Leave It To Beaver: Happy Birthday, Jerry Mathers!

Damn, Jerry Mathers is 73. Tony Dow is 76.

Who feels old?

Leave It To Beaver is still on MeTV.

Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) died May 18, 2020. He was 76.

'Leave It to Beaver' is an American television sitcom broadcast between 1957 and 1963.

and lots of people thought Beaver died in Vietnam based on Shelley Winters blurting that out on late night tv! Where'd she get that info? She was better off pouring drinks on Oliver Reed!

Wally was dreamy, Beaver not so much. Eddie Haskell grew up to be Trump. Lumpy grew up to be Jason Miller

^ ... and Judy Walker grew up to be Sarah Huckabeast

[quote]Gerald Patrick Mathers (born June 2, 1948); 73, is an American actor. Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963, in which he played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of the suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont, respectively) and the brother of Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow).

Who wrote this? There is no way that Mayfield (where the Cleavers lived) was a suburb. It was a small town and nowhere near any large city.

Rusty Stevens, who played Larry Mondello, was one of the best child actors ever. He just seemed so real and natural.

We've been watching this on Roku Channel and it's pretty damn charming. Every episode had a lesson...for parents (your kids' problems are important to them so don't trivialize them; make your kids feel safe to come to you about anything, etc.). It's also very funny.

I watch this show in the mornings on ME tv. Happy B'Day Beaver!

Happy Birthday, Beaver

The first 3 seasons are gold. You realize the charm of the show knowing that it is written from the viewpoint of a 6 year old.

My favorite show as a kid. Happy birthday, Beav! LITB is like comfort food. Seeking episodes now.

I loved the episode where Beaver brought home a note from the teacher. He assumed it was bad news and destroyed it. Then he recruited Wally to write a reply to the note. Wally wrote something like, "Dear Mrs. Canfield, Thank you for letting me know about Beaver. I have spanked him, and his father spanked him." Then he signed their mother's name to the reply.

The note actually was announcing that Beaver had been selected for a role in the school play. The teacher wonders why Beaver's parents would have spanked him for that. She goes to the principal, who guesses right away what has happened.

June was such a pearl clutcher, failing to gain dominance over those children. She’s a Cleaver. Use it!

I liked his appearance 30 years ago on Married with Children. He wasn’t afraid to make fun of himself.

[quote]June was such a pearl clutcher, failing to gain dominance over those children. She’s a Cleaver. Use it!

I'll have you know that I was a BRONSON, bitch!

It's a very charming show.

Mathers was incredibly underrated, especially for a child actor. You could see in his eyes he was listening to what the other actors said, then REACTING to it. Completely different from 90% of child actors...especially those from the last 30 years or so.

^^You're absolutely right. Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow as well as every kid on Leave It To Beaver was a very good actor.

TonyDow was a teen dream

I think LITB holds up better than almost any other old sitcom. The cast was excellent and the writing was always sharp. Wally and Eddie will always be my favorites, though.

Ward was pretty hot too, as far as DILFs on tv, though Carl Betz from "Donna Reed Show was even hotter. The tv execs used to allow them to have some chest hair showing from their shirt (and Carl even went shirtless on at least on episode),

Ward and June were almost perfect as parents. When they realized they were wrong, they would always apologize to Beaver or Wally. They would admit to their mistakes. How many parents do that...especially back then.

Happy Belated, Beve. Sorry I'm late to the party.

For all of Beaver and Wally's worrying about their dad "clobbering" them, I don't believe that Ward ever spanked them once.

[quote]Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) died May 18, 2020. He was 76.

Was he wearing a lovely housecoat?

[quote]For all of Beaver and Wally's worrying about their dad "clobbering" them, I don't believe that Ward ever spanked them once.

Then why did June keep complaining about Ward being rough on the Beaver?

He was about 43 when he guest starred on Married With Children?

I remember a scene with Carl Betz emerging into (or out of?) a shower wearing only a towel on The Donna Reed Show. What a hot daddy!

Now back to Beaver....

What a sweet time it was. I'm glad I was a kid during that era.

If I were 8 years old today, I'd be looking at porn all day on my iPad.

I think the secret of the success of LITB is the realistic nature of the brothers relationship. Wally and the Beav acted like brothers, sometimes hanging out, sometimes not wanting to be around each other. They both had their own set of friends.

