97 Fun Facts About Leave it to Beaver

What is Beaver Cleaver's real first name?

Theodore became 'Beaver', the show explains, because his brother mangled the name as a small boy and their parents reshaped his version into the nickname.

In what fictional town do the Cleavers live?

Mayfield is never placed in any state. When filming switched from Republic to Universal after two seasons, the Cleavers moved too, into a bigger house elsewhere in town.

What set Leave It to Beaver apart from earlier family sitcoms such as Father Knows Best?

It took the kids' viewpoint: the writers drew plots and dialogue from their own children, and Barbara Billingsley said the Cleavers were ideal parents because that is how a child saw them.

Besides acting, what else was Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward Cleaver?

A Methodist lay minister, Hugh Beaumont earned a master's degree in theology in 1946 and became Ward only when the part was recast after the pilot.

Which actor played Wally Cleaver?

Tony Dow played the Cleavers' older son for the full 1957-63 run; a Junior Olympics diving champion, he won the part with almost no acting experience.

Which two-faced friend of Wally's is polite to adults and a wise guy to everyone else?

Eddie Haskell is the smarmy pal who flatters the Cleaver parents and needles everyone else; the name became American shorthand for an insincere charmer.

What is the real first name of Wally's oversized pal 'Lumpy' Rutherford?

Clarence is Lumpy's given name; Frank Bank, who played the lovable bully, later gave up acting and became a broker in Los Angeles.

On which network did Leave It to Beaver premiere in October 1957, only to be dropped after one season?

CBS launched Leave It to Beaver on October 4, 1957, and dropped it after a single season; ABC picked it up and ran it for five more years.

Before Leave It to Beaver, its creators spent years writing for which hit radio comedy?

Amos 'n' Andy was their long-running job; for Beaver they turned to their own families, with Joe Connelly noting down what his children said and did to use in scripts.

After Leave It to Beaver, creators Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher went on to produce which 1960s sitcom?

The Munsters followed in 1964: the pair produced it as a send-up of the wholesome suburban families that shows like their own had made a TV staple.

What was the title of Leave It to Beaver's 1957 pilot episode?

'It's a Small World' aired once in April 1957 on an anthology series, when the project was still called 'Wally and the Beaver' and another actor played Ward; he was recast before the series began.

Richard Deacon, who played Lumpy's pompous father Fred Rutherford, was also producer Mel Cooley on which sitcom?

The Dick Van Dyke Show cast him as Mel Cooley from 1961, so for a couple of years he was playing pompous men on two sitcoms at once.

In the taboo-breaking toilet episode 'Captain Jack', what had the boys hidden in the tank?

An alligator, a mail-order baby one the boys kept in the toilet tank, was the hidden pet; network censors allowed the tank on screen but never the bowl.

What was the Cleavers' new address after they moved house in Leave It to Beaver's third season?

211 Pine Street was home from the third season on; the house front, on Universal's backlot, had been built for the 1955 Humphrey Bogart thriller The Desperate Hours.

What is the title of Leave It to Beaver's theme music?

The Toy Parade is the bouncy march heard over the titles; for the final season, arranger Pete Rugolo gave it a jazzier treatment.

Why did Barbara Billingsley wear pearls as June Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver?

To hide a hollow in her neck, Barbara Billingsley said, she wore pearls on camera; she later added high heels as her on-screen sons grew taller than her.

How did Leave It to Beaver fare in the Nielsen ratings?

It never broke into the top 30 in any of its six seasons; its big following came later, when reruns found a new audience in syndication.

What is the job of Gus, the elderly friend Beaver likes to visit?

Fireman: Gus was played by Burt Mustin, who had spent most of his working life as a salesman and only turned professional actor at 67.

Which of Beaver's friends is always seen munching an apple in the early seasons?

Larry Mondello, played by Rusty Stevens, is the plump pal forever munching an apple; he disappeared from the show partway through the run, after which Gilbert Bates became Beaver's chief sidekick.

Which classmate is Beaver's nemesis at school?

Judy Hensler, played by Jeri Weil, is the tattletale who loves getting Beaver into trouble; after she leaves the show in the fourth season, Penny Woods takes over as his rival.

