A classic episode.
I shouldn't have loved Leave It to Beaver as much as I did because it was routinely pointed out to me by my grandmother that I didn't measure up to Wally and the Beaver. I didn't use Sir and M'am nearly enough. My table manners were not as good at theirs. I wasn't always washing my hands (they spent an inordinate amount of time in that bathroom off their bedroom). I wasn't nearly as tidy in my dress. Having so many scenes in a bathroom seems unusual.But her words didn't have much of an impact (gradmothers did a lot of scolding in those days). I liked the show then and still do now. Leave it to Beaver ran from 1957 to 1963 and was written by Bob Mosher and Joe Connelly, who'd earlier written the Amos and Andy radio show and would later write The Munsters. It starred Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver, Barbara Billingsley as June, Tony Dow as Wally and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. Why "the" in front of Beaver, I don't know, but it was used quite a lot.
Set in the town of Mayfield, Anywhere, the Cleavers were an upper middle class suburban family that probably mirrored very few of the lives of its viewers. Their life was a bit too easy financially, a bit too neat and tidy. The infamous pearls and dresses June wore were unfamiliar to most of us although I remember my mother getting dressed for dinner in the fifties.
What made it special was that so much of LITB was from the POV of the boys. The writers were on their side and seldom let them behave unrealistically, never let them flounder too much in their stunts. They assumed as we did that their motives were good and age-appropriate. It was easy to imagine myself in such a jam. (Although I would never climbed up into that cup on a billboard or let a homeless guy into the house).
The Cleaver parents were also subjected to the writers' microscope and made their share of parenting mistakes. They worried about such things routinely, re-thought poor decisions they had made, and corrected them. June always reminded Ward that boys today were different from those in his rural youth. Ward reminded June that boarding school was different from Mayfield Public High.
The show hummed due to its writing and it holds up very well today because it was never overly sanctimonious or too sure-footed in its view of the world. The writers were not afraid to make each Cleaver and his friends and neighbors look fairly ridiculous from time to time. If Eddie Haskell has endured as the case study of "bad influence" the Cleavers assumed they had raised a son smart enough to shake it off. How progressive was that!
I was exactly Beaver's age and had a mad crush on Wally, as did every girl I knew. An autographed picture of Wally hung on my wall. "Find a boy like Wally Cleever," must have been uttered more than once over those years and reportedly, he is as nice in person as on the show. No one offered the same advice about Beaver, who was much more like the rest of us.
I watched an early episode last week: Wally comes home from the barbershop with a ridiculous haircut, which all the boys have. June cannot let go of this and even sees the principal about it. (Something that would soon play out in many homes across the country). The show cleverly played a bit of rock music every time Wally or other boys with this haircut entered the room. In this show, June was allowed to be imperfect. How can you not like a show where everyone is allowed such a thing. It was the conforming fifties, but the Cleavers (or their writers) managed to sneak in a little bit more. Never sanctimonious, never out of touch, it plays well for me today.
Some other TV Shows. Maybe.
Todd Mason
Chad Eagleton
Perplexio
James Reasoner
Eric Peterson
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
Laura Curtis
Evan Lewis
Rick Robinson
Cap'n Bob Napier
Bill Crider
Laurie Powers
34 comments:
So, what did you make of STILL THE BEAVER?
My favorite show of that period was Andy Griffith, although I guess it was a bit later. I used to like My three sons as well.
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER was (is) a great show. I always cringe when some social observer (obviously unfamiliar with the series except in the most superficial way) invokes it as an example of a bad or unrealistic '50s family sitcom.
Wally and the Beav are the most realistic TV boys of the era I grew up in. Their life was similar to my own growing up in Iowa in the fifties. Their parents made mistakes, and the show routinely took the side of the kids, as you point out. Plus it was funny as hell, very much in the vein of Jean Sheperd's A CHRISTMAS STORY, but with the bonus of not being nostalgia.
It became clear in that show that Jerry Mathers never evolved beyond a ten year old-in his acting ability at least.
Loved both of those too, Charles.
Yes, it was very funny, I should have emphaisized that. Jean Shepherd's IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH and WANDA HICKEY"S NIGHT OF LOVE are too of the funniest books I ever read and the movie is my favorite Christmas movie (and I guess a lot of other people's from the playtime it gets) I almost remember his radio show, too. It's on a DVD, I think.
There are a number of recordings of Jean Shepherd's show, MP3s floating around the web, etc.
My own esasy not yet in the blogroll, I think...
Harry Shearer tells a good story about playing Eddie Haskell in the pilot, and how his parents decided against letting him continue with a weekly series.
I think I saw the pilot once.
Evan Lewis has a very approprate entry over at Davy Crockett's.
Echoes of the show are still with us. A couple of years ago, the actor who played Beaver's friend Whitey died here in Portland. He'd been living in a skid row apartment and earning drinks by telling tales of the show. And Ken Osmond, who played Eddie Haskell, turned up in the "dogumentary" Weiner Takes All as a real life weiner dog racer.
I invite you all to visit Davy Crockett's Almanack for a few words on the show I loved. Yep, it's Davy.
I still love Leave it To Beaver - like you said, there's nothing sanctimonious about it. Just the world through the eyes of a 10 year old, simple as that. I was hoping to do an essay on That Girl, but couldn't do it in time. Maybe later this week.