In the first few years , Mathers was clearly the draw. The most likable, realistic kid on TV (with the possible exception of Ronny Howard as Opie). But as he entered the awkward years (and lost his best friend Larry Mondello), the producers shifted the focus to studly Wally and his more interesting friends.

"I remember a scene with Carl Betz emerging into (or out of?) a shower wearing only a towel on The Donna Reed Show. What a hot daddy! "

Good memory...

"Now back to Beaver.... "

Beaver's daddy was a daddy...

Ward Cleaver could get it, just about anywhere he wanted.

Totally understated daddy.

^ Yes, June, we've all heard how "hard he was on the Beaver last night"

R27. "Clobbering." Haha! That's funny you remembered that word. No one say "clobber" any longer.

R35. Damn, Hugh Beaumont gives me a boner. Fucking hot. Beaumont was an ordained Methodist minister which makes it even dirtier.

Leave It To Beaver...one of the all-time great classic shows.

Sue Randall

Marion Burnside Randall (October 8, 1935 – October 26, 1984), who acted under the name Sue Randall, was an American actress best known for her role as the kindly Miss Alice Landers, Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver's elementary school teacher in the CBS and ABC sitcom Leave It to Beaver.

[quote]Ward and June were almost perfect as parents. When they realized they were wrong, they would always apologize to Beaver or Wally. They would admit to their mistakes. How many parents do that...especially back then.

As written, I thought they were good parents but they could also be terribly humorless -- I used to hate the way they would often shut down Beaver and Wally just for making some jokey, though completely harmless, observation, usually with "That'll be enough, Wally/Beaver," etc. In those moments I often wished one of them would come back with, "Here's an idea: why don't the two of you get a fucking sense of humor for a change?"

But the episode that absolutely infuriated me was the one in which Ward and June force Beaver to take a ballroom dancing class that he absolutely does not want to take but they make him anyway. They give him this bullshit about how it would be "good" for him and that he has to do what they say because they're the parents. To me they were completely abusing their position and had zero regard for his feelings, so much so that I seriously wanted him to tell them to go fuck themselves. He takes the class and of course is miserable doing it, but they continue treating him like shit and told him he had no choice but to return whether he liked it or not. He goes back but eventually cuts out on it, instead going off with Larry to kill time until the class is over. It was a shit episode and one that almost made me hate Ward and June for the remainder of the series. (I went to IMDb to see other viewers' reactions and there were comments there that reflect my negative feelings about this episode.) I realize it was a different time then but even for the early 1960s, that to me was a horrible way to treat your child and make them feel completely powerless.

YES. Just watched this one recently and was surprised how angry it made me. What really rankled: there's a subplot about Ward not wanting to clean the fireplace, so finally he pays Wally 50¢ to do it for him. I thought okay, this will tie in to them forcing Beaver to do something he doesn't want to do, they'll realize they're being unreasonable, etc.

Nope! The end of the episode is Ward telling Beaver "Parents make their children do all kinds of things they don't want to do, not because they're mean but because they love their children." Um, okay that's true of many things but DANCE CLASSES?? I wanted somebody to point out that Ward got out of doing something he didn't want to do by paying his kid to do it for him. Not a word! The episode ended with the "revelation" that Ward and June were right all along to force Beaver to do this pointless activity that he hated. Infuriating.

Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb....

The only thing that bothered me about LTB was how stupid they made the kids out to be. As a kid about the same age as Beaver I would cringe when he hemmed and hawed making lame excuses for bad behavior. I knew I was smarter then him. I would think to myself this kid has got to perfect his gaslighting game

When the show started, Beaver was supposed to be 7 or 8 (Jerry Mathers was 9, but looked younger). I thought his actions fit the character at that age.

But after season 3, Mathers started his awkward stage and suddenly was WAY too old to still do the shuffling his feet and saying "gee whiz!" thing, but way too many scripts had him doing just that. So yes, he started seeming a bit "special."

Who knew R35? Very nice. Wow.. Always buttoned up and with a tie.

Sometimes I would get annoyed with June...when she would ask questions like...."Why do boys do that?"..."Why are children like this?"...."Do all children act this way?". She acted so clueless at times.

