Where To Watch
Here's why Eddie Haskell was such a jerk, according to Ken Osmond
He wasn't just a creep for the sake of it.
Every story needs a conflict, otherwise, it's not a story at all.
On Leave It to Beaver, a lot of that conflict came from Ken Osmond's character Eddie Haskell. That guy was the worst. One moment, he's being mean to Beaver, and the next, he's sweet as could be to June. If there's anything worse than a bully, it's a bully who can turn on the charm to trick your own mom into thinking he's an angel.
But, according to Osmond, Eddie wasn't just a jerk in a vacuum. The actor actually had some very good reasoning behind why his character acted that way. While some might assume Eddie was awful because the show needed a bad guy, Osmond himself preferred to look at things a bit more in-depth. In a 1961 interview with The Modesto Bee, a young Ken Osmond spoke about what made Eddie Haskell tick, and why he was always so ticked off.
"Eddie's father is always kicking him in the seta of the pants and he figures the whole world is just this way. You've got to pull angles to get ahead. You're looking for a catch in everything.
"For instance, I had a line in a show about my pal Wally going out with a rich girl and I said, 'My dad told me you have to get to know important people so that later you can use them.'"
Well, that's Eddie alright.
It was Osmond's insight into Haskell's worldview that made the character so believable, and so believably detestable. Regardless of how he was written in the scripts, Ken Osmond made Eddie Haskell the guy you loved to hate.
Watch Leave It to Beaver on MeTV!
Weekdays at 8 & 8:30 AM, Sundays at 1 & 1:30 PM
*available in most MeTV markets
17 Comments
and best of all the perpetually hungry and eternally chubby Larry Mondello who’s first instincts are for trouble and more snacks, whichever comes first. I love this show - the scripts, the plots, the characters and the fifties-style morality lessons that Ward imparts each episode. So like my childhood. My dad and mom could have been cast in this series and viewers would have been none the worse for it.
He livened the show up a bit and made it funny.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Always enjoy articles about "LITB". One thing I wish they had done more of was other characters addressing Eddie with nicknames.
Eddie seems to have the majority of that with the Sam's, Mortimer's, Etc....
