‘Leave It To Beaver’ Turns 65

Debuting on this day in 1957, classic sitcom Leave It to Beaver is synonymous with the idyllic middle-class family model. Didn’t we all, after all, crave those picture perfect parents, Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley)? Didn’t we all want a childhood like Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) and his older brother Wally (Tony Dow)? And didn’t we all grow up with someone like Wally’s smarmy buddy Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) and Beaver’s friends Larry (Rusty Stevens), Whitey (Stanley Fafara) and Gilbert (Stephen Talbot)?

“Eddie is so polite, it’s almost un-American,” Hugh Beaumont as Ward once commented.

We all also knew a Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford type, didn’t we?

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You know the drill on Leave It to Beaver, of course. Rambunctious Beaver, who was 7 when the sitcom began, gets into some sort of trouble, then faces his parents for reprimand and correction. There was no yelling, just respectful conversation between parent and child. And, unlike the then typical type of storytelling on family comedies like Father Knows Best and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Leave it to Beaver was told from the from the kids’ point of view.

Remember Beaver’s bad haircut, that goofy outfit his aunt bought that he was embarrassed to wear, or when he gets stuck in an advertising billboard with an enormous make-believe cup of soup? What about the time the boy’s bathtub overflowed while Ward and June were away or when Beaver got suspended from school? By episode end, Beaver faces his parents – stern but sensible Ward and ladylike June. Ward offers some sage advice, the situation is rectified, and this Mama June is ready to give her child a hug (and a warm meal too, of course).

Other episodes of Leave It to Beaver often reversed this formula, with Ward or June making a parenting mistake and having to figure out how to make up for it. Parenting strategies (enhanced with a mild laugh-track) were often debated on Leave it to Beaver.

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Created by writers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher (who would later go on to do zany The Munsters), Leave It to Beaver was never a top-rated hit. In fact, it moved from CBS to ABC after one season. But it did manage to air for six seasons, producing a total of 234 episodes. In those days, a typical TV series produced more than 30 episodes per season (unlike the normal 6 to 10 you get on a streaming service now). There is an endless array of comically innocent escapades of Beaver and Wally to revisit.

Unlike other shows where cast members came and went, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Hugh Beaumont and Barbara Billingsley each appeared in every episode of Leave It to Beaver.

The Origins of Leave It to Beaver

Debuting shortly after the final installment of the then No. 1 rated TV series, I Love Lucy, feel-good comedies, western dramas, variety hours, anthology storytelling and game shows were the norm in primetime on television. Initially airing in the Friday 7:30 p.m. half-hour (which is when primetime started at the time), Leave It to Beaver debuted opposite canine drama The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin on ABC and a half-hour NBC detective series, Saber of London (originally titled Mystery Theater).

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When CBS opted against a second season of Leave it to Beaver, ABC stepped in, initially moving it to the Thursday 7:30 p.m. anchor spot. Through June 20, 1963, viewers were treated to the progression of Beaver to teenager and Wally as he segued into college. Unlike established TV shows at the time, which never had an official conclusion, the final installment (“Family Album”) featured the Cleaver quartet looking back at prior events through a series of flashbacks.

Like so many other TV series, that “final” episode of Leave It to Beaver was certainly not the end of the Cleaver clan. Repeats, of course, have been visible over the decades (including, at present, on nostalgia network MeTV). And the cast (minus Hugh Beaumont, who passed away in 1982), reunited in 1983 for CBS made-for television movie Still the Beaver.

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Now an adult, Beaver, not surprisingly, is still getting into messes (only more serious ones and with only one parent present to help rectify the situation). He and his two sons (Kip and Oliver) move back home to fictional Mayfield after his wife kicks him out. Wally is married to a lawyer named Mary Ellen and has a daughter named Kelly and later a son named Kevin. And good ol’ Eddie Haskell, who has a young son who is just like him (karma is the term!), and other characters we have come to know from Leave it to Beaver are back. That’s right…even Beaver’s perfect teacher Miss Canfield!

With viewers in droves returning for a revisit with the Cleaver clan, the sitcom was revived as The New Leave It to Beaver (also known as Still the Beaver). It aired on Disney Channel from 1984 to 1985, and then on TBS from 1986 to 1989.

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Even now, at the age of 74, Jerry Mathers is still — and will always be — the “Beaver.” Unlike other former child stars, Mathers has always embraced his TV persona. Sadly, Tony Dow recently died at the age of 77. And Barbara Billingsley passed away in 2010. But, on camera, they will be embraced for an eternity as the Cleavers, the idealized suburban family we simply all wanted to be part of. At least this writer did.