^ The woman wore a dress and pearls to vacuum the house, how savvy do you think she was? Well, latter she got down and learned to speak jive...

Did any of you ever watch the revival series called "Still the Beaver"? I've never seen it but remember that it ran for a few years back in the '80s.

Ward Cleaver was a hot daddy, but I always wanted Dr. Alex Stone to fuck me.

^ Anyone who could wear those droopy drawers and still be hot had to be HOT

The main thing I've detected since rewatching all those shows that I never thought about as a kid watching them is what consummate liars both Beaver and Wally were. Both of them had no problem lying to their parents to get out of trouble. Of course they'd always feel guilty and come clean by the end of the show.

And Ward & June were two of the dumbest parents on the planet. What kind of parents would willingly let their sons go out and buy and damn fully grown donkey when they had nowhere to keep the thing? At times June seemed like she might have been a bit retarded. And it's amazing how the woman of the house back in those days was reduced to being nothing more than an unpaid maid. Any time Wally or Beaver got into trouble at school they always wanted Ward to come down to the school and if he wasn't available they would act as if there was no way they could have the mother come down because she was nothing more than a female.

Was there ever a time when June didn't have a dustrag in her hand...or was cleaning a cupboard...always cleaning something? Always dressed up with pearls and perfectly coiffed. She could have worn jeans and an old shirt for cleaning. I used to watch Father Knows Best...and with heavy duty cleaning, at least the mom, Margaret, wore a scarf in her hair, jeans and a flannel shirt.

It's because as hot as Ward was, June had her own side pieces. She knew what she was doing all those days dressed in pearls and heels.

[quote] But after season 3, Mathers started his awkward stage and suddenly was WAY too old to still do the shuffling his feet and saying "gee whiz!" thing, but way too many scripts had him doing just that. So yes, he started seeming a bit "special."

[quote] Did any of you ever watch the revival series called "Still the Beaver"? I've never seen it but remember that it ran for a few years back in the '80s.

Still the Beaver started with the TV movie. The series ran for 4 yrs. Beaver acts exactly as he did in the original series. Which is annoying. He really seems “special” and his incompetence is still a main theme for the show.

It’s an interesting bit of early 80s original cable programming.

r55 One of June's side pieces was Fred Rutherford. Eight inches and thick.

Oh, you know he was. He might not be a lot to look at, but that doesn't mean he didn't know how to throw down

Hahaha....I was thinking of Fred Rutherford. Beat me to it! That dirty June...

My love for bad boys started with Eddie Haskell.

I think Eddie really did have a bit of thing for June. He would have gone there if the opportunity presented itself.

As a child, I wanted Tony Dow in.. no, I didn't know that back then. I just wanted to be next to him.

Oh yeah, Tony Dow was an awakening for a lot of people. I watched it in reruns, but was about the same age or younger than him. So whatever that means, that's what happened.

[quote]My love for bad boys started with Eddie Haskell.

I always found it interesting that, even though he was only a supporting character outside the family, Eddie Haskell was the focus of several of the show's episodes, which I guess spoke to how popular a character he must have been with viewers.

[quote] Margaret, wore a scarf in her hair, jeans and a flannel shirt.

Was she TV's first lesbian?

^^Food for thought.^^

Carl Betz was hot but wore a toupee (a good one!) and smoked until it killed him.

Carl Betz was on another show, Judd For The Defense...I think.

That's correct, r70.

Thanks R71.

Did Carl have any shirtless or shower scenes on Judd for the Defense?

I don't remember....lol.

....

June's style was especially dolled up (even for that time period) because there was a writers strike, delaying the show for a year -- in that time the boys had a growth spurt, so the heels were to counteract that. The actress also had neck surgery, so started wearing pearls because she was self conscious.

That year off is likely behind the boys acting too young for their real age sometimes. Tv shows used to have crazy scedules -- a year off would've been a ton of episides missed, if not a couple seasons worth.

I always loved that little boy next door. He wasn't in a lot of episodes, but was adorable. He was my favorite side actor besides Larry. I think his name was Benji. Was too cute.

It's cute when he thinks Larry made Beaver turn into a rock and then takes care of it like it's really him (even sleeps with it).

The only hole Fred Rutherford was putting his penis in was Charles Pierce's. Big ol' homo he was.

