The Unusual Circumstances That Made 'Leave It To Beaver' A TV Classic

If there were one show that captured the idea of the typical suburban family of the mid 20th century the best, it was Leave it to Beaver. The father would be home before dinner every night and Mother June would clean up in a dress and pearls. By episode’s end, Wally and Beaver would always learn a lesson. That is wholesomeness at its peak. An American Classic The iconic TV series reached immortal status and was one of the most popular comedies of its time. It has been referenced in many modern movies and TV shows still, today which shows how iconic it truly was. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at some interesting facts about the show, and also see what the cast has been up to since the final episode. Beaver Was Every Middle-Class Boy in America The main character and focal point of the show was Theodore “The Beaver” Cleaver. If you picture what the life of a boy from the middle class back in the 1950s and ’60s was like, The Beaver is who you can imagine. He had a gripe with girls his age in the earlier seasons but came to terms with that as the show went on. Although he disliked younger girls, The Beav sure did have some crushes on a few of the older women in the show. These women included the likes of Miss Canfield and Miss Landers who were both schoolteachers. He was a curious and sometimes naïve boy and the show examined his adventures at school, in his neighborhood, and at home. It had other stars, such as the rest of his family members, but there is no doubt that he was the focus of this wildly popular show. How did the actor behind the Beav get his role? Click "Next" to find out. Jerry Mathers Got The Role Of “The Beaver” In A Creative Way Sometimes keeping it real does not always get you where you need to be, but it can be helpful in some scenarios. The way Mathers got the gig was honest, as expected for a young kid, but if someone older might have attempted to pull off what he did, we’re not sure what would have happened. Now while Mathers had extensive acting experience in commercials and movies before being cast as the Beaver, that’s not necessarily why he got the role. Show developers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher cast Mathers for good enough reasons. In one of his auditions, Mathers showed up in his Cub Scout uniform (he had a meeting right after) and said he would much rather be there than auditioning for this gig. His candidness was exactly what they were looking for and he was hired. Tony Dow Had No Acting Experience Prior To This Show Playing the big brother to The Beaver, Tony Dow did a great job acting throughout this series. Would you have guessed that this was his first lick of acting experience? What makes his performance even more impressive is that this was his first major acting role and he was actually discovered while working as a lifeguard. How is that for luck? Dow must have had on a lifeguard shirt that said, “I am a great actor.” Whatever the case may be, there are not many other accounts of actors getting huge roles as their first roles with no acting experience to their name. From saving lives to showtime, Dow must have been pretty happy he chose to be a lifeguard in the first place. What extreme sport did Tony Dow excel in? Tony Dow Was A Diving Champion In addition to never acting before Leave it to Beaver, and working as a lifeguard, Tony Dow was also a talented diver. Not only was he talented, he was among the best in the world for his age. During his youth, he was a champion in the Junior Olympics. Talent comes in all forms — especially for Dow apparently. How convenient would it be if a junior Olympic champion was there to save you if you were to ever get caught drowning in the pool? Swimmers definitely had a reason to feel safer. And it makes sense that he never acted before, he was most likely too busy training for the Olympics. Diving looks like a tough event that also involves tons of talent. He most likely transferred his work ethic over to acting so that he could do well in it. The Crew Kept Their Egos In Check The writers/producers of Leave it to Beaver asked Mathers and Dow not to watch the show, for fear that the two young actors would get too full of themselves. “The producers, who were the writers, asked us not to watch it. They didn’t want us to get a big head,” Dow said. And so they didn’t watch it! A fabulous idea at the core of things. Keeping them level headed and humble proved to be a great way to keep them on track, as they were already performing well. Like the saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. At the other end of the spectrum, it eliminated the chance for them to critique themselves and figure how they could make their acting better. It is a well-known fact if you watch yourself on film, you can point out things that could have done better and fix them on your own. What was Barbara Billingsly's secret to playing such a good mother on the show? Click "Next" to find out. Barbara Billingsley Was Understanding of Misbehavior Actor Barbara Billingsley not only had TV sons, she also had two sons at home. As a result, she was quite familiar with real life mischievousness and frequently asked the writers to make Beaver and Wally’s misbehavior a bit more dramatic so that her character’s angry reactions would