View Full Version : A Couple of Things about Beaver on TV


stevea
11-13-2017, 11:42 PM
1. Interesting that there were a lot of dated references on this episode: references to Bennett Cerf and Jack Paar, and the infamous (and edited out for many years) Gilbert comment about Angela Valentine wearing a Jackie Kennedy wig. (Trivia--do we all know who those first two guys are???)

2. When Beaver was reciting his classmates at the end of Teenage Forum, he mentioned Kathy Gregory. Interesting that Wally dated her, and she fell into the fountain. She didn't seem like an eighth grader. And what eight grader would be allowed to go to an all night party?

Scrabjan1
11-14-2017, 06:20 PM
I noticed the Kathy Gregory reference and possibly the writers didn’t know they had used the name in Beaver On TV when they named a character in All Night Party. I believe that Kathy in Beaver’s class was Susie in another episode.

I know Jack Paar and saw him on YouTube never got to see the show way back but knew he was emotional. I think he resigned on air. Saw Bennett Cerf on What’s My Line on BUZZR.

stevea
11-14-2017, 09:20 PM
There were supposedly crying incidents for both...maybe they were around the time of filming this episode.

I've seen a lot of the WMLs on GSN when they showed it, but I never saw Cerf break down. There was one episode where Henry Morgan was a guest panelist and cut Cerf off when he was introducing John Daly (I call this episode "Rude Henry" and I have it on a DVD somewhere). Not much they could do, since it was a live airing at the time, in 1967.

Mr B
11-14-2017, 09:56 PM
I could never understand how a kids TV show could be on Thursdays at 11AM...I know the Cleavers were somewhat affluent but did they have DVR service in '63?

stevea
11-15-2017, 08:51 AM
Normally those kinds of shows would be on the weekend, tape-delayed or not.

Scrabjan1
11-15-2017, 09:22 AM
Speaking of Beaver On TV Gilbert talks to a kid in class and calls him Brad. Later the same kid is in Uncle Billy’s Visit and he’s Alan.

Would have liked to have seen Rude Henry. think of Dorothy Kilgallen on What’s My Line and how she died so unexpectedly or was murdered. I saw the show after Fred Allen died on the street the day before but the show went on.

stevea
11-15-2017, 04:26 PM
I think Dorothy Kilgallen committed suicide, or was taking too many pills.

Yes, I saw Mrs. Rayburn call "Brad" Alan. I didn't make that association, but I knew that wasn't the kid that had briefly played Alan (Boothby, I think). I think the last time that kid had been on was in the Tell it to Ella episode. He was also in the sixth season clothing drive episode (again, I think)(which is an early production shown late in the season).

Scrabjan1
11-16-2017, 03:56 PM
The writers loved the name Alan. That guy Alan Boothby in Long Distance Call, Night in the Woods and Sweatshirt Monsters and that Alan/Brad guy in the movies when Beaver let’s Gilbert in. Also in Beaver’s Prep School a kid raises his hand to say he wrote on the card wrong and his name is Alan. I think in Clothing Drive it’s Kevin and Michael. I believe Wally mentions an Alan once or twice.

stevea
11-16-2017, 05:29 PM
That's right about clothing drive...I can't keep all these new kids straight!

I know that nerdy kid Mrs. Rayburn called Alan is the same kid from the episode where Beaver got the football award. He kept wishing it was over.

Hazel Anyday
11-16-2017, 09:50 PM
Just as in Hazel they loved the name Harry. Deidra's husband, son Harold, Mr. B's law partner, and many other incidental characters were all named Harry. :crazy:

stevea
11-16-2017, 10:51 PM
Yeah, and practically every sitcom has a Martha or Aunt Martha (but Hazel didn't).

Hazel Anyday
11-18-2017, 11:40 PM
Though they almost did call Hazel's BarB-Q sauce "Aunt Martha's Bar-B-Q Sauce". I think, least that's the way I remember them trying to first come up with a name, before using Hazel's name for the junk.

tdr
11-19-2017, 12:35 AM
Maybe June's Aunt Martha is also Lucy Ricardo's aunt, whom she named Aunt Martha's Old Fashioned Salad Dressing after.

stevea
04-25-2018, 09:26 PM
Speaking of Beaver On TV Gilbert talks to a kid in class and calls him Brad. Later the same kid is in Uncle Billy’s Visit and he’s Alan.

Would have liked to have seen Rude Henry. think of Dorothy Kilgallen on What’s My Line and how she died so unexpectedly or was murdered. I saw the show after Fred Allen died on the street the day before but the show went on.

When Beaver was bawling out Mr. Langley for cheating in the caddy episode, he mentioned Langley's son, Bradley, being in his class. I wonder if that Brad is Bradley Langley.

Another kind of odd thing about this episode--it's strange for a show to be taped at the same time a delayed tape made the previous week is shown. Videotape in those days was really expensive, particularly for a local station--any budget-conscious station manager would say, hey, why are we taping this? We should just show it live and save the money. Normally, a program like that would probably not even have been taped for preservation purposes.

Scrabjan1
04-26-2018, 08:44 AM
I think the producer guy says that the previous week they started taping the shows so it was going to be a new procedure. You’re right why would they tape it at the same type it’s being aired. I know, so Beaver will leave to get there at 11 and disappoint everyone when he doesn’t appear. I guess no one ever heard of taping a show. I’m sure Ed Sullivan wasn’t live. Wonder why they would air a TV show for teens be on at 11:00 am during school.
When Beaver called the TV studio in a phone booth to find out if he was on TV how did he have the number without an IPhone. Did anyone notice Beaver called a girl Susie at school (not hall monitor) and later on TV he called her Kathy Gregory.

Watching Silent Treatment and everyone is in the living room holding a book. LOL that episode bothers me.

stevea
04-26-2018, 09:03 AM
As long as I/we are picking this episode apart (again), I have to say, it bugged me when Gilbert had a line, Nothing this big has happened since Whitey Whitney got his head stuck in the school fence.

What? Whitey got his head stuck in a fence, too? Couldn't they have said, since Beaver got his head stuck in a fence?

Scrabjan1
04-29-2018, 08:17 AM
I remember that line. I don’t think too many people knew about Beaver’s stuck head. Judy saw him stuck but couldn’t figure it out. She was more interested in going to a rich restaurant. Another Gilbert line was that Mrs. Rayburn wasn’t this mad since Angela Valentine wore a Jackie Kennedy wig to school.

Gilbert could have said in Beaver on TV “Mrs. Rayburn hasn’t been this mad since Beaver wore the monster sweatshirt to school.” Gilbert, however, wasn’t in that episode.

stevea
04-29-2018, 03:10 PM
You have a point...Judy was with her friend, and I think Beaver told her he was looking for four-leaf clovers (which I think was what he was doing when he got stuck)...so she probably would have forgotten about even seeing him, and he wouldn't have mentioned it (maybe). And eventually Wally wanted to sue the city (neither here nor there re the subject)--that was a comment that could have been made today--suing is so popular.

Still odd that it happened to Whitey, too.

The Angela Valentine/Jackie Kennedy wig line is the one that was edited out for years (as I've mentioned before...sorry!), but recovered when the DVD set came out.

Scrabjan1
04-30-2018, 11:47 AM
Speaking of editing.... one time in Monster Sweatshirts MeTV actually edited out the scene where Alan, Richard and Whitey tried to leave for school in the sweatshirts and were caught. It looked like they never even tried to keep the pact to all wear the shirts so Beaver was double crossed. They always cut out Uncle Billy being called from the movie theater about Beaver. He’s sleeping in the chair with the newspaper on him and says he’ll be right down.