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Ken Osmond liked these kinds of ''Beaver'' episodes most
Eddie Haskell on his favorite stories the show told.
For his entire life, Ken Osmond was associated with a character he portrayed as a child. While that may have been frustrating, it was also frequently lucrative, as when the cast of Leave It to Beaver reunited for a movie TV movie and four seasons of a sitcom sequel. People loved — and would often pay to see — their favorite jerk, Eddie Haskell. Although the show's popularity was fairly cyclical, Osmond could pretty reliably bank on appearance bookings and signings to supplement his income.
At the time of his 1996 profile in The Californian, Osmond was 53 and on the cover of Brainstorms Holiday Gift Catalog, aiming a water gun that, presumably, was listed for purchase inside. His rascally visage is matched with a speech bubble, making it look like Osmond still has it in for the Beav. "Hey Beaver! Take that, ya squirt!" Although those words probably never actually came forth from Osmond's mouth, the threat reminds consumers of why they recognize that face. That recognition was critical to Osmond's livelihood, as he and Jerry "The Beaver" Mathers continued to thrive off of their earlier successes.
"We travel quite a bit," Osmond said. "The East Coast and the Bible Belt are big."
Patterns emerged as Osmond traveled, with the same few Eddie Haskell-related questions asked coast to coast. One of the topics that most frequently piqued the public's interest was Osmond's favorite episode of Leave It to Beaver.
"No specific episode," said Osmond. "But I liked the ones where once in a while, not often, you'd see the raw underbelly of Eddie, where he would really know that he screwed up and you could see that he's a real person."
"Just every once in a while it would happen and he knew it and in his own way, he would say ... it would be in essence an apology. It wouldn't come out like that, but you could see that he was real."
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