The Cast, Including Jerry Mathers, Reunites Nearly 70 Years After the Show's Premiere

[TMC]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...201053236.html

Members of the original cast reunited on June 6 and 7 at the Hollywood Show in Burbank, Calif.

[MichaelMartinD]

So glad to see this! Too bad they couldn't find Rusty Stevens.

[stevea]

I wouldn't recognize Jeri Weil [assuming she is the second from the left.]

[MichaelMartinD]

Yes, that is Jeri Weil.

[Dude111]

Its good they are still friends and all.........

[Sgt. Saunders]

Apparently, Stephen Talbot has gotten past his earlier disdain for LITB.

PS In his seventies, Mr. Talbot bears an uncanny resemblance to the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Sgt. Saunders

Apparently, Stephen Talbot has gotten past his earlier disdain for LITB.

PS In his seventies, Mr. Talbot bears an uncanny resemblance to the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Yes, he has. There are interviews "out there" and he's got a lot of interesting stories.

He explained in one of them why he turned down an opportunity to appear on The New Leave it to Beaver. He says he couldn't go back to being Gilbert while pursuing a career at a PBS TV station.

[Sgt. Saunders]

I guess the opportunity to make a few bucks at the Hollywood Show caused Mr. Talbot to “reassess” his outlook on his performance as the duplicitous Gilbert Bates on LITB?

[MichaelMartinD]

Originally Posted by Sgt. Saunders

I guess the opportunity to make a few bucks at the Hollywood Show caused Mr. Talbot to “reassess” his outlook on his performance as the duplicitous Gilbert Bates on LITB?

How cynical of you, Sergeant! Of course, we should leave open the possibility that Stephen genuinely had a change of heart toward the show. The conversation between him and Jerry Mathers from a few years back is worth watching. He seems like a very nice guy and still remembers a good deal from the show.

[Sgt. Saunders]

MichaelMartinD,

Yes, I did see that recent interview with Jerry and Stephen. And, Stephen did seem to be more accepting and appreciative of his days as a cast member of the beloved LITB.

I remember some of Stephen Talbot’s earlier comments on LITB, such as the tv show presented an unrealistic depiction of life in America during the 1950s, when the vast majority of the US population was European-American and the television shows of that decade reflected that.

I also remember that Stephen Talbot somewhat flippantly commented that Tony Dow was directing (about twenty years ago) television commercials for the “uninspiring” CBS crime series, “Nash Bridges.” Although, to be fair, I think that Mr. Talbot was not far off the mark in his characterization of “Nash Bridges” as being “uninspiring,” starring the equally “uninspiring” Don Johnson. By the way, whatever became of Don Johnson?

You know, it would be great to hear the fond recollections of such other popular LITB actors of the show, as Richard “Richard Rickover” Correll, Karen Sue “Penny Woods” Trent and, of course, the immortal Rusty “Larry Mondello” Stevens.

[MichaelMartinD]

Sergeant,

You are right, there are a number of cast members from LITB still around and it would be great to hear from them. Wasn't Rusty Stevens commenting on Facebook a few years back? (There was some dispute as to whether it was really him or someone posing as him.) As to Richard Correll, there is a recent interview with him! I have watched part of it and it too has some excellent recollections.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kpHZVSa-I4

[stevea]

Yes, Correll's interview is fascinating. User OMG reposted much of the Rusty Stevens stuff off Facebook - here is the thread -

https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/sho...hlight=stevens

I've heard some interesting commentary from Tiger Fafara someplace.

Karen Sue Trent allegedly has passed, but there is some doubt that this is the actress from Leave it to Beaver.

[Sgt. Saunders]

Originally Posted by stevea

Yes, Correll's interview is fascinating. User OMG reposted much of the Rusty Stevens stuff off Facebook - here is the thread -

https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/sho...hlight=stevens

I've heard some interesting commentary from Tiger Fafara someplace.

Karen Sue Trent allegedly has passed, but there is some doubt that this is the actress from Leave it to Beaver.

Yes, there is a question about whether Karen Sue Trent is alive or deceased. I think the former actress Karen Sue Trent is still alive.

There is listing on the internet about a Karen Sue Trent, who died in Florida, but I think “Trent” was her married surname and not her original surname. In addition, that Karen Sue Trent was born in the early 1940s, making her several years older than the KST who was on LITB.

By the way, you can see a very young Karen Sue Trent in the-then very controversial 1954 film, “Garden of Eden” on YouTube.

In the film, Karen Sue portrays the very young daughter whose mother unknowingly (at least initially) takes the little girl to a nudist camp in Florida.

The film also features such veteran actors as R.G. Armstrong, who appeared in several of Sam Peckinpah’s films and also Arch Johnson, who was also in many films and tv shows, like “The Munsters,” “Tales of Wells Fargo,” “Ellery Queen” and a million more.

Can you imagine if Ward and June went to The Mayfield Cinema on a Saturday night, expecting to see some film apparently about the Old Testament and they instead saw Penny Woods, one of Beaver’s Grant Avenue School classmates, running around in her birthday suit in a film entitled, “Garden of Eden”? Oy vey!!!

No doubt, Mayfield Cinema ticket cashier Marlene Holmes would have absolutely loved watching “Garden of Eden.” (Heck, Marlene probably watched it numerous times!)

And, finally, how would Mrs. Rayburn, Miss Landers and, most importantly, Beaver, Gilbert, Whitey and Richard have reacted, discovering that Penny had appeared in such a “bold” and “frank” film?

[stevea]

Mrs. Rayburn would have suggested that Penny move to Bellport--"We don't need such people sullying Grant Avenue Grammar School."

The same false death rumors may also out there about Ray Fulmer, who starred as Steve Baxter in the final season of Hazel.

He may still be alive but very old. He has allegedly stayed out of the limelight, and it may be another Ray Fulmer who died.

[Sgt. Saunders]

For the opening of “Garden of Eden” at the Mayfield Cinema, I think quite a few of Mayfield’s most prominent citizens would turn out for that sophisticated film, including:

Miss Landers
Gus-the-Fireman
George and Gertrude Haskell
“Moose” Saunders
Andy Hadlock
Mr. Jeff
Fred and Gwen Rutherford (Although, I think the uptight Fred would don a wig and false beard to attend “Garden of Eden” incognito.)
Uncle Billy
Miss Canfield

Of course, Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford, being free-spirited scamps, would also try to sneak into the movie in the same way that the scheming Gilbert Bates once enlisted Beaver’s help to sneak into the movie theater.