There could also be no extra archetypical American household sitcom than “Depart it to Beaver.” Even character names grew to become archetypes, as “Ward Cleaver” immediately connotes a firm-but-fair good father, and a June Cleaver kind can be assumed a wholesomely lovely housewife and mom. Household issues, drawn from the writers’ actual lives, normally proved solvable, and the Cleaver clan usually supplied the mannequin of the household that the viewer wish to have.
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As typical as its drama could have been, the present did break new floor. It was the primary prime-time sequence to particularly create a sequence finale episode, and stated finale was additionally one of many earliest clip-show sitcom episodes (it was preceded by at the least one different, an “I Love Lucy” Christmas Particular). Within the final episode, “Household Scrapbook,” the Cleavers take a look at previous stills from prior episodes and keep in mind highlights from the present, together with most of the main supporting characters, like Wally’s obnoxious pal Eddie Haskell. Ward and June additionally lastly revealed the origin of Theodore’s “Beaver” nickname.
By way of six seasons with 39 episodes every, at a time when there have been solely three main TV networks, the solid of “Depart it to Beaver” grew to become so acquainted to American households that it proved powerful for them to get completely different roles after the present ended. There was worth within the model, and most returned for revivals, however let’s take a look at what else occurred to the “Depart It to Beaver” solid following the ultimate episode.
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Jerry Mathers (The Beaver)
When the present ended, Jerry Mathers did what each boy his age normally does: He went to highschool and possibly headed off numerous potential teasing by embracing his previous, fronting a band known as Beaver and the Trappers. Afterward, he joined the California Air Nationwide Guard, and although a rumor unfold that he was killed within the Vietnam Struggle, he by no means really left the nation whereas in service. After getting a BA in philosophy at UC Berkeley, he labored in banking, actual property, and radio, finally returning to appearing on the dinner theater circuit.
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In 1983, CBS introduced Mathers and his surviving costars again for the TV film “Nonetheless the Beaver,” which spawned a brand new sequence initially known as “Nonetheless the Beaver” for one season on The Disney Channel, and subsequently as “The New Depart It to Beaver” for 3 extra seasons on CBS. It depicted Beaver as a divorced dad, and arguably set a precedent we have to cease.
Mathers’ appearing profession since then has principally been in cameos on different exhibits to permit him to spend extra household time. He is been a spokesman for the Nationwide Psoriasis Basis, and the primary male spokesman for the Jenny Craig weight reduction program. Within the ’90s, he briefly ran a catering firm known as “Cleaver’s Catering.” Extra lately, he is been writing a guide about his weight-loss journey.
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His son Noah is knowledgeable sound mixer, totally on documentary and actuality exhibits like “Coast Guard Alaska.”
Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver)
Hugh Beaumont’s good-guy picture was greater than a TV portrayal, as he was additionally a Methodist minister with a Masters in theology from USC and a conscientious objector throughout World Struggle II, serving as a medic fairly than in fight. Previous to enjoying Ward, he was best-known for taking part in Brett Halliday’s detective character Michael Shayne in 5 movies. The character is nearly all the time broke as a result of he will not settle for morally ambiguous instances, and infrequently works professional bono. Beaumont did not imagine in compromising his morality as a priest if an appearing function required it. Although he didn’t seem within the authentic “Depart It to Beaver” pilot, each Ward and Wally have been promptly recast, and Beaumont grew to become well-known for the function. He additionally acquired to direct a number of episodes, and even write one.
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After “Depart It to Beaver” ended, he principally guested on different exhibits, like “Wagon Prepare” (above) and “Mannix.” As appearing work dried up, he moved to Minnesota and began a Christmas tree-selling enterprise. Following a serious stroke in 1970, he formally retired from appearing. Although he did seem in 1980 as a part of a solid reunion on L.A. native TV information, he died of a coronary heart assault a yr earlier than the discharge of “Nonetheless the Beaver,” which was devoted to him.
Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver)
Barbara Billingsley had beforehand been an everyday on the single-season “Skilled Father.” On “Depart It to Beaver,” she introduced her actual life love of pearl necklaces to June Cleaver, as she thought they helped conceal and lightweight a hole in her neck. It grew to become a working joke amongst some viewers that the character did family chores in heels, however the heels have been to compensate for the truth that Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow have been rising quick, and he or she did not need to look too quick.
