Who paid attention to the likes of Tooey when Grade-A scumbag Gilbert was stealing the world's precious oxygen? That character needed a war in which to be a posthumous hero.
Beave and Wally never had any cool minority friends like a suave black dude or genius asian kid. The closest I think they ever got was when Beave knew a mexican kid named Chuey, but that went to hell when his mother came over and Ward, trying to impress her with his "little spanish" insulted her by saying how great her big tits looked. It was a classic!
I'm sure The Beaver dealt with many Asians during his stint with the U.S. Special Forces when his "A-Team" conducted special operations in Laos and Cambodia circa '68.
Last January thru April I suffered through daily double doses of BEAVER with my senior caregiver client on a local channel, and what struck me is how often the show brought up valid issues of coming of age but would often never really resolve them.
Example--Beaver strikes up friendship with a girl classmate but is made fun of by his male contemporaries for doing so and makes deprecatory remarks about his girl friend to the guys to get back into their good graces. This gets back to the girl and the whole situation escalates to a level where Ward eventually sets "the Beave" straight but no resolution is ever given to his dissing of the poor girl to his friends. The girl is just left being disillusioned with her former friend Beaver and feeling hurt.
I hasten to add, LEAVE IT TO BEAVER was WAY easier to sit through than the absolutely moronic MCHALE'S NAVY that replaced the run of BEAVER after three months--it is just PAINFUL to sit through today.
Who paid attention to the likes of Tooey when Grade-A scumbag Gilbert was stealing the world's precious oxygen? That character needed a war to be a posthumous hero in.
Don't know about nowadays but back then didn't almost everone grow up with Gilberts, Lumpies and Eddies?
I'm sure The Beaver dealt with many Asians during his stint with the U.S. Special Forces when his "A-Team" conducted special operations in Laos and Cambodia circa '68.
Oh how I LOVE that urban legend!
And the one about Mathers having died in ‘Nam. I guess the classic LITB urban legend was the one about Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) and his career in adult films.
Anyone for a “Child Stars Urban Legends” threads? No?
Maybe some will find it corny today but I always liked how Cleaver would often end the show with a logical moral lesson to Beaver or Wally, something often missing in entertainment , then and now. Maybe at times it seems to be too simplistic, but often people's lives can be pretty simplistic. But these days the media seems to try to tell us people don't want to enjoy the often simple things that are there in our lives.Why the soap operas went to hell for one.
My dad ran our house like WWII boot camp, and was incapable of watching old sitcoms where kids mouthed off to adults. He would get pissed-off when Eddie Haskell would make snide remarks.
Eddie Haskell: Gee, your kitchen always looks so clean. June Cleaver: Why, thank you, Eddie. Eddie Haskell: My mother says it looks as though you never do any work in here.
Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: How come Eddie's such a creepy guy? Wally Cleaver: He works at it.
The difference between LITB and more contemporary sitcoms dealing with children, is that the adults in LITB are actually adults and intelligent enough to see that Eddie Haskell is a total phony. Ward and June's knowing looks after an encounter with Eddie are hilarious. Same goes for Ward's occasional subtle broadsides against Lumpy's father, played by the great Richard Deacon.
Sidebar: In the show's last season, when Pete Rugolo arranged that hip saxophone version of the theme--the bit that plays after the proper opening and cast intros--there are more than a few references to then-president JFK. I don't ever recall the characters talking about Ike.
