tupungato Citing Leave It To Beaver's strengths, Tony Dow has said that it was the first program of its kind to include episodes dealing with death and divorce. Though I don't doubt Tony Dow's claims about the show that continues to make him recognized, I have never considered Leave It To Beaver a daring sit-com that presents unpleasant and unsettling truths. I don't see it as the forerunner to the openly controversial comedies, such as Maude, The Jefferson's, and All In The Family. Leave It To Beaver has more in common with The Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best, and Make Room For Daddy, shows of the same era that also featured families, and made light of differences of opinion and miss-communication between husbands and wives and of the typical struggles between parents and their children, young people and their friends. Leave It To Beaver, however, does a better job than its rivals of presenting, in an entertaining way, middle-class living as many of that era had known it.Like the other popular television families of that era, the Cleavers resolve their problems promptly, Ward Cleaver disciplines reasonably -- the two boys express dread when they expect their father to holler when he comes to their bedroom to give consequences, but he never really loses control of his anger -- June Cleaver offers her opinion tactfully, and nobody behaves antisocially. The Cleavers have a functional family. They don't, however, come across as a model one. The other popular sitcoms of the 50's and early 60's either featured characters a little too refined or proper to make viewers easily forget that they are observing actors, or entertained by including buffoonery (Don Knotts, Lucille Ball, and Dick Van Dyke each engaged in the unlikely.). Leave It To Beaver, though, maintained a solid following by presenting predicaments and featuring characters that more closely resembled reality. The way the makers of Leave It To Beaver portray the most extreme of its cast may serve as the best criteria for rating the show above the others of that time. As the quintessential sycophant, Eddie Haskel keeps me laughing, but he also occasionally reveals fragility behind the phony, cocky exterior. Similarly, Lumpy usually amuses viewers by playing a common type: the insecure teen who teases and bullies his buddy's younger sibling. He puts on innocence, though, in the presence of his overbearing father. Because the audience sees other sides to Eddie and Lumpy -- Leave It To Beaver writers had the astuteness to include them - - they and the show come across as less fictional.

Matthew_Capitano The whole show here is the parents, Hugh "Cool Dude" Beaumont and Barbara "Hot Chick" Billingsley.Those two goofy little boys need to go swimming in the river and get caught in the propeller of the nearest speedboat. And that goes for all their reject friends that they keep inviting over to the house. Ward should have forbid them to enter the premises. I'd like to be the next door neighbor so when Ward was out of town, I could come over and spend some quality time with June. This was a very clean show and I have always thought of it as such and with the highest respect........ I wonder if Barbara wore panties?

edwinalarren Invariably, almost all of the prominent sitcom critics in Hollywood have rated "Leave it to Beaver" to be one of the all-time classic shows in the whole history of the small screen! Such praise is definitely not too difficult to fathom at all!! The Cleavers became American icons for fifties T.V.. Jerry Mathers was the stellar top draw as "The Beav". Tony Dow was the brother, Wally, Mr All American. Hugh Beaumont, played Ward Cleaver, the perfect husband and father. Last, but certainly not least, Barbara Billingsly assumed the part of June Cleaver, she was so stereotypical of the model wife and mother that many male television viewers would perennially say, "My wife is not perfect, it's not like she's June Clever or something." "Leave it to Beaver" was synonymous with an American utopia which embraced the kindred spirits of the vast majority of families nationwide! Jerry Mathers' role as "Beaver", made him the most popular kid in the United States! June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsly's character) was indicative of the ultimate housewife who became the antithesis of woman's liberation by being egregiously submissive and deferential to her husband, Ward. In reality, however, Barbara Billingsly herself was an integral part of the harbinger of events to follow that would fortify woman's liberation just by virtue of the fact that she was a working woman. In an interview with Barbara, she told a Philadelphia newspaper reporter that she actually never personally wore an apron in her private life ever!! The whole sitcom was predicated on the wiles and chicanery that Beaver engaged in. After the television audience witnessed all of Beaver's troublesome antics, many people who watched "Leave it to Beaver" garnered an enticing empathy for the typical family of the 1950's by attaching a tenet of moral imperatives to everything. In Beaver's own precocious way, he was able to think about his precarious experiences and learn from them. The show "Leave it to Beaver" is considered one of the best shows in the entire duration of television. I think that such an accolade is due to the fact that through this whole series, all Americans could be wide eyed, whimsical, yet very astute about socially acceptable ethics which guided our youth in the RIGHT direction!! I liked "Leave it to Beaver", and I think that the appreciation for this T.V. program is timeless!! By the way, despite some crazy rumors, I do not think Wally's friend, Eddie, was played by Alice Cooper!! "Leave it to Beaver" was spectacular for back then, it is still spectacular today!!

BumpyRide This show was consistently funny until *gasp* the kids got older and somehow they lost their funny bones. The true death knell for any show- puberty! Aside from that, Jerry Mathers was a very talented little kid that seems to have bypassed the "Diffrent Strokes" curse of many a child star. While Ward and June were a little plastic, the Beav and his friends, especially Lumpy and Judy were always a hoot to watch. This was one show that got it right when it came to kids. They acted and did things that kids do. They weren't perfect like "The Brady Bunch" yet they weren't bad either. Just normal kids doing kid things which led to hysterical results. A comedy that still holds up today.