Leave It to Beaver (1962)

 

As with the 1961 episodes for Leave It to Beaver, the episodes for 1962 centered on Beaver and Wally trying to adjust to the pressures of growing up and getting into trouble due to bad advice and unreasonable requests from "friends" like Eddie Haskell, Lumpy Rutherford, Gilbert Bates, and Richard Rickover. The hardest lesson for the Cleaver boys to learn is to just say "no" when they are asked or pressured to do something they know is wrong but end up doing anyway. While Wally has no trouble telling Beaver not to follow Eddie Haskell's advice, he is not always as successful doing it himself. In "Lumpy's Car Trouble" (March 31, 1962), Wally is supposed to ride in Lumpy's car to an out-of-town track meet with Beaver getting permission to go along and Eddie getting picked up as team manager, but on the day of the meet Lumpy's car won't run, and since Ward is not using his own car, having ridden to work with Lumpy's father Fred, Ward gets talked into letting Lumpy, who has already received his driver's license while Wally has not, drive the Cleaver car to the track meet. Despite Ward's stern instructions to Wally to have Lumpy only drive straight to the meet and back, Eddie and Lumpy decide to try a shortcut on the way back and wind up crashing through a large mud hole on an unpaved section of road, causing the car to die and requiring the boys to push it to the nearest service station. Though the boys have enough money between them to pay to get the car fixed and get it home without having to tell Ward what happened, he finds out about it anyway from a work colleague who just happened to drive past them while they were pushing the car to the service station. Ward tells Wally he will not get to use the car again for a long time but refuses to tell him how he found out about it so that he won't think he can figure out how to get away with things in the future. But the lesson doesn't stick with Wally because after he gets his license in the Season 6 episode "Wally's License" (October 11, 1962), he gets talked into misusing Ward's brand new car in "Wally's Car Accident" (November 29, 1962) after being given permission to drive his date Shirley Fletcher to the prom while his parents are out of town. Once again Ward gives Wally the ground rules of not picking up any other riders and only going to the dance and back, but once again he is pressured by Eddie and Wally, who have ridden to the dance together and are now stranded because Lumpy's car won't start, to use Ward's car to push Lumpy's to get it started. Even Wally's date Shirley knows that Wally shouldn't help them, but after they promise to wrap Ward's bumper with a blanket Wally gives in only to have Lumpy still make an unexpected maneuver and smash the front headlight on Ward's car. As in the earlier episode, the boys cobble enough money together to get the car fixed good as new and almost pull off slipping the ruse past Ward, but this time Lumpy phones the Cleaver home with the intention of urging Wally not to tell his father about the accident, only Ward picks up the phone and Lumpy starts talking before realizing he is not speaking to Wally. Wally can tell Ward knows about the accident just from his expression after getting off the phone and ends up confessing to the whole mess without having to be prompted. But it remains to be seen if Wally has finally learned not to get into such messes in the first place.

Speaking of Eddie Haskell, as we covered in our last post, we began to get a bit of backstory for his annoying behavior due to a botched hair experiment his mother gave him when he was in kindergarten, and for the first time we saw his vulnerability behind his overconfident bluster when he is afraid to stay at home alone while his parents are out of town. The 1962 episodes continue this theme with more stories about the pathetic reality behind Eddie's two-faced hustler facade. In "Beaver's Fear" (February 24, 1962), Beaver gets his parents to pressure Wally to take him along when he, Eddie, and Lumpy go to an amusement park which has a terrifying new rollercoaster. Beaver needs a pep talk from Gus the fireman to get over his fear of heights and actually go on the rollercoaster, but for all of Eddie's tough talk and swagger, he is the one who winds up getting sick on the rollercoaster. In "A Night in the Woods" (June 9, 1962), Eddie is annoyed that Wally has committed to taking Beaver and his friends camping out in the woods on the same night that Eddie needs him on a triple date that will only work if Wally agrees to take out Mary Denton in exchange for Eddie and Lumpy getting to take out her two visiting cousins. When Wally refuses to back out on his camping promise, Eddie recruits Lumpy to try to scare the campers to abandon their overnight stay in time to still make the dates but winds up getting frightened himself and then stranded on the side of a cliff, requiring him to be rescued by a forest ranger who quickly shuts down his face-saving flippancy after he has been pulled to safety. In "Eddie Quits School" (March 10, 1962), Eddie drops out of high school after a run-in with the track coach and boasts to Wally and Lumpy about how enslaved they are with all their high school responsibilities while he will be making $80 a week working at a car repair garage. Not long afterward Eddie shows up at Wally's house sporting expensive new clothes purchased with his first week's pay, but when Wally and Lumpy decide to drop in on him at work, they overhear his boss berating him for constant mistakes, and later Eddie can't find anyone to hang out with him since they are all busy with school activities. Sensing that Eddie is really miserable behind his facade, Wally talks the school principal into gently suggesting that he return to school, and after more trouble with his boss, Eddie jumps at the chance but continues to put an overconfident spin on his decision by claiming that the principal and track coach begged him to come back. In "Eddie, the Businessman" (November 1, 1962), Eddie gets conned into an ice-cream theft ring at the local dairy where he and Wally have taken part-time jobs. Eddie becomes an easy mark for the crooked foreman running the scam after telling Wally that you have to suck up to the higher ups to get ahead. After Eddie gets caught red-handed loading cases of ice cream into the foreman's trunk by the dairy manager and the foreman claiming he never told Eddie to do it, Wally has to bail him out by telling the manager what really happened. And "Bachelor at Large" (November 15, 1962) plays out in similar fashion to "Eddie Quits School": this time he moves out of his parents' house into a boardinghouse after an argument, then tries to convince Wally and Lumpy that he is living the high life with attractive young women in his boardinghouse cooking for him. But at the same time he is desperate for company and after inviting Wally and Lumpy over for dinner, Ward gets a call from Mr. Haskell asking that they not humor Eddie, which will only make things worse, so Wally goes to the boardinghouse with Beaver tagging along to tell Eddie he won't be coming to dinner. They learn from his landlady that he is desperately lonely, his room is a sad mess, there are no young women living in the house, and Eddie even resorted to adopting a dog just to have some company. Later we learn that Eddie eventually moved back home, and while he claims in usual Eddie style that his parents begged him to come back, Wally figures that the landlady called his parents to come get him. While Leave It to Beaver deserves credit for fleshing out Eddie's character into a multi-faceted personality, the writers seem to have gotten stuck in portraying him as a pathetic loser who covers his short-comings with a show of bluster, while everyone around him agrees not to burst his balloon. What began as a comic creation of a two-faced hustler has been turned into a tragic figure who is more to be pitied than laughed at.

In his autobiography, Eddie, actor Ken Osmond alludes to the fact that getting cast as Eddie Haskell was both a blessing and a curse--he became a cultural icon with steady work for six seasons despite never being cast as a regular with a contract, but he also found it impossible to find acting work after the series ended and was saddled with a bad reputation by people who couldn't separate the actor from his character or mistakenly thought he had "grown up" to become pornographic actor John Holmes or shock-rocker Alice Cooper. Osmond comments in his book that he appreciated the plots that showed Eddie's vulnerability, but he also seems to judge an episode's value by how many lines he had and spends far more time and provides more detail about his role in the 1980s reboot The New Leave It to Beaver where he played an adult Eddie Haskell with his own son. Granted, he had a soft spot for the newer series because he got to act with his son Eric, and the memories were no doubt fresher on the reboot than on the original series from 20 years earlier. But among Osmond's more interesting memories from the original series are that the character of Eddie Haskell appeared to have been based on a friend of co-creator Bob Mosher, Jr.'s son named Buddy Del Giorno, who like Eddie always complimented Mrs. Mosher on her wardrobe but would immediately change into a troublemaker once there were no adults around. In the pre-pilot for Beaver, titled It's a Small World, the conniving teenager was named Frankie Bennett and was played by Harry Shearer, later of Spinal Tap and The Simpsons fame. And Osmond credits director Norman Tokar with helping him define the Eddie Haskell character traits, including his trademark cackle.

