Whatever Happened to Larry Mondello from TV's Leave It To Beaver

[CosmicCharlie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvAU9zhKQEY

[stevea]

Thanks for posting these. For those who don't know both Frank Bank (Lumpy) and Stanley Fafara (Whitey) passed away in the the last few years.

The Youtube comments are as interesting as the videos, if only to find out there are so many fans of the show.

[Schmoopie]

The actor who played him (Rusty Stevens) is mentioned a lot in the Leave it to Beaver Fan Club page on Facebook. Feel free to join! It's a great group!

[mrbreezeet1]

Originally Posted by Schmoopie

The actor who played him (Rusty Stevens) is mentioned a lot in the Leave it to Beaver Fan Club page on Facebook. Feel free to join! It's a great group!

I wish Larry would have stayed.
The ones with Larry were the best I think.
I liked when he talked Beaver into taking the Go Cart out on the street, and the motorcycle cop pulled them over.
I could have killed him when he told Beaver he shouldn't have taken the Go Cart out.
I liked when Beaver was telling the Judge that his parents worked on a ship.
He kept making stuff up.
Then he broke down, and told the truth, and was crying, and told the Judge that Larry was there, and he was eating apples.
The Judge dried Beavers tears, and had Beaver blow his nose.
They were home free, they should have just kept quiet, and Kept the Go Cart to ride under there Dads supervision, The ended up confessing I think.

[stevea]

There were a few instances where Beaver kept making up lie after lie, all well-written and very funny. I think other than the one with the judge, there were instances with both Miss Canfield and Miss Landers. One with Miss Landers had Beaver telling her either Ward or June was in the hospital, and another one where June had pneumonia. And Miss Landers said that was very serious, and Beaver said it wasn't the dyin' kind. And he also told her at one point something was against their religion, all kinds of wild stuff. I think that was making up excuses in Baby Picture.

[mrbreezeet1]

Originally Posted by stevea

There were a few instances where Beaver kept making up lie after lie, all well-written and very funny. I think other than the one with the judge, there were instances with both Miss Canfield and Miss Landers. One with Miss Landers had Beaver telling her either Ward or June was in the hospital, and another one where June had pneumonia. And Miss Landers said that was very serious, and Beaver said it wasn't the dyin' kind. And he also told her at one point something was against their religion, all kinds of wild stuff. I think that was making up excuses in Baby Picture.

Yeah it was funny he was telling the teachers didn't he tell them that his dad fell out of an airplane or something he just kept making as up as he went along and then the teacher would call him on it and he would make something else up it was funny

[TMC]

Originally Posted by mrbreezeet1

I wish Larry would have stayed.
The ones with Larry were the best I think.
I liked when he talked Beaver into taking the Go Cart out on the street, and the motorcycle cop pulled them over.
I could have killed him when he told Beaver he shouldn't have taken the Go Cart out.
I liked when Beaver was telling the Judge that his parents worked on a ship.
He kept making stuff up.
Then he broke down, and told the truth, and was crying, and told the Judge that Larry was there, and he was eating apples.
The Judge dried Beavers tears, and had Beaver blow his nose.
They were home free, they should have just kept quiet, and Kept the Go Cart to ride under there Dads supervision, The ended up confessing I think.

What are some of the most shocking TV character exits, and why did the show creators decide to write them off?

The one that I see as the greatest mistake was removing “Larry Mondello” from “Leave it to Beaver.” As I understand what happened, the actor’s mother was a harpish controlling stage mother who was on the set every day giving orders and trying to control everything. Apparently the producers and directors finally reached a breaking point and fired the actor (Rusty Stevens) to get rid of her.

While I’m sure this move brought a lot of day-to-day relief, I think it unfortunately did some permanent damage to the show. “Larry Mondello” was a brilliant character and the perfect foil for Beaver. Everything about him perfectly complemented Beaver’s character arc; his storylines made sense; and he was genuinely funny. After they got rid of him they embarked on a tortured attempt to replace his role with a variety of other “friends” of Beaver, none of whom ever really “worked” or created the same magic as the primary foil. Gilbert, Richard, Whitey, etc., all came across mostly as unpleasant brats, without the innocence or funny personal limitations of Larry. When they tried to encourage Beaver to misbehave, it felt contrived, more like they were trying to purposely humiliate Beaver out of meanness than just being lovably stupid like Larry was.

Although I think “Leave it to Beaver” handled change better than most shows, and never really had a bad episode in its entire run, I think the overall quality jumped down a small peg when Larry was written out. I’ll bet if they had it to do over again they’d just take a deep breath and cope with Mom’s antics.

[stevea]

As I understand what happened, the actor’s mother was a harpish controlling stage mother who was on the set every day giving orders and trying to control everything. Apparently the producers and directors finally reached a breaking point and fired the actor (Rusty Stevens) to get rid of her.

Yes, I think this stage mother's behavior is most often attributed to a comment from Barbara Billingsley.

As far as the alleged firing goes, Rusty Stevens' story (from Facebook interviews), I think, was that the show let him out of his contract--he wanted to leave.

Sounds like it may have worked out well for all concerned.