leave it to beaver (1 Viewer)

[jimmyjet]

thanks joe,

so by the twilight zone episode, she was already "miss landers".

i guess she had the time, cuz she was only in some litb episodes.

 

[jimmyjet]

one thing that i like about watching all these old shows is seeing someone in it, that is famous for something else.

or seeing someone before they got famous.

 

[Rob_Ray]

one thing that i like about watching all these old shows is seeing someone in it, that is famous for something else.

or seeing someone before they got famous.

Or, in the case of shows like "Burke's Law", seeing someone like Ann Harding, long after her days in the cinema limelight.

 

[jimmyjet]

i must confess - i have never heard of ann harding.

i guess larry is gone from the show ? i dont think he was even there too much the last half of season 3. i think someone said that his real mom was too hard to deal with ?

one thing a bit odd is the introduction - the guy talking is about as unenthusiastic as you can get.

 

[jimmyjet]

a very cute line in beaver's poster.

ward tells beaver he needs to do the poster himself.

at the end of the show, june asks ward if he is gonna help her with the dishes.

ward replies that he did not help beaver with his poster, and he did not want to start playing favorites.

the writing for this show is just very good.

 

[jimmyjet]

beaver is in 5th grade, and has to kiss a girl in a play.

at the end of the show, when he is asked how it went, beaver replies

it wasnt that bad, but i dont think i will ever enjoy it as much as wally does (in front of wally, mom and dad)

the little scene that follows was hilarious.

 

[TravisR]

I've probably said it before but I don't think all the kids on this show (Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Ken Osmond, etc.) get enough credit for their performances. Plenty of child actors of that time were just terrible actors. They'd say a line that sounded beyond forced and thought that saying it as 'cute' as possible was a performance. None of the usual kid actors on Leave It To Beaver did that. They all seemed real and I think that's one reason why the show has lived on and is still enjoyable.

 

[jimmyjet]

does anyone know why eddie comes and goes ?

lately, he has been in a lot of the shows. but sometimes there are gaps where he is not around.

i am guessing that he had other things in his real life that would keep him occupied, such that he was not available.

he always adds to the show, when he is on. and ward and june constantly have lines that refer to eddie, when he is not on.

i know what you mean about "cute" - it no longer looked like a real person. ritchie on dick van dyke did that all the time.

but in all fairness, larry mathews may have been instructed to do that ?

 

[Gary16]

None of the friends of Beaver and Wally were regular cast members since the episodes all centered around the brothers and didn't always need the others to complete the story. Eddie, Lumpy, Larry, Gilbert, Whitey, etc., were all rotated through as needed. Eddie tends to appear much more often in the later episodes.

 

[jimmyjet]

awhile back in some thread, someone said that he never laughed at litb.

i think one needs to define what they think humor is.

for me, i dont find the yuck-yuck 3 stooges type of stuff even remotely funny.

i absolutely love dry sarcasm. so many people dont get it, such that it goes right over their heads.

litb is full of dry sarcasm. not from beaver. but all the time from ward, june, and wally.

i just watched the episode "beaver goes in business".

there were quite a few dry sarcasm lines in the episode, as usual.

but the best one was by wally. ward is talking to beaver. wally says "gosh dad, i dont know how you had the time to do all the things that you did".

and he says it absolutely matter of fact - like he is really wondering how his dad was able to do everything. wally is very good at it.

it is not only funny, but extremely clever.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I hope you're not referring to me. I had said there were episodes of "Leave It to Beaver" (and "Father Knows Best," "The Donna Reed Show," "Ozzie and Harriet," etc.) that aren't particularly funny. They're more "heartwarming" with life lessons.

But I laughed a lot at "Leave It to Beaver." If you were referring to me, it's a far cry from saying what I said to "he never laughed at litb."

While I'm here, I'd like to add that I think Eddie would "come and go" due to contract technicalities. If I know at all what I'm talking about, there were different contracts drawn up for "regulars," "semi-regulars," "guest stars," etc. I think you had to be in a certain number of episodes to qualify as a "regular," and I'm guessing only the Four Cleavers were regulars on LITB. The producers were probably restricted to using Eddie only in a certain number of episodes each season to keep his "semi-regular" status.

 

[Gary16]

None of the friends of Beaver and Wally were regular cast members since the episodes all centered around the brothers and didn't always need the others to complete the story. Eddie, Lumpy, Larry, Gilbert, Whitey, etc., were all rotated through as needed. Eddie tends to appear much more often in the later episodes.