Judy Hensler was one of the best cunty TV characters ever, along with Nellie Oleson.

Leave it to my beaver to ruin your thread

R79 she did too good of a job.

The episode where Beaver bought a magic kit...and Benji was shown a trick where Beaver turned into a rock was cute. Beaver had to go away to his Aunt Martha's for the weekend and Benji believed Beaver was still the rock...as he didn't "change back" to show that it was a trick.

R77...Sorry for the repeat...sheesh..

God Bless R61 for posting that Star Games episode. At 3:30 there’s men’s swimming with Tony Dow! Add in Billy Moses and Lorenzo Lamas from Falcon Crest , well, that’s good television!

Strange that after Leave It To Beaver, Tony Dow's next series was a short lived daytime soap opera.

Beaver later became the King of Jordan.

The pilot was called "It's a Small World," and featured Casey Adams (aka Max Showalter) as Ward. Harry Shearer also had a part.

[quote]June's style was especially dolled up (even for that time period) because there was a writers strike, delaying the show for a year -- in that time the boys had a growth spurt, so the heels were to counteract that. T

Doubtful. The pilot aired in May of 1957, and the series premiered five months later. There were no breaks in filming for the remainder of the series (39 episodes/season, as was the custom at the time.)

I just watched Beaver the Magician.

The acting between the Beaver, Larry Mondello and Benji is impeccable. So natural and realistic. Their pacing, ability to listen and react is amazing.

Larry Mondello is like an old man. He's hilarious.

[quote]Was she TV's first lesbian?

No.

That would be Schultzie (Ann B. Davis) on "Love That Bob!"

Frank Bank aka Lumpy Rutherford died in 2013.

Thanks to R61 and R84. Hot stuff.

Those were the days married couples weren't even allowed to be filmed sleeping the the same bed. They always had twin beds.

Herman and Lily shared the same bed.

Beaver's friend Whitey Whitney (Stanley Fafara) had a hard life after LITB. He developed a heroin and alcohol habit while living with the members of the band Paul Revere & The Raiders after high school.

He spent the final eight years of his life clean and sober, initially living in a house for recovering addicts and alcoholics, then in a subsidized apartment in downtown Portland, Oregon. He lived on Social Security checks of $475 per month until his hospitalization in 2003. Due to his addiction to heroin, he contracted hepatitis C.

Fafara died on September 20, 2003, his 53rd birthday, in Portland, Oregon, of complications from hernia surgery he underwent the previous month.

His brother Tiger Fafara played Wally's friend "Tooey" on LITB.

r90 "Father Know Best" premiered one year before "Love That Bob."

Lesbian?!?!

How dare you? I was what was known as "MAN CRAZY"!

Love That Bob! is one of the few 1950s sitcoms that still holds up pretty well all these years later (I Love Lucy and Burns & Allen being the other 2). Brilliant cast lead by Bob Cummings, Rosemary deCamp, Dwayne Hickman, Ann B. Davis, King Donovan and Nancy Kulp. Great writing and comedic timing.

Burns & Allen and Love That Bob! both shared the same brilliant writer/producer Paul Henning who also created The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.

Some fans of LiTB were saying that Ken Osmond was really porn legend John Holmes, he of the foot long dong. Took a long time for the rumor to peter out!

Of course you can't mention the cast of Love That Bob without pointing out that the outstanding character actress Kathleen Freeman was also a part of that group. The other night a colorized version of an old Dick Van Dyke classic with Laura getting her big toe caught in the hotel bath tub aired and there was Kathleen, playing the hotel maid trying to help Rob open the locked bathroom door to rescue his wife. As usual, she stole every scene she was in

I like The Donna Reed Show. I haven't seen it in a long time. It used to be on for a while.

[quote]But the episode that absolutely infuriated me was the one in which Ward and June force Beaver to take a ballroom dancing class that he absolutely does not want to take but they make him anyway.

BEAVER: "Gee whiz, do I gotta? All the kids at school are calling me a fag."

WARD: "Liar! That's not even a word."

JUNE: "Jesus hates liars. And he can see your dirty pillows when you shower."

I haven't seen very many of the episodes but "Burns & Allen" appeared to be a good show from that era (the 1950s).

[quote]I like The Donna Reed Show. I haven't seen it in a long time. It used to be on for a while.

