Leave It to Beaver (1962)

 

As with the 1961 episodes for Leave It to Beaver, the episodes for 1962 centered on Beaver and Wally trying to adjust to the pressures of growing up and getting into trouble due to bad advice and unreasonable requests from "friends" like Eddie Haskell, Lumpy Rutherford, Gilbert Bates, and Richard Rickover. The hardest lesson for the Cleaver boys to learn is to just say "no" when they are asked or pressured to do something they know is wrong but end up doing anyway. While Wally has no trouble telling Beaver not to follow Eddie Haskell's advice, he is not always as successful doing it himself. In "Lumpy's Car Trouble" (March 31, 1962), Wally is supposed to ride in Lumpy's car to an out-of-town track meet with Beaver getting permission to go along and Eddie getting picked up as team manager, but on the day of the meet Lumpy's car won't run, and since Ward is not using his own car, having ridden to work with Lumpy's father Fred, Ward gets talked into letting Lumpy, who has already received his driver's license while Wally has not, drive the Cleaver car to the track meet. Despite Ward's stern instructions to Wally to have Lumpy only drive straight to the meet and back, Eddie and Lumpy decide to try a shortcut on the way back and wind up crashing through a large mud hole on an unpaved section of road, causing the car to die and requiring the boys to push it to the nearest service station. Though the boys have enough money between them to pay to get the car fixed and get it home without having to tell Ward what happened, he finds out about it anyway from a work colleague who just happened to drive past them while they were pushing the car to the service station. Ward tells Wally he will not get to use the car again for a long time but refuses to tell him how he found out about it so that he won't think he can figure out how to get away with things in the future. But the lesson doesn't stick with Wally because after he gets his license in the Season 6 episode "Wally's License" (October 11, 1962), he gets talked into misusing Ward's brand new car in "Wally's Car Accident" (November 29, 1962) after being given permission to drive his date Shirley Fletcher to the prom while his parents are out of town. Once again Ward gives Wally the ground rules of not picking up any other riders and only going to the dance and back, but once again he is pressured by Eddie and Wally, who have ridden to the dance together and are now stranded because Lumpy's car won't start, to use Ward's car to push Lumpy's to get it started. Even Wally's date Shirley knows that Wally shouldn't help them, but after they promise to wrap Ward's bumper with a blanket Wally gives in only to have Lumpy still make an unexpected maneuver and smash the front headlight on Ward's car. As in the earlier episode, the boys cobble enough money together to get the car fixed good as new and almost pull off slipping the ruse past Ward, but this time Lumpy phones the Cleaver home with the intention of urging Wally not to tell his father about the accident, only Ward picks up the phone and Lumpy starts talking before realizing he is not speaking to Wally. Wally can tell Ward knows about the accident just from his expression after getting off the phone and ends up confessing to the whole mess without having to be prompted. But it remains to be seen if Wally has finally learned not to get into such messes in the first place.

Speaking of Eddie Haskell, as we covered in our last post, we began to get a bit of backstory for his annoying behavior due to a botched hair experiment his mother gave him when he was in kindergarten, and for the first time we saw his vulnerability behind his overconfident bluster when he is afraid to stay at home alone while his parents are out of town. The 1962 episodes continue this theme with more stories about the pathetic reality behind Eddie's two-faced hustler facade. In "Beaver's Fear" (February 24, 1962), Beaver gets his parents to pressure Wally to take him along when he, Eddie, and Lumpy go to an amusement park which has a terrifying new rollercoaster. Beaver needs a pep talk from Gus the fireman to get over his fear of heights and actually go on the rollercoaster, but for all of Eddie's tough talk and swagger, he is the one who winds up getting sick on the rollercoaster. In "A Night in the Woods" (June 9, 1962), Eddie is annoyed that Wally has committed to taking Beaver and his friends camping out in the woods on the same night that Eddie needs him on a triple date that will only work if Wally agrees to take out Mary Denton in exchange for Eddie and Lumpy getting to take out her two visiting cousins. When Wally refuses to back out on his camping promise, Eddie recruits Lumpy to try to scare the campers to abandon their overnight stay in time to still make the dates but winds up getting frightened himself and then stranded on the side of a cliff, requiring him to be rescued by a forest ranger who quickly shuts down his face-saving flippancy after he has been pulled to safety. In "Eddie Quits School" (March 10, 1962), Eddie drops out of high school after a run-in with the track coach and boasts to Wally and Lumpy about how enslaved they are with all their high school responsibilities while he will be making $80 a week working at a car repair garage. Not long afterward Eddie shows up at Wally's house sporting expensive new clothes purchased with his first week's pay, but when Wally and Lumpy decide to drop in on him at work, they overhear his boss berating him for constant mistakes, and later Eddie can't find anyone to hang out with him since they are all busy with school activities. Sensing that Eddie is really miserable behind his facade, Wally talks the school principal into gently suggesting that he return to school, and after more trouble with his boss, Eddie jumps at the chance but continues to put an overconfident spin on his decision by claiming that the principal and track coach begged him to come back. In "Eddie, the Businessman" (November 1, 1962), Eddie gets conned into an ice-cream theft ring at the local dairy where he and Wally have taken part-time jobs. Eddie becomes an easy mark for the crooked foreman running the scam after telling Wally that you have to suck up to the higher ups to get ahead. After Eddie gets caught red-handed loading cases of ice cream into the foreman's trunk by the dairy manager and the foreman claiming he never told Eddie to do it, Wally has to bail him out by telling the manager what really happened. And "Bachelor at Large" (November 15, 1962) plays out in similar fashion to "Eddie Quits School": this time he moves out of his parents' house into a boardinghouse after an argument, then tries to convince Wally and Lumpy that he is living the high life with attractive young women in his boardinghouse cooking for him. But at the same time he is desperate for company and after inviting Wally and Lumpy over for dinner, Ward gets a call from Mr. Haskell asking that they not humor Eddie, which will only make things worse, so Wally goes to the boardinghouse with Beaver tagging along to tell Eddie he won't be coming to dinner. They learn from his landlady that he is desperately lonely, his room is a sad mess, there are no young women living in the house, and Eddie even resorted to adopting a dog just to have some company. Later we learn that Eddie eventually moved back home, and while he claims in usual Eddie style that his parents begged him to come back, Wally figures that the landlady called his parents to come get him. While Leave It to Beaver deserves credit for fleshing out Eddie's character into a multi-faceted personality, the writers seem to have gotten stuck in portraying him as a pathetic loser who covers his short-comings with a show of bluster, while everyone around him agrees not to burst his balloon. What began as a comic creation of a two-faced hustler has been turned into a tragic figure who is more to be pitied than laughed at.

