Worst Thing Larry Did to Beaver

[howilu]

What was the worst thing Larry Mondello did to Beaver? I'll throw in a few nominations:

1. Playing catch with Ward's autographed baseball.
2. Talking Beaver into smoking Ward's meerschaum pipe.
3. Teasing Beaver about Linda Dennison.

[kooky12]

Talking the Beav into buying a bow & arrow set for themselves, instead of the camera for Wally's birthday present. Then breaking the bow on top of it! (At least in this one Larry apologized, though.)

[BarneyFife]

Originally Posted by kooky12

Talking the Beav into buying a bow & arrow set for themselves, instead of the camera for Wally's birthday present. Then breaking the bow on top of it! (At least in this one Larry apologized, though.)

I have to agree with Kooky. That was selfish of Larry, he knew Beaver had to get a present for Wally, but instead talked the Beav into getting something for their own enjoyment. Like Gomer Pyle always said, Shame Shame Shame!

[tdr]

I think it was when Larry wanted to borrow 25 cents to buy his notebook at school, he saw Beaver had a "whole dollar" Ward had given him for his (Beaver's) notebook, expecting 75 cents in change, then (Larry) offered to go buy both their notebooks-- Beaver should have been suspicious. But Larry went to the school store, brought Beaver only his notebook-- no change-- saying he already owed 50 cents and couldn't buy anything else till he paid it-- promising, of course, to pay Beaver back the 75 cents.

Next day, Larry got 75 cents allowance, but on his way to Beaver's he met Whitey and Gilbert, who talked him into going to the movie-- The Iron Fiend -- and to buy an ice cream soda later, so he left Beaver holding the bag again ["Yeah-- why should I let that Beaver push me around?"]

So he betrayed Beaver twice in this episode.

[Janice]

Larry was a troublemaker and a lousy friend. His offenses are too numerous. Beaver was always forgiving though.

[desilu #1]

The only thing that I can recall that is not mentioned here is in the episode "Friendship" where Larry takes advantage of their Damien and Apifious (sp) pact and asks Beaver for his math homework because he was too lazy to do his own. In the end Larry confesses, but it was still a rotten thing to do and then Miss landers didn't bother to punish Larry. Hello? She sent a note home to Ward and was going to take recess away from Beaver. I thought she was a wishy washy teacher anyway.

[rperegrine75]

I agree about the 75 cents episode, the weirdest thing about Larry was he always had baloney or some other kind of food in his pockets.

[tdr]

Originally Posted by desilu #1

In the end Larry confesses, but it was still a rotten thing to do and then Miss landers didn't bother to punish Larry. Hello? .... I thought she was a wishy washy teacher anyway.

Just to be fair and accurate, Beaver did tell Wally that Miss Landers took Larry's recesses away for a week, as Beaver's were reinstated-- 'sentence' just wasn't pronounced on Larry until after the final classroom scene.

And I don't think Miss Landers was a "wishy washy" teacher; she was characterized better than any teacher I actually had. Possibly it may be thought so because she is not perfect-- doesn't always see things exactly as they are, which we, the fans/viewers already know. But just like a police officer cannot make an arrest unless he does things in the right order and has the facts to make it 'stick,' a teacher, as another type of public seravnt, has comparable responsibility, and cannot be partial or base decisions on unprovable assumptions.

[desilu #1]

Originally Posted by tdr

Just to be fair and accurate, Beaver did tell Wally that Miss Landers took Larry's recesses away for a week, as Beaver's were reinstated-- 'sentence' just wasn't pronounced on Larry until after the final classroom scene.

And I don't think Miss Landers was a "wishy washy" teacher; she was characterized better than any teacher I actually had. Possibly it may be thought so because she is not perfect-- doesn't always see things exactly as they are, which we, the fans/viewers already know. But just like a police officer cannot make an arrest unless he does things in the right order and has the facts to make it 'stick,' a teacher, as another type of public seravnt, has comparable responsibility, and cannot be partial or base decisions on unprovable assumptions.

Oh I forgot about that last part when Beaver told Wally about that. In regards to what I said about Miss Landers, it was just an opinion that I have and I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone.

[Torgo]

The only episode where I think Larry was totally to blame was the episode tdr mentioned(and the one with Linda)...all the others mentioned on here Larry did urge Beaver to do these things, but Beaver is still the one that allowed himself to be talked into playing catch with the ball, or to smoke, or to drill holes...But, had Beaver not been such a pushover and told Larry no, and not let Larry urge him on, then they never would have gotten into these messes...In the end Beaver is at fault just as much, or more than Larry.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by rperegrine75

I agree about the 75 cents episode, the weirdest thing about Larry was he always had baloney or some other kind of food in his pockets.

Do you think Larry was worse than Eddie?

[rperegrine75]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Do you think Larry was worse than Eddie?

Eddie was far worse than Larry.

[tdr]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Do you think Larry was worse than Eddie?

No [in regard to this thread about the 'bad' things done to Beaver] . But I think you have to remember the different types of acquaintance. Beaver and Larry were in the same class in school and were personal friends. There would have been no contact between Beaver and Eddie if Eddie had not been Wally's friend. And Eddie, of course, has a warped sense of humor and consider it fun to do hurtful things to people where he has the advantage, which he certainly does over the much younger Beaver.

Nevertheless, there are 2 things that Eddie did to Beaver which are as bad or worse than anything Larry did. One is the "Beaver and Chuey" episode, where he deliberately caused hurt feelings to a boy at a greater disadvantage to him than Beaver, and caused the boy's family to get mad at the Cleavers where it was difficult to explain what had happened. The other is in "Beaver's Report Card," where Eddie get ahold of Beaver's card and changes his D- in Arithmetic to a B+, leaving Beaver trying unsuccessfully arguing that he himself did not change it to avert Ward's becoming angry. That was interfering with communication between a student's teacher and his parents. So I think those 2 interferences to cause others to get mad at Beaver for what was not Beaver's fault were worse than anything Larry did.

[Schmoopie]

Larry was pretty bad, judging from the episodes I've seen so far. I'm still trying to catch up, since I have a TON of them on my DVR!

Let's see... Beaver was adamant about following his father's orders not to smoke the pipe, but Larry was so insistant that Beaver caved in.

Larry enticed Beaver into playing at the construction site when Beaver knew that he should go home and change clothes since he was wearing his good suit.

Larry convinced Beaver to buy a bow and arrow set after Beaver saved up all that money to buy Wally that nice camera. Then Larry breaks it, and doesn't bother to stick around after that.

I haven't seen too many episodes so far where Eddie Haskell did stuff to Beaver, so I can't really compare the two yet.

But seriously, Larry was my favorite "friend" of Beaver's until I started watching all these episodes! Now he just really ticks me off!!!

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by kooky12

Talking the Beav into buying a bow & arrow set for themselves, instead of the camera for Wally's birthday present. Then breaking the bow on top of it! (At least in this one Larry apologized, though.)

That WAS pretty rotten. (I've been watching the S2 DVDs and this ep is on the set.)