Two episodes on every morning on DECADES. They're currently into the later (Patty Petersen/Midge) years.

Burns & Allen is on ANTENNA every day.

I don't have Antenna TV...^^

r104 It's an over-the-air network. Where do you live?

It's not in my cable package. I have ME tv. I live in central NJ. I have Verizon Fios.

r105 It's not a cable channel. Can you get over-the-air stations? What's your local broadcast market?

R106. Sometimes you can watch the older tv episodes (maybe not all of them by choice) by logging onto the network's website.

I just looked at Verizon FIOS for Central NJ. Antenna TV is on channel 465 (from WPIX digital subchannel in NYC.)

R107...Sorry, what do you mean by local broadcast market? I have Verizon Fios. I'm sure I can find episodes of the show on YouTube. Yes, R109...I did google Antenna TV for Verizon...and got channel 465. That channel is a channel call "this"??

It's weird how channels are set up and the cable companies make it complicated. They keep changing it.

r110 I mean where are your local TV stations--New York? Philadelphia? Somewhere else?

Thank you R105, R107 and R108 for trying to helo me out. My local stations are based in Philadelphia. I get one NY station...ABC.

*help^^

What did Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow do for a living? They were both still kids when the show ended. Did they do nothing for 20 years until the revival show came along and then nothing for 40 years after? How do they make money to live on?

ABC I get in Philly and NY...channel 6 Philly, channel 7 NYC.

r113 Antenna TV in Philly is on channel 17.2 (over-the-air.) Not sure about FIOS, but for southern NJ it's on 463.

I read that Tony Dow is an artist...a successful sculptor...living in a canyon in the LA area. He's married. Jerry Mathers wore many hats...bank loan officer, in real estate and in the entertainment industry. Googled it.

R117...That's it...channel 463! Thank you so much for your help! Thanks to the others, too. I appreciate it. :) Cool!..

Those digital sub-channels have been exploding lately. Buzzr, Cozi, LAFF, Movies!, Comet, StartTV, Antenna, MeTV, Decades, Heroes, etc. The only problem is that they have a LOT of commercials and they tend to me of the most annoying kind (at least to me.) Lowest common denominator shilly stuff, like Medicare, questionable beauty and "nutritional" products, MyPillow, auto repair scams, etc. I can't watch that shit anymore. Just raises my blood pressure.

Yes...a lot of commercials are aimed at the older folks (like me) who most likely watch their childhood shows.

After Beaver ended, Barbara Billingsley went back to her old job -- streetwalking.

Does anyone own the Leave It To Beaver complete series on DVD? I gave up my tv about a decade ago.

I've never watched an entire episode & wonder if others (in my situation) have enjoyed it & seen it as worth the $.

[quote]I read that Tony Dow is an artist...a successful sculptor...living in a canyon in the LA area. He's married. Jerry Mathers wore many hats...bank loan officer, in real estate and in the entertainment industry. Googled it.

Tony did a small guest-starring role on an episode of "Adam-12" as a soldier just home from the war who gets duped by a pretty blond. This was probably about 5 or 6 years after "Beaver" went off the air.

Dow also appeared on My Three Sons & The Mod Squad.

the Beaver & Lassie

[quote]What did Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow do for a living? They were both still kids when the show ended. Did they do nothing for 20 years until the revival show came along and then nothing for 40 years after? How do they make money to live on?

Tony Dow joined the National Guard after the show. I think he served for a couple of years. Someone in Sacramento said during this time he hooked up with Dow and his roommate at a theater and ended up sucking Dow's dick in a park.

Beaver playing The Dating Game.

Tony Dow starred in this short-lived ABC teen soap opera I used to watch after school. Dark Shadows took over NTY's time slot after NTY was canceled.

R88 I was mistaken about them taking a year off, but she did indeed wear heels to hide their growth and wore pearls to cover a scar.

"However, actress Barbara Billingsley actually wore flats during the first season of the show; she started wearing heels at the suggestion of the producers once her TV "sons" experienced growth spurts. They wanted June to tower above her boys if at all possible. And that omnipresent strand of pearls was strictly Billingsley's idea "“ she used them to conceal a surgical scar on her neck."

R83 and you repeating about that episode is just fine -- it's a really cute one and deserves the kudos.