In his autobiography, Eddie, actor Ken Osmond alludes to the fact that getting cast as Eddie Haskell was both a blessing and a curse--he became a cultural icon with steady work for six seasons despite never being cast as a regular with a contract, but he also found it impossible to find acting work after the series ended and was saddled with a bad reputation by people who couldn't separate the actor from his character or mistakenly thought he had "grown up" to become pornographic actor John Holmes or shock-rocker Alice Cooper. Osmond comments in his book that he appreciated the plots that showed Eddie's vulnerability, but he also seems to judge an episode's value by how many lines he had and spends far more time and provides more detail about his role in the 1980s reboot The New Leave It to Beaver where he played an adult Eddie Haskell with his own son. Granted, he had a soft spot for the newer series because he got to act with his son Eric, and the memories were no doubt fresher on the reboot than on the original series from 20 years earlier. But among Osmond's more interesting memories from the original series are that the character of Eddie Haskell appeared to have been based on a friend of co-creator Bob Mosher, Jr.'s son named Buddy Del Giorno, who like Eddie always complimented Mrs. Mosher on her wardrobe but would immediately change into a troublemaker once there were no adults around. In the pre-pilot for Beaver, titled It's a Small World, the conniving teenager was named Frankie Bennett and was played by Harry Shearer, later of Spinal Tap and The Simpsons fame. And Osmond credits director Norman Tokar with helping him define the Eddie Haskell character traits, including his trademark cackle.

Despite the fact that by the 1962 episodes all the other characters on the show are wise to Eddie's duplicity and penchant for bad advice, Beaver in particular keeps falling for it, then admitting he should have known better. In "Beaver's Typewriter" (April 21, 1962), Beaver lets Eddie talk him into typing his English assignment due the next day for a few bucks since Beaver is having a hard time learning to use the expensive equipment he talked his parents into buying for him. Eddie is actually an excellent typist, but after Beaver turns in the neatly typed assignment, his teacher expects him to continue typing everything, which becomes impossible when he receives an even longer assignment the next day. Rather than letting Eddie again type his work for a fee, Beaver decides to write it out in long-hand, but Eddie offers to help him by disabling some keys on his typewriter so that he will have a valid excuse for not using it. However, word eventually gets back to Beaver's parents from his teacher about the disabled typewriter, which leads to Ward forcing Beaver to stick with his typing until he gets the hang of it. In "Stocks and Bonds" (June 23, 1962), Ward gives the boys some money to invest in the stock market to learn about how it works, but Beaver ends up listening to Eddie's advice about taking a flyer on a penny stock called Jet Electro rather than the more established if less exciting Mayfield Power and Electric utility recommended by Ward. Needless to say, Jet Electro crashes and burns while Mayfield Power just keeps plugging along upward. And in "Beaver, the Hero" (December 13, 1962), Beaver gets a swelled head after making a fluke game-winning touchdown for his school football team and then listens to Eddie about how to maximize his earning power as a football star, including skipping football practice, which ends up getting him suspended for the next game. Even though they know who they are dealing with, the Cleaver boys never seem to wise up enough to resist the fast-talking Eddie's latest easy way out.

