Golly, ‘Beaver,’ we were cute

“Gee, Wally, can you believe that our show is 50? I bet that’s even older than Dad.”

One can only imagine Beaver Cleaver saying that to his older brother when “Leave It to Beaver,” the quintessential 1950s sitcom about a family that’s as white-bread as a loaf of Wonder, marked its golden anniversary Thursday.

To celebrate, TV Land is airing a 24-hour “Beaverthon” starting Saturday at 8 p.m., which kicks off with the rarely seen pilot episode. It stars Barbara Billingsley as June in all her pearled glory, Casey Adams instead of Hugh Beaumont as dad Ward and Paul Sullivan rather than Tony Dow as Wally. And Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.

Still, it’s the classic “Beaver” moments that will have fans tuning in: Beav giving himself a haircut; Wally growing a mustache to impress a girl; and, best of all, Beaver getting stuck in a billboard’s soup bowl (don’t ask).

If you can’t wait till Saturday or want to brush up on all things Cleaver, here are a few sources to check out.

The website TVLand.com is featuring “Best of Beaver” clips, along with streaming video of the pilot and four other episodes, a photo gallery, “Beaver” trivia and a chance to win DVD sets of the show.

Eager “Beaver” fans will want to visit www.leaveittobeaver.org, which has info on all the episodes, cast member interviews, videos and, if you want to earn your doctorate in Beaverology, a thesis. And the informative FAQ answers the urgent question, “Whatever happened to Larry Mondello?” (Apparently Beaver’s carrot-topped best bud moved to New Jersey with his folks.)

If the Web isn’t your thing, check out “The Leave It to Beaver Guide to Life: Wholesome Wisdom From the Cleavers,” by Jennifer Colella (Running Press), a photo-heavy recollection of life in the Cleavers’ hometown of Mayfield.

Another book, though one that might make June Cleaver blush, is “Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It to Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life” (Addax) by Frank Bank, who played Wally’s not-so-bright pal Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford. In the book, which opens with a foreword by Ken Osmond, a.k.a. Eddie Haskell, Bank spends a few chapters recalling his years on “Beaver,” and even more on his bedroom exploits.

But no one knows more about “Beaver” than the Beav himself. In his autobiography “And Jerry Mathers as the Beaver” (Berkley), Mathers, who recently finished a three-month stint on Broadway in “Hairspray” as Wilbur Turnblad, serves up warm remembrances about the cast, addresses his battle with dyslexia and finally puts an end to those rumors that he was killed in Vietnam.