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When the present ended, Billingsley stayed in contact with Mathers as a mentor, however she did not do a lot appearing for the subsequent 17 years, except enjoying two completely different characters on two separate episodes of “The FBI.” In 1980, nevertheless, she skilled a profession resurgence after showing in “Airplane!” — which continues to be hilarious after 40 years — because the passenger who’s capable of converse Jive (above).
Sufficiently old to now not be stereotyped as June, she started working repeatedly once more and gained a complete new era of followers because the voice of Nanny on the animated “Muppet Infants” spinoff that got here instantly from “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” Billingsley nonetheless reprised her most well-known function on “Nonetheless the Beaver” and its subsequent sequence, and he or she was additionally one among three actors from the unique sequence to make a cameo within the 1997 “Depart It to Beaver” film, as Aunt Martha. (The opposite two have been Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell Sr., and Frank Financial institution as Frank.)
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She died in 2010, aged 94.
Tony Dow (Wally)
Tony Dow was an aspiring championship swimmer when he acquired the function of Wally, as a result of earlier actor within the pilot rising too tall, too quick. Through the course of “Depart It to Beaver,” he grew to become a teen heartthrob, and he had the proper look to maintain appearing thereafter, most notably starring in “By no means Too Younger,” the primary daytime cleaning soap geared toward youngsters. Like Mathers, he additionally joined the California Nationwide Guard through the Vietnam Struggle, serving primarily as a photographer.
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After the conflict, he labored development whereas nonetheless dabbling in appearing, enjoying Wally once more in parody type for a sketch in “The Kentucky Fried Film.” When he returned to the function full-time for “Nonetheless the Beaver,” he tried his hand at writing and directing and took to it, turning into a TV director on exhibits that continuously had a sci-fi or fantasy bent, like “Babylon 5,” “Swamp Factor,” and the TV spinoffs of “Harry and the Hendersons” and “Honey, I Shrunk the Children.” This additionally led him to an curiosity in particular results, which he supervised on “Babylon 5” and the flop Paul McGann “Physician Who” TV film. He additionally got here near directing “The Line Kings,” a comedy film about “Star Wars” followers battling to be first in line for the subsequent movie.
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Later in life he grew to become a bronze sculptor. He additionally battled scientific despair and appeared in self-help movies about beating it. Sadly, he died of liver most cancers in 2022 on the age of 77.
Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell)
Eddie Haskell was alleged to be simply one other of many one-off TV roles for Ken Osmond, however the character proved standard, and he grew to become an everyday. Along with his unfailing politeness to adults and duplicity behind their backs, Eddie grew to become an iconic sitcom character, a lot in order that Osmond discovered himself principally unable to get any subsequent appearing work. Although he did rating an uncredited cameo in Doris Day’s ultimate movie, “With Six You Get Eggroll,” he wished to have the ability to purchase a home, so he joined the LAPD, rising a mustache to keep away from being acknowledged as Eddie whereas in uniform. In direction of the top of the present, he had beforehand served within the Military Reserve.
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Through the time he was away from appearing, Osmond was the topic of two main rumors. One was that he was really shock rocker Alice Cooper, based mostly on a misreported quote from Cooper. One other was that he had grow to be porn star John Holmes, which was so pervasive was that he needed to confront a theater and bookstore wrongly selling it.
After being shot 3 times within the line of responsibility, he finally acquired a full pension and retired from the drive, proper as “Nonetheless the Beaver” arrived to permit him to return as Eddie, alongside together with his two real-life sons, Eric and Christian, enjoying Eddie’s sons. After that present ran its course, he continued to make cameos and particular appearances earlier than his dying from COPD problems in 2020, aged 76.
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Rusty Stevens (Larry Mondello)
Robert “Rusty” Stevens was promoting newspapers on a avenue nook when a expertise scout named Lola Moore noticed him. He’d been doing that job for 10 months, then abruptly he discovered himself enjoying the Beaver’s good friend and schoolmate Larry. It led to additional gigs on exhibits like “77 Sundown Strip” and “The Rifleman,” however his appearing profession ended abruptly in 1963. He had left “Depart It to Beaver” three years earlier, and based on Barbara Billingsley, it was as a result of his mom proved to be an insufferable stage mother. His household then moved to Philadelphia.