But as gullible as Beaver is in falling for Eddie Haskell's bad advice, he is even more often goaded into poor decisions by his own friends Gilbert Bates and Richard Rickover. In fact, the 1962 episodes are book-ended by a pair of Gilbert-inspired pickles, beginning with "Ward's Golf Clubs" (January 6, 1962) and finishing with "The Party Spoiler" (December 27, 1962). In the former episode, Gilbert pressures Beaver into taking one of his father's golf clubs without asking so that they can hit some balls Gilbert scrounged from the driving range. Even though Beaver knows he will get in trouble by following Gilbert's advice, Gilbert is able to persuade him to do it by claiming that the only things worth doing are the ones that can get you into trouble. But Beaver doesn't realize that Ward returned home from golfing earlier that afternoon and told June that he broke his driver and would have to replace it, so when Beaver takes his first swing, the head flies off and into the bushes. After getting caught by Wally trying to sneak the broken club back into the closet, Beaver plans to confess his sin until his father gets angry with Wally for taking one of his shirts to wear on a date without asking him. So Beaver decides he had better replace the golf club rather than admitting that he broke it and arranges a payment plan with the sporting goods store clerk to pay for the new club. Of course, Ward immediately notices that his broken club is suddenly fixed and extracts a confession from Beaver, telling him he should have come to him first. Beaver later acts like he has learned his lesson when he tells Wally he is going to stop getting into trouble, but we all know there wouldn't be much of a series if he followed his own advice. In "The Party Spoiler" Beaver again follows Gilbert's advice to sabotage Wally's teenager party with prank items from the magic store as revenge for Wally not inviting Beaver to the party. Naturally, Wally is finally pressured by his parents to include Beaver in his party, but the forced invitation comes too late, after Beaver has already planted rubber cheese in the sandwiches, a fake ice cube with a fly in it in the punch bowl, soap-centered candies in the candy dish, and an electric outlet adapter that makes the record player go on and off randomly. When Beaver see Wally's friends blaming him for all the childish pranks, he feels compelled to step forward and take the blame. Beaver falls for another Gilbert scheme in "Long Distance Call" (June 16, 1962) when he agrees to call Dodger Stadium to talk to star pitcher Don Drysdale after Gilbert and Alan Boothby agree to all chip in to pay for the call, not realizing that they don't have nearly enough to afford it. After they hang up the call, Gilbert tells Beaver he can call the operator back to figure out how much the call cost and is horrified to hear that it comes to $9.35 when they collectively only have a couple of dollars. But Beaver compounds the problem by again following Gilbert's lead in not telling his father about it right away, with Gilbert arguing that he won't get the bill for a few weeks and they may come up with a plan to pay for it before then. Gilbert then makes matters worse by bragging about the phone call to a snotty school classmate whose father writes a column for the Mayfield newspaper, thereby ensuring that Ward will read about the phone call in his morning paper.

Gilbert teams up with Richard Rickover in "Three Boys and a Burro" (March 3, 1962) to get Beaver to chip in on buying a pet burro after promising that Beaver would not have to keep the burro in his yard because they would be splitting the caretaking between the two of them, which is the only reason Ward and June agree to let Beaver participate in the partnership. But of course things do not work out as promised because the burro wreaks havoc on the yards and gardens at the Bates' and Rickover's homes and Beaver gets stuck with the burro. Fortunately, Ward is able to find a new home for the burro from a work colleague who has a relative with a farm, but as with all his dealings with his friends, Beaver is the one who gets stuck holding the bag. The same scenario plays out with Richard, Whitey, and Alan in "Sweatshirt Monsters" (June 2, 1962) when the boys make a pact to all buy sweatshirts with grotesque monsters painted on the front and then wear them to class together. When Beaver tries going to school the next day wearing the sweatshirt, June forbids it and tells him to go change, but for Beaver loyalty to his friends outweighs his parent's orders, and he sneaks the sweatshirt out and puts it on before walking into class, only to discover that none of the other boys are wearing their sweatshirts and he is the only one to face discipline from their teacher. Apparently, that episode wasn't painful enough for Beaver because he commits the same error with a different group of friends in "Beaver's Football Award" (October 4, 1962) when the star football player from his school team announces that he is not going to wear a suit to the annual awards dinner, vowing that he is going to dress casually just as he does for school and pressuring the other boys on the team to do the same. But after a struggle with his parents, who keep telling him he is going to be sorry until Ward finally tells June that since Beaver is growing up he needs to learn to live with his own choices, Beaver gets to the awards dinner in his casual outfit only to find out that everyone else is wearing a suit. Ward bails him out by secretly bringing along his suit in the car trunk so that Beaver can hurriedly rush outside and change clothes before the dinner gets started, but one wonders how many times he will have to suffer this sort of humiliation before he realizes that his "friends" are all talk.

