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Six times Wally and Beaver had a run-in with the law
On occasion, whether it was their fault or not, Wally and Beaver had to answer to the law!
Sometimes things can get out of hand in Mayfield, the home of Wally, Beaver, the typical group of friends and all their antics!
Oftentimes a scold from Ward can quell the situation, other times a more direct approach either puts an end to something or makes the truth come out. In these cases, that direct approach is the law!
Here are six times Wally and Beaver had a run-in with the law, whether it was their fault or not!
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*available in most MeTV markets1. Mistaken Identity
The Beaver and his friends, Gilbert and Richard, can't come up with anything to do, so Richard pitches an idea. He suggests the trio head down to the abandoned McMahan house to "mess around." Credit goes to Beaver for declining the offer, on account that Ward said he didn't want him hanging around the empty house. When Richard gets busted for breaking a window, he tells the officer his name is Theodore Cleaver. This makes for an awkward encounter later that night at the Cleaver household, both for the officer and the Cleavers!
2. Beaver Takes a Drive
The Beav alone was at fault for this encounter with the law, but Wally gets the brunt of it! When he and Gilbert are discussing what they're going to do with the car when they're older, Beaver suggests he and his buddy sit in the Cleaver car and pretend to be "old people" who are taking their kids for a ride. When the car rolls into the street causing a traffic jam, Gilbert bails and leaves Beaver to get out of the situation by himself. Wally seems to save the day when he walks by, grabs the spare key and moves the car. That's when an officer approaches, asking Wally for a driver's license! Without one to give, he's summoned to traffic court with a ticket!
3. Beaver's Long Night
When Ward and June go out for the night, Beaver and Gilbert decide to watch a spooky show on TV. Continually saying neither of them is scared after watching, their attitude changes when a car pulls up to the house. What Beaver and Gilbert don't know is Lumpy is in the car to pick up Wally for a mascarade party. Wally isn't home yet, so Lumpy throws on a mask to scare him when he gets home, not knowing Beaver and Gilbert are calling the cops! "Hello police station? Well you see, there's a suspicious looking car out in front of our house with two men in it! Me? Uh, Mr. Cleaver!" Beaver's "father" voice was convincing enough as the police showed up and hauled Lumpy away!
4. The State vs. Beaver
If you don't want a ticket, don't speed. If you don't want a ticket, don't drive without a license. It's a lesson Beaver had to learn the hard way! After being told not to take out the home-built race car with a lawnmower engine without Ward present, Beaver cracks under the peer pressure from his buddy Larry. Just a quick spin around the block turns into the kids being pulled over and ticketed yet again!
5. Borrowed Boat
It's Beaver and Larry again having trouble with the police, but this time it isn't totally their fault! When the boys are tricked by a couple of older fellas to use a stolen rowboat, it's them who get caught by the police! Back at the station, the boys tell the truth about how they ended up in the boat and that Beaver's parents aren't answering on account they're at Wally's football game. They get nervous, as the officer at the station doesn't seem to buy their story!
6. Beaver's Library Book
It wouldn't be a Leave It to Beaver story without Eddie Haskell causing trouble. The theme of this list has been the police, and Eddie tricks Beaver so bad, he thinks the "library police" are coming after him! Losing a library book signed out under Ward's card, the Beaver is worried some sort of officer will come and arrest him due to unpaid fees! 15 days have gone by since he lost the book, amounting to an entire dollar in fees! Eddie tells Beaver he better find the book soon or "they'll send a guy around. A library cop in a uniform and you know what he's going to do if you don't have that book? Throw you right in jail!" The face of the Beaver says it all.
SEE MORE: How well do you know these job situations on Leave It to Beaver?
From yard work to entrepreneurship, Wally and the Beaver didn’t shy away from working for their pennies.
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35 Comments
Savvy viewers will note the writers used Larry throughout the series to shine a
backdoor light on child abuse.
Every time we see Mrs. Mondello she is expressing disappointment in him, to his pal's
parents no less.
How many times does Larry talk about getting hit by his father? And his sister
ratting on him and gloating when he does catch a beating.
Or the time when Larry relates his father admitted he was unjustly punished but it's okay,
as Larry deserved it for an assumed past transgression that he hadn't been caught for.
Cue laughter, it was funny as presented but the writers are also making a
larger point.
Note how when Larry relates anything family related he has a sad look on his
face. Kid actors don't make that choice, the director tells them to.
Check out the episode at Friends Lake with the stolen boat, and though
at the ending Beav and Larry have been cleared, a defeated and sad Larry says
he doesn't want to go to that treasured spot anymore lest he cops more heat
from his parents.
No doubt a few years down the road a hardened Larry is knocking off banks as
Reed and Malloy chase him down the streets of "Mayfield".
That rotten kid Whitey his accomplice, Judy their gun moll and Eddie Haskell
the local fence they bring the money to.
The Mayfield set being the Universal back lot and used for many Adam-12 scenes.
from real life, genius Carl Reiner especially on the Dick Van Dyke Show.
His then kid son Rob "meat head" Reiner adopting ducks was used on the show,
and the whole premise of the series was based on Reiner's time as a writer on
Sid Caesar's series.
