''Leave It to Beaver'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

that follows the misadventures of a suburban boy, his family and his friends. It starred

Barbara Billingsley Barbara Billingsley (December 22, 1915 – October 16, 2010) was an American actress. She began her career with uncredited roles in '' Three Guys Named Mike'' (1951), '' The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952), and '' Invaders from Mars'' (1953) and ...

Hugh Beaumont Eugene Hugh Beaumont (February 16, 1910 – May 14, 1982) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Ward Cleaver on the television series ''Leave It to Beaver'', originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963, and as private detec ...

Tony Dow Anthony Lee Dow (April 13, 1945 – July 27, 2022) was an American actor, film producer, director and sculptor. He portrayed Wally Cleaver in the iconic television sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver'' from 1957 to 1963. From 1983 to 1989, Dow repri ...

and

Jerry Mathers Gerald Patrick Mathers (born June 2, 1948) is a former American actor best known for his role in the television sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver'', originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963. He played the protagonist Beaver Cleaver, Theodore "Beaver" Cle ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

first broadcast the show on October 4, 1957, but dropped it after one season.

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

picked it up and aired it for another five years, from October 2, 1958, to June 20, 1963. It proved to be a scheduling challenge for both networks, moving through four time slots (Wednesday through Saturday evenings) over the course of its run. The series was produced by

Gomalco Productions George Gobel and his business manager David P. O'Malley formed a production company, Gomalco, a composite of their last names. In addition to Gobel's own series, the company produced the first four years (1957–61) of Leave It to Beaver, as well as ...

from 1957 to 1961, and then by Kayro Productions from 1961 to 1963. It was distributed by

Revue Studios Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It serves as the networ ...

. While ''Leave It to Beaver'' never broke into the

Nielsen Ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

top 30 in its six-season run, it proved to be much more popular in

rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...

s. It also led to an unsuccessful 1997 film of the same name.

Premise

The show is built around young Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (

) and the trouble he gets himself into while navigating an often-incomprehensible, sometimes illogical world. Supposedly, when he was a baby, his older brother Wallace "

Wally Wally may refer to: People and fictional characters * Wally (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Wally the Green Monster, mascot of the Boston Red Sox * Water Wally, mascot of the Singapore's Public Utilities Board * Wall ...

" (

) mispronounced "Theodore" as "Tweedor". Their firm-but-loving parents,

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

(

) and

June Cleaver June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is a principal character in the American television situational comedy, sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver''. June and her husband, Ward Cleaver, Ward, are often invoked as the archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s. The co ...

(

), felt "Beaver" sounded better. Conversely, Mathers has said that the real reason for the name "Beaver" is that one of the show's writers, Joe Connelly, had a shipmate named "The Beaver" in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

; from that came the family's name, "Cleaver." Beaver's friends include the perpetually apple-munching

Larry Mondello Larry Mondello is a fictional character from the American television series ''Leave It to Beaver'' (1957–1963). He is portrayed by child actor Robert "Rusty" Stevens. Larry Mondello appears in 68 of the show's 234 episodes over the first f ...

(

Rusty Stevens Robert "Rusty" Stevens (born 1948) is an American former child actor best remembered for his role as Larry Mondello, Beaver Cleaver's friend and classmate, in the original ''Leave It to Beaver'' television series. Stevens appeared in 67 of the ...

) in the early seasons, and, later, Gilbert Bates (

Stephen Talbot Stephen Henderson Talbot (born February 28, 1949) is a TV documentary film producer, producer, writer and reporter. Talbot directed and produced "The Movement and the 'Madman' " for the PBS series American Experience in 2023. He is a longtime co ...

), as well as the old firefighter, Gus (

Burt Mustin Burton Hill Mustin (February 8, 1884 – January 28, 1977) was an American character actorObituary '' Variety'', February 2, 1977, page 94. who appeared in over 150 film and television productions. He also worked in radio and appeared on the st ...

). His sweet-natured-but-no-nonsense elementary school teachers are Miss Canfield (to whom Beaver declares his love in the episode entitled " Beaver's Crush") (

Diane Brewster Diane Brewster (March 11, 1931 – November 12, 1991) was an American television actress most noted for playing three distinctively different roles in television series of the 1950s and 1960s: confidence trickster Samantha Crawford in the Weste ...

