NBCUniversal
On the surface, there really is no reason the Classic TV family sitcom Leave It to Beaver should remain so popular today, over 60 years after its debut. For starters, it’s what you could call a “soft” comedy without any genuine laugh-out-loud moments. There are some who might say the messages instilled in young Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) and his big brother Wally (Tony Dow) from their dad, Ward (Hugh Beaumont), can be considered corny and out of step with the times.
And then there is matriarch June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley), the butt of decades of jokes for being a housewife who cleans the homestead while wearing dresses, high heels and pearls. But you know what? It simply doesn’t matter.
“I think the show is the most natural and most realistic representation of the late ‘50s, early ‘60s that was on the air,” Tony told Fox News in September 2019. “And most of the stories came from real life. I remember the writers would come in with these elaborate pitches. The producers would then say, ‘I don’t want to know any of that. Stop pitching us. Just tell us the worst thing that’s ever happened to you as a kid. Go write that.’ So they really tried to keep the show realistic and believable … I’m a little biased, as all my other friends who are on other shows are. They think their shows are the best. But I really do think ours was special, because it was written extremely well. We spent a little more money on it than most, I believe, but it was just more realistic.”
And that show — which ran from 1957 to 1963 — has managed to withstand the test of time, its fan base constantly growing. Jerry attended a Christmas event for underprivileged kids in 2019 and he was pleasantly surprised to find the young people actually knew what Leave It to Beaver was and appreciated it. Enthused Jerry to Closer Weekly in an exclusive interview, “It’s always fun to have fans like that, especially at that age, because you’ll have them for a long time. It was good to see them enjoy themselves so much.”
And to celebrate our own enjoyment of the show, we’re taking a look at the lives and careers of Hugh, Barbara, Tony and Jerry.
Keep scrolling to find out what happened to the Leave It To Beaver cast.