Despite the fact that by the 1962 episodes all the other characters on the show are wise to Eddie's duplicity and penchant for bad advice, Beaver in particular keeps falling for it, then admitting he should have known better. In "Beaver's Typewriter" (April 21, 1962), Beaver lets Eddie talk him into typing his English assignment due the next day for a few bucks since Beaver is having a hard time learning to use the expensive equipment he talked his parents into buying for him. Eddie is actually an excellent typist, but after Beaver turns in the neatly typed assignment, his teacher expects him to continue typing everything, which becomes impossible when he receives an even longer assignment the next day. Rather than letting Eddie again type his work for a fee, Beaver decides to write it out in long-hand, but Eddie offers to help him by disabling some keys on his typewriter so that he will have a valid excuse for not using it. However, word eventually gets back to Beaver's parents from his teacher about the disabled typewriter, which leads to Ward forcing Beaver to stick with his typing until he gets the hang of it. In "Stocks and Bonds" (June 23, 1962), Ward gives the boys some money to invest in the stock market to learn about how it works, but Beaver ends up listening to Eddie's advice about taking a flyer on a penny stock called Jet Electro rather than the more established if less exciting Mayfield Power and Electric utility recommended by Ward. Needless to say, Jet Electro crashes and burns while Mayfield Power just keeps plugging along upward. And in "Beaver, the Hero" (December 13, 1962), Beaver gets a swelled head after making a fluke game-winning touchdown for his school football team and then listens to Eddie about how to maximize his earning power as a football star, including skipping football practice, which ends up getting him suspended for the next game. Even though they know who they are dealing with, the Cleaver boys never seem to wise up enough to resist the fast-talking Eddie's latest easy way out.

But as gullible as Beaver is in falling for Eddie Haskell's bad advice, he is even more often goaded into poor decisions by his own friends Gilbert Bates and Richard Rickover. In fact, the 1962 episodes are book-ended by a pair of Gilbert-inspired pickles, beginning with "Ward's Golf Clubs" (January 6, 1962) and finishing with "The Party Spoiler" (December 27, 1962). In the former episode, Gilbert pressures Beaver into taking one of his father's golf clubs without asking so that they can hit some balls Gilbert scrounged from the driving range. Even though Beaver knows he will get in trouble by following Gilbert's advice, Gilbert is able to persuade him to do it by claiming that the only things worth doing are the ones that can get you into trouble. But Beaver doesn't realize that Ward returned home from golfing earlier that afternoon and told June that he broke his driver and would have to replace it, so when Beaver takes his first swing, the head flies off and into the bushes. After getting caught by Wally trying to sneak the broken club back into the closet, Beaver plans to confess his sin until his father gets angry with Wally for taking one of his shirts to wear on a date without asking him. So Beaver decides he had better replace the golf club rather than admitting that he broke it and arranges a payment plan with the sporting goods store clerk to pay for the new club. Of course, Ward immediately notices that his broken club is suddenly fixed and extracts a confession from Beaver, telling him he should have come to him first. Beaver later acts like he has learned his lesson when he tells Wally he is going to stop getting into trouble, but we all know there wouldn't be much of a series if he followed his own advice. In "The Party Spoiler" Beaver again follows Gilbert's advice to sabotage Wally's teenager party with prank items from the magic store as revenge for Wally not inviting Beaver to the party. Naturally, Wally is finally pressured by his parents to include Beaver in his party, but the forced invitation comes too late, after Beaver has already planted rubber cheese in the sandwiches, a fake ice cube with a fly in it in the punch bowl, soap-centered candies in the candy dish, and an electric outlet adapter that makes the record player go on and off randomly. When Beaver see Wally's friends blaming him for all the childish pranks, he feels compelled to step forward and take the blame. Beaver falls for another Gilbert scheme in "Long Distance Call" (June 16, 1962) when he agrees to call Dodger Stadium to talk to star pitcher Don Drysdale after Gilbert and Alan Boothby agree to all chip in to pay for the call, not realizing that they don't have nearly enough to afford it. After they hang up the call, Gilbert tells Beaver he can call the operator back to figure out how much the call cost and is horrified to hear that it comes to $9.35 when they collectively only have a couple of dollars. But Beaver compounds the problem by again following Gilbert's lead in not telling his father about it right away, with Gilbert arguing that he won't get the bill for a few weeks and they may come up with a plan to pay for it before then. Gilbert then makes matters worse by bragging about the phone call to a snotty school classmate whose father writes a column for the Mayfield newspaper, thereby ensuring that Ward will read about the phone call in his morning paper.

Gilbert teams up with Richard Rickover in "Three Boys and a Burro" (March 3, 1962) to get Beaver to chip in on buying a pet burro after promising that Beaver would not have to keep the burro in his yard because they would be splitting the caretaking between the two of them, which is the only reason Ward and June agree to let Beaver participate in the partnership. But of course things do not work out as promised because the burro wreaks havoc on the yards and gardens at the Bates' and Rickover's homes and Beaver gets stuck with the burro. Fortunately, Ward is able to find a new home for the burro from a work colleague who has a relative with a farm, but as with all his dealings with his friends, Beaver is the one who gets stuck holding the bag. The same scenario plays out with Richard, Whitey, and Alan in "Sweatshirt Monsters" (June 2, 1962) when the boys make a pact to all buy sweatshirts with grotesque monsters painted on the front and then wear them to class together. When Beaver tries going to school the next day wearing the sweatshirt, June forbids it and tells him to go change, but for Beaver loyalty to his friends outweighs his parent's orders, and he sneaks the sweatshirt out and puts it on before walking into class, only to discover that none of the other boys are wearing their sweatshirts and he is the only one to face discipline from their teacher. Apparently, that episode wasn't painful enough for Beaver because he commits the same error with a different group of friends in "Beaver's Football Award" (October 4, 1962) when the star football player from his school team announces that he is not going to wear a suit to the annual awards dinner, vowing that he is going to dress casually just as he does for school and pressuring the other boys on the team to do the same. But after a struggle with his parents, who keep telling him he is going to be sorry until Ward finally tells June that since Beaver is growing up he needs to learn to live with his own choices, Beaver gets to the awards dinner in his casual outfit only to find out that everyone else is wearing a suit. Ward bails him out by secretly bringing along his suit in the car trunk so that Beaver can hurriedly rush outside and change clothes before the dinner gets started, but one wonders how many times he will have to suffer this sort of humiliation before he realizes that his "friends" are all talk.