Which brings us to perhaps the most surprising pattern of the series: none of Beaver's and Wally's friends seem to have their interests at heart--all they do is pressure Beaver and Wally to do something stupid and then run away when they get into trouble. Besides Eddie Haskell, Gilbert Bates, and football star Terry Richmond, Richard forces Beaver to go to absurd lengths to cover for his own mistakes in "Beaver's Jacket" (February 3, 1962) and "Beaver's Laundry" (March 24, 1962). Lumpy does the same to Wally in "Wally Stays at Lumpy's" (March 17, 1962) and "The Merchant Marine" (April 28, 1962). Even newly introduced friends Mike and Kevin steer Beaver wrong in "Tell It to Ella" (November 8, 1962) by advising him to write an anonymous letter to a Dear Abby-like columnist at the local newspaper complaining about Ward grounding him for staying out late on a school night. Needless to say, Ella takes Ward's side, and when his letter appears in the paper Ward has no difficulty figuring out who wrote it. But even Ward seems not to have any good friends--the only person we see him spending any time with is Fred Rutherford, who is a big blow-hard that Ward can barely stand but nevertheless has to work with. What lesson, then, does Leave It to Beaver teach about friendship? Each week the series seems to suggest that the only relationships that can be trusted are familial ones, assuming that you don't live in a dysfunctional family.

Still, despite the series' odd take on friendship outside the family and the Cleaver boys' inability to learn not to bow to peer pressure (though there is one exception when Wally refuses to join a mean-spirited exclusive boys club in "One of the Boys" [May 26, 1962]), Leave It to Beaver occasionally hits the nail on the head in depicting some of the hard truths about growing up. For Beaver, it is being burdened with unrealistic expectations because of Wally's accomplishments in "The Younger Brother" (April 14, 1962). Beaver is encouraged to try out for a city basketball team simply because Wally helped lead a team to the league championship. Beaver doesn't have a natural interest in basketball, but when he sees how proud his parents are of Wally's achievements, he decides to try out and even Wally's old coach seems to think the team is in good hands with Beaver aboard. But Beaver quickly learns that not all athletic talent is genetic as he performs poorly at the first practice and is soon the laughingstock of the other players. Rather than face the humiliation of telling his parents and brother that he isn't good at basketball, he pretends to continue attending practice but really just hides out to cover the time. The jig is up when Ward decides to stop by the park on his way home from work one evening to see how Beaver is making out, and he learns from the coach that Beaver quit after the first practice and didn't want to sign up for a lesser league to develop his skills. Ward is surprised that Beaver didn't feel he could come to Ward and tell him he didn't make the team, so Wally has to explain to Ward that Beaver didn't really want to succeed at basketball for himself but to avoid disappointing his father. This episode turns out to be a teaching moment for the parents rather than the children. Growing up the younger sibling of highly accomplished older brothers and sisters myself, this episode had the ring of truth for me personally and helps demonstrate why this series at its best was superior to most of the other family sit-coms of its day.

Wally learns his hard lesson in "Tennis, Anyone?" (May 19, 1962) when he unwittingly becomes a pawn in a young woman's attempt to make her boyfriend jealous. He shows up at the public tennis court just after pretty but noticeably older Carol Martin has a falling out with her tennis instructor and boyfriend Don Kirk. When Eddie Haskell is late showing up to play Wally, Carol invites him to volley with her while Don is still hovering nearby, hoping to make him jealous. Wally mistakes her friendliness for interest in him, and makes a date to play again with her the next day. When Beaver and Eddie see Wally playing with an attractive older woman, they assume that they are an item, but leaving the tennis court on the second day Wally is confronted by Don, who warns him to stay away from Carol, whom he claims is his girl. Wally takes his problem to Ward, who asks him how old Carol is. When Wally says that she is 22, Ward advises him to stay away from her because she is too old for him. Wally decides to go back to the tennis courts the next day anyway but then sees Carol and Don arm in arm after reconciling. He is initially downcast but then admits surprise that his father knows so much about romance. Again, this episode has the ring of truth from my personal experience--when you're young and naive, it's easy to get mixed up in someone else's romantic problems without realizing their true intentions. Fortunately for Wally, he got good advice and his interlude ended quickly and without any real damage to his psyche. Not everyone is so lucky, but perhaps if more of us had seen this episode while growing up, we would have been better prepared to avoid love's pitfalls.

The Actors

For the biographies of Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Ken Osmond, Frank Bank, Stanley Fafara, and Sue Randall, see the 1960 post on Leave It to Beaver. For the biographies of Stephen Talbot, Karen Sue Trent, Richard Correll, Cheryl Holdridge, and Burt Mustin, see the 1961 post on Leave It to Beaver. For the biography of Richard Deacon, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 5, Episode 14, "Ward's Golf Clubs": Henry Hunter (Doctor Summerfield on Hazel) plays sporting goods store clerk Sam Higgins.

Season 5, Episode 15, "Farewell to Penny": Jean Vander Pyl (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Flintstones) plays Penny's mother Mrs. Woods.

