The Flashback
Ever wonder what happened to Beaver and Wally after "Leave It to Beaver"? (They became a singing duo in the70's?) , it's that kind of question that makes TV shows. That's what "The New Leave It to Beaver" answered. The title sounds like if it was done now , those people that don't have new ideas decided to make a "reboot" of "Leave It to Beaver". (Reboot means , "hey there's an old show that was good ,so let's make it worse and it won't last more than 7 episodes) Instead it was 20 years after the original series ended (1963) to see how Wally and the Beaver were doing now (1983).
Original in 1983, there was a movie called "Still the Beaver" a 2-hour movie showing us how the Cleavers were doing now. We were brought back to seeing Mrs. Cleaver ((Barbara Billingsley reprises her role) she was now a widow ( Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward died in 1982) Theodore/ The Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers reprises his role ) and Wally Cleaver ( Tony Dow) were adults now. Beaver was divorced (what mean writers) he and his 2 sons Kip and Oliver lived with his Mother. Meanwhile next door Wally is married (happily I guess) to Mary Ellen and they have a 1 daughter , later on a son. (Lived next door saves money on sets or something ) Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond ) had 2 sons (played by his real sons). "Lumpy" had 1 daughter.
The Movie must have done well in 1983, because a TV series of the same name , "Still the Beaver" was launched and started in 1984 on The Disney Channel (back when it was a premium channel ) and ran 27 episodes on the network. In 1985 it was announced to be moving over to Ted Tuner's TBS (before it was very funny) and continued 3 more seasons there under the new name "The New Leave it to Beaver". (Creative aren't they)
Tomorrow at 11:30 Eastern 10:30 am Central // Youtube
The series theme song was the original theme song but was eightiesized (why that's not a word is a travesty) .
The 80's makes cool sax cool // Youtube
The sequel series followed the parent show (you think that was a pun don't you?) in being focused from the kids on the series point of the view not the adult view. With the classic kids getting into trouble and the lesson learning in the program. It shows how Beaver and Wally are as fathers which was a great intrest for those who grew up with "Leave it To Beaver". It's also interesting to see Eddie Haskell as a father.
That's the (short) Lookback ... tune in next time when we find out how Wally and Beaver's kids are as parents in the year 2003. ( Wait that didn't happen)
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