I heard an old rumor from back when the show was still airing new episodes. It was that Larry Mondello, and his real life family were kidnapped. Did this really happen? I looked on every LITB site i could find and it didn't say anything about kidnapping. They just say that he had to move with his family, but I find this hard to believe because at the time Beaver was the #1 show or at the top nevertheless. Has anyone else heard this rumor?

No they werent kindnaped he had to move with his family.

I've never heard anything about a kidnapping, but apparently a lot of people think there was more to Rusty Stevens leaving the show than just that he "had to move with his family." So rumors probably did happen. And actually some info further connives at some wild ideas, such as an interview with Frank Bank ['Lumpy'] in which the interviewer mentioned that Stevens left because he had to move with his family. Bank replied, "That's what he says, is it? Well, we'll just leave it at that."

And BTW, Beaver was not a highly rated show during its original run; it definitely could not have been near #1, since it never even finished a year in the top 25. Really it is one of those, like Star Trek, which became more popular in repeats and syndication than it had been on network primetime.

I learn something new every day because I did not know that Beaver was never in the top 25. Thats amazing. To me its number one! Always.