Which brings us to perhaps the most surprising pattern of the series: none of Beaver's and Wally's friends seem to have their interests at heart--all they do is pressure Beaver and Wally to do something stupid and then run away when they get into trouble. Besides Eddie Haskell, Gilbert Bates, and football star Terry Richmond, Richard forces Beaver to go to absurd lengths to cover for his own mistakes in "Beaver's Jacket" (February 3, 1962) and "Beaver's Laundry" (March 24, 1962). Lumpy does the same to Wally in "Wally Stays at Lumpy's" (March 17, 1962) and "The Merchant Marine" (April 28, 1962). Even newly introduced friends Mike and Kevin steer Beaver wrong in "Tell It to Ella" (November 8, 1962) by advising him to write an anonymous letter to a Dear Abby-like columnist at the local newspaper complaining about Ward grounding him for staying out late on a school night. Needless to say, Ella takes Ward's side, and when his letter appears in the paper Ward has no difficulty figuring out who wrote it. But even Ward seems not to have any good friends--the only person we see him spending any time with is Fred Rutherford, who is a big blow-hard that Ward can barely stand but nevertheless has to work with. What lesson, then, does Leave It to Beaver teach about friendship? Each week the series seems to suggest that the only relationships that can be trusted are familial ones, assuming that you don't live in a dysfunctional family.

Still, despite the series' odd take on friendship outside the family and the Cleaver boys' inability to learn not to bow to peer pressure (though there is one exception when Wally refuses to join a mean-spirited exclusive boys club in "One of the Boys" [May 26, 1962]), Leave It to Beaver occasionally hits the nail on the head in depicting some of the hard truths about growing up. For Beaver, it is being burdened with unrealistic expectations because of Wally's accomplishments in "The Younger Brother" (April 14, 1962). Beaver is encouraged to try out for a city basketball team simply because Wally helped lead a team to the league championship. Beaver doesn't have a natural interest in basketball, but when he sees how proud his parents are of Wally's achievements, he decides to try out and even Wally's old coach seems to think the team is in good hands with Beaver aboard. But Beaver quickly learns that not all athletic talent is genetic as he performs poorly at the first practice and is soon the laughingstock of the other players. Rather than face the humiliation of telling his parents and brother that he isn't good at basketball, he pretends to continue attending practice but really just hides out to cover the time. The jig is up when Ward decides to stop by the park on his way home from work one evening to see how Beaver is making out, and he learns from the coach that Beaver quit after the first practice and didn't want to sign up for a lesser league to develop his skills. Ward is surprised that Beaver didn't feel he could come to Ward and tell him he didn't make the team, so Wally has to explain to Ward that Beaver didn't really want to succeed at basketball for himself but to avoid disappointing his father. This episode turns out to be a teaching moment for the parents rather than the children. Growing up the younger sibling of highly accomplished older brothers and sisters myself, this episode had the ring of truth for me personally and helps demonstrate why this series at its best was superior to most of the other family sit-coms of its day.

Wally learns his hard lesson in "Tennis, Anyone?" (May 19, 1962) when he unwittingly becomes a pawn in a young woman's attempt to make her boyfriend jealous. He shows up at the public tennis court just after pretty but noticeably older Carol Martin has a falling out with her tennis instructor and boyfriend Don Kirk. When Eddie Haskell is late showing up to play Wally, Carol invites him to volley with her while Don is still hovering nearby, hoping to make him jealous. Wally mistakes her friendliness for interest in him, and makes a date to play again with her the next day. When Beaver and Eddie see Wally playing with an attractive older woman, they assume that they are an item, but leaving the tennis court on the second day Wally is confronted by Don, who warns him to stay away from Carol, whom he claims is his girl. Wally takes his problem to Ward, who asks him how old Carol is. When Wally says that she is 22, Ward advises him to stay away from her because she is too old for him. Wally decides to go back to the tennis courts the next day anyway but then sees Carol and Don arm in arm after reconciling. He is initially downcast but then admits surprise that his father knows so much about romance. Again, this episode has the ring of truth from my personal experience--when you're young and naive, it's easy to get mixed up in someone else's romantic problems without realizing their true intentions. Fortunately for Wally, he got good advice and his interlude ended quickly and without any real damage to his psyche. Not everyone is so lucky, but perhaps if more of us had seen this episode while growing up, we would have been better prepared to avoid love's pitfalls.

The Actors

For the biographies of Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Ken Osmond, Frank Bank, Stanley Fafara, and Sue Randall, see the 1960 post on Leave It to Beaver. For the biographies of Stephen Talbot, Karen Sue Trent, Richard Correll, Cheryl Holdridge, and Burt Mustin, see the 1961 post on Leave It to Beaver. For the biography of Richard Deacon, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 5, Episode 14, "Ward's Golf Clubs": Henry Hunter (Doctor Summerfield on Hazel) plays sporting goods store clerk Sam Higgins.

Season 5, Episode 15, "Farewell to Penny": Jean Vander Pyl (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Flintstones) plays Penny's mother Mrs. Woods.

Season 5, Episode 16, "Beaver the Bunny": Alice Backes (Vickie on Bachelor Father) plays Beaver's school pageant coordinator Miss Lawrence.

Season 5, Episode 17, "Beaver's Electric Trains": Toby Michaels (starred in Love in a Goldfish Bowl, first wife of director and Bewitched associate producer Richard Michaels) plays girl sent to pick up Beaver's electric train set Georgia Batson.

Season 5, Episode 22, "Three Boys and a Burro": Jane Dulo (Liz Murray on Hey, Jeannie!, WAC Pvt. Mildred Lukens on The Phil Silvers Show, Molly Turner on McHale's Navy, Agent 99's mother on Get Smart, Nurse Murphy on Medical Center, and Grandma Mildred Kanisky on Gimme a Break!) plays Richard's mother Mrs. Rickover.

Season 5, Episode 23, "Eddie Quits School": Frank Wilcox (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Untouchables) plays Wally's school principal Mr. Farmer. Bert Remsen (Detective Lawrence on Peyton Place, Mr. Pell on Gibbsville, Mario on It's a Living, and Jack Crager on Dynasty) plays repair garage owner Mr. Thompson.

Season 5, Episode 26, "Lumpy's Car Trouble": Pat McCaffrie (Chuck Forrest on Bachelor Father and Dr. Edgar Harris on Outlaws) plays Ward's work colleague Bill Boothby.

Season 5, Episode 27, "Beaver the Babysitter": Jennie Lynn (Jenny Baker on Love and Marriage) plays Beaver's babysitting assignment Pattie Murdock. Marjorie Reynolds (starred in Holiday Inn, Ministry of Fear, and The Time of Their Lives and played Peg Riley on The Life of Riley) plays her mother Mrs. Murdock.

Season 5, Episode 28, "The Younger Brother": Russ Conway (shown on the left, played Fenton Hardy on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Gen. Devon on Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on Richard Diamond, Private Detective) plays Wally's former basketball coach Mr. Doyle.

Season 5, Episode 29, "Beaver's Typewriter": Ed Prentiss (the narrator on Trackdown and played Carl Jensen on The Virginian) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Bailey.

Season 5, Episode 31, "Brother vs. Brother": Hardie Albright (shown on the right, appeared in This Sporting Age, The Song of Songs, White Heat, The Scarlet Letter, The Pride of the Yankees, and Angel on My Shoulder) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Collins. Mimi Gibson (appeared in The Three Faces of Eve, Houseboat, and The Children's Hour and played Barby McGovern on Westinghouse Playhouse) plays new student Mary Tyler.

Season 5, Episode 32, "The Yard Birds": Bartlett Robinson (Willard Norton on Wendy and Me and Frank Caldwell on Mona McCluskey) plays empty lot owner Mr. Hill.

