Hey Guys,

On a positive note, the Leave it to Beaver Season DVD's are stunningly beautiful! It is amazing how a show from the 50's-60's did so well on its DVD transfer! Remember that considering the way that TV shows were preserved, NOT! in most instances of early television, users should be thrilled as they are seeing Beaver episodes with such clarity, that was not possible, even with the old TV's and rabbit ears during the shows' first run.

Some Beaver "authorities" have good questions regarding some of the shorter times on certain episodes. For the time period, any Beaver episode should run AT LEAST 25:30 to 26 minutes, uncut and commercial free. A few episodes, most notably in Season 3 and in Season 6, run just about or under 25 minutes. Here are some instances where we believe something is missing:

"June's Birthday": The episode where Beaver buys June the loud blouse for her birthday. A user claims that a line is missing where there is a brief sequence where Ms. Lander's tells the class that they are going over to Mrs. Harrison's house to sing for her Mother's club meeting. He remembers the line only being about 20 seconds. But all prints just pick up with the class asking questions about the trip. The user claims that there is a line spoken by Ms. Landers that indicates that they are going to Mrs. Harrison's to sing, which he claims has been lost for years.

"Wally's Sweater": A scene in the episode where Wally and Beaver talk about burying a gopher they find in the yard. There is no mention of a gopher anywhere else in this episode.

Not to blame Universal or Shout Factory, as the cleaned up the prints from the master negatives, but if there were no back ups made, as in the case of The Brady Bunch, where they had to go into the vaults to get some lost footage, and there are still mild cuts on a few episodes, if "Beaver's back up prints could not be found or were never made, we may never see the possible missing footage ever again. If these episodes on the DVD are uncut, why does Season 3 and some episodes have only 25 minute run-times?

Jack

I made mention some time ago in this forum about the School Sweater episode. I think part of Wally's spoken lines were cut in the episodes beginning scene when Wally comes home and then goes to the living room to talk to his parents. In mid episode is where Wally mentions the gopher to his parents like it had been talked about before.

Season 3 is the season with most fluctuations in the run times, some episodes are close to 26 minutes and some others are only 24:55. Something seems amiss there, but aside from School Sweater I haven't noticed anything obvious in an episode where something might be cut. If I notice something else in an episode that looks like a possible edit, I'll post about it here.

June's Birthday runs close to 26 minutes on the DVD, so I believe the episode is complete, nothing is missing.

Beaver Takes A Walk is another episode that looks like it might be edited. It's one of the episodes with a short run time 24:55, and the fade out/fade in of a couple scenes look unusual. There are several season 3 Beaver episodes on the DVD with this short run time of 24:55, Tire Trouble is another one of them, I watched this episode but didn't notice anything unusual.

I just watched a couple more of the shorter episodes, Beavers Fortune and Beaver The Magician, I didn't see anything unusual in either episode to indicate something might be cut. This means that School Sweater and Beaver Takes A Walk are probably complete episodes also. After further review, I'm just going to go with the belief that all the DVD episodes are uncut. The 3rd season has the biggest variance in episode run times, the running times in the other seasons are fairly consistent. Looking at the entire series 234 episodes, a few episodes probably just ended up a little shorter than normal. It doesn't necessarily mean the shorter episodes are edited.

I just watched a couple more of the shorter episodes, Beavers Fortune and Beaver The Magician, I didn't see anything unusual in either episode to indicate something might be cut. This means that School Sweater and Beaver Takes A Walk are probably complete episodes also. After further review, I'm just going to go with the belief that all the DVD episodes are uncut. The 3rd season has the biggest variance in episode run times, the running times in the other seasons are fairly consistent. Looking at the entire series 234 episodes, a few episodes probably just ended up a little shorter than normal. It doesn't necessarily mean the shorter episodes are edited.

Hi Retro,

Thanks for your help with this! Maybe the best guess is they had a film editor, and he might have trimmed a scene or line or two that was not relevant to a scene. However, it does not automatically mandate an over 25 minute time. The producers went for quality on LITB over a timing element.

For example isn't it true that "Beaver's Ring" has no tag sequence? After Ward agrees that it was "Punishment enough just to write Aunt Martha's letter." (Ward tears it up.) Beaver asks, "What are we gonna do about the busted ring?" Ward says, "You know, I haven't thought about that until just this minute, but there may be some way we can get that ring fixed!" Beaver says, "I sure hope so." they gently embrace and and a fade in to credits.

I am pretty sure it is like this. How many other episodes do not have tag sequences? This may account for the difference in running time.

Jack

Hi Retro,

Thanks for your help with this! Maybe the best guess is they had a film editor, and he might have trimmed a scene or line or two that was not relevant to a scene. However, it does not automatically mandate an over 25 minute time. The producers went for quality on LITB over a timing element.

For example isn't it true that "Beaver's Ring" has no tag sequence? After Ward agrees that it was "Punishment enough just to write Aunt Martha's letter." (Ward tears it up.) Beaver asks, "What are we gonna do about the busted ring?" Ward says, "You know, I haven't thought about that until just this minute, but there may be some way we can get that ring fixed!" Beaver says, "I sure hope so." they gently embrace and and a fade in to credits.

I am pretty sure it is like this. How many other episodes do not have tag sequences? This may account for the difference in running time.

Jack

Beavers Ring is the complete episode, it ends with Ward and Beaver having a discussion about the ring. Beavers Sweater is the only season 2 episode that runs a shade under 25 minutes at 24:55, but I believe the episode is complete. Same goes for those 3rd season episodes with the shorter run times, I believe those are complete also. For the shorter episodes, either the scripts ran a tad short or they chose not to do tag scenes for those episodes.

Take a look at the run times for The Dick Van Dyke Show episodes. Those run times vary from about 24:30 to 25:30. To my knowledge, the shorter episodes are complete, nothing is missing, some episodes just ended up a little shorter than others.

On the 4th season DVD of Hazel, one of those episodes is obviously edited, when watching the episode I can see where they made the cut. Hazel is one of those shows with very consistent episode run times, they are all around 25:30. Anything that comes in under 25 minutes, the episode is cut.