Don Hollinger, the man of my dreams. An early loss with Ted Bessell dying so young.
I liked the Cleavers almost as much as I did the Nelsons.
Isn't it strange how vague the father's professions were. Jim Anderson sold insurance, I think, but the rest--always in business but what. Except for Darren Stevens, of course.
Well, Rob Petrie's job was well-limned...but, then, not too much of that show was hung on the kid's life (a good thing, given how awful the child actor was). I forget if MY THREE SONS bothered to detail the father's gig.
wv: laddi
He was an engineer for an aeronautics firm. Scary I remember that.
Good post, Patti. Excellent observations on a landmark show.
And it's a good thing you didn't mess it up.
Bill Crider has outed himself as Barney Fife in jumping on POP CULTURE MAGAZINE.
wv: marylamb (the kinder, gentler version of MURDALAND)
Or even jumping in on POP CULTURE. Gee, Wally, I guess I messed it up, after all.
Eddie Haskell is an underrated character. He brought some darkness and complexity to LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. Too many of the characters on that show were bland.
After lots of thought and a little deciding what “favorite TV show” means, I’ve come up with three:
NOVA, NATURE and MASTERPIECE THEATER
Yes, they’re all PBS shows originating in various places, but these were shows that, for a couple of decades, I rarely missed and often videotaped. MYSTERY (before the exclamation point, I think) was also a favorite.
Of the old network shows, I liked MY THREE SONS pretty well, PERRY MASON is still a favorite, and M*A*S*H was very, very good. I also liked IT TAKES A THIEF pretty well, at least the first two seasons. I also enjoyed THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS SHOW.
Patti - re Jean Shepard, didn't you forget A FISTFUL OF FIG NEWTONS?
Funny the phrases that survived that era and ones that didn't.
The only nature shows my husband likes is the eat or be eaten ones.
MASH got a little too preachy (although I agreed with the text) toward the end. But the first five years were tops.
I use to hide behind the sofa when Eddie Haskell entered their room. He was my first villain.
MYSTERY! had the exclamation point from the beginning. Still adjusting, even professionally, to the MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! fusion.
M*A*S*H's attempts to make edgy, well-drawn caricatures into Well-Rounded Lovable People was a failure, inasmuch as it led to blandness as well as preachiness, but they still managed some good episodes even up to the end. Just not the consistent brilliance of the first three seasons.
Rick-I never saw that one!
While I certainly agree that Eddie Haskell brought the darkness to BEAVER, I don't find the show otherwise populated with bland characters. Beaver had numerous friends who made good enemies -- fat kid Larry Mondello (who had a memorably neurotic mother); the aforementioned Whitey, another trouble-maker; and the pitiful bully Lumpy (and his windbag father Fred, and amusingly annoying little sister Violet).
The show did suffer from Jerry Mathers' decreasing acting skills. He didn't stay stuck at ten -- he'd have been fine stuck at ten, because he was a brilliant kid actor. It was as he grew up and became self-conscious that he grew increasingly stiff and lousy, if endearing.
The writing was wonderful. Moser and Connelly (may have the spelling wrong) were brilliant on the AMOS & ANDY TV show, too, an unfortunately lost classic, where tunnel-vision political correctness buries perhaps the funniest comedian of all time, Tim Moore.
I absolutely agree about the writing. I can watch it still and rarely blanch at a line. And since all four of the major players are allowed to be flawed, wrong-headed yet lovable, and each gets his comeuppance, I don't think it is bland. Donna Reed was bland. The Nelsons were bland. But for me LITB will remain one of the strongest family sitcoms ever. Even if my grandmother used it against me.
I was born the day "Leave It to Beaver" premiered, which was incidently the same day that Sputnik was launched. I grew up in England, so I didn't even see LITB until it was in reruns in the 1970s.
Yes, I'm old.
Not yet, Deb.
Patti, Bill's not in your blogroll yet.
When people ask me why I'm the way I am I tell them it's not my fault. Eddie Haskell was my role model and my high school's mascot was Satan. What chance did I have?
I loved LITB and still do. I have books about the show, a puzzle, the cereal box, and a coloring book.
I added my other favorite to my blog. maybe you can add it to your list, Patti.
Great post, Patti.
A show notr mentioned in all these comments (unless I missed it) is Father Knows Best.
I had the odd opportunity to see a FKB back to back with a much lesser show, Hazel. The themes were the same. Bud wanted to wear James Dean jeans and comb his hair in a duck tail. The little boy on Hazel, whatever his name was, wanted to grow his hair, Beatle-like, and play in a band.
In FKB, the grownups are reminded of their own fads - raccoon coats and flapper skirts - and learn to let these things go. On Hazel, the kid learns the folly of his ways and comes back to the conformity of his elders.
Heh, like that worked out.
FKB, for all its faults, was a far wiser show than many of its contemporaries.
Sweet Jesus, don't even try to watch the Danny Thomas vehicle, Make Room for Daddy. Godawful.
Randy Johnson chose FKB and it would have been my second choice. Robert Young and Jane Wyatt were very good at portraying a loving couple-they had great chemistry. I've seen LITB in the years since, but not FNB. Yet I still remember many episodes.
BTW, in Make Room for Daddy, nobody could act--most especially Danny Thomas.
Ah yes, Father Knows Best. I'd forgotten. It was a real favorite of mine too. Poor Bud, always getting in trouble.
Post a Comment