Jerry Mathers had a ton of fun running around Universal Studios as a kid

It sure beats elementary school!

June 19, 2024, 9:35AM By MeTV Staff

NBC/Universal

Do you remember how much fun you had visiting a parent's job as a kid? It was a blast! In hindsight, it might've been a boring workplace, but through a kid's eyes, it was new and exciting. It almost didn't matter what kind of job they had, because it was a fresh place to run around and use a stapler for a day.

Now, imagine if that workplace was a legendary film studio with decades of iconic movie history lingering around every corner.

Those were the conditions of Jerry Mathers' childhood, as recalled in the forward to the 1984 book The World According to Beaver. During the third season of Leave It to Beaver, the show moved production to the Universal Studios lot. While he was absolutely at work on the set, Mathers — like any actor — had some downtime between scenes. Lighting setups take a long time, and kids wander. So, years later, Mathers recalled how much fun he had running around his famous workplace.

"Being a kid on a Hollywood studio lot was like being set loose in the biggest candy store in the world," he wrote.

"I could poke my head into all sorts of fun places like the sets for Spartacus, or I could go home with latex scars and other movie monster effects our makeup man helped me apply to my face."

That kind of setting was also a repository for Hollywood wisdom. With industry professionals all over the studio lot, Mathers was never too far from the proverbial learning tree.

"Working at the studio I absorbed a lot of professional knowledge about movies and television that people spend years trying to study formally. I also got to meet a lot of famous people, although I was a little young to fully appreciate some of them."