), Miss Landers ( Sue Randall) and Mrs. Rayburn ( Doris Packer), the school's principal. In the early seasons, Beaver's nemesis in class is Judy Hensler ( Jeri Weil). In its first season, Wally was in eighth grade and 12 years old, while Beaver was 7 and in second grade, a five-year age difference; in real life, the two actors were only three years apart. By the series' end, the boys were inexplicably only four years apart, with Wally graduating from high school and Beaver graduating from grammar school. Wally is popular with both peers and adults, getting into trouble much less frequently than some of the other characters. He

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet * Letterform, the g ...

in three sports. He has little difficulty attracting girlfriends, among them Mary Ellen Rogers ( Pamela Baird) and Julie Foster (

Cheryl Holdridge Cheryl Lynn Holdridge (''née'' Phelps; June 20, 1944 – January 6, 2009) was an American actress, best known as an original cast member of ''The Mickey Mouse Club''. Early life Holdridge's mother, Julie, married Herbert Charles Holdridge, a ...

). His pals include the awkward Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford (

Frank Bank Frank Bank (April 12, 1942 – April 13, 2013) was an American actor, particularly known for his role as Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on the 1957–1963 situation comedy television series ''Leave It to Beaver''. Life Bank was cast in 50 episod ...

) and smart aleck

Eddie Haskell Edward Clark Haskell (also referred to as Edward W. Haskell) is a fictional character on the American television sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver'', which ran on CBS from October 4, 1957, to 1958 and on ABC from 1958 to 1963. He was played by Ken Osmo ...

(

Ken Osmond Kenneth Charles Osmond (June 7, 1943May 18, 2020) was an American actor and police officer. Beginning a career as a child actor at the age of four, Osmond played the role of Eddie Haskell on the late 1950s to early 1960s television situation com ...

), the

archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...

of the two-faced wise guy, a braggart among his peers and an obsequious yes man to the adults he mocks behind their backs. Eddie often picks on the Beaver. The family lives in the fictional town of Mayfield. Beaver attends Grant Ave. Grammar School and Wally attends Mayfield High School (after graduating from Grant Ave. in season one).

Cast

Main characters

: Billingsley has said that June Cleaver's wardrobe was more than a fashion statement. The pearl necklace hid a hollow (caused by a surgical scar) in her neck that would have caused shadows and

high-heeled shoe High-heeled shoes, also known as high heels (colloquially shortened to heels), are a type of shoe with an upward-angled sole. The heel in such shoes is raised above the ball of the foot. High heels cause the legs to appear longer, make the wea ...

s were employed to offset the boys' growing height. *

Ward Cleaver Ward Cleaver Jr. is a fictional character in the American television sitcom '' Leave It to Beaver''. Ward and his wife, June, are often invoked as archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s baby boomers. At the start of the show, the couple are t ...

: Before he made Ward Cleaver his acting trademark, Beaumont sometimes played villains in film and television. He directed a number of ''Leave It to Beaver'' episodes in the last two seasons, including the final one, the retrospective " Family Scrapbook". *

Wally Cleaver Wallace "Wally" Cleaver is a fictional character in the iconic American television sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver''. Wally is the thirteen-year-old son of archetypal 1950s suburban parents, Ward Cleaver, Ward and June Cleaver and the older brother ...

as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: The casting directors noticed that Mathers was uneasy at the auditions and asked him where he would rather be. Mathers replied that he would rather be at his

Cub Scout Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with some Scout organizations, for young children, usually between 8 and 12, who are too young to be Scouts and make the Scout Promise. A participant in the program is called a Cub and a group of Cubs ...

den meeting, where he was going after the audition. That boyish innocence got Mathers the part of Beaver.

Supporting characters

* Eddie Haskell's parents played by: **

Karl Swenson Karl Swenson (July 23, 1908 – October 8, 1978) was an American theatre, radio, film, and television actor. Early in his career, he was credited as Peter Wayne.

in two 1958 episodes, "Train Trip" and "Voodoo Magic". **

Ann Doran Ann Lee Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress, possibly best known as Carol Stark, the mother of James "Jim" Stark (James Dean) in '' Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955). She was an early member of the Scre ...

in the 1958 episode "Voodoo Magic". **

John Alvin John Henry Alvin (November 24, 1948 – February 6, 2008) was an American cinematic artist and painter who illustrated many movie posters. Alvin created posters and key art for more than 135 films, beginning with the poster for Mel Brooks's '' ...

