With Beaver’s Birthday.

First of all Beaver gets money from Ward & June and Wally. June hands him some mail from relatives and all the envelopes are open. (Another snooping session?). He gets $ from Aunt Martha, Aunt Mary and Cousin Ronny. Later when June finds 6 thank you notes she says “but you only got 5 presents.” Does that mean he had to write TY notes to his parents and Wally?

It’s his birthday and W and J want him to put all the money in the bank! Why would they suggest such a thing? I think he does put it in his account.

It’s Beaver’s Birthday and both June and Ward yell at him for missing lunch. Can’t the kid have a little fun on his birthday? He gets $10 and decides to buy that race car he wants. I guess I don’t understand if he plans to put all his birthday money in the bank why should he feel guilty because he spends money on something he wants. Why lie about it and say Gilbert gave it to him?

At the end because he lied he gives himself a punishment to come home early all next week and have no fun. Huh?

Anyone think it was poorly contrived?

Ha ha. I put much the same thing just now in the June snooping thread. He should have stood up for himself. Yeah, I spent it, Uncle Billy sent it to ME!

He was way more feisty when he was a little kid. I'm runnin' away and i'm not never comin' back.

I agree. Birthdays should be a time to celebrate, have fun and spend the cash you receive as gifts on something for yourself right away.

You know, Beaver might not have drawn Ward's lecture if he had walked in with the racer, sought out Ward, and said, "While everyone was out I got a special delivery letter from Uncle Billy with ten dollars, and I bought myself a birthday present, this cool racer. How do you like it, Dad?"

He might have said, "Just don't wreck it, like the kite."

Then I guess there would be no story and no lesson to be learned. Whatever it was. I often wait for Beaver or Ward to turn to the camera and say “And there’s a lesson in that for everyone.”

There are a couple of times in Father Knows Best a character talks to "us" at the end of the episode. In one Jane Wyatt looks at the camera and says, "This was one of the bad days." In another one Lauren Chapin says something to us.

It would have been kind of a neat ploy for LITB to use occasionally. In fact, they could have had Hugh narrate the show. Or maybe Connelly or Mosher.

As far as whatever the lesson was, in this one, it would have to be, don't lie, Beaver. So you have a point...no lesson with my change.

Maybe a good line for Ward would have been, how many times have we told you to not lie, Beaver?

Hugh did narrate the episodes in the first season, as not unlike Rod Serling did on The Twilight Zone.

I loved hearing Hugh introduce the episode in the beginning of the first season. “And that’s our story tonight on Leave it to Beaver.”

As for commenting at the end I liked in Alfie” how Michael Caine spoke to the camera and told you what he was thinking throughout the movie.

I loved hearing Hugh introduce the episode in the beginning of the first season. “And that’s our story tonight on Leave it to Beaver.”



I did too and I missed it when they stopped doing that but in "The New Leave it to Beaver "Still The Beaver" Barbara Billingsly did the same thing.