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Jerry Mathers spent years in search of Rusty, personally wanting him to come back again for “Nonetheless the Beaver.” He discovered him promoting automobile insurance coverage in New Jersey. Briefly returning to appearing to play Larry within the pilot and three subsequent episodes, he returned to promoting insurance coverage afterward. As of this writing, he’s nonetheless alive in his mid-70s, however this time, he and Mathers have stayed in contact as two of solely three main actors left alive from the present.
Pamela Baird (Mary Ellen Rogers)
Pamela Beaird, who simplified her final title to “Baird” for her appearing profession, was a part of a teenage concord group known as the Holly-Tones within the Nineteen Fifties, alongside together with her cousins Deanna and Joyce. Her first credited appearing function got here on “The twentieth Century Fox Hour,” an anthology present that featured shortened remakes of tales from standard Fox motion pictures. After many appearances on exhibits together with “Father Is aware of Greatest,” “My Pal Flicka,” and “Bachelor Father,” she landed her best-known function as Wally Cleaver’s girlfriend, Mary Ellen. When the present ended, she principally disappeared from appearing following a 1964 look on “Perry Mason.”
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In 1973, she married Texan gospel singer Robert Hensley, who had beforehand been a TV western actor beneath the title of Bob Henry and a singer utilizing the alias Jericho Brown (to not be confused with the Pulitzer-winning poet of the identical title). After he grew to become born once more, Hensley based a ministry, and he met Beaird at a Hollywood Christian Group. That they had 5 kids, and toured the nation as a household for 12 years, singing non secular songs, founding church buildings, and preaching the Bible. Hensley used to joke that he “stole Mary Ellen Rogers from Wally Cleaver.”
Hensley died in 2016, and Beaird, now 80, survives him.
Sue Randall (Miss Landers)
Born Marion Burnside Randall, the actress who grew to become finest often called Beaver’s eminently crushable instructor acquired her first main break on the daytime drama “Valiant Woman,” because the third actress to play the function of Diane Emerson Soames. Her solely film function got here shortly thereafter, in a supporting function within the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy rom-com “Desk Set” (above). Many single-episode TV appearances adopted, on the likes of “The Rifleman,” “Gunsmoke,” and three completely different characters on “77 Sundown Strip,” earlier than “Depart it To Beaver” in 1958. Her appearing profession continued in the identical vein for a couple of decade thereafter, with the spotlight being six episodes of the anthology “Dying Valley Days” as a number of characters.
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She retired from appearing in 1967, transferring to Philadelphia two years later to work in an administrative function for charitable organizations, amongst them the A number of Sclerosis Telethon, Studying for the Blind, and Venture Headstart. Sadly, Randall died of lung most cancers on the age of 49, presumably attributable to her heavy smoking behavior. She donated her physique to medical science, by means of the Humanity Presents Registry of Philadelphia.
Madge Blake (Margaret Mondello)
The TV mom of Beaver’s bud Larry could have essentially the most fascinating story. Madge Blake did not begin her appearing profession till age 50, previous to which she and her husband James Lincoln Blake labored on the Manhattan Venture, testing tools and dealing on development of the detonator for the unique atomic bomb. They obtained a quotation from the federal government.
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Following an uncredited small function in “An American in Paris,” she befriended Gene Kelly, who put her in most of his movies thereafter, notably as gossip columnist Dora Bailey in “Singin’ within the Rain” (above). Following “Depart It to Beaver,” she appeared in a number of roles on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” and “The Danny Thomas Present.” She was an everyday solid member on “The Joey Bishop Present” and “The Actual McCoys” earlier than scoring her most well-known function as Aunt Harriet on the 1966 “Batman” sequence and film. The character had first appeared in Detective Comics #328, however the TV present fleshed her out and added canonical particulars, like her surname of Cooper. At one level, rumor had it the producers tried to fireside her from the present, however Adam West refused to allow them to, so she baked him a contemporary cake as thanks.
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She left the present throughout the third and ultimate season as her well being failed, together with her ultimate function being within the soap-spoofing TV film “Hastings Nook.” Blake died of a coronary heart assault in 1969 at age 69.
