Episode Reviews - "Beaver's Report Card" - season 4

[stevea]

Beaver has to go to the dentist, so June picks him up in the middle of the day. It so happens report cards are being handed out, so Gilbert brings Beaver's by the Cleaver house. Eddie and Lumpy are waiting for Wally, who's upstairs--and take the report card from Gilbert.

Eddie proceeds to alter Beaver's math D- to B+, figuring Beaver would get blamed for changing it, and get in trouble. He was right. But Eddie didn't figure on Wally putting two and two together.

So Eddie phones Ward and apologizes.

Was this the worst thing Eddie ever did? What might change in the modern world?

[Tankeryanker]

Its one of the worst. He should have come clean sooner. It was kind of a crappy prank, but then again I got handcuffed for one of my pranks so...

[Sgt. Saunders]

I think that Ward was incredibly (not to mention, inexplicably) magnanimous when he told Eddie that if he pulled one more similar stunt, then that would be it for Wally’s friendship with Eddie after having caused SO much strife within the Cleaver family.

After this nasty prank, I think that Eddie would have been about as “welcome” at the Cleaver home as Martin Bormann or Osama bin Laden would have been.

And, I don’t think that anything would change (for the better) today in 2026.

[Sgt. Saunders]

Of course, this entire very troubling incident would have been avoided if Miss Landers had not inexplicably (and also very inappropriately) given Beaver’s report card to Gilbert to deliver to either June or Ward Cleaver personally.

I wonder if Miss Landers ever found out how much trouble and aggravation she caused the Cleaver family by her foolish decision to entrust Beaver’s report card to Gilbert instead of just holding on to Beaver’s report and give it to him the next day in school?

I guess, much like June’s careless and thoughtless decision to place the “get-rich-quick” book Beaver had bought for Ward in the family kitchen drawer and needlessly upsetting and Beaver, Miss Landers’s mishandling of Beaver’s report card was an equally bone-headed move.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Sgt. Saunders

Of course, this entire very troubling incident would have been avoided if Miss Landers had not inexplicably (and also very inappropriately) given Beaver’s report card to Gilbert to deliver to either June or Ward Cleaver personally.

I wonder if Miss Landers ever found out how much trouble and aggravation she caused the Cleaver family by her foolish decision to entrust Beaver’s report card to Gilbert instead of just holding on to Beaver’s report and give it to him the next day in school?

I guess, much like June’s careless and thoughtless decision to place the “get-rich-quick” book Beaver had bought for Ward in the family kitchen drawer and needlessly upsetting and Beaver, Miss Landers’s mishandling of Beaver’s report card was an equally bone-headed move.

This is a good point. Why would she give the report card to Gilbert, other than to provide a good script (lol)?

Could she not have given the report card to Beaver the next morning?

Maybe Ward should have talked to Mrs. Rayburn, and suggested a change in school policy.

Or Eddie could have said to Ward on the phone, "Mr. Cleaver, I wouldn't have done it if Clarence hadn't egged me on. But should the school have given the report card to that mallet head, Gilbert? None of this would have happened if they had just given the report card to Theodore the next day."

Ward: "Part of that is true--Gilbert is a mallet head--but you're the one who altered the card."