Follow this:


In the first season Beaver was in the second grade and Wally was in the eight grade.

Each season they moved up a grade. By the fourth season its mentioned that Wally is a junior and Beaver is in the fifth grade. In the next season Beaver is in the sixth grade, but no mention about what grade Wally was in.


Cut to the last season Beaver was in the eight grade and Wally was a senior.


Miss something???



Yeah I know. By season 6 if they stayed on course grade wise from season one; Beaver would have been in the seventh grade, and Wally would have already graduated in season five.


Anybody else noticed how they moved around grade wise???

Yep! I noticed that! Apparently Wally aged at a slower rate than Beaver!!! Actually I think the producers wanted to avoid sending Wally off to college. So in order to keep Wally at home and have him continue to be part of the storylines they started to shorten the age gap between Wally and Beaver in later seasons.

If Wally was a 12th grader in the 6th season, then he should have been a 7th grader in the 1st season. Not an 8th grader.

And if Beaver was an 8th grader in the 6th season, then he should have been a 3rd grader in the 1st season. Not a 2nd grader.

The way the series played out, it was like Wally repeated a grade and Beaver skipped a grade.

Oh yeah, I noticed that 40 years ago, and always thought it had to be because the show would just not be the same without both Wally and Beaver at home. Same reason they continued to share a room, even though they talked about each having his own room when they moved to the new house. So we didn't see Wally going off to 'State,' as the whole format would be too focused on Beaver, which changes the chemistry of success. And having Wally and his friend adjusting to life as college freshmen would have gotten fan attention (Tony was a real heartthrob, you know), but it would have been like 2 shows in 1; which is difficult for half-hour time slot.

That reminds me... it's been a few years, I guess, since I started a new fanfic series which does take up the action from when the original series ended-- starting with Beaver returning home from his cross-country bus trip and finding that Larry Mondello has moved back to Mayfield and they will be attending Mayfied High together. In fact, I remember now what I was going to write about next-- since Eddie Haskell had bungled his recommendation from Ward to join Alpha Kappa, a few of the shadier guys plan a real daring initiation rite for him to get in. And it's very-- shall we say-- un-LITB-like. I need to reread what I did so far and get back to it.