Which teacher, played by Sue Randall, taught Beaver from the second season on?

Miss Landers replaced Miss Canfield in 1958; Beaver grows so fond of her that in a later episode he falls sick on learning she is engaged.

What do the Cleavers do in Leave It to Beaver's final episode?

Look through a scrapbook: the 1963 finale replays scenes from earlier episodes as they turn the pages, and Beaver hears how he got his nickname.

At his Leave It to Beaver audition, where did young Jerry Mathers say he would rather be?

At his Cub Scout meeting, he told them, which was where he was heading next; the producers found that honesty just right for Beaver and gave him the part.

Before Beaver, Jerry Mathers appeared as a boy who finds a body in which Alfred Hitchcock film?

The Trouble with Harry (1955) opens with Mathers's character stumbling on Harry's body in the woods; the villagers then spend the film burying it and digging it up again.

A persistent 1960s rumor claimed Jerry Mathers had been killed where?

In Vietnam, the rumor ran; Mathers had been seen in uniform presenting an Emmy in 1967, but he served only in the United States and never saw combat.

In 2007 Jerry Mathers made his Broadway debut as Wilbur Turnblad in which musical?

Hairspray cast him opposite Edna, the wife and mother the show traditionally gives to a man in a dress, a custom kept from the original film; Mathers was nearly sixty, fifty years on from his first Beaver episode.

What career did Ken Osmond take up after being typecast by his role as Wally's smarmy friend?

Police officer was his second career: Ken Osmond joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1970, and in 1980 he was shot on duty, two bullets stopped by his vest and a third ricocheting off his belt buckle.

A widely reported 1970s rumor claimed Ken Osmond had grown up to become which rock star?

Alice Cooper started it himself: describing what he was like as a kid, he compared himself to Osmond's obnoxious character, and some people took him literally.

Stephen Talbot, who played Beaver's pal Gilbert, left acting for which career?

Documentary filmmaker: Talbot made films for the PBS series Frontline and, by his own account, turned down the 1980s Beaver revival, telling its producers he couldn't go back to being Gilbert.

Which sci-fi series did the actor who played Beaver's older brother later direct episodes of?

Babylon 5 was one of several 1990s series he directed, along with Coach and Harry and the Hendersons; he had already directed five episodes of the Beaver revival he starred in.

Which art form did Beaver's on-screen brother exhibit at the Carrousel du Louvre in 2008?

Sculpture was his medium: his bronze 'Unarmed Warrior' was picked for the 2008 salon at the Carrousel du Louvre, by organisers who, he suspected, knew nothing about his television fame.

In the 1980 film Airplane!, the actress who played June plays a passenger who can speak what?

Jive is what her prim older passenger turns out to speak fluently, stepping in to translate for two jive-talking passengers in Airplane! (1980).

From 1984 to 1991 the actress who played June voiced Nanny on which animated series?

Muppet Babies had Barbara Billingsley voice Nanny, whose face is never shown, because the series looks at grown-ups from a baby's height.

Which second career did the actor who played Ward Cleaver take up in Minnesota?

Christmas-tree farmer: Hugh Beaumont owned a tree farm at Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and after a stroke in 1970 he did little more acting.

What was the 1983 reunion TV movie that launched the Leave It to Beaver revival called?

Still the Beaver aired in March 1983 and reunited the surviving cast; Hugh Beaumont had died the year before, so June is written as a widow.

Which future Stand by Me star played Beaver's elder son in the 1983 reunion TV movie?

Corey Feldman played the boy, then also called Corey; when the movie became a weekly series the character was renamed Kip and handed to another young actor.

The New Leave It to Beaver began on the Disney Channel and moved to which channel until 1989?

TBS, where reruns of the original series were already a ratings success, picked up the revival in 1986 and ran it until 1989.

Who played Ward Cleaver in the 1997 Leave It to Beaver feature film?

Christopher McDonald played Ward opposite Janine Turner's June, while Barbara Billingsley, the original June, turned up in a cameo as Aunt Martha.

Which future star of This Is Spinal Tap played a scheming neighborhood kid in the 1957 Leave It to Beaver pilot?

