Clockwise from top: Tony Dow, Hugh Beaumont, Jerry Mathers, and Barbara Billingsley. ABC/Photofest ©ABC
Overview
For any male Baby Boomer raised with a brother, the dialogue and interaction between characters Beaver and Wally Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver rang true and delivered a satisfying sense of nostalgia. The good-natured and combative banter, as well as love and affection they showed for one another, reflected the relationships of millions of real-life brothers in the 1950s and early 1960s.
And unlike other rather staid family sitcoms of the era, this one was edgy within the social and political constraints of its time. One might look no further than the two-faced, incorrigible Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), who greeted Cleaver parents Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June (Barbara Billingsley) with sugary praise and phony friendliness, only to arrive in the boys’ bedroom seconds later and acknowledge the sight of Beaver (Jerry Mathers) with a customary “How ya doin’, squirt?” Sometimes he was caught in his deceitfulness by the Cleaver parents, for example, in the following line from a scene in which he insists to best friend Wally (Tony Dow) that Beaver should not hang out with them on a trip to the theater: “Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I’m gonna . . . oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies.”
Undaunted by such embarrassing moments, Eddie often embarked on some devious plan to make life miserable for one or both of the brothers. Eddie, Wally, Beaver, and such friends as Lumpy Rutherford (Frank Bank) and Larry Mondello (Rusty Stevens) were characters that brought realism to the small screen, which is why the show remains a syndication staple. Even Ward and June seemed like real-life parents that watched over the first wave of Baby Boomer kids.
Like “The Swamp” in M*A*S*H, where the love/hate relationships between the doctors blossomed, the bedroom shared by Wally and Beaver allowed viewers to get a sense of their fears about school, relationships, and dad “hollerin’” at them or for one of their many indiscretions. They worried constantly about someone making fun of them or—as they expressed it—“giving them the business.” They were humorous because they did stupid and silly things that kids tend to do, unlike the children in many 1970s and 1980s sitcoms who were supposed to elicit laughs for acting and speaking like little adults. Kids are funny because they are kids. Those who wrote for Mathers and Ron Howard (Opie in The Andy Griffith Show) understood that.
Viewers of other family shows of the era believed that the children were truly learning life lessons when their fathers pointed out an error in judgment or action. And even though the scenes in which Ward cited the mistakes made by Beaver and how they should be corrected appeared sincere, the assumption remained that the boy was going to make an equally heinous blunder in the next episode. The intelligence of children in other family sitcoms of the 1950s and early 1960s was apparent. It was never even implied in the case of Beaver Cleaver, which added to the show’s sense of realism. Wally and Beaver seemed real and uncontrolled by their parents, although they feared and respected their father. The kids in competing family sitcoms most often appeared as extensions of their parents. Leave It to Beaver was the first sitcom to focus on the kids (hence the title) rather than the parents, despite the blossoming into stardom of Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
Not that Billingsley and Beaumont were given minor roles; they were mentioned first in the opening credits. But their relationships with one another and their children were far less intriguing than that of the Wally and Beaver. They were often clueless as to the whereabouts of their kids and what their offspring were perpetrating behind their backs. Beaver, in particular, discovered too late that his best option would have been confiding in his father about whatever mess he had gotten himself into, a fact Ward inevitably explained to him. But Beaver would not have been Beaver had he showed at the same time and same channel a week later that he had grown not a lick from the experience.
On the other hand, Wally showed significant emotional growth as he reached his teenage years. He developed healthy relationships with girls, protected Beaver from Eddie and Lumpy, and gained a greater understanding of the importance of education. The show even touched upon subjects like alcoholism, which proved to be a bit of a breakthrough. Other programs before and after embraced drunkenness as a subject of humor, but rarely spotlighted it as a serious disease.
Although Leave It to Beaver received neither critical acclaim nor high ratings during its six-year run, it remains one of the most beloved comedies in the history of American television for its character interaction and the sense of nostalgia and realism it provides for those who lived through the era in which it aired.
The Other Famous Madge of the 1960s
The most legendary Madge of the 1960s was a manicurist that soaked her client’s fingers in Palmolive dishwashing liquid in one of the most famous television advertising campaigns ever. The second most famous might have been Madge Blake, who played the permanently freaked-out mother of Beaver’s friend, Larry Mondello. Two years after the cancellation of Leave It to Beaver, she landed the part of clueless Aunt Harriet, who could never figure out the true identity of millionaire Bruce Wayne and faithful ward Dick Grayson in the hit series Batman.
They Said It
June: Wally, where are you going?
Wally: I’m going over to slug Eddie.
June: That’s no way to talk. This is Sunday.
Wally: You’re right. I’ll wait ’til tomorrow and slug him in the cafeteria.
Eddie: Your father doesn’t like me.
Wally: Why would you say that?
Eddie: On account of the way he looks at me when he opens the door. Sometimes I think he’d be happier to see Khrushchev standing there.
Mr. Foster [teacher]: [reading out grades to his class] Miss Rogers, A; Mr. Haskell, B-plus; Mr. Cleaver, A-minus; Mr. Rutherford, F.
Lumpy Rutherford: An F, Mr. Foster?
Mr. Foster: Yes, Mr. Rutherford. It’s the lowest grade they allow me to give.
Major Awards
Emmy Award Nominations (2)
1958 (2): Best New Program Series of the Year; Best Teleplay Writing Half Hour or Less (Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher for “Beaver Gets Spelled”)
Further Reading
Applebaum, Irwyn. The World According to Beaver: The Official Leave It to Beaver Book. New York: Bantam, 1984.
Shepard, Richard. “‘Busy Beaver’ and His Brother.” New York Times, October 30, 1960, Section 2, p. 15.