Season 5, Episode 33, "Tennis, Anyone?": Cynthia Chenault (shown on the left, appeared in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Dino, and This Earth is Mine and played Carol Potter on The Tom Ewell Show) plays tennis student Carol Martin.

Season 5, Episode 34, "One of the Boys": Martin Dean (Junior on Dick Tracy) plays exclusive club president Rick Davis.

Season 5, Episode 35, "Sweatshirt Monsters": Hardie Albright (see "Brother vs. Brother" above) returns as Beaver's English teacher Mr. Collins. Jane Dulo (see "Three Boys and a Burro" above) returns as Richard's mother Mrs. Rickover.

Season 5, Episode 36, "A Night in the Woods": John Hart (appeared in The Buccaneer, Jack Armstrong, and The Ten Commandments and played Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler on Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,  was Clayton Moore's replacement on The Lone Ranger from 1950-53 when Moore was in the midst of a contract dispute, and played Narbo on Rawhide) plays a forest ranger.

Season 5, Episode 37, "Long Distance Call": Don Drysdale (shown on the right, Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher and announcer) plays himself. Dennis Olivieri (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Betty Hutton Show) plays Beaver's bragging classmate Kenny. Ray Montgomery (Prof. Howard Ogden on Ramar of the Jungle) plays his newspaper reporter father. Johnny Eimen (Monk on McKeever and the Colonel) plays Kenny's school friend.

Season 5, Episode 39, "Un-togetherness": Brenda Scott (shown on the left, married and divorced actor Andrew Prine three times, now married to producer Dean Hargrove, played Midge Pride on The Road West and Dr. Gina Dante Lansing on General Hospital) plays Wally's new girlfriend Lori-Ann.

Season 6, Episode 1, "Wally's Dinner Date": Than Wyenn (Licenciado Piña on Zorro) plays a restaurant waiter.

Season 6, Episode 3, "Wally's License": Russ Bender (appeared in It Conquered the World, Dragstrip Girl, Invasion of the Saucer Men, and The Amazing Colossal Man) plays driving instructor Mr. Barnsdall. Beverly Lunsford (shown on the right, played Amy Ames Britton Kincaid on The Secret Storm) plays driving student Shirley Fletcher. Larry J. Blake (played the unnamed jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays the DMV driving test administrator.

Season 6, Episode 5, "Double Date": Vicky Albright (daughter of actor Hardie Albright) plays Wally's date Carolyn Stewart. Diane Mountford (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Assignment: Underwater) plays her younger sister Susan.

Season 6, Episode 6, "Eddie, the Businessman": Don Haggerty (Jeffrey Jones on The Files of Jeffrey Jones, Eddie Drake on The Cases of Eddie Drake, Sheriff Dan Elder on State Trooper, and Marsh Murdock on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays dairy manager Ted Worden. Howard Caine (Schaab on The Californians and Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter on Hogan's Heroes) plays one of his foremen. John Baer (Terry Lee on Terry and the Pirates) plays the foreman's assistant.

Season 6, Episode 7, "Tell It to Ella": Tim Matheson (shown on the right, played Roddy Miller on Window on Main Street, Jim Horn on The Virginian, Griff King on Bonanza, Quentin Beaudine on The Quest, Rick Tucker on Tucker's Witch, Harry Stadlin on Just in Time, Charlie Hoover on Charlie Hoover, Sheriff Matthew Donner on Wolf Lake, Bill Dunne on Breaking News, John Hoynes on The West Wing, Larry Sizemore on Burn Notice, Dr. Brick Breeland on Hart of Dixie, and Doc Mullins on Virgin River, and voiced Jonny Quest on Jonny Quest, Sinbad, Jr. on Sinbad, Jr. and His Magic Belt, Samson on Young Samson & Goliath, Jace on Space Ghost, Capt. John O'Rourke on The Legend of Calamity Jane, and Brad Chiles on Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated) plays Beaver's friend Mike. Robert Eyer (brother of actor Richard Eyer) plays his friend Kevin.

Season 6, Episode 8, "Bachelor at Large": Lurene Tuttle (shown on the left, appeared in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Ma Barker's Killer Brood, Psycho, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and The Fortune Cookie and played Doris Dunston on Father of the Bride and Hannah Yarby on Julia) plays Eddie's landlady Mrs. Evans.

Season 6, Episode 9, "Beaver Joins a Record Club.": George Cisar (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays the mailman.

Season 6, Episode 10, "Wally's Car Accident": Beverly Lunsford (see "Wally's License" above) plays Wally's date Shirley Fletcher.

Season 6, Episode 11, "Beaver, the Sheep Dog": Ed Prentiss (shown on the right, see "Beaver's Typewriter" above) returns as Beaver's teacher Mr. Bailey.

Season 6, Episode 12, "Beaver, the Hero": Carol Faylen (daughter of actor Frank Faylen, played Janice Collins on The Bing Crosby Show) plays Beaver's classmate Donna.

Season 6, Episode 13, "Beaver's Autobiography": Harlan Warde (shown on the left, played John Hamilton on The Rifleman and Sheriff John Brannan on The Virginian) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Thompson. Annette Gorman (Addie Slaughter on The Magical World of Disney Texas John Slaughter series) plays Beaver's new classmate Betsy Carter. Frances Mercer (starred in Crime Ring, Smashing the Rackets, The Mad Miss Manton, and There's Always Tomorrow and played Nurse Ann Talbot on Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal) plays Betsy's mother Mrs. Carter.

Season 6, Episode 14, "The Party Spoiler": Vicky Albright (shown on the right, see "Double Date" above) plays Wally's party guest Carolyn.

Leave It to Beaver (1961)

As mentioned in our post for the 1960 episodes of Leave It to Beaver, the show demonstrated a remarkable true-to-life depiction of children's perspective on growing up because series co-creator Joe Connelly carried around a notebook to capture what his own sons were going through. And while the series has more recently come in for criticism for dealing with seemingly trivial inconveniences rather than more serious problems such as drug use, teenage pregnancy, or juvenile delinquency, Connelly and partner Bob Mosher were spot on in portraying the root causes of many of these symptoms--peer pressure and the fear of embarrassment. The episodes airing in 1961 still touched on the parenting lessons of Ward and June Cleaver but began to focus more attention on Wally and Beaver's attempts to mature. Part of this shift was forced by actor Jerry Mathers' very noticeable drop in his voice at the beginning of Season 5, when he is a 12-year-old 6th grader. But the topic of maturation had already become a staple of stories in the latter half of Season 4.

Beaver begins to sense that things are changing for him in "Beaver's Old Buddy" (February 4, 1961) when he is excited at the prospect of having an old friend of his, Jackie Waters, spend the night at his house so that the two can relive all the fun things they used to do together, like swinging on a tire swing and hunting for pollywogs. But once Jackie arrives and he and Beaver have a chance to do all of their old favorites, they find that they aren't as fun as they used to be. And even Ward and June's attempts to find other activities that they will enjoy together don't work out so that Jackie winds up calling his parents to come pick him up early. Ward tries to explain to Beaver that this is all part of growing up, but Beaver later tells Wally the lesson he has learned is not to build up his hopes only to have them dashed. Instead, he says he plans to expect nothing special so that he won't be let down.

