The "Leave it to Beaver" house tour

This throwback to old school order makes MY BEAVER tingle.

I’d want to see June’s clutch pearl collection.

I love this! Thanks OP.

The Cleavers had two houses--right?

I'm issuing her a citation for the title page of the video.

R4 Yes. This tour is of the house that they had from season 3 until the end of the series.

She finds secret doors and closets that couldn’t possible exist, but doesn’t say anything about the lack of toilets in those bathrooms.

[quote] She finds secret doors and closets that couldn’t possible exist, but doesn’t say anything about the lack of toilets in those bathrooms.

I guess you don't get it. She is showing us what the series showed on the set. The series showed doors and closets, so she shows them (but mentions if something couldn't have possibly existed the way it was shown). She does not show toilets because the series did not show toilets.

I think it showed a toilet in the episode where Beaver bought a baby alligator. He stowed it in the toilet tank.

How did you bitches miss The Mary Tyler Moore home tour?

I can't wait to see Danny Thomas' glass table in Make Boom for Daddy.

Her voice is crazy making.

June, with a name like 'Cleaver', you could have really kept those boys in line. What a failure you were!

I would take the tour if could be assured that, when I got to Wally's bedroom, he would be lying down on his bed naked and hard.

No tv!

Such a lovely entrance hall—pretty big if there is room for two chairs to flank the front door. And I love the French doors leading out to the patio from the dining room.

That was in the first house, R9. The second house apparently had no toilets.

[quote] I guess you don't get it. She is showing us what the series showed on the set.

And yet she adds a downstairs bathroom where none was ever shown. I wonder if that one had toilet?

[quote] And yet she adds a downstairs bathroom where none was ever shown. I wonder if that one had toilet?

No, she didn't. She merely mentioned that there would be room for half-bath under the stairs.

That's quite the Beaver pad.

I'd love to have that house.

Yes...they had two houses. I think this house is the second one. I liked the first house, too. It seemed to be older and I liked the kitchen better.

I loved this show's second house. I also thought that it was pretty cool for a TV sitcom to do something like that where the family moves into a new home. LITB was cool in that way, it noticed the "little" things and memories that happened in real kids' childhoods and featured those experiences in its storylines and series development.

[quote] I also thought that it was pretty cool for a TV sitcom to do something like that where the family moves into a new home.

They had to. The series changed studios and so needed a new set.

I think the second house was just a beautiful house for a family.

My god. Even among you ancient ass bitches there arent but a handful that even remember this wretched show existed.

[quote] My god. Even among you ancient ass bitches there arent but a handful that even remember this wretched show existed.

Why wretched? The writing was very good and very funny.

The Cleavers never used paper napkins.

But June used sanitary napkins.

Unless we got to see Ward Cleaver with his naked hairy body, there was no need to show us their bathroom.

The same house was on Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives.

[quote] The same house was on Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives.

Not the same house from the original LITB series. That original house still sits in a deserted part of a studio backlot.

The house was recreated for the LITB series ("Still the Beaver" I think it was called?). The house looks similar, but if you look at both, you will note that the house used in the original series is considerably larger (longer). The house rebuilt for the later series was used on Desperate Housewives and can be seen on the Universal tour.

Who wouldn't want a June Cleaver cleaning and cooking looking so perfect and pretty? I loved how she always changed into a nicer dress for when Ward returned home from work. If you watch any episode, you'll see that June is in a day dress at breakfast. She still looks fantastic but it's a simple type of dress. When Ward returns home, maybe even when the boys return home, she is in another dress that is a bit dressier looking. I love that attentiveness to wanting the evening meal, served in the dining room with different china than that used at breakfast and lunch, is important. We've lost that sense of the art of daily living.

This house was also used on the "Marcus Welby, MD" set. Was the interior similar?

[quote] This house was also used on the "Marcus Welby, MD" set. Was the interior similar?

I'm not sure. I don't think so. I believe they just adapted the outside of the house. But I'm not certain.

Aaah! All hail to the other Beaver Hausen (where the Beaver lived).

R31 yeah, I remember taking the old Universal Studios tour as a kid, and the Leave it to Beaver house was just a facade on a fake street with a bunch of other house facades. And the rooms were just parts of an indoor studio. That's why this thread confused me, I'm like, "what are they talking about? The Leave it to Beaver house doesn't really exist!"

