In tonight's episode - the one in which Beaver and Larry play hookey from school - there is a scene in which Ward receives phone call at work from June. Before the call and after the call, he is dictating a letter into a dictaphone for the secretary to type later. I listened carefully to what he said, trying to get any clue as to what his profession might be, but nothing he said provided the slightest illumination. I've heard it said that we will never know what he did for a living and this episode didn't disprove that view. The only thing he revealed was that his company had a Media Department.

The one thing about this show is they were mighty tight lipped on subjects like the location of Mayfield and where Ward worked at. Of course, the biggest mystery of all is where Mr. Mondello was. lol

I have a weird little theory though. You know how people worry so much about their jobs? I have to get this done by Monday. This is going to be murder finishing this, etc. Just out and out worrying about their job- I think they left Ward's profession a mystery because of the fact Ward always put his family first. Maybe they left it a mystery to signify that Ward did care about his job, but he cared more about family first. I guess this whole mystery was to teach other parents that no matter what job you have, don't let it interfere with watching your kids grow up- not to let it interfere with tossing a baseball around with your sons. Ward divided his time in half between family and work. I think it was only a few times that the two overlapped. I think the whole thing was kind of a lesson to parents.

Okay, my explanation sounded really odd. Good luck everybody on deciphering (sp?) it.

I like your explanation, Jenny. And my theory of why we nver new where Mayfield was...........We were all supposed to believe it could be wherever we were at. Although I believe the writers must have had quite a bit of information about Mayfield Ohio because so many references about other locations point to the Cleveland area. And I suppose that when they referred to the beach, they could have talking about a Lake Erie beach, a short distance north of Mayfield Ohio.

PS. We all know where Mr. Mondello always was....Cincinnati LOL

I think Ward's profession was supposed to be generic. He was a father who went to the office. We know he wasn't a lawyer or an engineer because he refers in some eps to those as other professions. I think mos kids think of their fathers who work in offices in that way, not knowing exactly what their job is like they would a doctor or a construction worker.

Also, today they referred to the ocean as being 20 miles away and i think that's a red herring. Is there a place in the midwest that is 20 miles from an ocean?

...references to 'Garden Grove' (MY hometown, and where the 'carnival' was) and 'Riverside'. Both are large cities in Southern California.

As far as 'family first' with Ward...I recall one episode where Ward backed down when Fred R told Ward they needed to work the week-end, after he promised to take the kids fishing.

pontoon :cool:

i think if you look very carefully at all of the geographical references made throughout the shows run, you'll find that they basically live nowhere and everywhere. this further reinforces the point that they wanted the viewer to believe that this could be just about anyone's hometown.
never thought about the whole ward's job thing. very interesting theory jenny. it wasnt very hard to decode:happyface
i think you just may be right

The mystery of Ward's profession and the whereabouts of Mayfield are all part of the shows intrigue. The writers dont intend for you to know where works except at a firm or as Mr. Rutherford liked to refer to them as the "salt- mines" we do know that it was a good job that provided well. As far as the whereabouts of Mayfield I would say it was also intended to be secret but we know that it was a wonderful place to live. Mr. Mondello was only seen once, yes he was seen just the back of him in the episode when Beaver and Larry are in the school play. You see Mr. Mondello with Larry however you only see the rear view of him, incidentally you never see Larry's sister either.

For some reason I think Ward was in advertising. I'm not sure but, I think there was an episode where something was said about advertising. I like this show but, I don't know a whole lot about it.:wave:

I agree. I think Mayfield was anywhere the writers wanted it to be. What ever was best for any particular episode. I think leaving the state Mayfield was in a secret was a good idea. I'm sure it made the writing easier. There are episodes where Mayfield is close to the beach and episodes where the beach is "miles away". It just depends on the episode. The same applies for Ward's occupation. Although it was never acutally mentioned, there were episodes where it seemed Ward was an accountant, some where it seemed like he was in advertising. So unless he was an executive at a "salt mine", I think Ward was just a generic businessman.

I read somewhere that the Leave it to Beaver house was located across the street from the Munster's house at Universal Studio's in California. Mayfield I believe is/was located in Suburban Ohio. (Near Cleavland) The episode of "Captain Jack" was filmed in California, but Mayfield is supposed to be a suburb of Cleavland Ohio. (The LITB movie is supposed to be in Ohio, but never saw it.) As for Ward's profession, I think that he was an account executive for a team of finanical planners, which someone else on the board posted. (With an educational background in mechanical engineering.)

Jack

There was a big clue in tonight's episode that was consistent with that. It was the episode in which Beaver brags that his father was a hero in World War 2. It was stated that since Ward was an engineer, that was how the military was able to make the best use of him during the war. The work described sounds like civil or mechanical engineering. I am not familiar enough with the minutia of the rest of the episodes to know whether this is contradicted elsewhere, but it was stated explicitly in this episode, "Beaver's Hero." Strangely, though, in the same episode, June refers to him majoring in Philosophy, which is not the way to become an engineer.

Ward Cleaver,man of mystery.:D