Where do the Cleavers Live and what state?



Nate

The Cleavers live in Mayfield, but they never pinpointed an exact state. I guess that was to give the whole impression that Mayfield could exist anywhere and you could think of your own town as Mayfield.

Originally posted by Jenny
The Cleavers live in Mayfield, but they never pinpointed an exact state. I guess that was to give the whole impression that Mayfield could exist anywhere and you could think of your own town as Mayfield.

That's the same thing I was thinking. But you know the way they talk most of the time it seems they are somewhere like Ohio or somewhere in the midwest but, it's funny how they don't pay attention to little things. Like in some of the eps, at the old house, you can see a palm tree in the yard of the house across the street. and you can tell it's california in the ep where the boys babysit puddin because you see the palm trees and everything. I know that there aren't any palm trees in the midwest. (that big anyway):D

I just got a brainstorm today while watching Jeopardy, maybe they live in South Carolina? I went there this summer and it has a lot of beaches, where the beach reference comes in, and I don't think it's far from New England-where Fallbrook(Beaver's prep school episode) is. Will somebody check to see if there is a Mayfield, South Carolina?
~MamaFan~
:) :idea: :)

No, they probably don't live there because in the ep "Don Juan Beaver" the new girl Beaver likes is from South Carolina and they talk about her having a "southern accent" but maybe north carolina? I dunno

Oh, yeah. I've forgotten about that episode!
~MamaFan~

I'll chime in with my 2 cents.

Firstly, I think there is little doubt that the producers/writers left the location a mystery, so that Mayfield could be considered "Anytown, USA."

Secondly, I used to strongly hold to the Ohio theory, but recently have been leaning towards California for the following reasons (some have already been mentioned, but my last one hasn't been brought up to my knowledge):

1) The mention of beaches and surfing. I've read the explanations of how this could fit into Ohio, but I'm unconvinced.

2) The Palm trees (mentioned in this thread). Of course, this could just be a consequence of filming in California, but it is interesting.

3) The Don Drysdale phone call episode. If you pay close attention to that episode, no one ever says the phone call was to "California", but instead always says "Los Angeles." I find this telling. After all, if you're out of state, wouldn't it make more sense to say, "I made a call all the way to California" instead of constantly saying, "I made a call to Los Angeles." A small point, but one that was not lost on me.

Also, when it is brought up that they should call the Dodgers, Beaver says something to the effect of, "Hey, isn't L.A. long distance?" Now, if they were living in Ohio I would think this would go without saying. But if they were in California, perhaps Beaver wouldn't know if it was long distance or not. Anyhow, that episode in particular made me reconsider the location.

B&W "it doesn't matter to me, and ultimately I do believe the writers had in mind a generic location" fan

Oops. I forgot a fourth reason for California over Ohio - NO SNOW! In fact, rarely are the boys ever wearing heavy jackets. Isn't Ohio a rather cold state for at least a portion of the year? I live in Florida, so I don't know for sure, but I relatively certain it gets and stays cold in Ohio for at least 5 months out of the year (November thru March).

B&W "I liked the South Carolina idea, but for the Don Juan episode" fan

There is, of course, no one true answer to this question {other than the LITB's 'Mayfield' does not exist}, but one simple thing caught my attention recently in the ep where Lumpy get a football scholarship to "State." One guy in school tells Lumpy, "Hey, if they go to the Rose Bowl this year, how about some tickets on the 50 yardline?" College football fans know that since 1946-- until last year when the Rose held the BCS CG-- the Rose Bowl has been only between a team from the Big Ten and from the Pacific 10 (previously the Pacific 8). So if we assume "State" means a university with State in its name and is in the particular state Mayfield is in, then that narrows the possibilities to Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington. [Not Pennsylvania, because Penn State did not join the Big Ten until the 90's; nor Arizona because AZ State did not joing with the Pac 8 until the late 70's.]