be warranted. This is similar to Beaumont being a minister and being familiar with giving life lessons. The added experience most likely added to her acting prowess in her role which made for a better on-screen performance. The acting sons probably felt the realness in her angry reactions whenever she would unleash upon them. Which makes her asking the writers to make the sons more mischievous a good thing for the series because viewers would probably feel the intensity of her parenting through the role as well. The producer said, “In scenes where she’s mad at the boys, she’s always coming over to us with the script and objecting. ‘I don’t see why June is so mad over what Beaver’s done.'” The Great Cover-Up Barbara Billingsley’s character didn’t just wear pearls to appear well-dressed and classy in each episode. In fact, wardrobe provided her with pearl necklaces to cover-up and divert attention away from the hollow spot on Billingsley’s neck. Even in her work outside of the famed television series, Billingsley wore pearls for this reason. And it was not always pearls that she wore, she would wear scarves or just shirts that would do a good job at covering. The hollow spot was the aftermath of a surgical scar. Her wardrobe was highly criticized, but she had a good reason for everything about her wardrobe, as you’ll see in the next slide. If viewers would have known it all back then, possibly she would not have been under such heavy scrutiny. That is the business of Hollywood unfortunately, and you take the hits as they come or fall under the pressure. She took the hits like a champ. There was one thing that the actress behind June Cleaver felt was unnecessary. What was it? The Lowdown On June’s High Heels What the producers ask of you, you do. June Cleaver always looked impeccable. But housework in heels — was that necessary? It turns out this was not a symptom of a bygone era. Because her “sons” kept growing, the producers asked her to wear high-heeled shoes so that she could continue to tower over them, instead of vice versa. Is it not normal for sons be taller than their mothers, though? At the start of the series she wore flats, but as the boys continued to grow over the filming of six seasons, she had to be taller because she was the matriarch. The producers just wanted her to always appear as the parent and nothing less. Well, appearance is one thing but actually knowing that she is the parent is another. We’re pretty sure that viewers got the idea. TV Dad, Ward, Was Used To Teaching Life Lessons Before taking the role as Ward Cleaver, Hugh Beaumont was an ordained minister for the Methodist Church. In fact, one of the reasons he got into show business in the first place was because he was not making enough money as a minister. It’s the job of the minister to instruct churchgoers every Sunday about life lessons. For hours at a time, you will get an earful about what is wrong and what is right to do in this thing we call life. Before he fully pursued being a minister, he started doing radio and stage work, taking many different paths while on the road to becoming an actor. Radio and stage work is fairly related to acting but not completely. Being the role of a father does seem to fit perfectly for a former minister. You could say that Beaumont played his cards he was dealt and came out in a winning position. Which cast member maybe kind of sort of resented the show in real life? Click "Next" to find out. He Actually Sort Of Resented The Show As fatherly and loving as he seemed on the show, Hugh Beaumont may have had his qualms about being the father on Leave It To Beaver. The only reason he took on the role in the first place was to supplement the income he made from being an ordained minister. He commuted all the way from Minnesota to film, but after becoming a permanent fixture on the show, his family had to drive out to Los Angeles. On the way, his family got into a car accident that took the life of his mother-in-law, which is part of why he deeply regrets doing the show. In addition to that, reports say that like many other Leave It To Beaver actors, Beaumont was typecast as well. He was also not too happy about having to play second fiddle to a couple of kids – Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow. While he didn’t love acting on the show too much, we’re sure that he harbored no resentment towards his castmates. They were a family, after all. Hugh Beaumont Also Wrote And Directed Many Episodes In addition to playing the patriarch of the Cleaver family, Hugh Beaumont also had a considerable role on the show behind the camera. He wrote and even directed a number of the different episodes that he also acted in, making him an extremely busy man. This is common practice for a slew of actors in the industry. In fact, it might become the common practice for all actors to be able to write and direct. A list of actors who also are triple threats includes Spike Lee, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Ben Affleck, Clint Eastwood, and Johnny Depp. That is a pretty impressive list to be a part of! One of the episodes Beaumont wrote was the retrospective episode “Family Scrapbook.” In this episode, once the mother June finds a scrapbook of the family while she is cleaning, she gathers the family in the living room and clips of past episodes are shown while everyone