In "Junior Fire Chief" (May 20, 1961) Beaver gets to try out being an authority when he is elected class fire chief and is authorized to hand out citations to anyone he finds violating fire safety standards, but the ascension to power quickly goes to his head, and he is overzealous in handing out citations to his family and neighbors, irritating everyone. June tells Ward he should have a talk with Beaver about going overboard, but Ward counters that Beaver needs to learn for himself, which he does, but not in the way Ward imagines. Instead, he has a discussion with Gus the Fireman, who says he never handed out as many citations in his entire career as Beaver has given out in 1 week, and that he has always found it more effective to be nice to people and explain to them politely what they should do about fire safety rather than coming down hard on them. Beaver takes Gus' words to heart, tears up his citations, and is later commended by Miss Landers for learning such a valuable lesson when he is asked to give a report to his class at the end of the week.

However, Beaver is still susceptible to peer pressure, particularly from his friend Gilbert Bates, who grows more like Eddie Haskell in continuing to goad Beaver into foolish decisions, particularly in "The School Picture" (April 22, 1961) when he dares Beaver to make a goofy face when their school picture is being taken, leading Beaver to believe that Gilbert would also do it. But after the picture is taken with Beaver looking ridiculous, Gilbert tells him he didn't make a face because doing so would be stupid. In "Kite Day" (June 10, 1961) Gilbert badgers Beaver into taking his just-completed kite that he had worked on with Ward for a test run even though Ward had told him not to fly it until the glue had set. Of course, the kite crashes and splinters into a million pieces, prompting Gilbert to tell Beaver that his father is going to kill him before running off to leave him to face the problem alone. And in "In the Soup" (May 6, 1961), it's Whitey who calls Beaver chicken after daring him to climb a billboard with a steaming bowl of soup at the top to see if the bowl has real soup or not, resulting in Beaver falling into the bowl and having to be rescued by a fireman while the whole neighborhood watches. So while Beaver is trying on new levels of responsibility in "Junior Fire Chief" and "Beaver Goes Into Business" (June 3, 1961), in which he tries cutting lawns with Gilbert, he still hasn't learned how to be his own person and brush off peer pressure from "friends" like Gilbert and Whitey.

Nor is the older Wally totally immune from being set up, as shown in "Wally's Track Meet" (January 28, 1961). He winds up getting kicked off the track team for violating the coach's no horseplay rule after retaliating against Eddie and Lumpy who throw wet towels at him in the locker room just before the coach walks in. But most of his dilemmas revolve around girls, such as in "Teacher's Daughter" (January 7, 1961) in which he is spending considerable time with Julie Foster, whose father is his English teacher. Eddie considers this a smart move in getting a better grade, but Mr. Foster tells him his dating situation will have no effect on his grade. Yet strangely Ward advises him not to go steady with Julie because he may miss out on meeting someone who would be better suited for him and will deprive her of perhaps meeting a better match, too. And yet at no time is there any evidence that Wally and Julie are not suited to each other. In "Mother's Helper" (March 4, 1961) Wally's grades begin to suffer because he spends his afternoons after school helping June's teenage hired helper Margie Manners instead of doing his homework, a problem that June quickly rectifies by replacing the daughter with the mother to help with her chores. And in "Wally's Dream Girl" (April 15, 1961) June helps burst Wally's infatuation with the new girl in school, Ginny Townsend, by inviting Ginny on a family picnic, where Wally sees that Ginny is allergic to chicken and sunshine, as well as being so worried about her weight that she won't eat a hard-boiled egg. Yet he also shows his growing maturity in "Substitute Father" (June 24, 1961) when Ward tells him to fill his shoes while he is away on a business trip, and he has to have a parent-teacher conference with Beaver and Miss Landers after she catches Beaver yelling profanity at a bully who tripped him. Though Miss Landers is at first skeptical about Wally filling in, figuring that Beaver is just trying to get out of telling his real parents what he has done, Wally and Beaver manage to convince her that Wally has a history of steering Beaver's behavior in the right direction and correcting him when he goes astray. They finally let June know how Wally handled the situation without ever telling her exactly what Beaver said, so that she tells Ward on the phone that he should bring back something special for Wally as a sign of taking such a significant step in becoming an adult.

But the most surprising indication of coming maturation, if also the most brief, is from Eddie Haskell in "Eddie Spends the Night" (March 25, 1961) in which he cajoles Wally into asking his parents if Eddie can spend the night at the Cleaver's while not mentioning that his real motive is to avoid to spending the night alone at his own home with his parents out of town. After Eddie angers Wally by cheating at chess and then storms home, Ward gets a call from Eddie's father saying how much he appreciates the Cleavers taking Eddie in since he is uncomfortable being home alone. Ward is then obligated to go with Wally to Eddie's house to bring him back, though Eddie pretends that he isn't frightened and that his parents are actually home. Beaver lets Eddie know in a one-on-one conversation in the Cleaver's kitchen that he knows the real story and admits that he has the same fear, which prompts Eddie to admit that he puts on a show of fake confidence but deep down inside knows that he isn't fooling himself. But his vulnerability is short-lived because in the very next episode, "Beaver's Report Card" (April 1, 1961), he is back to his old tricks in changing a grade on Beaver's report card from a D- to a B+ just to get Beaver in trouble. And he gives Beaver bad advice in "Beaver Goes Into Business" by telling him he should mow people's lawns without checking with them first and then hold out his hand demanding payment, only to have Beaver and Gilbert ruin a man's well-manicured lawn that he had paid a professional gardener to maintain. However, in "Beaver's Doll Buggy" (June 17,1961) Eddie reveals that he is always pulling pranks on others because of a traumatic childhood experience in which his mother sent him to kindergarten one day with a home permanent that resulted in ridicule from his classmates. He explains that this incident prompted him to try to always get the jump on others and make them feel bad before they have the chance to do it to him. It's certainly not a mature approach to life or one that will make one very successful or well-liked, but it's one that rings true to life--victims of abusive or traumatic events tend to develop defense mechanisms to avoid being vulnerable again.

Season 3 kicks off not only with Beaver's suddenly deeper voice but a new introductory credit sequence that replaces Ward and June sending the boys off to school with a new sequence in which she brings out a tray of ice tea for Ward and the boys who are doing yard work. The first episode of the new season, Wally Goes Steady" (September 24, 1961), then dives right into the family's angst over Wally perhaps growing up too fast when Ward hears locker room chatter from Wally's girlfriend's father that they may soon be in-laws, given how much time their children are spending together. When Wally is then invited to dinner with girlfriend Evelyn's married sister and her husband, who are only three years older than Wally and Evelyn, June in particular is worried that Wally will get a glimpse of marital bliss and want to take the plunge himself, though the actual outcome is exactly the opposite--Wally sees the newlyweds arguing, unable to keep up with their finances without help from Evelyn's parents, and Wally's counterpart in the couple reminiscing about his earlier carefree life. Wally later tells June that as long as you're having a good time, there is no reason to get involved with marriage.