Harry Shearer was the child actor who played troublemaker Frankie; his parents did not want him tied to a weekly series, so the part was rewritten and recast once the show sold.

Before its 1997 Leave It to Beaver film opened, what had Universal signed the cast to make?

Two sequels were written into the stars' contracts, but the film took about $11 million against a $15 million budget and neither was made.

In the Leave It to Beaver pilot, what do the boys collect 1,000 of, hoping to trade them for a bicycle?

Bottle caps: a local schemer tells them a dairy will swap a thousand for a bike, the dairy has never heard of the offer, and Ward ends up buying the bicycle himself.

What is the name of the grammar school Beaver attends?

Grant Avenue Grammar School keeps Beaver from second grade right up to the final season, when he graduates in the same year his brother finishes high school.

Majel Barrett, seen in Leave It to Beaver as Lumpy's mother, became a fixture of which science-fiction franchise?

Star Trek made her Nurse Chapel and the voice of the Enterprise computer, and she married its creator, Gene Roddenberry, in 1969.

Which children's author wrote three novels based on Leave It to Beaver, starting in 1960?

Beverly Cleary, already known for Henry Huggins and Ramona, turned out the three tie-in paperbacks in 1960 and 1961 while still publishing her own children's books.

The Universal backlot street where the Cleavers lived from season three later became which TV street?

Wisteria Lane, home of Desperate Housewives, was filmed on the same Colonial Street set from 2004 to 2012, and a copy of the Cleaver house built for the 1997 film stands on it.

Which adult-film actor was falsely rumoured to be the grown-up Ken Osmond?

John Holmes was the name the rumor attached to him; when Holmes's films were sold with the name of Osmond's character on them, Osmond sued, and the courts ruled against him.

After Leave It to Beaver and college, what job did Jerry Mathers hold before returning to acting?

Bank officer: after studying philosophy at Berkeley he spent two years at a San Fernando Valley bank, glad of the experience, he said, so that he would not look like 'some flaky actor'.

Which vegetable does Beaver refuse to eat, nearly costing him a family trip to a pro football game?

Brussels sprouts caused the standoff, and when the family reached a restaurant the vegetable of the day turned out to be the very same thing.

What does Beaver fall into after his friend Whitey dares him to climb an advertising billboard?

A giant cup of soup trapped Beaver until the fire department came, in what Jerry Mathers's memoir calls the most expensively produced episode of the series.

Which feature does Beaver attack with sandpaper after Wally's pal Lumpy makes fun of his face?

His freckles survived the sandpaper, and Beaver came to dinner in June's make-up before a freckled boy convinced him they got a fellow noticed.

What does Beaver win in a hospital raffle, only for Ward to insist it be sold?

A sports car worth $3,500 was the prize, and Beaver gave his father the silent treatment when Ward ruled the money must go into savings.

Which imaginary device is Beaver hunting for when he gets locked inside the principal's office?

A spanking machine was a classmate's tall tale, and Beaver escaped only by pulling the alarm, earning a ride home on a fire truck.

What does Beaver's pal first try smoking in Ward's ornate meerschaum pipe, a gift from Germany?

Coffee grounds went into the bowl first and cigarette ashes the next day, and the stained pipe had Ward accusing Wally until Beaver owned up.

Why did Leave It to Beaver stop production in 1963 after six seasons and 234 episodes?

Its star began high school: Jerry Mathers retired from acting to start his freshman year, and the rest of the cast were ready to move on too.

Beaver Cleaver's nickname was borrowed from which real person in co-creator Joe Connelly's past?

A wartime shipmate of Connelly's in the merchant marine answered to Beaver, and the writers only invented an on-screen origin for the name in the finale.

In which country was Leave It to Beaver shown under a title meaning The Happy Boy and His Family?

Japan knew the series as The Happy Boy and His Family, and Jerry Mathers has said travellers in its airports hailed him by that name.

Which classic novel does Beaver try to report on after watching a comedy film version on television?

The Three Musketeers proved too long, so Beaver described a Ritz Brothers musical farce instead and was handed two extra book reports.

