I am only 25, but saw Leave it To Beaver on television about 5 years ago and was already nostalgic and then went on to watch it whenever I could on TV Land. A few months ago when we were back where I grew up in Washington, I showed this to my 16-year old brother and he liked it right away; I started with the final season I bought in Seattle earlier in the trip so he saw him in his older days where his voice had deepened and he had a "funny sounding" voice. These were such episodes as where Wally grew a mustache, and Beaver finds that the paperboy he wants to get back at was really a girl, and Beaver gets ready to tour the USA with his class. He liked the older Beaver better. Ward was rather liberal for the late 1950's and early 1960's. How He is sometimes seen in the kitchen and doing dishes for example and rarely punishes Wally and Theodore. Beaver is his nickname to those who weren't part of the generation. When Beaver drills a hole in the garage with Larry coaxing him into having fun with the drill Ward just gave a stern lecture with no punishment, which still led the 7 or 8 year old Beaver to try and run away. When his father wasn't lenient giving a stern talking to or just passing a wise lesson along, he was maybe just on par with parents who are neither lenient nor strict. The one thing that may have bothered me before is that Hugh Beaumont died before I was even born. Mayfield was one of those towns where the state doesn't seem to be revealed, as the nature of Ward's work was never revealed, he was just seen in his office, often with his bumbling and annoying coworker, Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford's dad. Wally was perhaps the funniest part of the show. The generation gap and placing friends above family what Wally and later the Beaver had to say to their parents was a funny recurring joke on the show ie. " oh, people just sort of goofed around back then"," gee dad I'd feel like a creep having you introduce yourself in front of the class, mom that'd ruin me." Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow's voice's deepened a little early. One thing I didn't like was how much Beaver treated girls as repulsive and how long it took him to get over it, he only knew that adult women were too grown up to be icky in any way, he had an infatuation with his young teachers in season 1 and season 2. Mathers was a cute boy, all the way through the show and didn't lose his charm after his voice deepened. He was a nice and charming teenager. if only there was a kid like that now. Sometimes i might feel like a dork wanting to watch a series that is outdated by nearly 50 years every night, when most people under their mid or late 30's or so haven't even seen Leave it To Beaver, much less make early TV Land era shows part of their lineup. ButI have even got my contemporary slightly older brother to watch Leave it To Beaver. there's way too much to say about this show for one review.