reminisces. What was different about the sitcom that made it so effective? Click "Next" to find out. The Rare Child’s Point Of View The show proved that their innovative ideas were a success. Sure you can choose to follow what is already effective and in popular demand, but when you do something out of the norm, that is when the true magic can occur. That is what Leave it to Beaver did and which is another reason why it probably did not turn out so well at the start of its career. CBS was not ready to take the leap of faith and ride out the wave. The likely reason the show did so well and ran for so long was because of how different it was than most of the sitcoms of the time. Most other shows of the era told the story from the parents’ point of view, while Leave it to Beaver was told from the point of view of the children. Maybe parents thought it was a good show to see what their kids were thinking. Every Episode Was Based On A True Story As told by Jerry Mathers, Writer/Producer Joe Connelly always wanted to be a writer and kept a descriptive account of stories from his youth, and stories relayed to him by his children in a notebook. These stories eventually manifested into Leave it to Beaver episodes, and this is also how the nickname Beaver came about. If you were thinking each episode was complete fiction then think again because they each had a touch of non-fiction involved. This just adds to the tally marks of why this show was so relatable. Real life stories from real people were depicted in these episodes and if that situation did not happen to you personally, you may have known someone who had a similar experience. This is another great trait that makes the show the first of its kind and should not be overlooked. Who came up with Beaver's nickname? Click "Next" to find out. Wally Came Up With The Nickname “Beaver” In the last episode of the show, it’s finally revealed how The Beaver got his nickname. When he was a baby and Wally was very young, Wally had trouble pronouncing Theodore. When he tried, it sounded like, “Tweedor.” The parents felt that “Beaver” would be better so they stuck with that. If you think about it, that is an odd nickname. Connelly also kept a list of names from the time he was young: acquaintances, friends, young men he met in the military and more in that notebook. When he set out to name the characters in the show, he flipped through the list and “Beaver” caught his eye. It was the nickname of fellow Marine he worked with while he was deployed on a military ship during World War II. You can guess why beaver stuck out to Connelly—beaver clearly rhymes with Cleaver. Rhyme schemes build for a better chance at remembering something and he probably was fully aware of that once he glossed over beaver in that book. Dow Became An Artist Later In Life Tony Dow is on the cusp of being a renaissance man. After doing a lot of different things as a youth and teen, he arrived at acting, Dow took another turn later in life. After being done with show business, Dow became a talented artist and sculptor who made some truly amazing pieces of art that were well received in the artistic community. That means that you can add a talented artist to his prestigious list of occupations. From Olympics to TV actor, Dow’s achievements are impressive, to say the least. Which character's life was very different in real life than it was on the show? Click "Next" to find out. Barbara Billingsley’s Life Was Far From Her Character’s While Billingsley played a middle-class housewife on TV, her life behind the scenes wasn’t very similar. Obviously, Billingsley herself worked, as an actress, and her home life included raising two kids on her own, after her husband’s death. She was also raised by her single mom, much different from the family structure shown on the television series. She came from one real life to a totally different fantasy life. The only thing that remained the same was raising the two kids, but this time it was not on her own. This is something tons of actors have to experience as they have to turn into a completely different person once the cameras start rolling. It can often time lead to people acting like their character in real life. That is also how the actors get typecast because they put too much of themselves into the role and play it like it is their real life and viewers can only see them as that character. But Billingsley’s Character Influenced Her Although Billingsley faced hardships and experienced a different lifestyle than her character as June Cleaver, the role influenced her and carried over into her personal life. “She was every bit as nurturing, classy, and lovely as ‘June Cleaver,'” said her son Glenn Billingsley, “and we were so proud to share her with the world.” Although she disagreed somewhat, she did explain, “I think what happens is that the writers start writing about you as well as the character they created. So you become sort of all mixed up, I think.” For actors, you can see it has some effect on their perception of reality. In this case, it affected Billingsley in a positive manner. Who decided to travel the world after the show ended? Click "Next" to find out. Taking Time to Travel After playing the loving character of June Cleaver on the show, Billingsley fell victim to a common problem actors usually run into when she was typecast as the “sweet” character and had a tough time finding work. Being typecast has limited numerous actors throughout acting history either because they played the role so well and now every viewer can’t erase that character he or she played and there is no role for them in a film or TV show. After having that trouble, she decided to travel around the world until the late 1970s and then made a return to showbiz. She appeared in a comedy called Airplane! in 1980 in which she played a passenger. Not just any regular passenger, but one who could “speak jive.” She said that role got her back in the public eye and was able to revive her career, thankfully. If you know you still got it, don’t let them keep you away! Mathers Took More Than A Decade Off After This Show After brilliantly playing the role of the Beaver during the show, Mathers (who was still barely a teen) deciding to take some time off from show business. He finished high school and even went to college before returning to show business. His college alma mater is University of California, Berkeley. That is a tough school to get into, so The Beav must have had some smarts. Mathers also had a band during high school called “Beaver and The Trappers.” He graduated college with a degree in philosophy and went on to be a commercial loan officer. He still would do acting gigs every now and then including the one part he did after a five-year hiatus from television, he returned for an episode of Batman as Pop, the Stage Doorman. It was not until 1978 when he came back to the entertainment industry. The Beav was doing his thing. Which character started a band in real life? Click "Next" to find out. Beaver Started A Band This was briefly mentioned earlier, but during his high school years, Jerry Mathers started a band called Beaver and the Trappers. They were your typical garage band, playing gigs around Southern California. He also recorded two songs on his own, “Don’t ‘Cha Cry” and “Wind-Up Toy” towards the end of taping the show. This was during the time when Mathers took a break from acting. He probably just had to be in a band on his bucket list and got to check it off at an early age. The songs can be found if you search well enough on the internet. We have not heard them, but it would be a funny bet to make with a friend of whether or not the song will be good enough to listen to the whole thing all the way through or not. We are sure The Beav had some talent in music in him. Mathers Definitely Wasn’t Killed In Vietnam And the rumor mill keeps spinning. In high school, Jerry Mathers decided to join the US Air Force Reserve. In the late 1960s, a (completely untrue) rumor began to spread that he had been killed in the line of duty in Vietnam. This rumor is made even more ridiculous because Mathers was never stationed outside the US. The rumor mostly came about because someone with a similar name was killed and the major news outlets made a mistake and doled out that it was the child star that died and not the other person. A quote from an article reads,”A roommate woke him up one morning with “Do you know you’re dead,” thrusting a newspaper in his face, carrying the Vietnam account of Private Mathers killed in action. At home, Mrs. Mathers received a tearful call from a fan offering condolences, her first awareness of the mistaken identity report.” Must have been hard for mom in that moment of confusion. Speaking of not dying in Vietnam, what else happened? Click "Next" to find out. In Fact, He Was Turned Down By The Marines Before joining the Air Force Reserve, Mathers tried to enlist as a US Marine. However, a famous football player had recently died in combat, and the Marines did want to risk any more publicity in the event that a similar fate befell the famous child actor. It sounds like the Marines were more concerned about their image rather than the fact that a citizen wanted to help the country. This had happened after the rumor that he had died so it probably didn’t help his case of enlisting that much and further propelled their reasoning of why they did not want him to join. Isn’t the repercussions of war death? If Mathers is willing to put his life on the line for the country then he should not have to restrict him from wanting to do so. Politics was clearly involved here and it is not fair to all parties. Jerry Mathers Became A Spokesperson For Jenny Craig Later in life, Mathers gained a considerable amount of weight and also found out he was a diabetic. That is not a great combination for any person. In the late 1990s, under doctor’s recommendation, he joined the Jenny Craig program, which helped him lose upwards of 40 lbs. He also went on to be the first-ever male spokesperson for Jenny Craig. Great selection by Jenny Craig on their first choice for male spokesperson. If Mathers has continued to be as honest as he was back when he had the audition for the show, you can see why Jenny Craig selected him. It is also a great story to be behind if you are Jenny Craig. “Childhood star works hard in face of diabetes to reach goals.” That is an inspiring story even before you find out who the childhood star is. Kudos to The Beav for working hard against the odds. Source: (Trend - Chaser)

The Unusual Circumstances That Made ‘Leave It To Beaver’ A TV Classic

by Brad Rosenberg
6 years ago

An American Classic

Beaver Was Every Middle-Class Boy in America