Season 5, Episode 16, "Beaver the Bunny": Alice Backes (Vickie on Bachelor Father) plays Beaver's school pageant coordinator Miss Lawrence.

Season 5, Episode 17, "Beaver's Electric Trains": Toby Michaels (starred in Love in a Goldfish Bowl, first wife of director and Bewitched associate producer Richard Michaels) plays girl sent to pick up Beaver's electric train set Georgia Batson.

Season 5, Episode 22, "Three Boys and a Burro": Jane Dulo (Liz Murray on Hey, Jeannie!, WAC Pvt. Mildred Lukens on The Phil Silvers Show, Molly Turner on McHale's Navy, Agent 99's mother on Get Smart, Nurse Murphy on Medical Center, and Grandma Mildred Kanisky on Gimme a Break!) plays Richard's mother Mrs. Rickover.

Season 5, Episode 23, "Eddie Quits School": Frank Wilcox (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Untouchables) plays Wally's school principal Mr. Farmer. Bert Remsen (Detective Lawrence on Peyton Place, Mr. Pell on Gibbsville, Mario on It's a Living, and Jack Crager on Dynasty) plays repair garage owner Mr. Thompson.

Season 5, Episode 26, "Lumpy's Car Trouble": Pat McCaffrie (Chuck Forrest on Bachelor Father and Dr. Edgar Harris on Outlaws) plays Ward's work colleague Bill Boothby.

Season 5, Episode 27, "Beaver the Babysitter": Jennie Lynn (Jenny Baker on Love and Marriage) plays Beaver's babysitting assignment Pattie Murdock. Marjorie Reynolds (starred in Holiday Inn, Ministry of Fear, and The Time of Their Lives and played Peg Riley on The Life of Riley) plays her mother Mrs. Murdock.

Season 5, Episode 28, "The Younger Brother": Russ Conway (shown on the left, played Fenton Hardy on The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Gen. Devon on Men Into Space, and Lt. Pete Kile on Richard Diamond, Private Detective) plays Wally's former basketball coach Mr. Doyle.

Season 5, Episode 29, "Beaver's Typewriter": Ed Prentiss (the narrator on Trackdown and played Carl Jensen on The Virginian) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Bailey.

Season 5, Episode 31, "Brother vs. Brother": Hardie Albright (shown on the right, appeared in This Sporting Age, The Song of Songs, White Heat, The Scarlet Letter, The Pride of the Yankees, and Angel on My Shoulder) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Collins. Mimi Gibson (appeared in The Three Faces of Eve, Houseboat, and The Children's Hour and played Barby McGovern on Westinghouse Playhouse) plays new student Mary Tyler.

Season 5, Episode 32, "The Yard Birds": Bartlett Robinson (Willard Norton on Wendy and Me and Frank Caldwell on Mona McCluskey) plays empty lot owner Mr. Hill.

Season 5, Episode 33, "Tennis, Anyone?": Cynthia Chenault (shown on the left, appeared in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Dino, and This Earth is Mine and played Carol Potter on The Tom Ewell Show) plays tennis student Carol Martin.

Season 5, Episode 34, "One of the Boys": Martin Dean (Junior on Dick Tracy) plays exclusive club president Rick Davis.

Season 5, Episode 35, "Sweatshirt Monsters": Hardie Albright (see "Brother vs. Brother" above) returns as Beaver's English teacher Mr. Collins. Jane Dulo (see "Three Boys and a Burro" above) returns as Richard's mother Mrs. Rickover.

Season 5, Episode 36, "A Night in the Woods": John Hart (appeared in The Buccaneer, Jack Armstrong, and The Ten Commandments and played Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler on Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,  was Clayton Moore's replacement on The Lone Ranger from 1950-53 when Moore was in the midst of a contract dispute, and played Narbo on Rawhide) plays a forest ranger.

Season 5, Episode 37, "Long Distance Call": Don Drysdale (shown on the right, Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher and announcer) plays himself. Dennis Olivieri (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Betty Hutton Show) plays Beaver's bragging classmate Kenny. Ray Montgomery (Prof. Howard Ogden on Ramar of the Jungle) plays his newspaper reporter father. Johnny Eimen (Monk on McKeever and the Colonel) plays Kenny's school friend.

Season 5, Episode 39, "Un-togetherness": Brenda Scott (shown on the left, married and divorced actor Andrew Prine three times, now married to producer Dean Hargrove, played Midge Pride on The Road West and Dr. Gina Dante Lansing on General Hospital) plays Wally's new girlfriend Lori-Ann.

Season 6, Episode 1, "Wally's Dinner Date": Than Wyenn (Licenciado Piña on Zorro) plays a restaurant waiter.

Season 6, Episode 3, "Wally's License": Russ Bender (appeared in It Conquered the World, Dragstrip Girl, Invasion of the Saucer Men, and The Amazing Colossal Man) plays driving instructor Mr. Barnsdall. Beverly Lunsford (shown on the right, played Amy Ames Britton Kincaid on The Secret Storm) plays driving student Shirley Fletcher. Larry J. Blake (played the unnamed jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays the DMV driving test administrator.

