‘Gosh, Beav, We’re Still a Hit’

Let’s face it, life in 1992 is tough. The smog is intolerable. The rain forest is being destroyed. The recession has a stranglehold on our economy. Crime is running rampant.

But there is an escape: “Leave It to Beaver” and its kinder, gentler time. If ever a show reflected a more innocent era, it is the homespun sitcom following the adventures of the Cleaver boys. Perhaps that’s why nearly 30 years after it departed prime time, the series is alive and well and living in syndication.

“Leave It to Beaver” (which, believe it or not, was never a Top 25 show) premiered Oct. 4, 1957, on CBS, opposite ABC’s “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.”

Created, written and produced by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who had previously written for “Amos and Andy,” “Leave It to Beaver” was sort of “The Wonder Years” of its day.

The world was seen through the eyes of Theodore Cleaver (Jerry Mathers), who was nicknamed the Beaver. The Beav, who was 7 when the show premiered, was a typical, All-American kid who was always getting into some type of harmless mischief; for instance, one time he tried to hide a baby alligator in the bathroom. Tony Dow played his brother, Wally, a 12-year-old who was beginning to show an interest in the opposite sex in the first season. Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont played their loving, understanding parents, June and Ward Cleaver.

“Leave It to Beaver” also boasted a colorful cast of supporting players. The Beav’s pals included Larry (Rusty Stevens), Whitey (Stanley Fafara) and Gilbert (Stephen Talbot). Frank Bank played Wally’s buddy Clarence (Lumpy) Rutherford and Richard Deacon, a.k.a. Mel Cooley on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” was Lumpy’s dad and Ward’s co-worker, Fred.

But the most memorable character was bully Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), Wally’s obnoxious buddy who loved to give Beav the business, but was angelic around adults, politely saying, “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver” every time he came over to visit Wally.

“Leave It to Beaver” moved from CBS to ABC in 1958, where it aired until September, 1963. When the series ended, Beav was entering his teens and Wally was setting out for college.

CBS caught up with the Mayfield gang in the 1983 TV movie, “Still the Beaver,” which reunited several cast members including Mathers, Dow, Billingsley, Deacon, Osmond (who had left show biz and become a police officer) and Bank. The one person missing was Beaumont, who suffered a stroke in 1972 and died in 1982.

Two years later, the Disney Channel introduced a new series also called “Still the Beaver.” The Beav was a divorced father of two living at home; Wally was a successful attorney who had married his high school sweetheart, and Eddie was a sleazy contractor. In 1986, the series, renamed “The New Leave It to Beaver,” moved to TBS for three seasons. It’s also currently seen in reruns.

“Leave It to Beaver” airs weekdays at 4:30 a.m. on WWOR , 9 a.m. on KTLA and 2 p.m. on XETV . “The New Leave It to Beaver” airs Saturdays at 8 a.m. on KTLA.