Leave It to Beaver: The Complete First Season

This popular, long-running sitcom—for years a perennial target of satirists and long derided by social progressives for its hopelessly unrealistic depiction of an “average” suburban family in the 1950s—seems pretty tame compared to today's offerings. (Oddly enough, a couple of first season episodes raised eyebrows in the network's standards-and-practices division, including “Captain Jack”—in which the Cleaver boys hide a baby alligator in their bathroom—the first primetime TV episode to show a toilet, thought to be potentially offensive!) Hardly anyone today identifies with the Cleaver family: dad Ward (Hugh Beaumont) seems altogether too understanding; mom June (Barbara Billingsley) remains the picture of sartorial elegance whether vacuuming the living room or cooking dinner; and older brother Wally (Tony Dow) is way too tolerant of his mischievous younger brother Theodore, a.k.a. Beaver (Jerry Mathers). Never really what one could call “edgy,” Leave It to Beaver seems particularly bland in its first year. The season opener, “Beaver Gets Spelled,” finds Theodore's teacher, Miss Canfield (Diane Brewster, in a recurring first-season role), sending home a note to his parents. Believing the missive to be notification of his impending expulsion, Beaver hides the note. Hilarity ensues…or not. The only real standout in the first 39 episodes here (sitcom seasons ran a lot longer in the ‘50s) is “New Neighbors,” which introduces Ken Osmond in the role of Eddie Haskell, the neighborhood wise guy who would go on to attain a cult following. Milquetoast characterizations and insipid stories notwithstanding, this show inspires considerable nostalgia among Baby Boomers, making this set (which also features the pilot as a bonus) a strong optional purchase. (E. Hulse)