Uh...

[stevea]

When Beaver is thinking up a lie in these older episodes, it cracks me up. He makes this little uh noise, and comes up with some outlandish thing. Then the adult involved comes up with a question or says something to contradict the lie, and he makes his noise, and comes up with another whopper. I can't think of specific dialog right now, but maybe somebody else can post one. So funny!

[howilu]

I have also noticed when Beaver starts a sentence with "Well I...", it's a sign that he's about to tell a lie.

[Scrabjan1]

I also love when little Beaver is asking Ward questions and when he’s thinking about what he’s been told he drops his head to the side like he’s taking it all in and thinks hard then answers. Like when he asks why big guys bully little guys.

[stevea]

Beaver making up lies goes far into the series. I remember him making up stuff for Miss Landers, like his father is in the hospital, or he fell out of a plane, or his mother has pneumonia, stuff like that.

But he's funnier at it when he's little, with the uh, or well, I uh...

[Hazel Anyday]

Beaver had great writers who came up with good stories and from a kid's point of view. That worked great till Beaver got old, then they just wrote him as a moron.

[stevea]

You're right, they wrote him like he couldn't do anything. A 13 or 14 year old ought to be able to manage joining a record club, or figure out that a golf club is broken before he swings it.

On the 4th season of Dennis The Menace, the kid (to me) is noticeably smarter (in many, but not all, instances) than he is in earlier episodes. There's an episode where Wilson ends up trapped by a rainstorm, up at Uncle Ned's place. And Dennis handles a lot of stuff for him, via phone calls. There are other examples, but the point is, the writers seemed to recognize that he was a little older now, so they adjusted accordingly.

[Scrabjan1]

Glad they changed Dennis’s clothes too. There was no one like Joseph Kearns as Wilson. Gale Gordon didn’t do it for me and hated the one at the zoo with the chimp. You are so right that Beaver and Gilbert should have figured out that the club was already broken and no one looks good with their hair oiled and plastered on their head. The biggest problem with older Beaver was that he couldn’t make a decision himself.

[stevea]

Even though Dennis complained about his cowlick in an early fourth season episode, I notice they tamed that, too. And with the new wardrobe the slingshot was gone. The kid was really a good little actor, especially with all he went through in his personal life.

I started a thread on the DTM board about which Wilson is better...I'm in the minority, since I like Gordon's Wilson better. But it may be that I simply like those later episodes better, generally. I made the argument that Gordon's Wilson (in many instances) seems to actually like the kid, whereas Kearns' Wilson seems to always detest him, other than when he can use him for some personal interest (but John Wilson did that, too, so there goes that argument).

Point of above post is that Connelly and Mosher might have adjusted the writing for Beaver a little, to make him a little more savvy as he grew up, as it seemed to me the writers did for Dennis (and he was only 10 by the 4th season!).

[Scrabjan1]

I believe that Kearns was the epitome of the crusty old retired man who wanted to have his hobbies, have the most beautiful house on the street and for Dennis to go home. He and Martha weren't childless for nothing. I had forgotten what a good actor Kearns was and he and Gordon were on I Love Lucy. I saw the episode when he fell on his head climbing from the window and causing his death.

[stevea]

Kearns was on tons of shows back in that era. Back in the Lucy era he also had an occasional role on Our Miss Brooks, and I know I've seen him on Ozzie and Harriet, Burns and Allen, and Jack Benny.

What's this fall on the head episode? I think Gloria Henry said in an interview (basically) that he ODed on Metrecal.

[Scrabjan1]

Well I never read about overdosing but heard he did a stunt where he is climbing through a basement window with Dennis and cane down too fast on his head. It was an episode when he thinks the new neighbors are jewel thieves. Right after he died suddenly. It did look like he fell on his head but rallied quickly for the scene.

[stevea]

Actors rarely did physical things, although climbing thru a window would hardly sound dangerous. Normally stunt people take falls, etc., but Kearns probably did this one. I vaguely remember this episode.

I just checked that completely reliable source, Wikipedia, and it mentions a cerebral hemorrhage, which would go along with what you said, but no other details.

[stevea]

Here's a 7 year old post from moviechat.org:

Last night I watched this episode and have to disagree with your claim that he clearly hit his head on a concrete floor.

Having read your comments the day before, I was looking for this. As I viewed it, he fell head first, as described, but only his arms and shoulders hit the floor.

Secondly, a stunt double would likely have been used for Mr. Kearns.

Thirdly, the floor, whether Kearns or a stunt double, likely had some sort of padding to prevent injury, something that, in black-and-white, only looked like a concrete floor.

Here's my best argument against what you opined: Since the scene continued, it would seem most unlikely he was so seriously injured that he could have continued the scene, and whatever other scenes were still needed to be filmed, after injuring himself.

I believe the medical folks will say that a cerebral hemorrhage is quite often not caused by trauma (landing on one's head) so there is no reason to expect that falling on his head was what caused his death.

The series would not likely have lasted too much longer, with or without Joe Kearns, given how Jay North was growing up. But for a few years, and now thanks to videotape/DVD we have a true classic comedy to enjoy forever!

An older (9 yr. old) post:

Info on Wiki says he died the same day that "The Stocking Bandit" was filmed, but doesn't elaborate. All accounts of his death say "cerebral hemmhorrage". Now I'm just putting 2 and 2 together, but in this particular episode, Kearns falls head first about 5 feet from a basement window and clearly HITS HIS HEAD on the concrete floor. Was this the cause of his death???? If so, it is captured on film and is all the more tragic and sad!

I have looked and looked for a connection, reference to a newspaper article, obituary, etc, but found nothing to confirm my suspicions.

And another post, 6 years old (Billy is Billy Booth (Tommy)):

Billy died sometime in the mid 2000s. Last I had heard from a friend of mine who once was working with Billy before his death, he was a lawyer I believe in Arizona (Phoenix area).

As for Kearns death I think he is right. Someone else told me the same maybe 5 years ago who was a stagehand on the cast.

I have not seen Jay for a long time, (maybe 15 years) but I did know he did not like talking about the show.

[Hazel Anyday]

That's a new one on me (that Kearns died due to his fall thru the window, I remember that episode well, it was the last episode Kearns made before he died). I don't really believe it either, the way I heard it is he died of a heart attack, which Gloria Henry explained in the Dennis The Menace "extra" on the Season 1 DVDs that he was on a crash diet, using metrical and he lost his weight too quickly and died of a heart attack. That sounds more plausible, as I also think they would have used a stunt double for a scene of Wilson falling on a hard basement floor from a high window. Though it does look like him, but that's the magic of camera angles, editing and stunt doubles.

[Hazel Anyday]

OH, another in a series of great appearances Kearns made was in Our Miss Brooks where he played a school superintendent and these appearance were many times shared with Gale Gordon as the school principal. So on these Our Miss Brooks episodes you see BOTH Mr. Wilsons together.

For the record, I also prefer Joe Kearns' Mr. Wilson, I've already talked all about this a couple times on the Dennis board.