50 Fun Facts About Leave it to Beaver

What is Beaver Cleaver's real first name?

The show's official explanation is that baby Wally mispronounced it as 'Tweedor', which became 'Beaver'.

In what fictional town do the Cleavers live?

The state is never named, though the boys' schools, Grant Avenue Grammar and Mayfield High, get regular mentions.

Barbara Billingsley played which member of the family?

She later became famous all over again as the jive-talking passenger in Airplane! and voiced Nanny on Muppet Babies.

What was Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward, off screen when he was not acting?

He also directed several episodes himself, including the series finale.

Which actor played Wally Cleaver?

He landed the part at an open casting call with almost no experience, having been a Junior Olympics diving champion.

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

The name has entered the language as shorthand for that exact kind of insincere charmer.

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

Frank Bank played him, and Richard Deacon played his pompous father Fred, Ward's co-worker.

On which network did the show premiere in October 1957, before being dropped after one season?

ABC picked it up the following autumn and ran it for five more years, through June 1963.

How many episodes of the original series were made after the pilot?

Season one alone had 39 episodes, a schedule no network sitcom would attempt today.

Who created the series?

Jerry Mathers has said the nickname 'Beaver' actually came from a shipmate of Connelly's, not from Wally's baby talk.

What was the title of the 1957 pilot episode?

In it the boys collect 1,000 bottle caps hoping to trade them for a bicycle; a different actor played Ward and Wally.

Which future Beaver character was played by a different actor, Paul Sullivan, in the pilot?

Ward was also recast; Max Showalter, billed as Casey Adams, played him in the pilot before Hugh Beaumont took over.

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

Censors would only allow the tank, not the bowl; Mathers says it set a precedent for the industry.

The Cleavers moved house at the start of season three. What was their new address?

The first two seasons were set at 485 Mapleton Drive; both houses are in Mayfield.

What is the title of the show's theme music?

It was composed by David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard and Mort Greene, with Pete Rugolo scoring most of the run.

Why did the actress who played June start wearing her trademark pearl necklace on the show?

She later added high heels for a similar practical reason: her on-screen sons kept growing taller.

How well did the show do in the Nielsen ratings during its original six-season run?

Reruns did the heavy lifting: TV Land, MeTV, Antenna TV and FETV have all carried it since 1998.

In the first season, how old was Beaver and what year of school was he in?

Wally was 12 and in eighth grade, and the boys aged in real time across the run.

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

Rusty Stevens played him; Gilbert Bates took over as Beaver's chief sidekick in later seasons.

Which classmate is Beaver's nemesis at school?

Jeri Weil played the tattletale; Julie Foster, by contrast, was one of Wally's girlfriends.

Which of these actresses played Beaver's teacher Miss Landers?

Diane Brewster was the earlier teacher, Miss Canfield, in season one.

How many sports does Wally letter in at high school?

He graduated from Grant Avenue Grammar School in season one before moving up to Mayfield High.

What was the title of the final episode, broadcast on June 20, 1963?

Hugh Beaumont directed it himself, one of several episodes he helmed from season three onward.

What did young Jerry Mathers wear to his audition, saying he'd rather be at his den meeting?

The honesty got him the part; he was later the first child actor to receive a share of a show's merchandising revenue.

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

He played Arnie, son of Shirley MacLaine's character, in the 1955 black comedy.

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

Wire services confused him with a Sgt. Steven Mathers killed in 1968; the actor served in the Air National Guard and never left the country.

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

He was 59 at the time, half a century after first playing Beaver.

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

He was shot on duty in 1980; two bullets hit his vest and a third ricocheted off his belt buckle.

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

Another urban legend had him becoming adult-film actor John Holmes; both were false.

In The New Leave It to Beaver, who played the two boys of Wally's slick old friend Eddie?

Freddie and Edward 'Bomber' Haskell Jr. were played by the actor's own boys.

Tony Dow later became a director. Which of these sci-fi series did he direct episodes of?

He also directed Coach, Get a Life, Harry and the Hendersons and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In 2008 Tony Dow exhibited his work at the Carrousel du Louvre. What kind of art was it?

He was one of three sculptors selected for the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts show.

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

Her final film role was Aunt Martha in the 1997 big-screen Leave It to Beaver.

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

Nanny is only ever seen from the knees down, so the voice did all the work.

In the late 1940s the actor who played Ward starred in five films as which private detective?

After a 1970 stroke he retired to a second career as a Christmas-tree farmer in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

What second career did Ward's actor take up after leaving show business?

He died of a heart attack in 1982 while visiting his son in Munich.

The cast reunited for a 1983 TV movie that launched the revival series. What was it called?

Every original principal returned except Hugh Beaumont, who had died the previous year; June is a widow in the story.

In the 1980s revival, the grown-up Beaver is divorced and living with June and his two sons. What are they called?

Wally lives next door with his wife Mary Ellen, and Beaver and Lumpy run Ward's old firm.

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

It managed 101 episodes plus the four-part reunion movie, not far short of half the original's run.

Who played Ward in the 1997 feature film?

Janine Turner played June, and the plot again turns on Beaver's longing for a bicycle, just like the 1957 pilot.

Who directed the 1997 feature film version, released by Universal?

Adam Zolotin played Eddie Jr., Ken Osmond cameoed as his father, and Barbara Billingsley turned up as Aunt Martha.

Roughly how much did the 1997 film gross in North America, against a $15M budget?

Universal released it in late August 1997, and it disappeared quickly.

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

They believe the Franklin Milk Company will redeem them; it does not go to plan.

Which cable channel began airing the reruns in July 1998, kicking off a new generation of viewers?

MeTV followed in 2013, Antenna TV in 2015 and FETV in 2021.

What is the name of the grammar school Beaver attends?

Wally moves on from there to Mayfield High School after season one.

Who played Ward Cleaver in the 1957 pilot, credited as Casey Adams?

The pilot, 'It's a Small World', aired on April 23, 1957.

Which children's author wrote three novels based on the show, starting in 1960?

The titles were Leave It to Beaver, Here's Beaver! and Beaver and Wally, all from Berkley.

Which later Universal series reused the Cleavers' house from 1969?

The façade was swapped in 1988 for The 'Burbs and again for the 1997 film.

Which adult-film actor was falsely rumoured to be Ken Osmond, who played Eddie Haskell?

Osmond's $25 million defamation suit went to the California Supreme Court, which ruled the name was protected satire.

Who gave the show's final-season theme a jazz-like arrangement?

The tune, 'The Toy Parade', was written by David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard and Mort Greene.