Leave it to Larry

[BrandonS]

I think that Larry was the funniest and most interesting of Beaver's friends. Rusty Stevens was a great little actor. It's too bad that he left the show after a few years. On the contrary, I think that he and his family were interesting enough that they ought to have made a spinoff show about the Mondellos. His mother is certainly a funny character, and he's always alluding to his father, brother, and sister. I would have liked to see more about him. The only problem I see is that in sitcoms at this time, the parents were usually presented as wise, moral, and sympathetic characters who ultimately did the right thing morally, and it doesn't sound like anyone in Larry's family really fit that description. It would have been great, though. It would have been more a show about a dysfuntional but funny family.

[*InThisMoment*]

That would be funny to see..but Whitey is my favorite of beavers friend...but a whitey spin off...IT'S ALL ABOUT WHITEY! :D



:joke:

[BrandonS]

You're right, Whitey was very funny. Unfortunately, the writers didn't give him as much to do, so we never learned quite as much about him.

[*InThisMoment*]

Originally posted by BrandonS
You're right, Whitey was very funny. Unfortunately, the writers didn't give him as much to do, so we never learned quite as much about him.


:crying: Yea! whitey is one if not my favorite charactor!

[Leigh Ann]

I like Larry (and Whitey) too. And, it's amazing, because when I was recently watching an episode with Larry, I think it was the "Found Money" episode, the idea of a Larry spinoff popped into my mind! Isn't that wierd?

Anyways, it would've been great to see more of Larry in a spinoff.

[Mijada]

A Larry spinoff would have been a good idea. He and his mom were hilarious.

[DarleneIllyria]

Larry and Mrs. Mondello rock. I would've loved to see a spin off about them.

[passionsfan79]

i also liked larry and i liked gilbert i think gilbert was kinda more like eddie getting beaver into trouble sometimes :)

[Martina]

I found this a while ago and the post about larry and his family being dysfunctional made me think about it.

"If the social workers and psychologists weren't calling on the Cleaver household, though, perhaps it was because there were plenty of other woes to contend with. Once you get below the superficial contentment, Leave It To Beaver was ahead of its time in suggesting the troubled lives of youths condemned to suburban anomie. Its portraits of the soft-core delinquent Eddie Haskell, the hen-pecked Lumpy and the spoiled Gilbert put it in the vanguard of '50s pop sociology.

Most memorable of all its troubled characters was poor Larry Mondello, who inhabited the hard core margin of Mayfield society. Here was a case that the teachers and social workers and psychologists could not have handled on their own. It would have taken the police to put the Mondello household in order. Being characterized as fat, ugly and stupid wasn't sorrow enough for Larry. He had to be a repeatedly abused child as well. How many times, after getting into mischief with the Beaver, did Larry worry about the beating he was going to get when he arrived home? How often was he amazed when Beaver said his father didn't slap him around him for the same misdeeds?"

The rest of the article is at http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/beaver.htm

It is called "Interesting Ideas: Debunking the Beaver" and is saying life in Mayfield wasn't so perfect after all. I thought it was pretty funny. :)

:lol:

[BrandonS]

Hi, Martina. I'm speechless, but thanks for the link. I think I either read it, or something very like it once. If the author is serious, to say I disagree with him would be the understatement of the century.

[Martina]

Of course I don't agree either!!!!:lol:
But I thought it was pretty funny-- I can't imagine anyone saying the stuff he says about the Cleavers and Mayfield as serious!!!!!!:)