Beaver Cancelled After One Year

[BrandonS]

It appears that LITB didn't simply move to ABC, but was forced to move. I just came across an interview with former head of programming for CBS, Michael Dann. Here is an excerpt:
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http://www.tvweek.com/topstorys/0902...90202dann.html

Electronic Media: ...you canceled 'Leave It to Beaver' at the end of its first season. It was then picked up by ABC. Do you regret that?

Mr. Dann: We canceled 'Leave It To Beaver' after about three days of arguing among the executives simply because the ratings were just too low and the demographics then were appealing to such young people that on the whole it just didn't attract the right advertisers. That was the sales department's point of view. The program department, of course, wanted to hold it because the ratings were not bad, and we didn't have very many gentle shows like that that were truly all-family. ...

But in the end the sales department won, and many people were sorry to see it go. Incidentally, we got more mail probably about canceling 'Leave It to Beaver' when we did, so I was very happy to see ABC pick it up. It didn't do much better over there, but at least it took the pressure off us.
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Today there is very little patience for shows with mediocre ratings and Beaver would probably have been cancelled after less than a year and stayed cancelled.