Five Things You Didn't Know About Leave it to Beaver

My five things you didn't know about Leave It to Beaver include a tidbit about the day of its last first-run episode airing. This family-friendly program that not only elicited countless laughs and important moral messages is one of the greatest television shows of all time. Leave It to Beaver continues to live on in spirit, thanks to the influence of television, which has replayed the show's episodes over and over. These trivia nuggets are in no particular order.

Five things you didn't know about Leave It to Beaver number one: The Cleavers' second house was in a Humphrey Bogart film

When the Cleavers moved to their second house at 211 Pine, it was quite an event for the family, as their new home was more spacious. But this home was first seen in the 1955 Humphrey Bogart film The Desperate Hours [1] where the iconic actor plays a bad guy, who, along with his cohorts, holds a family hostage. Ironically, Beaver and Gilbert got so shaken up in "Beaver's Long Night" [2], fearing a mysterious car with two males dressed up as gangsters were out to get them (who turned out to be Wally's friends going to a masquerade party).

Five things you didn't know about Leave It to Beaver number two: Only twice were minorities featured in the series

Leave It to Beaver reflected the times of broadcast television, when minorities weren't cast a lot. In the show's 235 episodes (including one pilot), only one African American (Kim Hamilton as a maid in "The Parking Attendants" [3]) and one Spanish family (Alan Roberts Costello, Mary Andre, and Abel Franco in "Beaver and Chuey" [4]) were seen on the program.

Five things you didn't know about Leave It to Beaver number three: Hugh Beaumont was a real life minister

As the head of the Cleaver household, Ward was a firm but fair father figure for Wally and Beaver. Even though he didn't come across as one who was fanatical about religion (though the family was shown numerous times as coming home from church), his moral compass was quite obvious. Not surprisingly, in real life, Beaumont was an ordained Methodist minister [5].

Five things you didn't know about Leave It to Beaver number four: The last first-run episode ran on the same day of a Cold War milestone

June 20, 1963 [6] was when the last first-run episode of the program aired. The show's ending seemed to also be a foretelling of the ending of "an innocence" in America. On the very same day "Family Scrapbook" aired, the "Hot Line" was set up between the White House and Kremlin over the issue of nuclear weapons potentially being used [7]. Five months later, JFK would be gunned down in Dallas, Texas. The turmoil of the 1960s would continue to escalate.

Five things you didn't know about Leave It to Beaver number five: The series never won an Emmy

For such a quality show, it could be assumed that this program took home numerous Emmy Awards during its six season run, but it didn't even net one. Only twice in that era was Leave It to Beaver nominated for an Emmy Award (both in 1958), and not once did the iconic program ever make the Nielsen Top 30 ratings either [6]. Such non-happenings don't measure up to how history would end up judging this program.

Endnotes:

[1] Leave It to Beaver FAQ: http://www.leaveittobeaver.org/faq.htm, LeaveItToBeaver.org

[2] "Leave It to Beaver" - Beaver's Long Night (1962): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630216/, Internet Movie Database

[3] "Leave It ToBeaver" - The Parking Attendants (1963): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630309/, Internet Movie Database

[4] "Leave It to Beaver" - Beaver and Chuey (1958): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630182/, Internet Movie Database

[5] Hugh Beaumont: http://www.filmbug.com/db/244880, Filmbug.com

[6] Leave It to Beaver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_It_to_Beaver, Wikipedia

[7] Andrei Kislyakov, Hotline: 40 Years of Building Up Trust:
http://www.cdi.org/russia/263-12.cfm, CDI Russia Weekly