R83 I also got a kick out of how accurate they nailed the way kids think, with the episode where Beaver is dared to look into a giant cup of soup, because his friend argues there's really soup in it (of course the friend was totally being a dick by daring him to peek in it).

Love That Bob! starred Bob Cummings as suave Hollywood cheesecake photographer Bob Collins who lived with his widowed sister Rosemary deCamp and her teenaged son Dwayne Hickman (pre-Dobie Gillis fame). At his office Bob was assisted by Girl Friday Charmaine ("Schultzy") Schultz with her signature top knot and man-tailored Ship 'n' Shore blouses. Schultzy had a coterie of "man crazy" girlfriends hanging around the office who were all after Bob's pants and played by Rose Marie, Kathleen Freeman and, most vigorously, Jane Kulp as bird-watching fanatic Pamela Livingstone. Joi Lansing appeared often as one of the cheesecake models.

I loved Cummings in this. He was a sexy daddy but often played the fall guy for jokes and situations about his foiled womanizing ways. He wasn't afraid to make fun of himself, a far more effective comedic actor than his previous Hollywood career showed.

I don't know if it's showing on any of those retro networks now but worth the search.

I learned all about the goings-on up on Mullholland Drive from LOVE THAT BOB!

I think there are some Love That Bob episodes on YouTube, maybe under the original title "The Bob Cummings Show" (it was called Love That Bob later, in syndication).

Ken Osmond worked for LAPD. His sergeant called him to ask if he was moonlighting as Johnny Wad. Ken took down his pants to prove the rumor was false.

[quote]Jane Kulp

NANCY Kulp, who later played JANE Hathaway,

Cummings was one of those actors from Old Hollywood who always seemed gay no matter what part he played. That was especially the case in Love That Bob.

What did Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow do for a living?

They both continued acting. I saw and adult Tony Dow on an Adam 12 episode recently and Jerry Mathers on an episode of My Three Sons.

Dow did no acting work from 2003 until 2015. He was on 2 episodes of a series called "Suspense" in 2015 and 2016. His primary work has been art for many years. He makes beautiful bronze pieces and sells them.

Mathers worked sporadically over the years. His last real acting job as on one episode of a series called "Dad Dudes" in 2015.

I don't think either one of them is hurting financially. They're both well beyond retirement age anyway.

Here's Tony Dow's art website.

I don't know how much they get in royalties...since Leave It To Beaver is shown all the time, but they some money from that , I'm sure.

Nope, actors on shows made that long ago only had agreements for something like six airings. At the time, nobody had any idea that people would happily watch the same episodes over and over and over, so that seemed fine. One of the very few who got a better deal was Audrey Meadows (Alice in The Honeymooners) who had her lawyer brothers negotiate her contract. She kept getting residuals until the day she died because of the smart deal they made! But the standard contact only paid actors for a handful of airings before cutting them off completely. Being an actor on even a hit show back in the '50s, '60s, and '70s didn't make you a millionaire the way it does today.

Lucy almost got to grope him in the tub, r133...

I've heard for years, if not decades, that Hugh Beaumont was married with three kids, deeply religious and loved by everyone who worked with him -- but also that he was very deeply closeted. I was so surprised to find NOTHING on google to support this. Has anyone else ever heard these rumors? I thought they were well known but evidently not.

Meanwhile, here's a very well known and documented piece of trivia: LITB was the very first American TV show to show a toilet onscreen. It was the episode were Beaver bought a baby alligator after being told not to and hid it in the toilet tank. All you saw was the tank lid and the very top of the tank but it caused a lot of controversy and some people thought it scandalous.

"I've heard for years, if not decades, that Hugh Beaumont was married with three kids, deeply religious and loved by everyone who worked with him -- but also that he was very deeply closeted."

*

Who did you hear it from and what were their sources?

Not true, R143. There was an early episode of My Little Margie that showed Gale Storm taking a dump.

[quote] Who did you hear it from and what were their sources?

When I was a young blond twink in Manhattan in the 70s I heard it from a lot of eldergays who were in the business. The only one whose name I can remember now is James Sheldon, who wasn't exactly a bear but was a lovely hot hairy daddy:

If they didn’t get any royalties and rarely acted as adults, how did they survive? How many pieces of art does Tony Dow have to sell to eat? And poor Jerry had no sculpting talent to fall back on. Random guest spots every 5 years can’t pay the bills.