Beaver then takes his turn at wanting to be more grown-up in "No Time for Babysitters" (October 7, 1961) when he resists having to have a babysitter when his parents go out for the evening and Wally is also gone on a date. To make matters worse, Gilbert and Richard don't believe it when he tells them that he is going to spend the evening alone, so they come over just to see his babysitter and tease him, only they are foiled because Beaver's babysitter understands how he feels after going through something similar when she was younger and helps Beaver out by hiding so that Gilbert and Richard can't find her. Beaver also wants to appear more grown-up in "Beaver's Ice Skates" (December 2, 1961) when he decides to buy some new ice skates after seeing a sale ad in the newspaper but doesn't want June to go with him when he buys them. However, an unscrupulous salesman ends up selling him a pair that are far too big when he discovers they are out of Beaver's size, and rather than admit to his parents that he has been duped, he hides out in the library for a week while his parents think he is at the ice rink just to avoid the embarrassment of hearing them tell him about his error. However, when they finally do learn the truth and Ward lectures him that he should only take responsibility when he is ready to hold it, Wally counters with the question how can he know whether he is ready to hold it if he never takes it? Ward has to admit that it is a dilemma, one that gives many a parent gray hair. This is yet another example of how Leave It to Beaver was anything but a series of pat, black-and-white lessons. At other times, such as the aforementioned "Junior Fire Chief," Ward recognizes that in order for Beaver to grow he will have to sometimes experience failure, but in "Beaver's Ice Skates," Wally has to remind Ward of this essential lesson.

Other episode titles in Season 5 seem to suggest more dramatic growth experiences than they deliver--"Wally's Car" (October 14, 1961), "Beaver Takes a Drive" (November 18, 1961), and "Beaver's First Date" (December 30, 1961)--but they show that more adult-oriented opportunities are coming. Despite their growing familiarity with adult issues, Wally and Beaver in particular continue having a hard time imagining their parents ever being as young as they are, or of themselves ever being in a position that their parents are currently. In "Wally's Chauffeur" (December 23, 1961) Beaver says he can't imagine Ward ever being small enough to be have to be told to take a bath. In "Beaver Takes a Drive" Beaver thinks that Ward had it easier as a boy because there were fewer ways to get into trouble, even though Ward explained to him earlier that they, too, had automobiles in his day. And in "No Time for Babysitters" Beaver tells Wally that he is going to let his kids do whatever they want instead of feeling like he has to protect them, that is, until Wally asks if he is going to let his kids hang from a rickety bridge 200 feet in the air. Though he wants to be treated like an adult, until it results in dealing with a thorny problem, Beaver has a hard time seeing himself as ever being anything other than what he is at the present.

For Wally, his greatest fear is public humiliation, a fear he shares with Beaver. In "Wally's Big Date" (November 25, 1961) Eddie Haskell tricks Wally into switching the girls from another school they are assigned to take to a dance when Eddie at first gets stuck with a girl who is very tall. When Wally meets her at the malt shop to discuss details about their date and then notices when she gets up out of her booth and leaves to meet her mother that she is a good head taller than he is, he is thrown into a panic and is most concerned that the other boys at the dance will laugh at him. Ward forces him to go anyway, making him consider how his date would feel if he were to cancel on her, and Wally is surprised when she shows up appearing no taller than he is simply by not teasing her hair up and wearing flats instead of heels. But he faces the same predicament in "Wally's Chauffeur" when Ward forbids him from riding up to a dance at the lake in Lumpy's car with two other couples because of Lumpy's poor driving record. When his date Evelyn, who already has her driver's license while Wally has yet to get his, shows up driving her father's car, Wally at first refuses to come downstairs because he knows that he will be teased mercilessly for being driven to the dance by a girl. And this time he is correct as Lumpy makes a point of ribbing him as soon as he sees Evelyn drive up to the dance hall. Of course, Wally gets the last laugh when a traffic cop gives Lumpy a ticket for parking in a red zone and all the kids who had ridden up with Lumpy ask if they can ride back with Evelyn. Though things turn out fine in both situations, one has the feeling that it will take a few more incidents such as these for Wally to grow thick enough skin not to worry about how he will look in front of the other guys if he is forced to do something unconventional. The allure of fitting in exerts a strong pull well into adulthood, a point in the future beyond the scope of this series.

The Actors

For the biographies of Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Ken Osmond, Frank Bank, Stanley Fafara, and Sue Randall, see the 1960 post on Leave It to Beaver.

Stephen Talbot

Stephen Henderson Talbot, born February 28, 1949, was the son of veteran actor Lyle Talbot (profiled in the biography section of the 1960 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) who years later said that he begged his parents to let him get into acting. He began appearing in guest spots on a variety of programs in 1959 including Lawman, Sugarfoot, and Wanted Dead or Alive. That year he would also make the first of 57 appearances as Beaver's friend Gilbert Bates (though he was actually Gilbert Gates in his first appearance) over the remainder of the series. His lone feature film appearance came in the 1960 teen drama Because They're Young, and his last acting credit came the same year that Leave It to Beaver ended in 1963. 

After graduating from Harvard High School in North Hollywood in 1966, he attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut and began making films against the Vietnam War. After graduating in 1970, he went to work for the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, first as an assistant to the university president and eventually as a lecturer in the American Studies program. In the 1980s he worked as a staff reporter and producer for PBS television affiliate KQED in San Francisco where he produced local documentaries as well as national documentaries that aired on PBS. His first such documentary Broken Arrow: Can a Nuclear Weapons Accident Happen Here? won him a Peabody Award in 1980, and he won a second Peabody two years later for a biography of crime fiction writer Dashiell Hammett. Beginning in 1992 he began producing documentaries for the PBS series Frontline and won a DuPont Award for his coverage of the 1992 U.S. Presidential election The Best Campaign Money Can Buy. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks he was tapped to be the series editor for a new series called Frontline World in the hopes of raising awareness about other countries. He produced 94 episodes for the series running through 2010. He has continued writing and producing documentaries up to the present day, producing The Kansas Experiment for Independent Lens and writing Moscone: A Legacy of Change about slain San Francisco mayor George Moscone both in 2018. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife Pippa Gordon.

Karen Sue Trent

Born March 14, 1948, Karen Sue Trent made her film debut in the pro-nudist feature Garden of Eden playing the young daughter of a woman who unknowingly spends the night in a nudist camp after her car breaks down nearby. The film was the subject of a lawsuit whose verdict ruled that nudity on film was not inherently obscene. After appearing on Broadway in a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author in 1955, she made her television debut in an episode of Matinee Theater in 1957. After single appearances on Death Valley Days, Shirley Temple's Storybook, and Wagon Train in 1958-59, she was cast as Beaver antagonist Penny Woods in 1960 and appeared in the role 13 times between 1960-62. The following year she appeared in an episode of The Rifleman and reportedly was injured filming a scene in which her character was trapped in quicksand, which prompted her to quit her acting career. Her whereabouts and occupations since then have not been documented.

Richard Correll

Richard Thomas Correll was born in Los Angeles on May 14, 1948, the son of Charles J. Correll, who played Andy Brown on the long-running radio comedy Amos 'n' Andy. Correll's father was also a gag writer for silent comedy star Harold Lloyd near the end of Lloyd's career, a connection that would serve the younger Correll well: as a teenager he began helping Lloyd organize and preserve his extensive film library and would go on to be a significant contributor to the 1991 documentary about Lloyd The Third Genius. Today he is credited as the chief archivist by The Lloyd Trust. Jerry Mathers has named Correll as his best friend growing up, as indicated on Mathers' web site. Correll broke into TV acting on a 1955 episode of The Bob Cummings Show but didn't really gather steam until 1960, when he not only made the first of 31 appearances as Beaver's friend Richard Rickover but also had guest spots on The Betty Hutton Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and Make Room for Daddy. Concurrent with his Leave It to Beaver appearances, he also appeared on National Velvet, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Hazel, and Lassie, which was the only TV show he appeared on after Leave It to Beaver was canceled. In 1973 in the film Showdown he played Dean Martin's character as a boy, but other than reprising Richard Rickover for Beaver reunion movies and the 1983-85 series reboot, Correll moved into TV producing, writing, and directing after attending film school at USC.