Season 6, Episode 5, "Double Date": Vicky Albright (daughter of actor Hardie Albright) plays Wally's date Carolyn Stewart. Diane Mountford (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Assignment: Underwater) plays her younger sister Susan.

Season 6, Episode 6, "Eddie, the Businessman": Don Haggerty (Jeffrey Jones on The Files of Jeffrey Jones, Eddie Drake on The Cases of Eddie Drake, Sheriff Dan Elder on State Trooper, and Marsh Murdock on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays dairy manager Ted Worden. Howard Caine (Schaab on The Californians and Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter on Hogan's Heroes) plays one of his foremen. John Baer (Terry Lee on Terry and the Pirates) plays the foreman's assistant.

Season 6, Episode 7, "Tell It to Ella": Tim Matheson (shown on the right, played Roddy Miller on Window on Main Street, Jim Horn on The Virginian, Griff King on Bonanza, Quentin Beaudine on The Quest, Rick Tucker on Tucker's Witch, Harry Stadlin on Just in Time, Charlie Hoover on Charlie Hoover, Sheriff Matthew Donner on Wolf Lake, Bill Dunne on Breaking News, John Hoynes on The West Wing, Larry Sizemore on Burn Notice, Dr. Brick Breeland on Hart of Dixie, and Doc Mullins on Virgin River, and voiced Jonny Quest on Jonny Quest, Sinbad, Jr. on Sinbad, Jr. and His Magic Belt, Samson on Young Samson & Goliath, Jace on Space Ghost, Capt. John O'Rourke on The Legend of Calamity Jane, and Brad Chiles on Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated) plays Beaver's friend Mike. Robert Eyer (brother of actor Richard Eyer) plays his friend Kevin.

Season 6, Episode 8, "Bachelor at Large": Lurene Tuttle (shown on the left, appeared in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Ma Barker's Killer Brood, Psycho, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and The Fortune Cookie and played Doris Dunston on Father of the Bride and Hannah Yarby on Julia) plays Eddie's landlady Mrs. Evans.

Season 6, Episode 9, "Beaver Joins a Record Club.": George Cisar (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays the mailman.

Season 6, Episode 10, "Wally's Car Accident": Beverly Lunsford (see "Wally's License" above) plays Wally's date Shirley Fletcher.

Season 6, Episode 11, "Beaver, the Sheep Dog": Ed Prentiss (shown on the right, see "Beaver's Typewriter" above) returns as Beaver's teacher Mr. Bailey.

Season 6, Episode 12, "Beaver, the Hero": Carol Faylen (daughter of actor Frank Faylen, played Janice Collins on The Bing Crosby Show) plays Beaver's classmate Donna.

Season 6, Episode 13, "Beaver's Autobiography": Harlan Warde (shown on the left, played John Hamilton on The Rifleman and Sheriff John Brannan on The Virginian) plays Beaver's English teacher Mr. Thompson. Annette Gorman (Addie Slaughter on The Magical World of Disney Texas John Slaughter series) plays Beaver's new classmate Betsy Carter. Frances Mercer (starred in Crime Ring, Smashing the Rackets, The Mad Miss Manton, and There's Always Tomorrow and played Nurse Ann Talbot on Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal) plays Betsy's mother Mrs. Carter.

Season 6, Episode 14, "The Party Spoiler": Vicky Albright (shown on the right, see "Double Date" above) plays Wally's party guest Carolyn.

The Flintstones (1962)

 

By the year 1962, the once-fresh prime-time cartoon The Flintstones had settled into a comfortable routine of rehashed plots chronicling the misadventures of boorish Fred Flintstone that borrowed heavily from other TV programs, movies, and pop culture fads. The only new thing on the program that year was a different, now iconic opening sequence in which Fred drives the family to a drive-in restaurant and movie instead of showing him clocking out at work, picking up the dry cleaning, and parking in the garage before settling in front of the TV with a plate of food. The series also began using a few additional voice actors such as Herschel Bernardi and Howard Morris to voice a number of incidental characters.