in the 1961 episode "Eddie Spents the Night". ** Anne Barton in two 1963 episodes, "Summer in Alaska" and "The Credit Card". ** George O. Petrie in two 1963 episodes, "Summer in Alaska" and "The Credit Card". *

as Miss Canfield (October 4, 1957March 21, 1958 air dates), Beaver's first teacher at Grant Avenue Grammar School. Brewster also played Miss Simms in the pilot episode. * Sue Randall as Miss Alice Landers (October 16, 1958June 20, 1963), Beaver's teacher, replacing Miss Canfield * Doris Packer as Mrs. Rayburn, the

principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

of Grant Avenue Grammar School *

as Gilbert Bates (March 19, 1959June 6, 1963): Appears first as an insecure braggart, becomes a character who constantly gets Beaver in trouble, and ends up as Beaver's best friend. *

(November 22, 19571960) *

Madge Blake Madge Blake (née Cummings; May 31, 1899 – February 19, 1969) was an American character actress best remembered for her role as Larry Mondello's mother, Margaret Mondello, on the CBS/ ABC sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver'', as Flora MacMichael o ...

as Margaret Mondello, Larry's mother * Richard Correll as Richard Rickover (April 30, 1960October 18, 1962) *

Stanley Fafara Stanley Albert Fafara (September 20, 1949 – September 20, 2003) was an American child actor, best known for his role as Hubert "Whitey" Whitney in the original ''Leave It to Beaver'' television series. His older brother, Tiger, playe ...

as Hubert "Whitey" Whitney (October 4, 1957June 6, 1963) * Jeri Weil as Judy Hensler (October 4, 1957October 15, 1960) *

as Gus the fireman, head of Auxiliary Firehouse No. 7 (October 4, 1957February 24, 1962) *

as Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford * Richard Deacon as Fred Rutherford, Lumpy's pompous, demanding father and Ward Cleaver's equally pompous, smug co-worker * Buddy Hart as Chester Anderson * Tiger Fafara (Stanley Fafara's brother) as Tooey Brown, Wally's friend * Pamela Baird as Mary Ellen Rogers (April 16, 1958June 20, 1963), Wally's first girlfriend *

as Julie Foster (January 7, 1961April 11, 1963), another of Wally's girlfriends

Episodes

The

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

, titled "It's a Small World", aired on April 23, 1957.Mathers, Jerry (1998). ''...and Jerry Mathers as The Beaver''. Berkley Boulevard Books. . It featured

Max Showalter Max Gordon Showalter (June 2, 1917 – July 30, 2000), sometimes credited as Casey Adams, was an American film, television, and stage actor, as well as a composer, pianist, and singer. He appeared on more than 1,000 television programs. One ...

(credited as Casey Adams) as Ward Cleaver, and Paul Sullivan as Wally Cleaver. TBS re-aired the pilot on October 4, 1987, to commemorate the show's 30th anniversary.

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division's MTV Entertainment Group. It was originally launched as Nick at Nite’s TV Land as a spinoff of Nick at Nite programing block consisting e ...

re-aired it on October 6, 2007, as part of their twenty-four-hour

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

to commemorate the show's 50th anniversary. It is also available as a bonus episode on the season-one DVD; 234 episodes followed. A

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

by Hugh Beaumont precedes each episode in the first season, providing a background to that episode's theme. These are omitted in airings on TV Land, but included in airings on

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...

Opening titles

Season one: The characters are not 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. Season four: Ward and June open the front door and stand on the stoop. As Wally, followed by Beaver, leave for school, June hands them their lunches; Ward gives them their jackets. Season five: June takes refreshments to the men in the front yard. Season six: June, carrying a picnic basket, walks from the front door towards the car. Ward, carrying a thermos jug for the picnic, is next, followed in quick succession by Wally. Beaver, lagging behind, runs out, slamming the door behind him. Ward, with June in the passenger seat and the boys in back, then reverses toward the camera.

Musical theme

The show's playfully-bouncy theme tune, which became as much of a show trademark as Beaver's baseball cap or Eddie Haskell's false obsequiousness, was "The Toy Parade," composed by David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard, and Mort Greene. For the final season, however, the song was given a jazz-like arrangement by veteran composer/arranger

Pete Rugolo Pietro Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011), known professionally as Pete Rugolo, was an American jazz composer, arranger, and record producer. Life and career Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily. His family emigrated to the ...

