Art often imitates life, but in some rare, fortunate circumstances, life imitates art right back.

While many critics of Leave It to Beaver see the Cleaver family as "too good to be true," the show's more fervent fans might be delighted to know that the older actors in the series were often entertaining similar circumstances, both on-screen and off.

During an interview with the Gannett News Service, Barbara Billingsley revealed that there were a great deal of similarities between her own family and the Cleaver family of Leave It to Beaver.

"There wasn't an awful lot of difference in the way I raised my boys, Drew and Glenn, and the way June raised Wally and Beaver."

Not only did Billingsley share some motherly tactics with June Cleaver, but she also felt that her sons were quite like Wally and Beaver.

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Barbara Billingsley called Tony Dow ''an equal'' when they were costars on Leave It to Beaver

"My boys are comparable ages and a lot of the situations I'd encounter at home were similar to the things we'd done on the show," she said.

This was a common consensus among the Leave It to Beaver cast and crew. Series creators Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher frequently spoke of drawing from their own families when planning plots on Leave It To Beaver. Cast members like Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers saw themselves in Wally and the Beaver, while Barbara saw her own family.

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Barbara Billingsley called Tony Dow ''an equal'' when they were costars on Leave It to Beaver

"A lot of things happened to all of us with our children ended up on the show in one way or another," she said.

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