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Tony Dow explained how ''Leave It to Beaver'' took Wally out of the title
Dow was more central to the series than some gave him credit for.
Not everybody can be the star of the show. Top billing is sought-after for a reason, mostly because only one name can be the biggest. While everyone's contribution is important, there will always only be one main character.
Cheers is an ensemble, but Sam is the hero. M*A*S*H may rely on the breadth of its cast, but Hawkeye Pierce is your guy. Sure, some shows de-centralize the focus, spreading the responsibility of anchoring the show across multiple characters. But an audience needs someone to hang their hat on. We need a surrogate to shepherd us through the action. Usually, if a character's name is in the show's title, that's our star.
Tony Dow was born in Hollywood. His mother, Muriel Montrose, was a double for Clara Bow, one of the era's biggest "it" girls. That kind of industry-insider positioning may seem like a slam dunk for young Tony Dow, but, growing up, he was far more interested in swimming.
In his youth, Dow focused on winning diving championships instead of acting. In fact, his family was planning to move to Hawaii when he was cast on Leave It to Beaver. While Dow fits so naturally on the program as Wally Cleaver, his only other acting experience at the time was in a pilot that didn't sell.
In Leave It to Beaver, Dow felt his character carried enough to be seen as the main character. After all, Wally played a crucial role within his family. He was a child to Ward and June, his parents, but he was a grownup, too, at least in the eyes of his kid brother, the Beaver.
"The original title was The Adventures of Wally and Beaver," Dow told Richard Lamparski, author of the Whatever Became Of—? series. "They changed it because someone felt it sounded like a boy and his pet. But the stories revolved as much around me as Jerry [Mathers, who played the Beaver]."
What do you think of the situation? Should the show have been called The Adventures of Wally and Beaver? Would it have had the same impact with the lengthier title? Let us know in the comment section below!
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16 Comments
I definitely believe they went with the better title (by FAR).
https://youtu.be/PiiI-3EerwU?si=nLOMjxAf2sLJZyr0
Woo woo woo!