Syndication

Reruns of the show became part of CBS affiliates' lineups in the mornings for several years. TBS aired the show for many years in the late 1980s.

began airing it in July 1998,

in May 2013,

Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operatio ...

in May 2015 and FETV in August 2021. MeTV currently airs it weekdays at 8am & 8:30am ET and Sundays at 1pm & 1:30pm ET, while FETV airs it weekdays at 10:30am & 11:05am ET, every night at 2am & 2:35am ET and Sundays at 6:30am & 7:05am ET. Today, NBCUniversal Television owns the syndication rights and all properties related to the series.

Spinoffs

A made-for-television reunion movie, ''Still the Beaver'', appeared in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. The main original cast appeared, except for Beaumont, who had died the previous year. Ward Cleaver was still a presence, however: the film's story used numerous flashbacks to the original show, as it followed young-adult Beaver's struggle to reconcile divorce and newly minted single fatherhood, straining to cope with what his father might or might not have done, as he faces the possibility of his widowed mother selling their childhood home. June Cleaver is later elected to the Mayfield City Council. Its reception led to a new first-run, made-for-cable series, ''

The New Leave It to Beaver ''The New Leave It to Beaver'' (also known as ''Still the Beaver'') is an American sitcom sequel to the original 1957–1963 sitcom ''Leave It to Beaver''. The series began with the 1983 reunion television movie ''Still the Beaver'' that aired o ...

'' (1984–1989), with Beaver and Lumpy Rutherford running Ward's old firm (where Lumpy's pompous, demanding father — played by Richard Deacon in the original series — had been the senior partner), Wally as a practicing attorney and expectant father, June having sold the old house to Beaver himself but living with him as a doting grandmother to Beaver's two young sons. Eddie Haskell runs his own contracting business and has a son, Freddie, who is every inch his father's son — right down to the dual-personality.

Feature film

1997's movie adaptation of the series starred

Christopher McDonald Christopher McDonald (born February 15, 1955) is an American actor. McDonald is best known for playing the villainous professional golfer Shooter McGavin in the 1996 comedy '' Happy Gilmore'', a role he’d later reprise in 2025’s sequel '' H ...

as Ward,

Janine Turner Janine Turner (born Janine Loraine Gauntt; December 6, 1962) is an American actress best known for her roles as Maggie O'Connell in the television series ''Northern Exposure'', as Jessie Deighan in the feature film ''Cliffhanger'', and as Katie ...

as June,

Erik von Detten Erik Thomas von Detten (born October 3, 1982) is an American actor and singer. He is known for his roles in '' Escape to Witch Mountain'', ''Toy Story'', '' Brink!'', ''Meego'', '' The Princess Diaries'', '' Complete Savages'', and '' So Weird'' ...

as Wally, and

Cameron Finley Cameron Finley (born August 30, 1987) is an American former child actor and molecular biologist. While receiving accolades for his work in ''Hope Floats'', ''Baywatch'', '' One True Love'', and '' Perfect Game'', he is most known for his role as ...

as Beaver. It was panned by many critics, except for

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

, who gave it a three-star rating. It performed poorly at the box office, earning only $10,925,060 against a budget of $15 million. Barbara Billingsley, Ken Osmond and Frank Bank made

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s in the film.

Other media

Books

Beverly Cleary Beverly or Beverley may refer to: Places Australia * Beverley, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Beverley, Western Australia, a town * Shire of Beverley, Western Australia Canada * Beverly, Alberta, a town that amalgamated with the City ...

wrote three novels based on the show: *''Leave it to Beaver'' New York : Berkley, 1960. Berkley Medallion book, G406. *''Here's Beaver!'' New York : Berkley, 1961. Berkley Medallion book *''Beaver and Wally'' New York : Berkley, 1961. Juvenile books *''Leave It to Beaver'' by Lawrence Alson New York :

Golden Books *Western Publishing (1907−2001) — , magazines, and {{C, Children's book publishers, children's books publisher, formerly based in Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is ...

, 1959 *''Leave It to Beaver: Fire'' by Cole Fannin Racine, Wisconsin; Whitman Publishing Company 1962 There was also a novelization of the 1997 film: *''Leave It to Beaver'' by Lisa Rojany-Buccieri Los Angeles, Calif. Price Stern Sloan 1997

House

The Cleavers moved from 485 Mapleton Drive to 211 Pine Street, both in Mayfield, for the start of season three. In 1969, the house was reused for another Universal-produced television hit, '' Marcus Welby, M.D.'' This house can still be seen at

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

, though the original façade was replaced in 1988 for the following year's ''

The 'Burbs ''The 'Burbs'' is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Joe Dante and written by Dana Olsen. It stars Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, and Gale Gordon. The film pok ...

