Leave It To Beaver (1957-1963) now restored on DVD
Peter Fokes
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Revisiting "Leave It to Beaver," and seeing it in the pristine visual
clarity of digital restoration, are mood-altering if not quite
mind-altering experiences, very much for the better. Every now and
then there's a moment that lets you know this was more than just
actors and writers and crews trying to make a buck. They were doing
that, yes -- but something genuinely joyful was going on as well.
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And from The Museum of Broadcast Communications:
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Less than three months after Beaver left the air, the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy changed the nation's view of itself and its
times. Connelly and Mosher went off to write The Munsters and a
country preoccupied with civil rights strife, Vietnam, Woodstock and
Watergate would find little relevance in Beaver's radio-derived
simplicity. But by the late 1970s, the show's uncomplicated and
unabrasive observations reacquired appeal. On superstation WTBS and
scores of other outlets, Beaver reruns enjoyed significant ratings
success. Beaver and Wally appeared on packages of Kellogg's Corn
Flakes in 1983 and the show's cast members have since been featured in
a variety of retrospective projects. A striking example of the wistful
admiration for all the series still represents was uncovered in a 1994
Parenting magazine poll. Predictably, 40% of respondents said the
contemporary superhit Roseanne reflected their family life--but a full
28% picked Beaver instead. What Wally once observed about his brother
may be true of the program as a whole: "He's got that little kid
expression on his face all the time, but he's not really as goofy as
he looks."
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I doubt Wally and The Beaver mentioned Psycho and Hitchcock!
Peter Fokes,
Toronto
David Von Pein
Here's my mile-long review for the new "Beaver" DVD collection (which is
certainly one of the best DVD products I've ever purchased):
Peter Fokes
wrote:
>
>Here's my mile-long review for the new "Beaver" DVD collection (which is
>certainly one of the best DVD products I've ever purchased):
>
>http://Leave-It-To-Beaver-On-DVD.blogspot.com
Jeepers peepers .... All you ever wanted to know about Leave It To
Beaver and more! (The fact the discs are tough to remove from their
holding post is excellent, David. Down with "floaters".)
:-)
PF
David Von Pein
>>> "The fact the discs are tough to remove from their holding post is excellent, David. Down with "floaters"." <<<
Sure, it's excellent for shipping purposes. But 35+ discs that are
cemented in like bricks can be a bit disconcerting after the 99th
agonizing try to free the circular platters from their stubborn-to-
remove "holding posts" (aka: "hubs").
I'm sure even Peter will concur with my above assessment re this
earthshaking matter, which might just border on a national security
concern. (For example: Just imagine the angst that President Obama is
going through at this very moment as he tries to pry Disc #3 of Season
4 from its "holding post" in an effort to cue up his favorite "Leave
It To Beaver" episodic adventure ("Ward's Millions").
After making an emergency call to the Pentagon for blasting equipment,
the President finally gives up in frustration. So what happens next,
you ask? The President is so ticked off that he was unable to wrestle
the DVD from its moorings, he lunges for the red phone on his desk,
and in a fit of uncontrolled "I Need My Beaver" anger, the livid
President of the United States launches a full-scale nuclear attack on
Russia and Pakistan and several other parts of the world, including
Little Rock, Arkansas, for some reason (but who can blame him under
these conditions of intense duress)?
And so what happens next, you ask? (You ARE asking, I hope.)
Well, after the mushroom clouds finally die down, and after 799 years
have passed (in order to allow the radiation over the totally
devastated United States to finally deteriorate to a safe level), we
are amazed to discover that President Obama's Season Four set of
"Leave It To Beaver" somehow was able to survive the 68 nuclear
missiles that destroyed the rest of the nation.
And guess what?
That damn Disc #3 is still stuck to that "holding post"/hub!
Now THAT'S proper floater-preventive packaging!
http://Leave-It-To-Beaver-On-DVD.blogspot.com
http://Amazon.com/DVP-LITB/review/R1QFBG2FVKFVTD
:--)
bigdog
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR201...
Leave it to Beaver has become a metaphor for the idealism of the 1950s and
early 1960s. That idealism was shattered with the assassination of JFK in
the fall of 1963. Beaver had graduated grammar school in the spring of
1963 and the show's run ended with that event, not following him onto high
school. The show became as popular, if not more so, in syndication
following its prime time run. A made for TV movie, I think named "Still
the Beaver", followed Wally and the Beaver into adulthood with the
original cast reprising their characters, minus Hugh Beaumont who had
died. It did include my favorite character from the series, Eddie Haskell
as well as Lumpy and Fred Rutherford. This spawned several spin offs and
remakes which enjoyed limited success. My favorite was Wally and the
Beaver's appearance on SNL when Bill Murray, in Hugh Beaumont fashion,
admonished "the boys" for creating the rumor that Jerry Mathers had been
killed in Vietnam.
The most worthy successor to the Leave it to Beaver legacy was the 1980s
series, The Wonder Years. It took us back to 1968 as Kevin Arnold entered
RFK Junior High School which had been renamed in honor of the recently
assassinated presidential candidate. Slightly edgier than Leave it to
Beaver, it addressed many of the issues of the more tumultuous late 1960s
and early 1970s.