Talk:Leave It to Beaver

Leave It To Iguana

I read that in the Philippines they call the show "Leave It To Iguana," because a beaver isn't common there. Any truth to that? 99.180.245.100 (talk) 22:11, 15 January 2010 (UTC)Lauralei

Urban Legends

I also heard (for years) urban legends about Ken Osmond. 1. That he grew up to became rock star "Alice Cooper." 2. That he had a "romantic involvement" with Barbara Billingsley. Anybody else hear these? --24.189.35.249 23:40, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Alice Cooper in the early 1970s gave an interview and said as a teen he "was Eddie Haskell"...meaning that was his personality, not that he was Ken Osmond. 108.20.114.62 (talk) 23:39, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Deletion of episode listings

The episode list posted here has been deleted.

This information should be posted as an article of its own.

This is a page for article use--see above rules.

Thanks!

trezjr 21:48, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Citations

Please respond to citation requests as soon as possible, or as dictated by policy, they may be removed.

trezjr 19:56, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

The Beaver wins a sports car

I just watched an episode of LITB and Beaver won a $3500 sports car. I missed the first part of the show and only saw a glance of the car's phamplet with AKA printed on it.

What kind of "sports car" did Beaver win? In the early 60's, what Sports Car, domistic or or import cost $3500? From the glimpse I saw, it looked like an old Triumph, Austin, Morgan...? Do you know what kind of car it was?

Tks 67.42.74.156 17:17, 25 February 2007 (UTC)BOBB

Growing up I always thought it was an e-type Jaguar, but the year is too early. I think maybe it was an XK150. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:30A:2E01:4120:7CD6:7525:823:A853 (talk) 01:40, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Location of Mayfield

In the past week's episodes, Ward has referred to June as the "Belle of East St. Louis", and today he went on a business trip to St. Louis, which points at Mayfield being in Missouri. - Dudesleeper · Talk 23:37, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Since St. Louis is right on the Mississippi, and East St. Louis is actually in Illinois, Mayfield could then just as easily be in Illinois. Also, unless we know that June grew up in the area around Mayfield, her being the "Belle of East St. Louis" has nothing to do with where the show is set. (Notice I did say "unless..." above; I don't claim to know for sure either way.) --Tkynerd 14:08, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

In the episode "The Boat Builders" Ward mentions they are not far from the ocean(I think he states they are 20 minutes or 20 miles from the ocean), which would rule out both Missouri and Illinois as locations for Mayfield. There are also a couple of episodes with references to surfing. 159.53.46.144 13:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Jim True

Also there was an episode of beaver going to a Dodgers game, and another one of talk about Wally going on summer vacation to Mexico. They never actually said where Mayfield was located, sometimes it made you think they were in California and other times somewhere in the Midwest, I think this was done perposely to project the idea that the Cleavers were the all-around American family.

Characters

I cannot see why each character requires their own article. I propose that they all be merged into this article. LittleOldMe 14:39, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Not each character, just the main/recurring characters, per, for example, Friends. - Dudesleeper · Talk 20:36, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the main character articles can be expanded. No need for a merge. The articles on friends' parents and the teachers are unnecessary and can be merged or deleted. Characters like Lumpy and Eddie Haskell, of course, should have their own articles too. Wavy G 06:32, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Agree 100%. WAVY 10 23:23, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Racism

I am a little disturbed that African Americans are referred to as "blacks" in this article. We wouldn't say "whites" when referring to the rest of the cast.

The show's blatent racism should be mentioned in the article. The only black kid in the show stole Beaver's bike. That even puts Micheal Richards to shame. 12va34 03:01, 1 July 2007 (UTC) The episode in which Beaver's bike was stolen was by a white boy, not a black boy.

Nope. Not necessary. LTB didn't have any more or less black characters than other major TV shows of the era. How many blacks were on My Three Sons or The Beverly Hillbillies or Andy Griffith or Lost In Space or Gunsmoke?

