Wally laughing at Beaver at the dinner table

[White Rabbit]

I don't know how long I am going to live, but until the day I die, I will always remember Wally laughing at the Beaver at the dinner table.

One was the 'Sheepdog' episode, where Beaver comes downstairs for dinner, and his hair is all mucked up and dirty/greasy looking. Well after a couple of minutes of trying not to ask what gives, Wally can stand it no longer, and bursts out laughing.

The other one I liked even better -- It's the one where Beaver hates his freckles, so he goes into June's makeup supply, and slathers the 'concealing' stuff all over his face. I recall Ward and June warning Wally not to laugh in advance, but lo and behold, Wally practically gets a hernia in an effort not to laugh, but the poor guy ends up doing so, and is admonished by June.

That scene had me falling off my chair, it was so funny.

QUESTION: Were their any other episodes with anything similar to these?

[Elvis Fonzie Dean]

Those are great, I can't remember something done like that on other sitcoms till this day.Usually a brother wouldn't laugh at his brother in some cases and just think he's weird or not unusual for him, but Wally laughing was realistic and funny.

[tdr]

I've often wondered if the way they filmed Tony Dow's closeups in that scene was to keep Jerry hidden until he was supposed to bust out laughing, then at that moment show him Jerry with the plastered-down hair.

But have you noticed that after Beaver is seen beginning to wash out his hair in the bathroom sink, then Eddie Haskell comes into their room, Beaver then comes out and his hair is completely dry? He really worked it over with that towel, I suppose.

I think the freckles and the sheepdog hair episodes are the only ones where Wally does that at the dinner table. But there are a few others where Wally laughs at Beaver and hurts his feelings and gets chewed out. One is when Beaver pretends he is still in the school orchestra and he plays the first few notes of "My Country, 'tis of Thee", the same he was able to play 2 or 3 weeks before. And also the ep in which Larry stays the night, but he and Beaver have a fight and Larry wants to go to his grandmother's [his parents are out of town], and Larry and Beaver in turn stick their ugly tongues out at each other. Wally laughs and June gets on him for 'making the whole situation worse.'

[White Rabbit]

ElvisFD, I agree – the only even semi-recent sitcoms where I can recall that kind of sibling laughter is in “Roseanne” and “Boy Meets World.” I’m not a good one to judge, though, because I bet I haven’t seen any (newer) so-called sitcoms in 10 years. But you’re right – they don’t make ‘em like LITB anymore, sadly.


tdr, you have very good powers of observation. I NEVER notice things such as a wet head miraculously turning dry.

And yes indeed, you are so right about Beaver’s ‘recorder incident.’ Really funny stuff.

As for Jerry only being seen right before Tony is supposed to react with laughter, I’m on the fence with that one. It would make the laughter more real and spontaneous, but on the other hand, I think Tony Dow was a very fine actor, who may not have needed for that to be the case. In fact, I think both he AND Jerry Mathers were great, and very natural actors. Either way, these scenes mentioned above and many others certainly kept millions of fans laughing and coming back for more each week.

Long Live LITB!

[Schmoopie]

I haven't seen this one yet, but I'm looking foreword to it!