When they weren't attempting to lampoon other TV shows and movies, such as poking fun at Gunsmoke and westerns in general in "A Star Is Almost Born" (January 12, 1962), homemaker programs in "The Happy Household" (February 23, 1962), game shows in "Divided We Sail" (April 6, 1962), swarthy Latin movie stars in "Latin Lover" (April 20, 1962), Lassie in "Dino Goes Hollyrock" (September 14, 1962), crime caper movies in "Here's Snow in Your Eyes" (October 19, 1962), TV crime dramas such as Hawaiian Eye in "Hawaiian Escapade" (November 16, 1962), and Hitchcock suspense films in "Dial S for Suspicion" (December 14, 1962), they were recycling their own already shopworn plots. For example, "The Gambler" (January 5, 1962) revolves around Fred's gambling addiction for which he once visited a psychiatrist and swore to Wilma that he would never engage in again. When skin-flint Fred tries to avoid settling his bill with newsboy Arnold, he falls off the wagon by offering to bet double or nothing on his bill over a game of marbles. Predictably, Fred loses but keeps doubling down and losing again until he has run up a tab of $88 that he can't possibly repay because Wilma has used the money he hid from her to pay off another debt he has been trying to avoid on their TV set. In the end, after Wilma has figured out what Fred has been up to and has to borrow money from Betty to replace the furniture that Fred gave Arnold to settle his debt, Fred swears off ever gambling again. But in "The Rock Vegas Story" (March 30, 1962) Fred decides to take Wilma and the Rubbles to Rock Vegas for their vacation after running into old friend Sherman Cobblehead who now owns a casino and invites Fred to come see him. Within minutes of their arrival at the casino, when the wives go to "freshen up," Fred loses all their money in a slot machine, and the two families have to spend the rest of their vacation working at the casino to afford their stay. Fred's failure to keep his promises is glossed over at the end of the episode when Cobblehead tells the husbands how lucky they are to have such devoted wives, whereas he is forced to live out his drab existence running a casino surrounded by beautiful show girls.

Fred's repeated attempts at deception are also recycled in two attempts to duck out of work to go see a day baseball game in "Operation Barney" (February 16, 1962) in which he calls in sick to skip work but when he forces Barney to do the same, Barney's boss requires him to submit to a medical examination that lands him in the hospital and almost has him undergo a serious operation. After Wilma and Betty discover the ruse, Fred promises never to play hooky from work again. Wilma is skeptical he will stick to it, and for good reason, because we see that Fred has his fingers crossed behind his back. And sure enough, he tries the same trick again in "Ladies' Day" (November 23, 1962), only this time he dresses in drag using clothes Wilma gave him to drop off at a rummage sale so that he can get into the ballgame for free on Ladies Day. Again predictably he doesn't get away with it and once exposed he again promises never to play hooky from work again. This time there are no crossed fingers, but who in their right mind would ever believe any promises made by Fred Flintstone? And who would want to watch him go through the same routine on episode after episode?

We could go over the multiple episodes about Fred's failed get-rich quick schemes or his cruelty to Barney, but perhaps more salient is the program's blatant chauvinism in its depiction of the roles of husbands and wives. This topic has been discussed on various web sites and in various forums with opinion generally falling into two camps--those who are shocked that a show they loved as children could be so misogynistic, and those who brush such criticism aside by saying the program only reflected the prevalent attitudes of the era, was set in the Stone Age so of course the male characters behave like "cave men," or was only a cartoon and therefore should not be taken so seriously. The episode most often cited for the program's chauvinism is the aforementioned "The Happy Household" in which Wilma is recruited to host a TV homemaker program but Fred eventually intervenes to get her show canceled so that she can be home to cook his dinners, not to tell other housewives how to please their husbands. Fred not only says that a woman's place is in the home, but ends the episode by admonishing any housewife viewers to take note of this week's lesson. While it is certainly true that The Flintstones was not the only TV program of its time to reinforce the stereotype of women being ideally and only suited to being homemakers--even the supposedly proto-feminist Donna Reed Show had her proving she could handle other jobs outside the home but always choosing to return to domestic contentment--what makes The Flintstones stand out is that its chauvinism can be disingenuously defended as being only a cartoon set in Stone Age times while also appealing to children who are less able to resist its reactionary message. Sure, it was a prime-time "adult" cartoon, but children are naturally drawn to cartoons due to their simplicity, bright colors, fantastical events, and general mood of fun and humor. Children even enjoy clearly adult-oriented cartoons such as The Bullwinkle Show, whose political and social satire is beyond their understanding, because the show depicts talking animals involved in outlandish adventures. In the TV age, cartoons are also a key component in the socialization of children and can have profound effects on their development, depending what kind of cartoons they are exposed to. The number of adults who are shocked when they revisit childhood favorites such as The Flintstones only reinforces the fact that children cannot discriminate like adults and recognize when a theme is being depicted only for humorous effect. That's why the messages disseminated by The Flintstones--that women can and should be satisfied only as housewives or that you can be cruel to your friends and suffer no real consequences--are not good, clean fun, even for adults.

The Actors

For the biographies of Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, and Bea Benaderet, see the 1960 post for The Flintstones. For the biography of Hal Smith, see the 1961 post for The Andy Griffith Show. For the biographies of John Stephenson and Don Messick, see the 1961 post for The Flintstones.

Notable Guest Stars

Because it was an animated series, The Flintstones did not have many guest stars known from other shows, except those listed below.

Season 1, Episode 17, "A Star Is Almost Born": Frank Nelson (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Jack Benny Program) plays TV producer Norman Rockbind.

Season 1, Episode 18, "The Entertainer": Paula Winslowe (Martha Conklin on Our Miss Brooks) plays Mr. Slate's client Greta Gravel.

