Wally Cleaver: Director? Tony Dow reveals why he wanted to shift gears after Leave It to Beaver

Leaving Leave it to Beaver opened up some new pursuits!

February 14, 2025, 10:56AM By MeTV Staff

NBC/Universal

Expectations are a son of a gun, especially when they're publicly held. If a whole population of people think you'll do only one thing, it can be a little suffocating. This is particularly true if that one thing is something you did as a child. In Tony Dow's case, he couldn't stay Wally forever. People grow up, and their desires change.

Dow didn't even really aspire to be an actor in the first place. It should be no surprise then that after Leave It to Beaver, he spread his wings, attempting to do more with his life than just read lines as the title character's older brother.

A revealing 2013 interview with the Topanga Messenger provided Dow the space to set the record straight about his career and what he wanted out of it when Beaver ended.

"I kept acting [after Beaver] and did maybe 16 guest actor roles at that time," said Dow. "I went to UCLA at night because I was working during the day and took psychology courses. I didn't take any acting because the film departments at the colleges weren't developed at that time. The best shows I did were a Dr. Kildare and 11th Hour combination show. Jack Smight was the director. He also did [films like] Illustrated Man and [Battle of] Midway, but this was the first single-camera show he had ever done. He was from Playhouse 90 and Studio One.

"I wanted to direct, so I spent all the time I could with him going to dailies and in the editing room, and it was fabulous. I really enjoyed it because I thought directing was a cool deal. Then I went to Sherwood Oaks Experimental School to study directing, but it was tough to break into."

While the world knew him as an actor, Dow yearned for the opportunity to step behind the camera. He admitted that he was much more comfortable behind the camera, which might surprise some viewers.

"I like directing. I like the fact that it's a full-time job from the shooting through the editing. In television, the producers are the guys who call the shots, but you have a certain amount of control, certainly on the set you do."

It's no shock that Dow wanted more control after his time as a child actor. Leave It to Beaver produced 234 episodes, and Tony Dow was in all of them. That's a long time to be at the beck and call of a production department. Here's hoping Dow got the control over his life that he wanted back when he shifted careers!