News articles about the show's move from Disney Channel to TBS in 1986

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https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...s/62715800007/

Chuck Davis

On Oct. 4, 1957, CBS broadcast the first episode of Leave It to Beaver. Over the next six years, some 234 episodes were shown on CBS (until mid-1958) and on ABC. The last episode aired on Sept. 12, 1963.

Leave It to Beaver never was ranked among the top 25 shows in any year of its existence.

Yet, today, almost 30 years after the first telecast and almost 23 years since the last episode, Leave It to Beaver remains popular.

Maybe even more popular than ever. The old shows remain in syndication, filling up the afternoons and late nights on many stations across the country. The Disney Channel gave a reunion-type Still the Beaver series a shot a couple of years ago, showing that, yes indeed, Wally and the Beav' had both grown up and had their own kids now.

And now comes the continuation, The New Leave It to Beaver, a series which premieres at 5 p.m. Monday on WTBS, the Atlanta superstation owned by millionaire Ted Turner.

Between now and next May, 27 different The New Leave It to Beaver episodes are scheduled to run on WTBS (Channel 12 on Cox Cable and Channel 17 on Multimedia, Norman and Midwest City cable stations).

Episodes will be shown at 5 p.m. on Mondays, then repeated the following Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Bringing the vintage '50s comedy series back to television was the combined effort of MCA/Universal and WTBS.

Original cast members Tony Dow (Wally Cleaver), Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver), Frank Bank (Lumpy Rutherford), Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) and Jerry Mathers (The Beaver, Theodore Cleaver) are back on the classic sitcom.

Joining in the fun are the real stars of the new shows: the kids.

Wally and wife Mary Ellen (played by Janice Kent) have one daughter, Kelly (played by Kaleena Kiff). Beaver, now divorced, has two sons Kip (Kipp Marcus) and Oliver (John Snee). Even Eddie Haskell has a teen-aged son, Freddie (played by Osmond's real-life son, Eric).

Freddie Haskell is just as obnoxious as his dad.

To make this a homey, real-life, cozy TV sitcom scenario, Beaver and his two sons have moved back in with mom. Ward Cleaver is dead, although June often refers to him in mental flashbacks. So the house at 211 Pine Street in Mayfield, U.S.A., is full of Cleavers.

To add to the adventures, Wally married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Ellen Rogers, became an attorney and bought the house at 213 Pine Street, right next door to June, Beaver and sons.

Mary Ellen is expecting another child.

June has changed from the dowdy old mom to a dowdy old mom with a career: She is a councilwoman at Mayfield's City Hall. Don't fret, however, she still has all the answers when it comes to family matters.

Eddie Haskell is a police officer (just as Ken Osmond is in real life) and still pulls pranks and stunts like he used to when he was a teen-ager. Lumpy still likes food, food and more food in that order.

Lumpy and Beaver are in business together in Mayfield.

The New Leave It to Beaver may have some older faces and some new faces, but the show still has that same, nice, simple, sometimes sappy appeal to it an appeal that should make it a hit among both Baby Boomers and youngsters alike.

Let's take a sneak look at the first episode "Dumb Luck."

Kip Cleaver and Freddie Haskell meet two cute girls at the carnival celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mayfield. They make a date to meet later that night.

In the meantime, Beaver asks Kip to babysit for Kelly and Oliver, spoiling Kip's plans for a rendezvous. Freddie, ever the obnoxious one, shows up at the Cleaver house and convinces Kip to take the two "kids" along with him to the carnival.

Kelly finds a five-dollar bill and enters a drawing for a sailboat.

The kids return home just before Beaver, Wally, Mary Ellen and June return. No one is the wiser. . . Until the next morning when the sailboat Kelly won shows up outside their house. Eddie "helps out" the "little warts" by taking the sailboat off their hands and apparently getting them off the hook.

The rest of the show involves the conflict over whether Kip will confess to taking the kids to the carnival the night before.

June offers her typical motherly, read that, grandmotherly advice and things turns out well. If you remember from the old Leave It to Beaver shows, things always turn out well in Mayfield.

The wholesome family values have not changed over the years, and that's sure to appeal to the parents. The music and events have been updated to fit the '80s.

All in all, The New Leave It to Beaver should be a good show to watch this fall.