Beaver at least had a Hispanic boy in one episode.

This article isn't here to prove someone's political point. Don1962 30 June 2007

A black actress appeared in a later season episode as a maid at the Langley wedding reception where Eddie and Wally were hired as parking valets. LITBfan (talk) 00:37, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I had to chuckle at "Lost In Space" as an example of having no blacks. They were a caucasian family marooned in space. How many blacks would you expect there to be?

It is a little cringeworthy that the only blacks cast were as a thief and a maid.TheDarkOneLives (talk) 16:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

TheDarkOneLives, please remember that the show and most shows of that era were just that: products of their time. Also, it would be until about the mid-1960s that the results that came about through the civil rights movement began to be evident. WAVY 10 Fan (talk) 19:38, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

The oldest scripted show on American television?

What is meant by this line? Surely LITB is not the oldest American TV show to be scripted...I Love Lucy predates LITB by at least 5 years, and it also has been on TV ever since. 159.53.46.144 14:06, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Jim True

It was a recent quote by Mathers here. He could, of course, be wrong. - Dudesleeper · Talk 14:33, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

And I just realised he states that Lucy didn't go straight into reruns after it ceased first-runs. - Dudesleeper · Talk 14:34, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I suggest the statement should be removed from the article, or at least qualified (to say oldest continuously aired show) instead of being stated as an absolute fact. Better still, maybe it should read "the longest-continually running show. "Oldest" implies that it was before any others, which is definately not the case. As for I Love Lucy, I guess it depends on whether you consider the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour as part of I Love Lucy. If so, the I Love Lucy definately has been on continuously since 1951, since the half-hours started reruns after the end of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour went off the air. 159.53.46.144 16:40, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Jim True

The claim of "oldest scripted show on American television" needs further qualification because both "As the World Turns" and "Guiding Light" debuted before Leave it to Beaver, and both are still on the air with new episodes! 159.53.110.143 18:04, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Jim True

Well, there's our project laid out. - Dudesleeper · Talk 18:41, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

To go in the "Episodes" section when completed

Opening credits

Season one: The characters aren't shown. A drawing of a street, viewed from above, displays the credits in wet concrete.

Season two: Ward and June, standing at the bottom of the stairs, see the boys off to school as they come down the stairs and exit the front door.

Season three: Ward and June enter the boys' bedroom to wake them up.

Season four: Ward and June open the front door and stand on the stoop. As Wally, followed by Beaver, leave the house, en route to school, June hands them their lunches and Ward their jackets.

Season five: The men are out in the front yard, and June brings out refreshments. This must have been introduced mid-season in one of the latter two seasons.

Season six: June, carrying a picnic basket, exits the front door and walks towards the car. Ward, carrying another item for the picnic, is next, followed in quick succession by Wally. Beaver, lagging behind, runs out, slamming the door behind him, and joins his family in the car. Ward, with June in the passenger seat and the boys in back, then reverses toward the camera. - Dudesleeper · Talk 01:49, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

A few corrections. The picnic open (also the only one not to use the Season 1 theme) was for the final season. Season 5's open was the one with the guys working in the yard.

As for the Pine Street house, that was probably used to display the production credits for both Seasons 5 and 6. WAVY 10 23:19, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

To check

The "190 subsequent episodes" that appears in several articles (Ward Cleaver, Wally Cleaver, for example) needs checked. I think this might be an error on IMDb's part. I can't recall many, if any, episodes without all four core cast members. - Dudesleeper · Talk 13:06, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Suburban?

To my recollection Mayfield was not a suburb but a small town. A suburb is a community associated with a larger city. Recommend this be changed to Small Town. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.166.84 (talk) 13:22, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Opening sequence, etc.

While the OS is mentioned in the show's stand-alone episode guide, I think it can appear here as well because the WP guide suggests that this is the proper place for it.

