DAILY DIRT: Looking back, ‘Leave it to Beaver’ was way ahead of its time

Daily Dirt for Friday, Dec. 15, 2023

If nothing else, we can thank the show for the “Eddie Haskell Syndrome” … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 811 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Unquestionably, one of the classic sitcoms in TV history was “Leave it to Beaver”.

As a wee lad, I rarely missed an episode, and recently I’ve been rewatching a number of the shows from its 1957-63 run on CBS and ABC. Interestingly, CBS dropped it after one season, but it was quickly picked up by ABC for the ensuing five years.

Digging into the history of the program, I was surprised it never cracked the top 30 in the Nielsen TV ratings, yet today is a popular hit in syndication.

“The show followed Theodore ‘Beaver’ Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) and his family,” recalls Matthew Green, a writer for showsnob.com. “It became the first show ever to air something from a child’s point of view, which would later go on to impact famous series such as ‘The Wonder Years’ and ‘Malcolm in the Middle’.”

I had never thought about that angle until reading Green’s account.

“Few coming-of-age sitcoms were as influential,” Green also said.

Like many longtime fans of the show, my favorite character was actually Eddie Haskell, whose name today is used by psychologists for people who reserve one personality for superiors and another for underlings. Fittingly, it’s called “Eddie Haskell Syndrome”. If you’ve ever watched the show I’m sure you just smiled.

Here are 10 of the most interesting takes from the program from my own perspective, plus a few that Green’s story highlighted. In no particular order:

• 1. Despite all the rumors for many, many years, Ken Diamond (who played Haskell) eventually became rock music icon Alice Cooper, he did not. Cooper once said he “was like Eddie Haskell from ‘Leave it to Beaver,’ and way too many people took that to mean that he was literally Eddie Haskell and portrayed him on the show,” according to various media reports. 
• 2. Although Lumpy Rutherford — my second favorite character on the show — was portrayed as a dimwit, the actor who played him, Frank Bank, became extremely successful. Bank became a stockbroker and actually wound up representing co-stars Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsley. 
• 3. In 1968, news broke of the death of Private J. Mathers during the Vietnam War, with the media reporting that the actor was killed in action. But it would later be revealed as a farce. Mathers never even went overseas, much less saw active combat. He was a U.S. Air Force reserve.
• 4. Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward Cleaver, was an ordained minister in real life.
• 5. The Cleavers’ “home,” often shown from the front on numerous episodes, was also used later in the same fashion years later for “Desperate Housewives” and “Marcus Welby, M.D.”
• 6. It wasn’t always about style and formal attire for Billingsley’s June Cleaver character. There was a practical reason why she always wore pearls on the show. They covered a “big hollow” in her neck. She also began to wear high heels in the program’s later years to offset Beaver and Wally’s growth spurts.
• 7. “‘Leave it to Beaver’ can be appreciated for its humor, but is it possible that a sitcom could be classified as something other than just entertainment?” Green wrote. “According to some scholars, ‘Leave it to Beaver’ tackled and taught many people about social issues at the time. Some sociology academics and professors consider that the show is important to add to the college syllabus as it’s compared to the likes of ‘Modern Family’ and other modern sitcoms.”
• 8. The program is reportedly the first to ever show a toilet onscreen. Remember, this was the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• 9. CBS originally planned to call the show ‘It’s a Small World”.
• 10. The show was the first to plan its official farewell episode. Tony Dow (who played older brother Wally) was about to enter college and Mathers wanted to go to high school in real life. Later in the 1960s, “The Fugitive” followed suit and also planned its final episode (Most programs that did not return from one season to the next were simply canceled by their networks).

2. I once had the pleasure of interviewing Mathers when he visited Quincy back in 2008.

He was 60 years at the time and was extremely friendly, congenial and genuine. He even signed pictures for my grandsons (who to this day have never watched an episode of “Leave it to Beaver”).

“I can walk down the street just about anywhere and (still be) be recognized,” Mathers told me.

I don’t doubt that one bit.

“Leave it to Beaver” is currently shown in more than 120 countries and broadcast in more than 80 languages.

3. Here were the top 10 most popular TV shows during the final season (1962-63) of “Leave it to Beaver,” which finished well outside the top 30 that year:

• 1. “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
• 2. “Candid Camera.”
• 3. “The Red Skelton Show.”
• 4. “Bonanza.”
• 5. “The Lucy Show.”
• 6. “The Andy Griffith Show.”
• 7. “Ben Casey.”
• 8. “The Danny Thomas Show.”
• 9. “The Dick Van Dyke Show”
• 10. “Gunsmoke.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day— I was probably the only kid in America in 1963 who hated :”The Beverly Hillbillies.” My favorite programs from that top 10 were “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” I think watching Dick Van Dyke was when I first fell in love with Mary Tyler Moore. Ahhh … be still my beating heart.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Hate “The Beverly Hillbillies”? C’mon man…Elly May Clampett!