Which star pitcher do Beaver and his friends phone long-distance, running up a hefty bill?

Don Drysdale played himself, and the bill swelled because the boys had to hold the line while he got out of the shower.

Which keepsake of Ward's is crushed by a truck after Beaver's friend talks him into playing with it?

An autographed baseball bearing Babe Ruth's and Lou Gehrig's names was flattened, and the boys tried to pass off a 25-cent ball signed with mangled names.

In Leave It to Beaver's first aired episode, a teacher's note asks Beaver to play which character?

Smokey Bear was the part on offer in a school pageant, but Beaver assumed the note meant he was being expelled and forged a reply from his mother.

Beaver covers his home-made haircut with a hat at dinner, claiming the headgear is part of what?

A secret club initiation was the brothers' cover story for the knitted hats they wore at the table, until Ward and June peeked under Beaver's as he slept.

What do Wally and Beaver sell door to door in the hope of winning a movie projector?

Perfume called Flower of the Orient was the product, and it sold only after Ward quietly offered to reimburse the ladies in June's social circle.

What does Beaver get rich selling to Wally and his friends while they do chores for team uniforms?

Water became precious the afternoon workmen turned off the supply, and Beaver later handed over his takings so the team could sell candles in a power cut.

What are Beaver and Wally given instead of the pay they were promised for carnival chores?

An old circus horse named Nick moved into the Cleaver garage until a health official threatened a fine and Ward found him a farm.

What kind of animal is Stanley, the pet that wrecks June's luncheon party before running away?

A monkey was offered free in an ad at the market, and after he caught pneumonia in the cold Ward had him placed in the zoo's monkey exhibit, where he recognised Beaver.

Beaver is tricked into insulting his new friend Chuey, who can speak only which language?

Spanish was all Chuey spoke, so Beaver asked Wally's wise-guy pal for a friendly phrase and was taught an insult that sent the boy home in tears.

Which costume is Beaver wearing when a flat tire forces him to walk to his school pageant?

A bunny rabbit suit left Beaver dodging passers-by and chased by dogs until he phoned for help from a call box and reached the stage just in time.

The actors who played Lumpy's father and little sister both appeared in which Hitchcock thriller?

The Birds cast Veronica Cartwright, who took over as Violet, alongside her television father Richard Deacon, though the two never shared a scene.

Rich Correll, who played Beaver's friend Richard, later co-created which Disney Channel hit?

Hannah Montana was co-created by Correll, who became a busy sitcom director and, as a student, helped silent star Harold Lloyd archive his films.

Madge Blake, mother of Beaver's apple-munching pal, later played Aunt Harriet on which 1960s series?

Batman kept Blake as Aunt Harriet for 96 episodes, a late-blooming career for a woman who did not begin studying acting until she was 50.

Edgar Buchanan, Ward's globe-trotting Uncle Billy, was better known as Uncle Joe on which sitcom?

Petticoat Junction made Buchanan a household face, a long way from the dental practice he ran before Hollywood signed him at 36.

Cheryl Holdridge, one of Wally's girlfriends, first found fame on which children's television show?

The Mickey Mouse Club hired Holdridge for its second season, and she later played Wally's steady girl Julie Foster.

The actor who played Wally Cleaver was a Junior Olympics champion in which sport as a boy?

Diving and swimming filled his boyhood, and he landed the part of Wally at an open casting call with only two pilots behind him.

In which comedy film did the actor who played Wally Cleaver spoof the role in a courtroom sketch?

The Kentucky Fried Movie put a grown-up Wally in the jury box beside a Beaver played by Jerry Zucker, one of the film's writers.

Why did Barbara Billingsley start wearing high heels as June in Leave It to Beaver's later seasons?

Her TV sons outgrew her, so heels restored a mother's height over two fast-growing boys; off screen she was the mother of two sons herself.

For its sixth and final season, Leave It to Beaver's theme tune was rearranged in which style?

Jazz flavoured the last season's theme, arranged by Pete Rugolo, who had made his name writing for Stan Kenton's band.

In Leave It to Beaver's first-season opening titles, the credits appear to be written in what?