Ohio has always been thought of as the most likely state, because there is a Mayfield and a Shaker Heights near Cleveland, and Larry's father is usually on business in Cincinnati, and Larry's brother is said to live there. But the Pacific Northwest is a possibility also... consider how many eps where the outdoor shots appear cool and damp, and they are not that far away from mountains and camping areas seen in a few eps. And finally "Summer in Alaska"... why would the docks and the ship captain's office be located in Ohio or the midwest somewhere? An Alaska fishing enterprise is rather likely to be based in Washington or Oregon.

Originally posted by tdr
One guy in school tells Lumpy, "Hey, if they go to the Rose Bowl this year, how about some tickets on the 50 yardline?"

And finally "Summer in Alaska"... why would the docks and the ship captain's office be located in Ohio or the midwest somewhere? An Alaska fishing enterprise is rather likely to be based in Washington or Oregon.

I had forgotten to mention the Lumpy scholarship point, although I too had noticed that. Actually, I think it helps my cause for California. After all, a high school student in Ohio has little cause (unless he's joking) to ask for tickets to an event that will be held a thousand miles away. Of course, the Rose Bowl is in So. Cal., so it seems to be another clue (probably unitentionally written in by the writers) for us.

As for the Alaska episode, that to could possibly be a Northern California office, right?

B&W "the more I think about it, the more I think California is the unitentional location due to the writers many scripts" fan

There is an episode where Wally has flipped over the girl in the box office at the movie theatre. June is against Wally "picking up strange girls."

The girl's name is Marlene Holmes and June has Wally ask her over for dinner before Wally takes her out on a date. June is asking Marlene questions at the dinner table. Soon it is discussed that Marlene lives with her aunt and that her parents live in (another state) California
That rules out the Cleavers living in California!

When Ward and June go into the kitchen and start talking about what they thought of Marlene, Ward says to June, "I bet it wouldn't bother you so much if her parents lived some place like Ohio instead of California. So to me.... That rules out Ohio, too!

So, personally, I'm leaning towards Indiana, or North Carolina. There are beaches on the Great Lakes. Both Ward and June refer to the Midwest a lot, so I like Indiana more.

First of all, I believe that the producers intended to leave the state vague, and did not want the audience to resolve Mayfield's location to a single state, but gave hints that it was in the general vicinity of Cleveland, also giving completely contradictory hints.

Secondly, your quotation, "I bet it wouldn't bother you so much if her parents lived some place like Ohio instead of California," does not necessarily rule out Ohio, unless there is more in that scene or a slightly different phraseology that does.

Originally posted by BeavLover
So, personally, I'm leaning towards Indiana, or North Carolina. There are beaches on the Great Lakes. Both Ward and June refer to the Midwest a lot, so I like Indiana more.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but didn't Ward one time say they lived 20 miles from "the ocean." Or maybe he just said "beach."

If "the ocean" was mentioned, then the only two states it really can be are Washington and Oregon. It's hard to even come up with that conclusion since we all know Mayfield wasn't meant to be anywhere, but the only two states that have never been ruled out are OR. and WA. (At least I don't think they were ever mentioned on the show.) The show actually looks like California, but since they've mentioned California being elsewhere, that's excluded.

I do however, have another point that leads to California. I think it's the episode where Lumpy loses the scholarship. He says he wants to move "Down to Porterville" where his grandmother lives. The only Porterville in the country is in California. That is a really weak point though, because just like Mayfield being a fictional town, Porterville could be fictional as well.

If you want to believe the Porterville idea, you could still say WA. or OR fit because the Porterville in CA is still "down" from those states. That's a real stretch though because, who would really say that about such a small town if the town was not in your state? Lumpy would have likely said "down in Porterville, CA" instead.

Since I got nowhere with that, let's assume Porterville is fictional just like Mayfield. OR and WA fit in other ways, such as what tdr mentioned above. I also referred back to another one of tdr's post from a long time ago, that talks about OR and WA more:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?threadid=6650&perpage=15&pagenumber=2


I agree completely with the leaning toward Ohio. But since we have to take EVERYTHING into account, it's been exluded.