In the early 1980s he began writing for series such as Happy Days and moved into producing shows such as Valerie and Full House by 1987. In the 1990s he produced many more TV programs including 86 episodes of Family Matters, 50 episodes of Step by Step, and 14 episodes of Two of a Kind. After producing 8 episodes of The Jamie Foxx Show in 1999-2000, he moved into children's programming on channels such as the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and produced multiple episodes of The Amanda Show starring Amanda Bynes, So Little Time starring the Olsen Twins, All That, That's So Raven, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody before going on to create the Miley Cyrus series Hannah Montana. But in 2010 he sued Disney for unfair termination and failure to pay him creative royalties for the show. Since then he has continued producing a number of TV series, including some for Disney, as well as Are We There Yet?, See Dad Run, Jessie, Bunk'd, and the Full House reboot Fuller House.

Cheryl Holdridge

Born Cheryl Lynn Phelps in New Orleans on June 20, 1944, she was adopted by her step-father in 1953 after her mother had relocated to Burbank, California three years prior. Her birth father has never been identified. She took dance lessons from an early age and made her show business debut at age 9 while performing in a New York City Ballet performance of The Nutcracker in Los Angeles. After an uncredited appearance in the feature film Carousel  in 1956, she auditioned for and was selected for the original troupe of Mouseketeers on The Mickey Mouse Club beginning in 1956 and appeared in two of the program's serials Boys of the Western Sea and Annette in 1958. In 1959 she made the first of four appearances on Bachelor Father, the last 3 as Lila Meredith, and made her first of two appearances on Leave It to Beaver as Gloria Cusick. Beginning in 1961, she appeared 6 more times on the program as Wally's friend Julie Foster. 

During her years on Leave It to Beaver she also appeared on a number of other TV programs, such as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, My Three Sons, Dennis the Menace, The Donna Reed Show, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In 1964, the year after Beaver was canceled, she continued getting guest spots on shows such as Bewitched, Wagon Train, and The Dick Van Dyke Show, but she retired from acting when she married race car driver Lance Reventlow, the lone child of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. After Reventlow died in a plane crash in 1972, she married car rental owner Jim Skarda but returned to acting briefly to reprise her role as Julie Foster on two episodes of The New Leave It to Beaver in 1985 and 1987. She divorced Skarda in 1988 and married California political operative Manning J. Post in 1994, at which time she became active in philanthropic concerns such as serving on the council of the Children's Burn Foundation and supporting environmental causes. She made one last acting appearance in the feature film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas  in 2000 and died from lung cancer on January 6, 2009 at the age of 64.

Pamela Baird

Born Pamela Beaird in Bexar County, Texas on April 6, 1945, she broke into acting playing Hildy Broberg on the TV series My Friend Flicka, on which she would appear 12 times from 1955-56. She appeared twice in 1956 on The Mickey Mouse Club as a singer, the first of these when she won the Talent Round-Up segment on the November 2 episode and then returned to sing again on the December 24 episode. She also appeared in a number of other drama anthology series and one-off guest spots on shows such as Our Miss Brooks, Fury, and The Adventures of Jim Bowie over the next two years before appearing 4 times as Nancy on Bachelor Father in 1958. That was the same year she made the first of her 6 appearances as Wally's love interest Mary Ellen Rogers on Leave It to Beaver. During this time she performed in the vocal trio The Holly-Tones with her two cousins Deanna and Joyce Beaird and also released a single as a solo artist "My Second Date" on Dynasty Records in 1960. 

Her last appearance on Beaver came in 1961 after which she appeared on only a half dozen shows between 1962-64 including Make Room for Daddy, Perry Mason, and two appearances on Mr. Novak. After graduating from Covina High School in 1963, Pamela left the acting profession a year later and attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, from which she graduated in 1968. In 1973 she married Robert H. Hensley, who had performed as a singer under the name Jericho Brown and as an actor under the name Bob Henry. Hensley had left the entertainment business for Christian ministry in 1970, and the couple settled in the Arlington, Texas area and had five children. She pursued a Masters Degree in Education at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas and graduated with a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Liberty University in 2015. Her husband passed away in 2016 at the age of 80.

Burt Mustin

Born in Pittsburgh on February 8, 1884, Burton Hill Mustin didn't take up acting until age 67. His father was a stockbroker, and Mustin graduated from Pennsylvania Military College in 1903 with a degree in civil engineering and experience as the school's goalie on its hockey team. After giving engineering a try, he gave it up and became an automobile salesman, first for Oakland, then Franklin, and finally for Lincoln and Mercury up until World War II, at which point he worked for the Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce. Besides appearing in local productions of a Gilbert & Sullivan troupe and The Pittsburgh Opera, in 1921 Mustin became the announcer for a variety program on Pittsburgh's KDKA radio station. That same year he was one of the original founders of Pittsburgh's Lions Club. He also was a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society and traveled to San Francisco in 1925 to take part in a quartet competition. But his acting career didn't get started until he retired and moved with his wife to Tucson, Arizona where director William Wyler saw him in a theater production of Detective Story and told him to look him up if he wanted to pursue a film career. As a result, Mustin was cast in the film version of Detective Story in 1951 and from there had a long and prolific career. He made his television debut the same year in an episode of The Adventures of Kit Carson , and while his feature film credits outnumbered his TV guest appearances over the next several years, he made 5 appearances on Our Miss Brooks between 1952-55 before landing his first recurring role as Foley on The Great Gildersleeve in 1955-56. This was followed by a stint as Mr. Finley on Date With the Angels in 1957-58 and the first of 14 appearances as Gus the Fireman on Leave It to Beaver in 1957, continuing in the role until 1962.

Concurrent with his appearances on Beaver, he was cast as Jud Fletcher on The Andy Griffith Show, making 9 appearances as this character through 1966 as well as playing a few other characters during that span. He also continued getting guest spots on a number of other TV series including The Texan, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Dr. Kildare, and The Twilight Zone. At this point his TV work far outpaced his feature film roles, but he did appear in the Don Knotts comedies The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut, and The Shakiest Gun in the West. In 1971 he was cast opposite Queenie Smith as part of an elderly couple in the sketch comedy series The Funny Side, which lasted less than 6 months, but he continued to find work on shows such as Love, American Style and Adam-12 before playing Justin Quigley on 4 episodes of All in the Family between 1973-76. In 1976 he also appeared 3 times on Phyllis as the suitor of Phyllis' cranky grandmother-in-law Mother Dexter. He passed away the next year on January 28, 1977 at the age of 92.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 4, Episode 15, "Teacher's Daughter": Ross Elliott (shown on the left, played Freddie the director on The Jack Benny Program and Sheriff Abbott on The Virginian) plays Wally's English teacher Mr. Foster.

Season 4, Episode 18, "Wally's Track Meet": John Close (Lt. John Jameson on Big Town) plays Wally's track coach Mr. Henderson. Richard Deacon (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Dick Van Dyke Show) plays Lumpy's father Fred Rutherford.

Season 4, Episode 19, "Beaver's Old Buddy": Gary Hunley (Mickey on Sky King) plays Beaver's old friend Jackie Waters.