Also the plot follows the cast in the WP guide. Let's leave it that way. Please? Readers will expect consistency from one TV article to the next.

MayfieldForever (talk) 01:33, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

That's fine. One thing, however, I suggest you create a new username. "MayfieldForever" doesn't bode well in terms of article ownership. You've already demonstrated that you revert without much regard (reinstating two typos I corrected, for example). - Dudesleeper / Talk 11:59, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

FAQ section

IMO, this should be deleted as trivia/speculation, with the exception of the origin of Beaver's name. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:50, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Tenses

The article is currently suffering from a serious bout of both past and present tenses, which makes for a poor read. Hopefully this can be corrected. - Dudesleeper / Talk 21:36, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Aaargh

Is it just me or has this article become disastrously overgrown with trivia? Clarityfiend (talk) 05:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Bolding of Actors' Names

Let's not bold actors' names in the "Characters and cast" sections. Bolding was done once before and removed. There are no examples in the TV shows Featured Articles (that I could find) for bolding actors' names nor is there any indication in the MOS for bolding actors' names. Discuss here! Thanks! MayfieldForever (talk) 05:47, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

It's done in WP:MOSFILM. If you don't want bolding, then it should be removed from the character names as well. It looks odd to do it for one and not the other. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:03, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I disagree – it looks neater to my eyes. - Dudesleeper / Talk 09:41, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, since I appear to be a minority of one in feeling that this is getting further and further away from a good article, I'll stop editing here. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:13, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

TV Land Ads

I deleted info about one TV Land "Haiku" ad. We can't list every TV Land re LITB. There have been so many. As far as I know, Wikipedia TV articles don't list ads about an article's show. Comments? MayfieldForever (talk) 06:00, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Deleted "Haiku" -- again. We cannot list every TV Land ad re LITB. They're basically peripheral, very peripheral. At the bottom, they have little or nothing to do with the show. WP TV articles don't list ads re the subject of the show anyway. Secondly, the word "dumb" is POV. Someone, somewhere at TV Land decided Beaver was "dumb" and wrote a haiku. The ad should be listed in an article about "TV Land ads" rather than in an article about LITB. More interesting is the TV Land ad depicting Wally with tattoos. Tony Dow sued and the ad was removed, as I recall. Nonetheless, listing TV Land LITB ads in this article is peripheral. Let's stick to LITB rather than TV Land. Comments? MayfieldForever (talk) 17:25, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

ok, I'll consider this, thanks for explaining. Moocoweyes (talk) 17:58, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Movie theaters

I'd like to see Mayfield's movie theaters mentioned in the article, since they're mentioned/seen in several episodes. I know one is the Valencia, but I can't recall the other one(s) off the top of my head. The Globe, perhaps. - Dudesleeper / Talk 03:16, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Ethnicity?

Is ethnicity really a show SIGNATURE element? Just wondering, and I'm probably wrong. Lazylaces (Talk to me 01:05, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

I assume you are referring to the following content:

Characters are nearly uniformly white and middle-class. Only one African-American had a speaking role; in 1963, Kim Hamilton played a maid in episode 212, "The Parking Attendants." Five years earlier, a show featured a Hispanic family, as Alan Roberts Costello played Roberto "Chuey" Varella, a friend and weekend house guest of the Beaver in 1959's "Beaver and Chuey." The friend spoke only Spanish, leading to a cruel Eddie Haskell prank. On occasion, when the plot line called for it, visitors would be from the lower working class, such as the visit of Andy the drunken handyman described above, and 1959's "The Grass is Always Greener," in which Beaver visits the garbage man's children who in turn visit the Cleavers. Wally visited the other side of the tracks once, to visit Eddie's apartment in "Eddie Quits School" (1962), and finds the low-rent district replete with tire-less cars at curbside, poorly maintained lawns and television's never-fail indicator of the lower classes, crooked shutters.