 

[jimmyjet]

hi joe,

i havent the slightest idea who said it. and i dont want to know, since i purposely did not want my statement to be directed at anybody.

all this dry sarcasm absolutely went over my head when i was a kid viewing it (3-9 years old).

i am seeing this show with a brand new set of eyes !!

but even with many adults, dry sarcasm just goes right on by, especially if one is used to laugh tracks, etc. so if a person does not get it, i can see why they would find it to be heartwarming, but not funny.

i find all this teasing very humorous, as it is so real to life. but then i am quick to kid the people i like, and when i get kidded, i know that they like me.

it is just an extremely well-written show.

still on season 4. i do have some recall of many of the episodes. but the 2 intros that i recall the best must be seasons 5 and 6. one has beaver looking out of the rear window. and the one i recall the most is when he is cutting the grass.

i did see the soup one not too long ago.

i just love eddie. no one could do that part like he does. unfortunately, he got typecast, and could never find work afterwards. boy, what a shame - one does his job so well that he cant find work again. OUCH !!

and in real life, ken osmond is nothing like eddie - he is hard-working and conservative. so he really did a wonderful acting job. even kids today know who eddie haskell is !!

 

[Joe Lugoff]

jimmyjet, I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. How come you never use capital letters?

You've shown me they aren't really necessary -- what you say is as clear without capital letters as it would be with them. Do you think they should be done away with? You might be onto something ....

 

[jimmyjet]

hi joe,

mostly just cuz it takes more time - i dont have any other important reason.

i figure if someone wants to use them or not use them - their choice.

i do try to separate my words with some blank lines, so it does not all run together.

at least for me, it is a bit easier on the eyes, when there is not too much running together.

nice talking to ya.

btw, i just ended season 4 - did not realize i was so close to the end.

boy, you start off with a long series of quite a few disks and episodes, thinking you will never get done with them.

and then when you start getting closer to the end, you kinda wish it wasnt going so fast !!

i just started season 2 of the twilight zone. i havent seen them since i was a kid, but i have some recall of many of the shows.

i was thinking that they all had deeper meanings. i guess cuz those are the ones that had the greatest effect on me.

but in viewing them so far, only about 25% of them have had deeper meanings to them.

they all have some sort of ironic twist to them. but they dont all have a real life message to them, like i was thinking.

but i still enjoy them, one way or the other. it is just that the deeper meanings make you think.

of the 37 episodes in season 1, i wrote down 10 of them that i felt had meaning to them, other than just entertainment value.

 

[Gary OS]

Jimmy, you are now into my favorite portion of the show. I've always liked S4-S6 better than the early years. And you've already named the reason why - the more frequent appearances of Eddie Haskel, Lumpy, and Julie Foster (Cheryl Holdridge). As you said, every time Eddie/Lumpy are in an episode, it increases the laughs and the enjoyment (at least for me it does). This dynamic finds its peak in Season Six, which happens to have some of the funniest episodes in the entire series. "Wally's Dinner Date", "Beaver the Sheepdog", "The Party Spoiler", "The Mustache", "The Credit Card", "Eddie's Sweater", and "Wally's Practical Joke" are all favorites of mine from that final season.


Gary "I know others feel strongly that the early seasons were the best - but I'm the odd man out on that opinion because I feel the exact opposite" O.

 

[Gary16]

+1

 

[jimmyjet]

hi gary,

i havent yet started season 5, but i am done with 4.

so far, i cant say that i recall any year that i particularly like or dislike better than the other.

they have all had good stories and message lines.

and sure, i like to look at pretty girls !!

but of all the friends, eddie is the only one that i really like. for me, all the others could be easily replaced by someone else, and i would not mind.

eddie is not replaceable.

i also love fred. i guess richard deacon was too busy to get him very often.

but fred is continually the butt of jokes between ward and june - so i think the writers understood that he was a good character to have, when they could get him.

 

[Gary16]

eddie is not replaceable.

i also love fred. i guess richard deacon was too busy to get him very often.

but fred is continually the butt of jokes between ward and june - so i think the writers understood that he was a good character to have, when they could get him.

I agree Eddie is not replaceable but frankly I feel the same way about Lumpy, Gilbert, and some of the females in the later seasons.
Richard Deacon was playing Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" most of the same time he was playing Fred on litb plus doing some one-shots on other shows. Very busy but always a great performer.
We also see some performers just starting out such as Ryan O'Neal, Barbara Parkins (who would of course work with Ryan on Peyton Place later on), Ahna Capri, and others.

 

[jimmyjet]

were litb and dvd on the same network ?

just wondering how richard deacon was able to do both shows ?

i realize he was in dvd a lot more than litb.

so maybe when he was not busy with dvd, litb would write him in ?