- WHO PLAYED JUDY ON LEAVE IT TO BEAVER HOW TO
- WHO PLAYED JUDY ON LEAVE IT TO BEAVER SERIES
- WHO PLAYED JUDY ON LEAVE IT TO BEAVER TV
Some of the most-criticized elements of "Leave It to Beaver" were cosmetic rather than symbolic, he says.
WHO PLAYED JUDY ON LEAVE IT TO BEAVER TV
“I think it’s a safe place to go, a thing to aspire to.”Ī common college sociology assignment now is to compare the TV family as portrayed on "Leave It to Beaver" with, say, "Modern Family" or before that, "Married With Children." Dow believes there are things to learn from such studies but only goes so far with his analysis. Some similarly criticize "Leave It to Beaver," but not Dow. Your example is perfect, my family must be (expletive) because it isn’t like real life on TV.” In a recent interview on Baby Boomers Talk Radio, Gray took issue with the idyllic family portrayed on his show from 1954-60: “It purported to be an example to live by,” Gray said. “It’s a really valid way to tell a story because you can tell the craziness of the adult world through the kids’ eyes, and it has some meaning for both the kid and for the adult.”ĭow is a longtime friend with Billy Gray, who has mixed feelings about playing teenage son Bud Anderson on "Father Knows Best." “Outside of 'The Wonder Years' (1988-93), I don’t think there’s been another show that’s done that,” Dow says.
WHO PLAYED JUDY ON LEAVE IT TO BEAVER HOW TO
Ratings aside, something special was happening in fictional Mayfield that has stood the test of time.Ĭreators Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who wrote many of the early episodes, understood the humor in their own lives - they had a combined eight children - and how to translate that on television by telling stories from a youth's point of view rather than an adult's, as was done on "Father Knows Best" and other contemporary comedies. The project also was tripped up by the technology of the day. “It was a great concept,” Dow says, but ahead of its time in raising environmental concerns. The adult role did not go to Dow's friend, rather to acting veteran Paul Langton, best known for a later role on "Peyton Place." "Johnny Wildlife" would have changed everything for young Dow.īy April 1957, when he turned 12, Dow had been cast as the son of a wildlife photographer and shot the color pilot show in a still predominantly black-and-white TV era.
Future Olympians Patsy Willard and Jeanne Collier were in the senior women's field.Īcting came into the picture, not because of his mother but when an older lifeguard friend from the Hollywood Athletic Club auditioned for the lead role of a show called "Johnny Wildlife," bringing Dow along because there was some resemblance between them. He was a diving champion up to the Junior Olympic level before and during the "Leave It to Beaver" years, winning a boys 14-under 1-meter title at a meet in Phoenix in 1958 at the famed Dick Smith Swim School. I'm perfectly happy making sculpture and living where we live." Prelude: Johnny Wildlife "I learned it's OK for me to not be assertive, especially now. "I always thought if you're going to do something, do it better than anybody else can do it, even if it's sweeping up the broom closet. "I've learned to take things less seriously," Dow says. But lessons from the show and his teenage years stuck with him, through struggles with depression and two different cancer scares. Since 1963, when the show ended its six-season run, Dow has lived a life in multiple acts, including as a director and as a sculptor.
WHO PLAYED JUDY ON LEAVE IT TO BEAVER SERIES
(He was "Beaver," as we learned in the series finale, because 5-year-old Wally could not say Theodore.) It’s not just typecasting as the elder Cleaver son that created ambiguity for Dow, who grew from eighth to 12th grade on the show and served as a buffer between his earnest parents and his younger brother. "I think it’s amazing they did that show 60 years ago and it’s still relevant,” he says. "And I was a little angry that when I’d go after parts, a lot of the times I wouldn’t get them because I was too identified with the Wally character."īut any latent rebelliousness comes with the recognition that those involved with the series produced something special in the fictional town of Mayfield.
I was not unappreciative, but I was always a little rebellious. “It’s nice to be remembered any way you can, so I have accomplished that,” Dow says.