'' and sits in storage elsewhere on the Universal lot. The façade was replaced again for the 1997 ''Leave It to Beaver'' movie.

Home media

released the first two seasons of ''Leave It to Beaver'' on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in Region 1 in 2005/2006. On January 26, 2010, it was announced that

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

had acquired the rights to the series (under license from Universal). They subsequently released the remaining seasons on DVD as well as a complete series box set. On January 31, 2012, Shout! Factory released a 20 episode best-of set titled ''Leave It to Beaver: 20 Timeless Episodes.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...

announced a release of the complete series on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

that was released on November 14, 2023.

Urban legends

In the mid-1970s, Mathers appeared on ''

The Tomorrow Show ''The Tomorrow Show'' (also known as ''Tomorrow with Tom Snyder'' or ''Tomorrow'' and, after 1980, ''Tomorrow Coast to Coast'') is an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder that aired on NBC in first-run form from October ...

'' hosted by

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on NBC in the 1970s and 1980s, and '' The Late Late Show'' ...

. Snyder pointed out that Mathers had not worked for a long time and that there was rumor going around that he had been killed "in the war in Southeast Asia". Mathers replied that he heard that rumor and he had no idea how it started. The rumor began when a Sgt. Steven Mathers was killed in Vietnam in 1968. News wire services erroneously reported this was the Beaver. Actress Shelly Winters announced it on The Tonight Show. Jerry Mathers said later the rumor was so widespread that his close friend Tony Dow sent bereavement flowers to his parents. In actuality, Jerry Mathers never set foot in Vietnam, though he did serve in the Air National Guard. Another urban legend was that actor Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) became porn star John Holmes. Holmes took Osmond's name and did several movies satirically under the name "Eddie Haskell". It started because there was some facial resemblance between the two men, which porn distributors exploited by using the name Eddie Haskell in advertising Holmes's films. "It was a pain in my butt for eleven years," says Osmond, who brought a $25 million defamation suit against porn houses, producers and distributors. The suit went all the way to the California Supreme Court. The court ruled for Holmes, saying the name was protected as a satire. This case set a precedent in the matter, and is still referred to in other cases in California today.

Notes

;General * Applebaum, Irwyn, ''The World According to Beaver'', TV Books, 1984, 1998. . * Bank, Frank, ''Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It to Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life'', Addax, 2002. . * Colella, Jennifer, ''The Leave It to Beaver Guide to Life: Wholesome Wisdom from the Cleavers!'' Running Press, 2006. . * Ehrlich, John, and Richard A., ''75 Aromatic Years of Leavitt & Pierce in Recollection of 31 Harvard Men, 1883–1958''. Cambridge: Leavitt and Pierce Tobacconists, 1958. * Genzlinger, Neil
"Golly, Beav, We’re Historic"
''The New York Times'', 5 Jun 2010. * Humek, Brian, "The World Famous Beaverpedia", New Siberian Publishing, 2022. . * Kassel, Michael B.
''Mass Culture, History and Memory and the Image of the American Family''
PhD dissertation, Michigan State University, 2005 65(9): 3537-A. DA3146050 613p. . * Keck, William (3 Oct 2007)

''USA Today''. * Osmond, Ken, ''Eddie: The Life and Times of America's Preeminent Bad Boy'', 2014. . * Mathers, Jerry, ''...And Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver"'', Berkley Boulevard Books, 1998. . * Shaffer, Jeffrey

''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'', 28 May 1999, 91:128. * Todt, Ron
"Beaver College Announces New Name"

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, 6 Jan 2006. * Universal Studios, ''"Leave It to Beaver:" The Complete Series—Seasons 1–6'', Los Angeles: DVD Empire, beginning 2005. .

External links

Full episodes of ''Leave It to Beaver''
on TVLand.com (USA only) * {{Authority control 1950s American children's television series 1950s American single-camera sitcoms 1957 American television series debuts 1960s American children's comedy television series 1960s American single-camera sitcoms 1963 American television series endings American children's television sitcoms Television series set in the 1950s Television series set in the 1960s American television series revived after cancellation Black-and-white American television shows American English-language television shows Television series about children Television series about families Television series by Universal Television Television shows adapted into films CBS sitcoms American Broadcasting Company sitcoms