It is a query why we watch this 50’s early 60’s sitcom over and over. So many of us baby boomers do. I guess it is a welcome relief from the immorality of today 2024. No era was perfect because we are not perfect but the difference in today’s culture is monumental. No full circle.
This show was what we all wanted in family life. The cast was perfect together. It had morals and soul to it. Hugh brought the morals because of his background. I still watch this today in this world we live in . It is a escape we all need. God Bless them all for what they gave us.
We need more shows like this now… tv shows have really gone down hill and I cannot trust them for my child. It was such a great show and I love watching the re-runs
Thank you for sharing this! We've been watching a couple of Leave it to Beaver re-runs every night for the last year. It sure makes you wish life was this easy again!
It was a great show when I was a kid. And I am still watching reruns. iI’s one of the few programs on television that leaves you smiling when it’s over .
they may frame it as she did here in the introduction as being a goody two shoes life sit com, but let me tell you as easy as Jane throws reality into that concept and said, NOT the way it is, she quickly casts aside the great things WE learned by watching it. Such as, morals, and values and good parenting and healthy lifestyles. It offered a way to cope with OUR issues as we would see an episode about how to deal with classroom things and teachers and manners, with respect. The Real thang, as she described, wasn't bad at all, in comparison to today, however, the real thang INCLUDED Leave it to Beaver. IMHO
I'm 60 yo & remember staying home from school & watching reruns on the UHF channels, which, for some reason, ran during school hours. The line-up was LITB, Hazel, My Three Sons, Donna Reed, et al. Great memories.
Voodoo Curse was my favorite episode. Most people miss the banter between husband and wife. Grew up watching this everyday for years and now 65 years later its still just an amazing show.
@@R._Thornhill Some do, but certainly not a prevalent thing. Now, after all this change , for decades both parents have to work to make ends meet, not just to have a career, because wages have not caught up to reality and busting unions has become the profitable thing to do for big corporations and chains.
Leave it to Beaver ended in 1963 with just the single person of color during it's run. The Patty Duke Show, which aired from 1963 to 1966, showed black students occasionally, and Sammy Davis, Jr. was a featured guest star.
Actually, LEAVE IT TO BEAVER was more of a reflection of the early 1960s. The decades were generally set two years before the decade changeover. Considering that the last four years were from the 1960s, this is so.
I disagree. The real 1960's didn't start until after Kennedy was assassinated in late 1963 and the Beatles and civil rights, and Viet Nam went into full gear and so on. The early 1960's were slow to change, and were a hangover of the 1950's generally. and the 1960's didn't really end until Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. There was no specific dividing line of course, but slow morphing. and the world changed behind our backs while everyone was disco dancing in the mid to late 1970's as a distraction and we lost our focus on the future and our shirts on the dance floor.... 😂
. 33:34..........I was SO sure Jerry Mathers was wrong on both counts, when he tells Bob Costas that "The Trouble With Harry" (1955) was one of John Forsythe's first films, and WAS Shirley MacLaine's first movie, but he was actually correct on that point regarding Ms. MacLaine (could have SWORN Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's "Artists and Models" (1955) came first !!).....however, it WAS FAR from being Forsythe's first film, which actually (according to IMDb) was "Northern Pursuit", from1943. 🙂 .
when Jane Pauley in 1980 introduces the Leave it to Beaver show in the late 1950's as "one of the most popular show" she is full of shit. Leave It to Beaver never broke into the Nielsen Ratings top 30 in its six-season run. However, it proved to be much more popular in reruns.
You are so correct. In my book, "The World Famous Beaverpedia," I mention this but do show how it compared among younger audiences during some rating periods where it was just as popular as the ones we know like Andy Griffith, etc. Those stats came from Broadcast Magazine and I was able to see a few ratings periods, but overall, you are right that it never was that popular first run.
Not sure if that is a reminder. In my high school in the midwest, of 535 seniors, 534 were white, 1 was black. No asians; no hispanics. Other minorities may not have had it great as a whole in the USA, but not present in sufficient numbers to make as assessment where I grew up.
