Lumpy Rutherford

This episode has Lumpy Rutherford, corpulent son of Fred Rutherford, Ward's business partner, bullying Wally and Beaver and behaving like the Billy Goats Gruff - refusing them passage to walk home from school past his house. The boys confide in Ward who tells them a story of how he dealt with a bully in his day. He seems to forget that little pitchers have big ears.

When Ward realizes what happened and tells the boys he'll smooth things over with Fred, that "smoothing over" takes place off screen. I guess it was beyond the time limit and budget for a thirty-minute show to illustrate how to tell your business partner that his son is a bully and get him to accept it without repercussions. Also, a couple of episodes back June had some weird idea about forcing togetherness on her sons. She doesn't appear to be too happy when they actually demonstrate togetherness as they did here.

I'm not sure where the transition occurred, but by the end of the series Lumpy is a friend of Wally's and graduating in the same class. Here he is supposed to be a couple of years older than Wally. However, he was always playing the part of the classic daddy's boy who was babied too much.