They're all wrong.

In fact, Leave It to Beaver was a quietly revolutionary show, a program whose insight into the way people (especially children and teenagers) really think and behave and the little things in life that for children and teenagers can balloon into major life crises, helped pave the way for programs as influential as The Dick Van Dyke Show and even Seinfeld.

While on the surface it might seem like any other family sitcom of its era (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Father Knows Best to name two.), Leave It to Beaver was different. Unlike David and Ricky and "Princess" and Bud, Beaver and Wally behaved pretty much like real if ordinary kids. And that was its charm: instead of aiming for easy condescending laughs, creators Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher decided to tell stories from Beaver and Wally's perspective, and in so doing nailed the fears and foibles of real kids.

After repeatedly losing his lunch money, Beaver is sent to get a haircut with stern warnings from Ward not to lose his haircut money. Of course he does, and in desperation Beaver tries to give himself a haircut, with disastrous results made worse when Wally tries to "fix it."

When new neighbors move in next door and pretty Mrs. Donaldson (Phyllis Coates, late of The Adventures of Superman) innocently kisses a welcoming Beaver on the cheek, Wally's obnoxious pal Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond, in a role that would eventually evolve into one of TV's all-time great characters) convinces Beaver that Mr. Donaldson (Charles H. Gray) will probably want to murder Beaver once he finds out. Later, when Beaver sees Mr. Donaldson brandishing some garden shears, Beaver becomes paralyzed with abject fear.

Just as real adults look back on their childhood with kind of embarrassed amusement, we laugh at Wally and Beaver's misunderstandings, wild schemes, and gullibility because we recognize ourselves in these stories. These are kids who are respectful around adults, but among themselves are sometimes quick to knock the older generation (Eddie Haskell especially, whose insincere politeness around adults is especially obvious to June).

Later in the series, when Wally became a high school senior and Beaver was about freshman age, the series only got better, with an even greater understanding of teenage life. It's a shame the show didn't continue from there; it would have been interesting to see Wally enter the workforce, Beaver going to college etc. (The series was eventually revived, with mixed results, as a 1983 TV movie and subsequent 1985 series, Still the Beaver.)

What's perhaps most unusual and most impressive about Leave It to Beaver was that in a world where parents were always right and suburbia was sold as a kind of Utopia, the show dares to dramatize just how easily parents can be at fault for their children's problems, how they often lack patience and don't listen to their children's needs or completely misunderstand them. Here the show is almost a revelation: Mom and (especially) Dad are often wrong. They make mistakes as often as the kids do, and if Leave It to Beaver is idealized in any way, it's in how frequently Ward and June realize this, and how willing they are to apologize for their mistakes and talk about it with their kids.

And, of course, it's funny. Episodes are like mini-movies, with the production values common to one-camera shows of the period. Fans of film and TV characters will want to note the show's first season guests, which include Edgar Buchanan, Herb Vigran, James Gleason, William Schallert, Ann Doran, Karl Swenson, John Hoyt, and Lyle Talbot.

Video & Audio

Leave It to Beaver is presented in its original 4:3 format, with episodes uncut and not time-compressed. Episodes look very good, with almost no damage or age-related well, a surprise considering how this series has been in almost constant syndication since the 1960s. Made back in the days when a television season meant the daunting production of 39 episodes (nearly twice the number of shows produced per season today), the first season is crammed onto three double-sided discs. These sorts of discs have presented innumerable problems for consumers, though this reviewer encountered none of the sorts of problems experienced on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and other Universal boxed sets. Episodes are in English mono only, with optional English and Spanish subtitles.

Extra Features

There's just one bonafide extra but it's a good one, misleadingly billed on the menu screen as a "Bonus Episode," but in fact the original pilot, "It's a Small World." The half-hour show features Billingsley (a bit sexier and less domesticated than she'd be in the series) and Mathers, but Max Showalter (then billed as Casey Adams) as Ward, Paul Sullivan as Wally, and an instantly recognizable 13-year-old Harry Shearer in a role that would eventually become Eddie Haskell. Both Showalter and Sullivan are okay, but Hugh Beaumont was both more approachable and authoritative as Ward, as well as funnier when frustrated by the boys' behavior (Showalter merely looks dyspeptic). Sullivan, meanwhile, isn't bad but less natural and distinctive than Tony Dow. The script, which has Shearer's would-be Eddie Haskell sending Beaver on a wild goose chase after 1,000 milk bottletops, has all the right elements but is still pretty askew from the tone of the eventual series, with too much emphasis on a satiric subplot about corporate bureaucracy. Another surprise is the appearance of future series regular Richard Deacon, cast here as a milk company manager. The show runs 25 minutes and is in pristine condition.

The Limited Edition Gift Set also includes "Collectible Lunch Box Packaging" and The Cleaver Family Photo Album.

Parting Thoughts

Leave It to Beaver is a more insightful, better-written show than most people realize, made with sensitivity for the concerns, ambitions, and feelings of real, ordinary children.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf - The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune and Taschen's forthcoming Cinema Nippon. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.