Season 4, Episode 20, "Beaver's Tonsils": John Gallaudet (Chamberlain on Mayor of the Town, Judge Penner on Perry Mason, and Bob Anderson on My Three Sons) plays physician Dr. Kirby.

Season 4, Episode 21, "The Big Fish Count": Jennie Lynn (Jennie Baker on Love and Marriage) plays little girl Sally Ann Maddox.

Season 4, Episode 23, "Mother's Helper": Candy Moore (shown on the right, played Angie on The Donna Reed Show, Chris Carmichael on The Lucy Show, and hosted The Dream Girl of 1967) plays June's helper Margie Manners.

Season 4, Episode 24, "The Dramatic Club": Katherine Warren (appeared in The Lady Pays Off, The Glenn Miller Story, and The Caine Mutiny) plays math teacher Mrs. Prescott.

Season 4, Episode 25, "Wally and Dudley": Jimmy Hawkins (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Donna Reed Show) plays Wally's new classmate Dudley McMillan. Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson on Lost in Space)  plays Eddie Haskell's girlfriend Christine Staples.

Season 4, Episode 28, "Mistaken Identity": Alan Hewitt (starred in That Touch of Mink, Days of Wine and Roses, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and played Det. Bill Brennan on My Favorite Martian) plays police Lt. Barnes. Marvin Bryan (Lt. Bacon on Yancy Derringer) plays police Officer Medford.

Season 4, Episode 29, "Wally's Dream Girl": Linda Bennett (appeared in The Big Heat, Creature With the Atom Brain, and Queen Bee and was a recording artist whose credits include one of the worst Christmas singles of all time, "An Old Fashioned Christmas (Daddy's Home)") plays Wally's crush Ginny Townsend.

Season 4, Episode 30, "The School Picture": Gage Clarke (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Gunsmoke) plays school photographer Mr. Baxter. Doris Packer (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays school principal Mrs. Rayburn.

Season 4, Episode 31, "Beaver's Rat": Richard Deacon (shown on the far right, see "Wally's Track Meet" above) returns as Fred Rutherford. Veronica Cartwright (shown on the near right, starred in The Birds, The Children's Hour, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Alien, The Right Stuff, and The Witches of Eastwick and played Jemima Boone on Daniel Boone, Molly Hark on Tanner '88, A.D.A. Margaret Flanagan on L.A. Law, Cassandra Spender on The X-Files, Valerie Shenkman on Invasion, and Bun Waverly on Eastwick) plays his daughter Violet.

Season 4, Episode 32, "In the Soup": Harry Holcombe (appeared in The Fortune Cookie, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Foxy Brown, Escape to Witch Mountain, and Empire of the Ants and played Frank Gardner on Search for Tomorrow, Doc Benson on My Mother the Car, Mr. Kendricks on Barefoot in the Park, and Dr. J.P. Martin on Bonanza) plays Whitey's father Frank Whitney.

Season 4, Episode 33, "Community Chest": Lee Meriwether (shown on the left, starred in Batman: The Movie, Angel in My Pocket, and The Undefeated and played Anne Reynolds on The Young Marrieds, Nurse Bonnie Tynes on Dr. Kildare, Dr. Ann MacGregor on The Time Tunnel, Tracey on Mission: Impossible, Lee Sawyer on The New Andy Griffith Show, Betty Jones on Barnaby Jones, Lily Munster on The Munsters Today, Ruth Martin on All My Children, and Birdie Spencer on Project: Phoenix) plays a young woman donating to the community chest.

Season 4, Episode 36, "Beaver Goes Into Business": Amzie Strickland (Mrs. Phillips on The Bill Dana Show and Julia Mobey on Carter Country) plays a woman whose lawn Beaver mows. William Stevens (Officer Jerry Walters on Adam-12) plays a man upset after Beaver cuts his lawn.

Season 4, Episode 37, "Kite Day": Jason Robards, Sr. (father of Jason Robards, Jr.) plays judge Mr. Henderson.

Season 4, Episode 38, "Beaver's Doll Buggy": Jean Vanderpyl (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Flintstones) plays Penny Woods' mother Mrs. Woods. Jennie Lynn (see "The Big Fish Count" above) plays little girl Patty Ann Maddox.

Season 5, Episode 1, "Wally Goes Steady": Pat McCaffrie (Chuck Forrest on Bachelor Father and Dr. Edgar Harris on Outlaws) plays Ward's athletic club acquaintance Bill Boothby. Mary Mitchel (appeared in Twist Around the Clock, Panic in Year Zero, A Swingin' Summer, and Dementia 13) plays his daughter Evelyn. Ryan O'Neal (shown on the far left, starred in Love Story, What's Up, Doc?, Barry Lyndon, Paper Moon, A Bridge Too Far, and The Main Event and played Tal Garrett on Empire, Rodney Harrington on Peyton Place, Bobby Tannen on Good Sports, Robert Roberts, Jr. on Bull, Jerry Fox on Miss Match, and Max Keenen on Bones) plays his son-in-law Tom Henderson.

Season 5, Episode 2, "No Time for Babysitters": Barbara Parkins (shown on the right, starred in Valley of the Dolls, The Mephisto Waltz, and Puppet on a Chain and played Betty Anderson Harrington on Peyton Place) plays Beaver's babysitter Judy Walker.

Season 5, Episode 3, "Wally's Car": Ralph Sanford (Mayor Jim Kelley on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays junkman Mr. Garvey.

Season 5, Episode 5, "Beaver's Cat Problem": Grace Wallis Huddle (mother of Sue Ane Langdon) plays cat owner Mrs. Prentiss.

Season 5, Episode 6, "Wally's Weekend Job": Tim Graham (Homer Ede on National Velvet) plays drugstore owner Mr. Gibson. Bill Baldwin (the narrator on Harbor Command and Bat Masterson and the announcer on The Bob Cummings Show) plays Mary Ellen Rogers' father Mr. Rogers.

Season 5, Episode 7, "Beaver Takes a Drive": Maurice Manson (shown on the left, played Frederick Timberlake on Dennis the Menace, Josh Egan on Hazel, and Hank Pinkham on General Hospital) plays traffic court Judge Morton. Gail Bonney (Goodwife Martin on Space Patrol and Madeline Schweitzer on December Bride) plays his clerk. Stuffy Singer (Donnie Henderson on Beulah and Alexander Bumstead on Blondie) plays Wally's friend Steve.

Season 5, Episode 8, "Wally's Big Date": Judee Morton (appeared in Zotz! and The Slime People and played Dr. Smithson on General Hospital) plays Wally's original dance date Marjorie Muller. Laraine Stephens (Susan Wentworth on O.K. Crackerby!, Diane Waring on Brackens World, and Claire Kronski on Matt Helm) plays Wally's new date Gail Preston.

Season 5, Episode 9, "Beaver's Ice Skates.": Stanley Clements (Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in 6 Bowery Boys feature films) plays a shoe salesman.

Season 5, Episode 10, "Weekend Invitation": David Kent (later played Bill Scott on Leave It to Beaver) plays Wally's new classmate Scott. Richard Deacon (see "Wally's Track Meet" above) returns as Fred Rutherford.

Season 5, Episode 12, "Wally's Chauffeur": Mary Mitchel (see " Wally Goes Steady " above) returns as Wally's girlfriend Evelyn Boothby. James Seay (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays her father. Mark Allen (Matt Kissel on The Travels of Jamie McPheeters and Sam Evans on Dark Shadows) plays a policeman.