The "Adam-12" with Tony Dow is on right this second. Watching as I type this.

Thank you, r147. I'd certainly accept those as credible sources. I mean, why would they lie about Hugh friggin' Beaumont?

Beaumont was an ordained Methodist minister. During World War II, Beaumont was a conscientious objector and served as a medic.

After the show's cancellation in 1963, Mathers remained her close friend. They were reunited on The New Leave It to Beaver. Billingsley, Mathers, Dow, Frank Bank, and Ken Osmond celebrated the show's 50th anniversary together on Good Morning America.

Many Baby Boomers' childhoods like mine were ruined for life thinking that everyone else's parents were like Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont and Donna Reed and Carl Betz. And yes, I'm serious.

Barbara Billingsley

I Speak Jive - Airplane! (1980)

Barbara Billingsley on speaking "jive" in "Airplane"

I would imagine that Dow and Mathers, as two boomer icons could easily have maintained a steady revenue stream through the years through personal appearances, etc. I had a friend who was a personal asst. to an Academy Award winning actress who once told me that once someone has established a name as a 'star' there is always going to be a 'supermarket to open' at the very least.

[quote]Many Baby Boomers' childhoods like mine were ruined for life thinking that everyone else's parents were like Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont and Donna Reed and Carl Betz. And yes, I'm serious.

R153. I think your own parents and family dysfunction (like the rest of us) stems from within your family and family history rather than from '50s/'60s sitcoms.

Probably no one here is old enough to remember a fun sitcom from the late 1950s called MR. ADAMS AND EVE starring real life couple Ida Lupino and (sexy) Howard Duff as Hollywood movie stars, but I still remember seeing Barbara Billingsley guest starring on a rerun of it as a brassy agent or publicist. Maybe this was shot just before she became typed as the Perfect Mother and Wife on LITB but it was quite a departure from how I thought of her.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I've tried to find it on youtube but no luck so far.

R158 Did you check IMDB?

Billingsley digs looked so cheery. That makes me happy for some reason.

Barbara Billingsley was born in 1916! She was 41 when LitB began. She looked damn good!

That would make her 105. So she was 32 when she had her Beaver. Isn’t that really old to be giving birth in the 1940s?

For those that want to watch some older shows and movies TubiTV.com and TheRokuChannel.com both stream shows. Tubi is 100% free. IIRC, Roku either wants you to sign up or has some fee for some shows/movies.

Barbara Billingsley's home at R160 is a little surprising. It is a cheery place, but I would think it would be more conservative for some reason...more formal. She liked to collect surfboards apparently. It's a nice Malibu beach house.

She died in 2010, so presumably somebody else has been living there, and that's their stuff.

"Leave it To Beaver's" Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow Reflect on the Show's 60 Year Legacy (2017)

WTF, Jerry looks totally different now.

R167. You do too.

I got into the Beaver around 10 years ago when it was on Netflix. At the time, I wanted to know more about the series and read Jerry Mathers' book. For the poster concerned with his finances, he seemed to be doing really well. He has a taste for collecting expensive cars. He's also a first-class gun nut, BTW. I wasn't left with a good impression of Mathers -- he seems to be full of himself (he bragged about how smart he was, how he was a chick magnet, how he was the only one driving a Porsche to his college classes, etc.).

He did have some interesting things to share about Hugh Beaumont. When Beaumont landed LITB, he had to move his family across country to L.A. While his son driving with his mother, they were in a wreck and his mother didn't survive. Mathers wrote that Beaumont kind of blamed himself (i.e., if he hadn't agreed to do the show, they wouldn't have moved and his mother wouldn't have died).

He also said Beaumont had Tourette's during the last few years of his life. He ran into him at the grocery store, and while they were talking, Beaumont would suddenly start loudly cursing, then apologize.

R166 Mathers comes across as a bit of a pill in that clip. He keeps bragging about himself. You can see that Dow barely keeps in check a smirk, especially when Mathers keeps hogging the mic.

The "Stewardess, I speak Jive" scene was actually written with Jane Wyatt, the mother from Father Knows Best, in mind. She came in, did a table read and rehearsed all morning. After lunch, they started shooting the short scene. They shot all afternoon and couldn't get a single usable take. She just couldn't do it.