Originally posted by Cashodeen
The only Porterville in the country is in California.


Hold on a minute. There is a Porterville, Mississippi. I just searched yahoo, and it came up as well as the one in CA. We still know that Mississippi is not a choice, but I couldn't just let that error sit their uncorrected. :wave:

Didn't the Cleavers donate the pet alligator to an alligator farm were the Beav could go and visit after school? I would think this would indicate it was at least a southern state.

Originally posted by luvthebeav
Didn't the Cleavers donate the pet alligator to an alligator farm were the Beav could go and visit after school? I would think this would indicate it was at least a southern state.

I'm not an alligator expert but that sounds right to me. That's just another example of how the show contradicts itself to throw us viewers off! :crazy:

Ohio. Perioc.

I meant Ohio. Period.:o

Originally posted by frani
I meant Ohio. Period.

How do you explain the ocean? And who surfs in the midwest?

The hints are absolutely contradictory, but there are a lot of hints for the Cleveland area, like references to Euclid Avenue and Shaker Heights.

Originally posted by BrandonS

The hints are absolutely contradictory, but there are a lot of hints for the Cleveland area, like references to Euclid Avenue and Shaker Heights.

True, true, true. And I'd be all for declaring it's location in Ohio, but because of the other contradictions, only OR or WA (as far as I know) support everything. Obviously the writers didn't intend on it being in either of those states, so I should just throw in the towel and declare it's location as Nowheresville. But then that wouldn't be much fun, would it?

:wave:

And we haven't even gotten into Ward's profession yet tonight!

:wave:

Originally posted by BrandonS
And we haven't even gotten into Ward's profession yet tonight!

;)


Oh goodness. If we tried to tackle that tonight, I would get a serious headache! Some other time! ;)

I think that it is intended to be Ohio and that the writers just decided to stretch the truth a bit. At the time they were talking about surfboards and things like that, the big hits in music were the beach boys, etc. so it's very likely that had something to do with it. But I'm sure it was intended to be middle America.

As for Ward's profession, he was a dad who worked in an office.

if you think about it, that's what lots of people do. they work in an office without a clearly delineated title such as doctor, etc.

what puzzles me though is that they had made him an engineer early in his life (without ever having gone to school for it, unless it was an undergraduate major in those days)
:wave:

Engineering was several undergraduate majors when I arrived at school in the early 70s, e.g. Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Enginerring, etc. Of course, Ward would have gone to college sometime around the 30s

I just looked at my last post and realized I forgot to finish my thought....(it was around 5 a.m. here when I wrote it)

Thanks Brandon, for the info about the engineering. Maybe it still is an undergraduate major. I just didn't know.

But what puzzled me a little was that if he had been an engineer and actually had gotten experience as he had in the Seabees, and he never says he hated it or anything, why wouldn't he have continued being an engineer later on?

I don't think he's intended to be an engineer, but that just puzzles me why they don't make him one.

Originally posted by Cashodeen


I'm not an alligator expert but that sounds right to me. That's just another example of how the show contradicts itself to throw us viewers off! :crazy: ABout the alligator in the zoo: not necessaily so that the zoo would need to be in the south. The San Diego zoo has polar bears as I'm sure do others. Zoos try to create an atmosphere to accomadate their clientel, lol. Including altering the climate in some cases.

Originally posted by Kitt
ABout the alligator in the zoo: not necessaily so that the zoo would need to be in the south. The San Diego zoo has polar bears as I'm sure do others. Zoos try to create an atmosphere to accomadate their clientel, lol. Including altering the climate in some cases.


Okay, thanks for that. luvthebeav was the one that brought that up, and I wasn't sure if it was another condradiction to add, or what.

Originally posted by frani
I don't think he's intended to be an engineer, but that just puzzles me why they don't make him one.
Yes, that's always puzzled me. I can't imagine they'd let someone do engineering in WW2 without a degree or comparable experience, and I don't believe that most people who go to school in engineering and then work in it just one day decide to abandon it.