Invariably, almost all of the prominent sitcom critics in Hollywood have rated "Leave it to Beaver" to be one of the all-time classic shows in the whole history of the small screen! Such praise is definitely not too difficult to fathom at all!! The Cleavers became American icons for fifties T.V.. Jerry Mathers was the stellar top draw as "The Beav". Tony Dow was the brother, Wally, Mr All American. Hugh Beaumont, played Ward Cleaver, the perfect husband and father. Last, but certainly not least, Barbara Billingsly assumed the part of June Cleaver, she was so stereotypical of the model wife and mother that many male television viewers would perennially say, "My wife is not perfect, it's not like she's June Clever or something." "Leave it to Beaver" was synonymous with an American utopia which embraced the kindred spirits of the vast majority of families nationwide! Jerry Mathers' role as "Beaver", made him the most popular kid in the United States! June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsly's character) was indicative of the ultimate housewife who became the antithesis of woman's liberation by being egregiously submissive and deferential to her husband, Ward. In reality, however, Barbara Billingsly herself was an integral part of the harbinger of events to follow that would fortify woman's liberation just by virtue of the fact that she was a working woman. In an interview with Barbara, she told a Philadelphia newspaper reporter that she actually never personally wore an apron in her private life ever!! The whole sitcom was predicated on the wiles and chicanery that Beaver engaged in. After the television audience witnessed all of Beaver's troublesome antics, many people who watched "Leave it to Beaver" garnered an enticing empathy for the typical family of the 1950's by attaching a tenet of moral imperatives to everything. In Beaver's own precocious way, he was able to think about his precarious experiences and learn from them. The show "Leave it to Beaver" is considered one of the best shows in the entire duration of television. I think that such an accolade is due to the fact that through this whole series, all Americans could be wide eyed, whimsical, yet very astute about socially acceptable ethics which guided our youth in the RIGHT direction!! I liked "Leave it to Beaver", and I think that the appreciation for this T.V. program is timeless!! By the way, despite some crazy rumors, I do not think Wally's friend, Eddie, was played by Alice Cooper!! "Leave it to Beaver" was spectacular for back then, it is still spectacular today!!

I have never seen a full episode of this show. I was born in 1957 so it was on when I was little. I can't stand this show. Never have and never will I watch it. Most say this is a all American family comedy. Well it may be to them, but not to me. The beaver is down right a fool. Wally isn't any better. It is silly, and should be shelved forever. Compared to Gilligan's Island, Beverly Hillbillies and such it never will be anywhere near these classics. It comes on I turn it. I have seen the best and this ain't one of them. My hell would be having to watch reruns of this. I wish they had an anti-beaver league. I'd join in a heartbeat.

Every so often I sit down to watch this show with my mom whenever it comes on TVLand, and the thing that invariably surprises me is the serious edge to the silly humor. Leave It to Beaver has a Charles Schulz sensibility to it: while it's appropriate for all ages, there's a menacing subtext to it that you don't fully appreciate as a child. Parents interact with their children in the most horrendous ways, often talking down to them, yelling at them, selling them short, speaking ill of them, or in general being very condescending (especially Larry's mother, who is downright evil, and Lumpy's father, who is too obsessed with his public image to show any feelings of warmth for his son). Even Saintlike Ward and June are occasionally guilty of unnecessary harshness. Beaver's friends often relate stories that culminate with them being "clobbered" or smacked, leaving the viewer to decide whether they are exaggerating a very just punishment, as children are wont to do, or if their words entail literal physical abuse, which also wouldn't surprise me given the on screen behavior of many of the adults. When the kids aren't being abused, they're often completely ignored; being children, their problems are hardly ever taken seriously by grown-ups who simply don't remember how an apparently trivial matter can be a very real crisis in youth. As Wally often says, Beaver is "just a dumb kid" and is usually treated as such.This aspect of the show, however, isn't a bad thing. It's just another example of how writers of ages past had to often imply dark issues that censors wouldn't allow an explicit exploration of. In some ways, I prefer this more subtle approach to today's, which essentially involves graphic displays of every conceivable societal or familial dysfunction, overloading the senses with obvious depictions of misfortune.All that aside, I can only conclude by saying that Leave It to Beaver is still a fine example of strong sitcom writing, even though a lot of it appears silly or naive by today's standards. Some episodes (like the one where Wally gives Beaver a haircut) are simply uproarious. The show began to decline when Beaver hit puberty, mainly because the writers apparently couldn't adapt the zany situations to make them more appropriate for his age. Beaver became a 9-year-old trapped in a fifteen-year-old's body, still mindlessly spewing words like "golly" and "jeepers", still failing to think things through on the most basic level, still creeped out by girls and lost in a world of juvenile fantasy. You can't sell a show based on its cuteness factor when the youngest character is in high school. At least they had enough sense not to desperately introduce a toddler to the cast in the waning years so they could skirt by on cheap jokes and mispronounced words, unlike many other sitcoms that have clearly jumped the shark.This review is getting much more cynical then I really intended, so I'll just end it here. Make of it what you will.

This show was consistently funny until *gasp* the kids got older and somehow they lost their funny bones. The true death knell for any show- puberty! Aside from that, Jerry Mathers was a very talented little kid that seems to have bypassed the "Diffrent Strokes" curse of many a child star. While Ward and June were a little plastic, the Beav and his friends, especially Lumpy and Judy were always a hoot to watch. This was one show that got it right when it came to kids. They acted and did things that kids do. They weren't perfect like "The Brady Bunch" yet they weren't bad either. Just normal kids doing kid things which led to hysterical results. A comedy that still holds up today.