R31, you are right. There is a studio backlot called "Colonial Street" and it is outdoors with real streets and real trees, etc. Cars can drive around. All the houses in the fake neighborhood look totally real (the Munsters house is there—in fact, I think that was used as Larry Mondello's house in LITB—the Bewitched house is there, the I Dream of Jeannie House is there, etc). This "neighborhood" was used for situation comedies and movies when a suburban neighborhood was needed. However, the houses are just facades. The interior shots were done on a soundstage. And, back then, they were attentive to the interior of the house matching the exterior. In other words, the windows are in the right places (Ward's den has a bay window and you can see the bay window on the exterior shots of the house). And because these shows were not filmed in front of an audience, they could set them up to look like real houses inside. Think about the LITB house with hallways, separate rooms, a realistic kitchen...this is very different from watching The Cosby Show or Roseanne, etc. where all the rooms have to be laid out in such a way as to make it visible to the studio audience. This is why front doors always open right into a living room.

So, the LITB house exists in terms of the outside facade. The indoor sets were in a soundstage. They filmed outside scenes on the backlot in the "Colonial Street" neighborhood where there were also "buildings" that could be used for a fire station, schools, libraries, etc. All inside scenes were filmed on soundstages.

Now, the original LITB house (the second one they used in the series) is looking derelict and is in some old corner of the backlot. They recreated it for the new LITB series and it was also used for Desperate Housewives. It's the house you see when you go on the Universal tour. This is presented as the LITB house, but it is NOT. You can easily look on line and see the two and you will note that the newer version is smaller and less gracious.

Does this clear anything up?

Here is the original house. Large and gracious.

Here's what the original house looks like presently.

And here's the recreated house (considerably smaller) that is shown on the Universal Tour and was used in Desperate Housewives.

This interesting photo show how they recreated the house for that terrible show "Still the Beaver."

The house was built in a soundstage rather than on a backlot. They didn't even build it all the way (you'll see that it stops right above the second story window boxes).

I still enjoy this show, at least up until season five. When Jerry Mathers' voice became deeper than Wally's, it made him seem mentally challenged that he was still getting into "goofy little kid" trouble.

A highlight for me was always Ward and June reacting to fulsome Eddie with undisguised loathing.

Eddie, RIP

Interesting that the kitchen featured an island, so popular now but back then, eat-in kitchens had the table in the center. Also the boys had their own bathroom and both bathrooms had double sinks, also not common then. Might have been due to filming logistics.

The mystery upstairs room that is possibly a guest room would also need a bathroom.

I enjoyed this.

"looks like presently"

Oh, dear!

[quote] Interesting that the kitchen featured an island, so popular now but back then, eat-in kitchens had the table in the center. Also the boys had their own bathroom and both bathrooms had double sinks, also not common then. Might have been due to filming logistics. The mystery upstairs room that is possibly a guest room would also need a bathroom. I enjoyed this.

I'm glad you did! Yes, I agree...the kitchen was very modern for 1959, with a double wall oven and an island with a push button operated stove. Of course, there was also a Black mammy cookie jar on one of the kitchen counters.

[quote] "looks like presently" Oh, dear!

What are you "Oh dearing?"

^^ The primary meaning of "presently" is 'soon,' 'momentarily.'

[quote] The primary meaning of "presently" is 'soon,' 'momentarily.'

Yes, the primary meaning. Are you so opposed to secondary meanings?

And—'momentarily' does not mean soon. Momentarily means "for a moment" NOT "in a moment" (briefly but not soon). When someone says, "I'l be with you momentarily" they are really saying, "I'll be with you, but I can only speak with you for a moment."

I have heard sticklers joke about flight attendants saying “We'll be on the ground momentarily” which means the flight will just touch down and take off again because “momentarily” should mean “for a moment,” not “in a moment,

R37 Greg, while you’re correct about the facades, Bewitched and Jeannie were filmed at Warner Brothers (Former Screen Gems/Columbia lot). Gidget, Hazel, and the Partridge family were filmed there as well. Beaver was filmed at Republic and then Universal.

Thanks for letting us know about 'momentarily.' I will never misuse it again!

June has a mammy cookie jar in the kitchen?

That was quite pleasant, a nostalgic walk back in time.

[quote] That was quite pleasant, a nostalgic walk back in time.

My fantasy is to get an architect, have a house designed to match the Cleaver house but include another bedroom and a family room without altering the rooms of the house. I think it would be a wonderful home.

R54 Do it! Will you have us over for bridge when it's finished?

I'd be happy just to have †he kitchen layout.

[quote] I'd be happy just to have †he kitchen layout.

What do you like about the kitchen?

R56 The spaciousness, the fact that there's ample room for more than one person to work or circulate around (not that June ever needed help, but I like it sometimes), the island, the ample cabinetry, it's designed smartly so there are few steps from the sink to the stove or the workspace to the oven, the fact that it's eat-in and has a handy adjacent laundry....I mean, what's NOT to like?

Do they indicate specifically in which rooms Ward was rough on The Beaver?