According to the book, ...And Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver", there are 27 Mayfields. The true location is a mystery.
Leave It To Beaver was THE situation comedy when I grew up. The great series showed a child's eye view of the world. Ward and June Cleaver lived in Mayfield, a kind of euphoric Anywhere, U.S.A. type of place. It was never revealed what state this town was in. There was so much speculation, but Ohio was the best guess. Much of Leave It To Beaver centered around the life of the young Cleaver kids,"Beaver" (Theodore) and his older brother Wally, and their observations and reactions to the everyday problems they encountered. The most colorful other regular characters were Eddie Haskell (a real joker and Wally's best friend) and Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford.
The Leave It To Beaver original pilot from 1957 came to light in 1987, with some different actors in some of the roles. The pilot was feared to be lost, but was found in an Illinois film vault.
The pilot was initially called Wally and Beaver, then It's A Small World before the final title was selected.
Joe Connelly, one of the producers, had always wanted to be a writer, and had kept a journal. When he was in World War II, and was on a destroyer in the Pacific, one of his shipmates was named the Beaver. When he came to do Leave it to Beaver and was searching for a name, he went through his list of names that he had kept. The names under the A's were searched and were passed on. The B's were read and when he came across the name of "Beaver", he made the decision to select that name for the title character. The reason was made on the show that Wally couldn't pronounce Theodore and somehow ended up with Beaver. But the real reason he was called Beaver was the name came from Joe's shipmate.
Norman Tokar, who directed most of the Leave It To Beaver episodes for the first 3 years, was a child actor who played Henry Aldrich on the radio. He also wrote many of the Leave It To Beaver shows.
Hugh Beaumont died of a heart attack in 1982 while visiting his son in Munich.
Leave it to Beaver is the 2nd longest running TV show in history.
Miss Landers first name was Alice.
Jerry Mathers was told to lose weight or he might not be around in 3-5 years. He had diabetes and high blood pressure. He went to Jenny Craig to lose the weight and did it with portion control.
For all of elementary school, Jerry had never really been to school. He had a private tutor.
When Leave it to Beaver was being filmed, they had 180 people on the set.
Leave It To Beaver plays in 180 countries and is spoken in 140 languages.
Jerry's younger brother, Jimmy Mathers, was in his own show, called Ichabod and Me, that was done by Connally and Mosher. He was also in Bewitched, playing a sickly little boy that needed help from a witch.
Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow and Ken Osmond are going to put on a new show similar to Leave it to Beaver, that the whole family can watch.
Books about Leave It To Beaver:
...And Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver" by Jerry Mathers with Herb Fagen
The World According to Beaver by Irwyn Applebaum
Call Me Lumpy by Frank Bank with Gib Twyman
The Leave It To Beaver Guide To Life
Close-ups Conversations with our TV Favorites by Eddie Lucas is only partially about Leave It To Beaver. There are interviews with Barbara Billingsley and Tony Dow but the rest of the book has interviews with stars from other shows. Tony Dow explains why the cast is not on the Leave It To Beaver DVD talking about the show. I do want to see special features on the Leave It To Beaver DVD like Tony Dow described in this book.
The books are available at www.amazon.com
Leave It To Beaver episodes
Leave It To Beaver page on Tim's TV Showcase
leaveittobeaver.org
Leave It To Beaver site from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Trailer for the 1997 movie, Leave It To Beaver
Leave It To Beaver site from Sitcoms Online
Leave It To Beaver Dog Food Commercial
Tony Dow interview www.justmyshow.com
"Leave It to Beaver" neighborhood in the Valley - Los Angeles Times
Interview on CBS with Barbara Billingsley, Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow
Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow interviewed near Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Link to Leave It To Beaver videos from TV Land
Jerry Mathers says "When you denigrate (Beaver) in any way, it's not worth it."
Jerry Mathers received some interesting advances from Charo in Desperate Classic Housewives on the 2006 TV Land Awards (aired 3/22/06, 9pm ET/PT).
Information about the Leave It To Beaver music is on the TV Land website in at least two different places.
- Leave It To Beaver video open from TV Land. On the far right, click on the two down arrows for theme song information.
- Who wrote the music and lyrics for Leave It To Beaver?
Picture of Leave It To Beaver cast
Leave It To Beaver last updated 5/14/09
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When did the Cleavers last live at 485 Maple? Season two's last episode "Most Interesting Character" (6/25/59). The Cleavers had sold their house. When did the Cleavers first live at 211 Pine? Season three's first episode "Blind Date Committee" (10/3/59). The Leave It To Beaver house is on Colonial Street, on the upper lot at Universal City.
