Eddie Was Right...Mrs. Cleaver IS Lovely

Wearing her ever-present pearl necklace, June, Ward, Wally and Beaver Cleaver are all back.  The entire 234 episode, 37-disk set of the iconic television series "Leave It to Beaver" is now available for you to own.  I've seen the package offered on a few websites for a price somewhere north of a hundred bucks.  That's not bad when you think about it.  After all, this was a series that featured kids who actually talked and acted like kids.  There was never a doubt in your mind that the Beav and his pals weren't just like the rest of us boomers.  You know, worried about looking stupid, messing up around grown-ups, and not getting your share of cookies.  The writers, Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher had eight kids between them and I think that had a lot to do with there never being a false note in the dialog.

 In my radio days I was lucky enough to have interviewed three of the Beaver cast:  Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow and Barbara Billingsley and they all gave lots of credit for the show's success to Connelly and Mosher.  Of the three, hands down the most charming and entertaining was Billingsley.  She kept my old radio partner, Cynthia Heath Kerrigan, and me laughing for over an hour with her tales of life on and off the set of the show.  We learned that Hugh Beaumont who played Ward was known to enjoy an occasional adult beverage and would sometimes wind up spending the night sleeping in the backroom of Billingsley's family restaurant which was run by her son.  She also filled us in on the little known fact that Perer Billingsley, Ralphie in the movie "Christmas Story", is her grandson and that Frank Bank (aka Lumpy Rutherford) is her present day stock broker.  When asked who among the old Beaver cast was the best actor she didn't hesitate to name Ken Osmond.  "Ken was nothing like Eddie, he is a very very nice fellow," she professed.  Osmond, by the way, became a cop and was wounded in the line of duty.  He retired from the L.A. PD several years ago.

The most memorable funny story the former Mrs. Cleaver remembered from the days the series was in production, (1957-63), was the one about "the falling down horse".  That's what she called it.  It seems that there was an episode, maybe you remember it, where Beaver brings home a pony and ties the animal  to a stake in the Cleaver backyard.  Well, there was a scene where the family is having dinner, June in her pearls and Ward still wearing a coat and tie, and they are discussing what Beaver is going to have to do about the pony.  During the filming the director kept having to stop the action because the real live pony was making too much noise outside the dining room window.  As the shoot dragged on it was decided by the producer that a tranquilizer should be administered to the pony to calm the critter down.  All was well until sometime well into the umpteenth take the pony crashed very loudly into the scenery as he tipped over "out cold"and began to snore very loudly.  The pony was fine, but that ended the day's shoot when the cast and crew couldn't stop laughing.

Barbara Billingsley was, and I'm sure still is, delightful and the show is one of the true touchstones of American television history. 

As I reach for my credit card and head for Amazon to order my complete set of "Leave It to Beaver" I can only wonder...WHY aren't they making shows like that anymore?