Wet concrete carried the credits in an overhead drawing, and the cast did not appear in the titles at all until the second season.

Which network picked up Leave It to Beaver for its second season and kept it until 1963?

ABC took the series in October 1958 and kept it for five more seasons; between its two networks the show moved through four evening time slots.

From 1969 the Cleaver house on the Universal lot became the home of which television doctor?

Marcus Welby moved in for Marcus Welby, M.D., and the original façade was replaced in 1988 for the Tom Hanks comedy The 'Burbs.

Where did the Cleaver family live during the first two seasons of Leave It to Beaver?

Mapleton Drive was home until the third season, and Beaver later sneaked back with a friend to dig up the birthday sapling he had left behind.

What was June Cleaver's surname before she married Ward, a name she kept as a middle name?

Bronson was the family name, and an elderly relative of June's liked to remind everyone of the proud Bronson lineage.

At boarding school, the young June Cleaver was captain of the team in which sport?

Basketball was June's game at boarding school, part of a comfortable upbringing the series contrasts with Ward's boyhood as a farmer's son.

Ward Cleaver majored in which subject at State, the one Jerry Mathers later studied at Berkeley?

Philosophy links the two: it was Ward's major on screen, and Mathers took a Bachelor of Arts in the subject at Berkeley in 1973.

Ward Cleaver is a veteran of the Second World War, having served as a surveyor in which outfit?

The Seabees were Ward's outfit in the war, which fits a father shown fixing squeaky doors and repairing appliance plugs around the house.

After Chrysler became a sponsor, the Cleavers' family Ford gave way to which make of car?

Plymouth supplied the family car from the third season on, with the Cleavers driving a Belvedere or a Fury.

In the 1997 Leave It to Beaver film, Barbara Billingsley returned in a cameo as which relative?

Aunt Martha was the relative who put Beaver in a short-pants suit in the original series, and the cameo was Billingsley's last film role.

Under which working title was Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher's Cleaver family comedy first proposed?

Wally and the Beaver was the proposed name for a pilot that later went missing, only to turn up in a film vault in Illinois.

What is the grown-up Wally Cleaver's profession in the 1980s revival The New Leave It to Beaver?

Lawyer Wally lives next door to his widowed mother with his wife and daughter, and offers to fight for custody of Beaver's two boys.

Which of his high-school girlfriends has Wally Cleaver married by the time of the 1980s revival?

Mary Ellen Rogers, who once befriended Beaver just to wangle a dance date with his brother, became Wally's wife and the mother of his children.

Which public office does the widowed June Cleaver hold in The New Leave It to Beaver?

City councilwoman June shares the old family house with Beaver and his boys, while Wally and his family live next door.

In The New Leave It to Beaver, Beaver's ex-wife Kimberly leaves for Italy to train for which career?

Veterinarian was Kimberly's dream, and the only school that would take her was in Italy, so the boys stayed with Beaver in his mother's house.

Which St. Elsewhere actor played grown-up Whitey in the 1983 Leave It to Beaver reunion movie?

Ed Begley Jr. took over Whitey from Stanley Fafara, the original, in a film dedicated to the memory of Hugh Beaumont.

Which of Beaver's old teachers is the school principal in the 1983 Leave It to Beaver reunion movie?

Miss Canfield, Beaver's second-grade teacher and first classroom crush, runs the school in the film, with Diane Brewster back in the part.

In The New Leave It to Beaver, who played the children of Ken Osmond's character?

His own two sons, Eric and Christian, played Freddie and Bomber, boys written to be every bit as scheming as their father.

Ken Osmond's smarmy character on Leave It to Beaver was originally intended as what kind of role?

A one-off guest part was the plan, but Osmond's performance impressed the producers and the character stayed for all six seasons.

Which leading critic broke ranks to give the 1997 Leave It to Beaver film three stars?

Roger Ebert admitted he was won over by the film's simple, sweet story, while most reviewers panned it and it failed at the box office.

Which Northern Exposure actress played June Cleaver in the 1997 Leave It to Beaver film?

Janine Turner followed her Cliffhanger role with June Cleaver, in a film whose Beaver was chosen from some 5,000 hopefuls.