Someone suggested Billingsly. She came in, did the morning rehearsal and then nailed it on the first take that afternoon.

R171 Billingsly said the script just said "talks jive." There were no words. She said the two black actors she did the scene with taught her what to say during lunch.

But the director could understand her too much so asked her to change it, which made her nervous.

Of course, that scene would never fly now.

Just hang loose, Blood. She's gon' catch up on the rebound with the med side.

Ward (Hugh Beaumont) was FINE. I always wondered why he never spanked Beaver's bad little ass! He sure coulda spanked me! Spank me Daddy Cleaver!

There used to be LITB slash fic on Nifty.

[quote] So she was 32 when she had her Beaver

How very dare you talk about Miss Billingley's beaver like that! She never talked about your taint or your hairy ball sack.

[quote]I wasn't left with a good impression of Mathers -- he seems to be full of himself (he bragged about how smart he was, how he was a chick magnet, how he was the only one driving a Porsche to his college classes, etc.).

Yes, I've noticed in other appearances they've made in the past that Jerry Mathers does most of the talking while Tony Dow can barely get a word in edgewise. One can only hope that they've done enough interviews together over the years that Tony is probably used to it and doesn't let it bother him.

Mathers is quite the little name-dropper.

He dropped Bob Hope's twice in the space of three minutes.

If a celebrity is being interviewed, expect them to talk about themselves. Happens all the time.

On Make Room For Daddy, the actress who played Danny Thomas' wife (Jean Hagen) left the show and the character was killed off. Before he remarried Kathy (Marjorie Lord), Danny's character did a lot of dating, and one of his dates was Barbara Billingsley. It was so strange seeing June Cleaver in Danny's arms.

Tony Dow emotes a strong chill attitude. I don't think he lets much upset him. He seems very happy in the life he's formed for himself.

Mathers has turned into a hydrocephalic loud mouth.

The Roku channel is free just like Tubi (which you can also get from the Roku channel store) is.

One thing I really liked about this show is its attitude towards animals. Beaver is always shown as being very compassionate towards them. Like the time he started collecting frogs to make money selling them but when he found out the guy who was buying them from him wanted them for a lab Beaver was horrified and remorseful that might have split up frog families and he ended up taking them all back to the pond.

[quote]If a celebrity is being interviewed, expect them to talk about themselves. Happens all the time.

Are you really that obtuse? The point that Mathers was not letting his costar talk about himself. It was rude.

Tony Dow always had really pretty eyes. i remember being surprised that he did not grow up to be hotter. Although he is way hotter than Jerry Mathers who looks older than Tony. But I'm sure both still get plenty of pussy (and/or dick).

This is a nice interview with Tony Dow from 2018 (he still has pretty eyes):

R185 yes he still has pretty eyes. He's grown into a cool humble daddy bear! Woof!

Watching LITB this morning, there was a commercial with Jerry Mathers advertising some sort of pain medicine. It was so odd, watching Beaver as a teen on the show, then seeing him as an old man in a commercial...lol. Reality...it's a bitch..

Who’d a thunk it? Beaver Cleaver is from Cleveland

I love Tony Dow's humble, down to earth demeanor. He seems like a laid back, cool guy.

[quote]Watching LITB this morning, there was a commercial with Jerry Mathers advertising some sort of pain medicine. It was so odd, watching Beaver as a teen on the show, then seeing him as an old man in a commercial...lol. Reality...it's a bitch.

R187, I saw that this morning, too! And like you, it kinda knocked me for a loop for a second. Like someone hit the fast-forward button on Beaver's life.

I never saw that commercial before, R190..it must be new? Anyway, it was weird..lol.

r188 It was never specified where Mayfield was located, but it was clearly not a large city, or a suburb of one.

R187, I had never seen that commercial before either, so assumed it was new. I thought the product looked interesting.

Here is the commercial:

This episode always stood out for me...

Thanks R194!

R195, I loved that episode, especially when Eddie and his pals were heckling poor Beaver in the teacup.

I don't think he had anything nearly as successful after LITB. Imagine your most famous years all happening before you were old enough to drive. At least he survived it though and seems to be ok with it. A lot of former child stars crash and burn.