Season 1, Episode 19, "Wilma's Vanishing Money": Frank Nelson (see "A Star Is Almost Born" above) plays a sporting goods store clerk. Herschel Bernardi (see the biography section of the 1960 post on Peter Gunn) plays stick-up man Silky.

Season 1, Episode 22, "Operation Barney": Herschel Bernardi (see "Wilma's Vanishing Money" above) plays an operating room doctor. Paula Winslowe (see "The Entertainer" above) plays the operating room nurse.

Season 1, Episode 23, "The Happy Household": Paul Frees (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Rocky and His Friends) plays TV producer Mr. Rockenschpeel and TV station owner Sam Bedrock. B.J. Baker (Miss Alabama at age 17, background singer and member of the Anita Kerr Singers, wife of Mickey Rooney and later jazz guitarist Barney Kessel) provides Wilma's singing voice.

Season 1, Episode 25, "This Is Your Life Saver": Walker Edmiston (shown on the left, played Enik on Land of the Lost and voiced Dr. Blinkey and Orson Vulture on H.R. Pufnstuf, Admiral Scuttlebutt, Bela, and Big Chief Sitting Duck on Lidsville, Sebastian on Dumbo's Circus, and Sir Thornberry on Adventures of the Gummi Bears) plays con man J. Montague Gypsum.

Season 1, Episode 26, "Trouble-in-Law": Verna Felton (shown on the right, played Mrs. Day on The Dennis Day Show and The Jack Benny Program and Hilda Crocker on December Bride and Pete and Gladys) plays Wilma's mother Pearl Slaghoople.

Season 1, Episode 27, "The Mailman Cometh": Herb Vigran (Judge Brooker on Gunsmoke) plays policeman Officer Riley.

Season 1, Episode 30, "Kleptomaniac Caper": Herb Vigran (see "The Mailman Cometh" above) plays policeman Officer O'Rockery. Herschel Bernardi (see "Wilma's Vanishing Money" above) plays a department store detective.

Season 1, Episode 31, "Latin Lover": Jerry Mann (shown on the far left, appeared in The Sky Divers, Shutter Bug, and The Maltese Bippy, also wrote several shorts and 3 episodes of Tom and Jerry as well as voicing Tom the cat) plays Italian movie star Roberto Rockelini. Paula Winslowe (see "The Entertainer" above) plays a cosmetics saleswoman.

Season 3, Episode 1, "Dino Goes Hollyrock": Herschel Bernardi (see "Wilma's Vanishing Money" above) plays talent agent Sam.

Season 3, Episode 3, "Barney the Invisible": Howard McNear (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Andy Griffith Show) plays physician Dr. Quartz.

Season 3, Episode 5, "The Twitch": Ginny Tyler (shown on the left, voiced characters in Son of Flubber, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, and Doctor Doolittle and voiced Sally Hansen and Elaine Hansen on Davey and Goliath, Wendy on The New Casper Cartoon Show, Jan and Black Widow on Space Ghost, Flirtacia on The Adventures of Gulliver, Aunt Martha and Polly on Devlin, and Sue Richards and The Invisible Girl on The Fantastic Four) plays a talentless singer for agent Sam Stone.

Season 3, Episode 6, "Here's Snow in Your Eyes": Doug Young (shown on the right, voiced Doggie Daddy on Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, and The Huckleberry Hound Show, Ding a Ling on The Huckleberry Hound Show, Yippee on The Peter Potamus Show and Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey, and later the Grand Poobah on The Flintstones) plays stolen goods fence Chip Marble.

Season 3, Episode 8, "The Little Stranger": Verna Felton (see "Trouble-in-Law" above) returns as Wilma's mother Pearl Slaghoople.

Season 3, Episode 12, "Nuttin' But the Tooth": Howard Morris (shown on the left, appeared in Boys' Night Out, The Nutty Professor, and High Anxiety, played Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show, and voiced Beetle Bailey, Gen. Halftrack, Otto, and Rocky on Beetle Bailey, Breezly Bruin on The Peter Potamus Show, Mr. Peebles on The Magilla Gorilla Show, Atom Ant on The Atom Ant Show, Jughead Jones, Big Moose, and Dilton Doiley on The Archie Show and Archie's Funhouse, Frankie, Wolfie, and Dr. Jekyll on Sabrina and the Groovie Goulies, Cousin Ambrose on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and The Hamburglar on McDonaldland) plays dentist Dr. Smiley Molar.

Season 3, Episode 13, "High School Fred": Howard Morris (see "Nuttin' But the Tooth" above) plays efficiency expert Mr. Rockhard.

Season 3, Episode 14, "Dial S for Suspicion": Howard Morris (see "Nuttin' But the Tooth" above) plays circus knife thrower Rodney Whetstone and physician Dr. Pilldown.

Season 3, Episode 15, "Flash Gun Freddie": Howard Morris (see "Nuttin' But the Tooth" above) plays the drug store clerk and comic-buying kid.