Tony Dow said watching re-runs of Leave It to Beaver was ''very odd''

The actor wasn't a big fan of some of his earliest work.

August 7, 2024, 9:41AM By MeTV Staff

NBC/Universal

When was the last time you took a trip down memory lane? Isn't it surreal to be where you once were, long ago, and take in all that's changed and stayed the same? It's like a time travel vessel that just doesn't work all that well, and now you've stepped out again into the place you left all those years before.

Visiting an old school, in particular, can be a bizarre experience. Sense memories spring to life and you're suddenly reminded of some great and terrible memory from your childhood. But what if that childhood had been broadcast to millions worldwide? Can you imagine how strange it must be to relive those moments, forty or fifty years later? They're your memories, but the time and events were shared with anybody who tuned in.

That was what life was like for Tony Dow, who starred as Wally in Leave It to Beaver. From the time he was 12 through the age of 18, Dow was a main character on one of TV's most popular sitcoms. So, while Leave It to Beaver exists as a scrapbook of a very formative time in his life, those recollections aren't just Dow's. The show has remained popular in reruns since ending its run in 1963.

So what was it like to revisit those old episodes of Leave It to Beaver? According to a 2003 interview with The Kansas City Star, Dow said it was "very odd." Dow was 58 years old at the time, seeing himself suspended in time, trapped in teenaged amber forever.

"It's sort of like there's a disconnect," said Dow. "I mean, I know it was me. I was on the show. But I can watch it and be divorced from it. Although some of the real early ones, I cringe, because of my lack of acting ability. But that's one of the charms of the show."

By comparison, Dow had some very nice things to say about his younger castmate.

"Jerry [Mathers, who played Beaver] was an actor. He was unbelievably good. Every line he read was perfect. He was amazing. And I was sort of naive and real understated, which was only because I didn't know how to do anything."