Wasn't there a beautiful chemistry between them? Tony looked so classy and professional, especially in season six-almost too old to be resembling a teenager! Cheryl likewise was a very attractive woman. I heard that they dated. Is it known if they really got serious with each other?

Jack

Wasn't there a beautiful chemistry between them? Tony looked so classy and professional, especially in season six-almost too old to be resembling a teenager! Cheryl likewise was a very attractive woman. I heard that they dated. Is it known if they really got serious with each other?

Jack

Jack, I was told by a friend that he did read that they dated in real life, but I don't think it ever became real serious. I do agree however, that they had some great chemistry, much more than he and Mary Ellen Rogers. In fact, I believe they asked Cheryl Holdrige to reprise the role of Julie Foster in the New LITB as Wally's wife, but she was working on another project and that's why they decided that he and Mary Ellen married.

That would have worked much better if he had married Julie Foster. If you watch the original show, notice that Mary Ellen Rogers is more mentioned than she is seen.

I think Tony and Cheryl did date a bit, at least as "photo-ops" with the studio or teen magazines. I have never heard Tony discuss it in an interview. Cheryl married at twenty (1964) so that was that.

There are off-set photos of Tony with Pamela Baird (Mary Ellen) too. I liked Pamela in all her roles except when they made her very uppity in "Wally's Orchid". She seemed too sweet to be Myra because we had seen the nice side of her in other episodes. Both Mary Ellen and Julie/Gloria had great smiles.

Poor Cheryl died at age 64 of lung cancer. Sue Randall also died of lung cancer at just 49. It's hard to imagine these angelic characters even smoking, but things were different many years ago.

Cheryl Holdridge as "Julie Foster" and earlier in the series as "Gloria Cusick" really added something to the series. I would have liked to have seen her in the 1984 made-for-TV movie or the "Still The Beaver" series.

She did make an appearance in the 1980's New Leave It to Beaver series. There was a high school reunion episode she was in.

I read an interview of Cheryl where she said if her career was only remembered for being Wally Cleaver's girlfriend she'd rather it not be remembered at all. I'm guessing she was a nice person, so I thought that was a bit rough. Did she want to remembered for the Mickey Mouse Club?
Whatever, she did a nice job on the show.

Yes it sad that Sue and Cheryl died young of lung cancer. Neither had a smoking part on the show. They could of had Miss Landers puffing in the teachers lounge but maybe we could have assumed she puffed.

Cheryl was a real "cutie" and I mean that in a positive sense. With her blonde hair and that somewhat husky-like voice, Cheryl was basically the kind of girl that a teenage boy in the early 1960's dreamed of.