which has been added and deleted a couple of times since June. How do others feel about retaining this material? My own feeling is that it adds valuable perspective, but that it needs to be sourced; also, I tend to agree with User:Lazylaces above that it probably doesn't belong in the "signature show elements" section. --Tkynerd (talk) 18:26, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

It reads like original research; it looks like original research; and until someone can source it, it is original research. --Yano (talk) 20:15, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes I wish I lived in that simple a world. Lack of sources does not equal original research. On WP:OR, we can read this: Citing sources and avoiding original research are inextricably linked: to demonstrate that you are not presenting original research, you must cite reliable sources that provide information directly related to the topic of the article, and that directly support the information as it is presented. This does not mean that every unsourced statement on Wikipedia is original research. If what you're saying is "keep it out of the article until it can be sourced," that's perfectly reasonable, but your invoking WP:OR with only a subjective basis for doing so makes it hard to take your argument seriously. --Tkynerd (talk) 23:53, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

I meant to qualify that last clause to say "effectively" original research -- meaning in how we should treat it. Just the same, the text in question reads like an essay, and even were it sourced, it does not appear encyclopedic in its current form. Were it included, I would attribute it and place it under its own heading, "Criticism." --Yano (talk) 00:57, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm. I don't see it as unencyclopedic at all; my main complaint about it is that it appears to present characteristics that were pretty typical of sitcoms during that period as if they were unique to Leave It to Beaver. I don't know whether the details of the characterization are correct or not (and I'm particularly inclined to want sources for statements like the one that only one African-American ever had a speaking role in the show), but if it's true and can be sourced, I think it belongs in the article, as long as it's made clear that this kind of presentation of minorities and poor people was very typical then. --Tkynerd (talk) 03:47, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

I think the passage should stay--it is of great interest to people who study the series as an indicator of social attitudes. It's not some untested theory that the OR rules warn against--it's basid description documented with the series episodes, so that anyone can check it out. Rjensen (talk) 12:14, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Beaver's name

Beaver's given name is Theodore; "Beaver" is an obvious rhyming nickname. However, one doesn't have to have a particularly dirty mind to know what "beaver cleaver" actually means. Could the creators been that naive? I've never seen this seriously addressed.

I also remember them stating (though I have no reference) that one of the program's points was to show how adults and children misunderstand each other. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 13:43, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

The reason Theodore was called 'Beaver' was revealed in the very last show. When Theodore was brought home from the hospital as an infant, Wally was a young boy. He had problems pronouncing "Theodore." It came out sounding like "Beaver", so over time, the nickname stuck.

currently???

"It currently airs on TV Land, where it has been shown since July 1998. Today, NBC Universal Television owns the syndication rights and all properties related to the series."

You cannot say that something is running "currently" in an encyclopaedia such as Wikipedia tries to be. You have to give the date. Is LITB running now as I write this comment? Ah, you ask, when did I write this comment?

When did it air on TV Land? Is it doing so in 2012? Thank you.

68.71.8.120 (talk) 21:44, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Wally's name

Did Wally have a given name? Ward Jr., Walter, Wallace? Just wondering.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Hawk2054 (talk • contribs) 18:14, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Wallace. Kafziel ^{Complaint Department: Please take a number} 20:32, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Ward's never wore a wedding band and Fred Rutherford's wife had two different names in the series.

Has anyone ever noticed that Ward never wore a wedding ring in any of the episodes.

Fred Rutherford's wife used the first name of Geraldine twice in the early episode (I believe it was the episode regarding the boys sleeping outside in the tent one night and in another episode when the boys set a trap for Clarence and Fred fell victim to the trap. However, in the later episodes, Mrs. Rutherford's first name changed to Gwendalyn. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.47.189.181 (talk) 13:59, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Another item for State

In one episode a young boy is seen sitting on a curb and he says (IIRC to Beaver) something about not going home until he sees a car drive past with a Jersey license plate. Bizzybody (talk) 11:31, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

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