that the use of this scene in the syndicated advertisements for the show was the major contributor to this scene's high level of remembrance.
- Jerry Mathers got cast as Beaver when the casting directors noticed he was uneasy, and asked him where he'd rather be. Mather's replied that he'd rather be at camp. That authentic boyish youthfulness got Mathers the part of Beaver right away.
- "Beaver died in Vietnam"[1] was a classic urban legend, memorable for its juxtaposition of prelapsarian 1950s imagery with the chaos and violence of the 1960s.
- Another urban legend was that actor Ken Osmond who played Eddie Haskell became porn star John Holmes or rock star Alice Cooper .[citation needed]
- Leave It to Beaver's playfully bouncy theme song, 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. The music seemed to be a kind of answer, if not an inversion, to Charles Gounoud's 1872 composition, "Funeral for a Marionette," adapted as the equally familiar theme to television's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. For Leave It to Beaver's final season, however, the song was given a jazz-like arrangement by veteran jazz and television composer/arranger Pete Rugolo.
- Barbara Billingsley said that June Cleaver's wardrobe was more than a fashion statement. The pearls hid neck shadows and the high heel shoes were only employed to counter the boys' advancing height.
- Stephen Talbot (Gilbert) continues to work as a reporter for PBS' "Frontline". While he may look different after 40 years, his voice is still pure Gilbert.
- The actor who played "Whitey," Stanley Fafara, died in a boarding house in 2005, following a lifelong struggle with drug addiction.
- Before he made Ward Cleaver his acting trademark, Hugh Beaumont sometimes played heavies in film and television. Most familiarly, he played a former convict, Dan Grayson, struggling to go straight and stay there for the sake of his wife and son, in "The Big Squeeze" (1953) TV episode of Adventures of Superman, a few years before Beaver. Beaumont was an ordained Methodist minister, who later sold live Christmas trees from 1974 until his death.
- Richard Deacon played Fred Rutherford, Lumpy's pompous, and demanding father (and Ward Cleaver's equally pompous and self-satisfied co-worker), Deacon was working a second job for much of the life of Leave It to Beaver: he was concurrently Alan Brady's (Carl Reiner's) bland & bald brother in-law/ producer and Buddy Sorrell's Morey Amsterdam's foil on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
- Beaver was born on June 20, 1949, as shown in a TVLand commercial. The commercial reveals many facts about the Beaver, such as his height, (4'5") his weight, (70 pounds) and his eye color, (blue) as of September 18, 1957.
- The lyrics to the theme song are as follows:
- 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.
[edit] References
- ^ info@leaveittobeaver.org. Where did the Cleavers live?. Retrieved on 1 September 2006.
[edit] External links
- Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963 TV-series) at the Internet Movie Database
- Still the Beaver (1983 TV-movie) at the Internet Movie Database
- Still the Beaver (a.k.a. "The New Leave it to Beaver") (1985-1989 TV-series) at the Internet Movie Database
- Leave It to Beaver (1997 movie) at the Internet Movie Database
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing style editing | Articles with unsourced statements | Sitcoms | CBS network shows | ABC network shows | Television series by NBC Universal Television | 1957 television program debuts | 1950s TV shows in the United States | 1960s TV shows in the United States | 1997 films