I notice the writers are more imaginative with Wally scripts. Being older there's more depth to his life than Beaver's playing marbles, or pounding his gullibility. Beaver's cuteness has ended. Now hes a blah preteen. Jerry Mathers now has to depend more on acting, than just being cute. It appears here he's struggling. Tony Dow a raw actor early seems he's really improving being more natural. I think Rusty Stevens leaving was a huge negative blow to the Beaver character. The writers are pairing Wally & Beaver together more until they find a solid Larry replacement. Beaver's at the cuteness ending, too early to date stage. I think the writers are struggling how to use him without Larry. So they rehash old scripts.

Agree 100%.

I think that the show's creators fumbled a golden opportunity by not having Wally start wearing a suit each evening, right up till bedtime.

Think about the comedic potential where Eddie and Lumpy razz him, until they discover how Wally has all the girls' adoration. So they start copy-catting him. Ultimately leading to Ward suspecting they must be 'up to something' as they all wear suits even when visiting Wally in the evenings. classic!!

14 of 39 episodes in season 5 were Wally and his friends episodes as were 16 of 39 in season 6. Some, like Party Spoiler and Double Date heavily involved Wally. Beaver's Fear started out to be about Beaver's fear of high places, but turned into more of an Eddie story, where he was going ballistic on the roller coaster.

So if you count episodes like that (where the title is a Beaver story but really doesn't involve any of Beaver's friends), there are more what you would call Wally episodes.

Party Spoiler, for example, is hard to classify. Wally doesn't want Beaver at his party, so Beaver rigs it with practical jokes, at the urging of Gilbert. So it's probably 50-50.

Point being, there is a noticeable increase in the Wally and friends episodes. If you were to analyze season 2 or 3, you'd probably find way less.

It was a smart move. They could have had a 7th season in color, were it not for Connelly and Mosher ending the show, maybe partly because Mathers wanted out.

Mathers wanted out ?
never heard that ...

I think he says that in his book. IIRC he just wanted to be a normal high school kid, similar to what Rusty Stevens had said 3 years before.

Coincidentally I was just watching a brief review of the series, and that video repeated Mathers' desire to stop.

There's a great benefit of seeing Wally in the late seasons, his love interests are hot young women who have fully matured physically...! :)

hot young women who have fully matured physically...!

T & A replaced Larry +- lol

Network Battle of the T & A. If you saw this. You didn't forget it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y0f1Ywnjq0A

Network Battle of the T & A. If you saw this. You didn't forget it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y0f1Ywnjq0A



i never saw that - excellent !
"The biggest T's and the nicest A's."

i never saw that - excellent !
"The biggest T's and the nicest A's."

I never forgot that. One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.

IIRC he just wanted to be a normal high school kid,

I wonder how many "normal" kids across America ended up getting brainwashed into believing the "Cleaver ethos" to be the norm, consequently loathing their own pedestrian existence?

I think it was Leni Riefenstahl who said something like "it is important to keep in mind which side of the lens is being indoctrinated".

I never forgot that. One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.

LOL, like a Youtube poster said, back when SNL was good. I'm surprised NBC allowed it.

I remember the way-back SNL days--land shark, spud, the beer that made Boise famous, coneheads, Roseanne Rose-Anna-Dana, no pepsi, coke, etc.