Episode Reviews - "Beaver Goes in Business" - season 4

[stevea]

Beaver and Gilbert decide to start a lawn mowing business. Things don't go well -- they run into Wally and Eddie, and explain their troubles. Eddie tells them their M.O. is wrong--perform the service first and then ask for the money.

Doesn't Beaver know not to follow Eddie's advice? Uh--no. They try this tactic when a resident isn't home. Result: the man gets home and blows his stack.

Beaver decides to try again the next day, but Gilbert backs out. Beaver finds a lady who will pay him $5--but her check bounces.

Ward intervenes, and finds she wrote her check on an old account. The lady's cash payment restores Beaver's faith in adults. But Wally suspects the money is counterfeit.

Would Beaver's business be different in our time? Would he set up a website?

[Tankeryanker]

I had to mow lawns and water to get board money for my horse.
It was $25 a month for pasture with other horses.

I mowed my lawn so people already saw me out front with the lawn mower. I would knock on doors and ask if they needed any work.

Also, the newspaper girl kept her horse where I kept mine so she would ask if people needed help so I go clients that way.

Modernly, kids don't get a chance to mow lawns or help keep house.

[vitoscotti]

[Tankeryanker]

Originally Posted by vitoscotti

Me and my pony.

[vitoscotti]

My review in '21.

[stevea]

I think during much of this season the runners were trying to figure out who the new Larry Mondello would be. They brought in Keith Taylor (Harry Harrison) as a possible contender. Another possibility might have been Stanley Fafara (Whitey Whitney). Fafara had been with the show since the beginning, so they really tested him out in "In the Soup." Another possibility was Stephen Talbot, who had been around sporadically since season 2. His first serious test was "The School Picture" -- his first elevated role.

Keith Taylor was dropped from the show after "Kite Day," which was also Talbot's third major appearance. Gilbert was the new thorn in Beaver's side. There were some slip-ups on his last name, as no one thought to check back on his initial appearance in "Beaver and Gilbert" from season 2, where his last name was Gates. Eventually they decided on Gilbert Bates sometime late in the fifth season.

[Sgt. Saunders]

I’m glad that Ward was able to straighten out the misunderstanding regarding the rubber check that Beaver received from that woman. And, even though Beaver didn’t know it, this was the second time that he had apparently been short-changed or mistreated by an adult.

In the episode where Beaver and Larry find a wallet containing $89.00 and Beaver decides to turn it over to the police in the hope that the owner will reclaim it, Miss Tomkins, who lost the wallet, tells Beaver that she will send him a very nice present for both turning over her wallet to the police and also for Beaver’s parents, who took the time and expense to place a notice in the lost-and-found column of the Mayfield Gazette.

Of course, the unreliable and apparently forgetful Miss Tomkins never does send Beaver that much-deserved gift. It was up to Ward to buy a rather expensive radio and tell Beaver that it was from Miss Tomkins, thereby helping to maintain the youthful Beaver’s continued trust and belief in the basic goodness of adults.

I’ve often wondered how the insensitive Miss Tomkins reacted after she received Beaver’s heartfelt letter of thanks for “her wonderful and thoughtful gift” to him? She probably could have cared less about it and spent most (if not all) of that $89.00 at Hank’s Place, getting a buzz on and socializing with the “heady” likes of Marlene Holmes, Mr. Jeff, poor Andy Hadlock, several members of The Barons and that obnoxious tennis instructor, who was already two-timing that blond and zaftig tennis player, who Wally had developed a crush on.